Our latest adventure has been exploring a little bit of Japan. Everything here has been absolutely beautiful, and the people have been incredibly friendly. We will work on writing the different places we have gone to in several posts, as there’s a lot of great stuff. Firstly, we would like to share some of our impressions and best moments here.

Setting the stage: We got the chance to come to Japan for work, and managed to book some time off to spend an amazing holiday here! All in all, we are spending three and a half weeks here… it has been amazing! Our initial base for the trip has been Kobe, where our office is located, and we have been using Japan’s fantastic rail system to get out. Places where we have been:

– Kobe/Osaka: Osaka is the capital of the Kansai region, west of Tokyo. Kobe is an adjacent city, very famous, of course, for its beef.

– Kōya San: This is a small buddhist town a couple of hours south of Osaka. It is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism, and a great place to see what buddhist monastic life is like – you can actually stay at a monastery!

– Tokyo: The great capital city. This is crazy, full of people and a lot of fun.

– Kyoto: One of the ancient capitals of Japan. this is an amazing city to see many shrines and temples, and experience an awesome mixture of the modern and the ancient.

– Takayama / Shirakawa Go: These are small mountain towns a couple of hours north from Nagoya.

– Hakone: Another small town in the mountains outside of Tokyo, where you can see Mt. Fuji.

First impressions:

Japan is an extremely easy country to visit. Everything works and works on time and people are very polite. Everyone tries to help best they can even if they don’t speak English – which is quite common here. A little Japanese has helped us a lot along the way but most things are easily done.

The thing that really amazed us was the contrast between traditional and modern Japan and how beautiful each of them is in its own existence. Maybe because we chose quite extreme destinations we were able to really see the 2 worlds that co-exist harmoniously – which is a word that probably best describes Japan in our opinion.

It’s the country of geishas and maidcafes…

oozing Buddhism and accessible porn,

extreme etiquette and crazy drinking,

huge temples and iconic skyscrapers,

peaceful countryside and buzzing cities,

kimonos and Harajuku girls,

fire rituals and street fairs

Michelin star kaiseki restaurants and incredible street food,

Tea spoons with names and crazy gizmos,

Ryokans and 5 star hotels.

Every place, every moment can be special in Japan and offer a unique experience but the ones that were definitely unforgettable were:

1. Fuji-san: coming to the top of the mountain with a cable car and be surprised with the image of Fuji-san was one of the best moments of the trip. It is huuuuuge and beautiful specially in winter with the white top.
2. Okunoin cementery in Koya-san: I never thought a cementery could be so peaceful and amazing.
3. Traditional wedding at Meiji-Jingu: the temple is incredible and seeing brides on their traditional full kimonos is definitely on the top of special moments
4. Ramen in the little corner shop: that is what Japan tastes like! Yummmmy
5. Shirakawa-go in the winter: what a magical place
6. Walking through the corridors in Nijo castle
7. Onsen or public baths: as weird as having a bath with strangers sounds, the experience is super relaxing.

Curiosities: there were several little things that for us were very unusual and fun that we would like to share with you.

– Hot drinks at vending machines: at every corner you can get a coke or water but also hot coffee and tea in a can

– Japanese are very discrete and toilets could be no different. There is a water fall noise when you come in so no one else hears your toilet noises

– “Make me pretty machine”: these machines are in all games stores. You take a picture and the machine itself makes you look young and cute. Lots of young girls are doing it.

– Even the hydrant openings are cute.

We hope you enjoy the next posts that go into detail of each destination.

Arigato gozaimasu

Mari & Ab

Read the next part of our Japanese adventure here:

Other posts about Japan:

Koya San: beautiful mountain town

The One and Only: Fuji San

Takayama & Shirakawa-go – Mountain Wonderland

Tokyo – Awesome/Crazy city

sorry we have been extremely bad at keeping up with the posts. Reason: we moved! We have been living in Singapore for the last few months and we will be here for the next foreseeable future. This means that the next posts will be mostly about our adventures in this side of the world. Hope you enjoy it!

To start off our South East Asia journey, let me register here the key things about Singapore. These will be the topics that you will see me talking about in the future posts.

• People: what a melting pot! We will try to capture here some of the interesting things that we learn about this fascinating mixture of cultures that is Singapore.
• Food: needless to say, Singapore is a paradise for foodies. Because of its location and immigration, here you can find food from anywhere in the world! So far the places we like to eat the most are the Hawker Centres.
• Parks: it is very true that this is a City in a Park. There are so many parks, gardens and nature reserves that you can get lost in nature throughout your whole stay. Some are good for a stroll, some for flower watching, others for proper hiking and others to stay away from…at the end of the day, this is still a tropical country with all sorts of wild life.
• Cultural Sights: because of the Chinese, Malay and Indian influence, in Singapore you can find very interesting places to visit. Mosques, temples, Little India, China Town, Arab Quarter. All with its own beauty and keeping true to its origins. Walk around Little India on a sunday and you will really feel like you are in India.
• Modern Sights: Singapore is a super modern country that got developed exponentially in the last couple of decades. Because of that you can see shiny new constructions all over the place. Special ones are of course Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay, Orchard Road and Sentosa.
• Glimpse of Paradise: despite the modern feel around the CBD (Business District) you can still find pockets of Paradise in and around Singapore. Cross to the very end of Sentosa Island to have a spa retreat in a tropical jungle or go to Pulau Ubin to cycle in the wild.
• Night life: anything from sky bars to karaoke bars. Here you will find whatever you are looking for.
• Travel: from Singapore one can go very easily to places like Bali, Indonesian Islands, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and and and. The list is huge.

Hopefully you will enjoy Singapore as much as we are.

xx