We visited two famous World Heritage sites:  Kinkaku-ji, home of the Golden Pavilion, and Ryoanji Temple, home of a famous rock garden. Both were lovely, but Ryoanji was

Once again we failed at eating normal meals. I think almost everything we consumed came from a convenience store today. Thankfully concenience store food in Japan is really

We parted ways with Takayama and the Rickshaw Inn today and made our way to Kyoto via two bullet trains. It took us a bit to figure out

Breakfast on the bus.    Kokutou Mushipan – taste like raisin and brown sugar (carrot cake) moist and spongy 5/5      Lunch in Shirakawa-go  Our bus tour included a

What a beautiful day! The bus tour was great. We wanted to stay in Shirakawa-go longer but we also wanted to have time to explore Takayama. If we

The Nohi bus tour to Ainokura and Shirakawa-go was fantastic. I enjoyed my quick washi paper making experience. Our Japanese style lunch was fun, educational, and yummy. And

I was sad to leave Tokyo but the beautiful train ride to Takayama, specifically between Nagoya and Takayama soon distracted me. We arrived in Takayama a few hours

We were originally planning to attend DisneySea but decided to postpone it and go to a museum instead. We went window shopping in Shinjuku, visited the Tokyo National

Today was a bit of a rest day. I got up and did laundry in the ‘coin laundry’ located in the basement of our hotel while Karl slept

Part 2 of our day trip to Nikko. Nikko Toshugo Shrine, Shinkyo, and walking through town. Sanbutsu We couldn’t take pictures inside, but here are some shots from