I've been in Japan for the last two weeks, and I thought I'd share what I did during my holiday.
This was my first trip to Japan, so I wanted to see as much of it as possible, even if it meant moving around near-constantly; I didn't stay in any one area for too long.
I did go on two tours, one around Hiroshima to see the Peace Museum and the preserved structure of the nuke-destroyed market building, along with the nearby island and its large torii gate (the path underneath is submerged during high tide) and its temple.
The second tour was to see a bunch of other temples, including the Golden Temple, the bamboo forest, and the Inari temple.
Both of these tours were extremely informative and eye-opening, and I really would recommend them to future tourists.
Apart from tours, I did other things too - like trying out okonomiyaki for the first time (delicious!), having a bunch of ramen and udon, and going go-karting around the Rainbow Bridge (utterly terrifying, that - it's on real roads with real traffic surrounding you, it goes stupid fast at points, and the karts aren't the easiest to control - really not my cup of tea, but I survived it).
Oh, and I also went up Tokyo Skytree to see the views; that was stunning, for sure, especially at night. What else did I do...? That's right - I also stayed in a semi-traditional ryokan for two nights (it of course had power outlets and modern bathroom amenities, so not fully 'traditional'), and spent some time in an onsen; I wasn't concerned about the 'nudity' aspect of that, as I'm really not bothered by that sort of thing (I'm not self-conscious, and being a guy I know exactly what male bodies look like so I wasn't bothered being around other nude guys - my brother was squicked out by that, though, so he didn't join me).
I did visit quite a few Nintendo stores and Pokémon Centers and even the Pokémon Cafe (that needed to be pre-booked), which was amazing as a long-time Nintendo fan, and I was honestly surprised by how pervasive Pocket Monsters was over there, with Pokémon stuff in pharmacies and other, otherwise unrelated, stores too. I took a bunch of photos of pretty much every Poké-thing I saw, admittedly! XD
I really did have a fantastic time in Japan the last two weeks, and it was a needed change of pace for a bit after how many blows I've taken this year (two-year job contract ending in Jan, multiple stressful interviews followed by rejections, Rusty dying on 26 July, etc.). Now I'm back, though.
This was my first trip to Japan, so I wanted to see as much of it as possible, even if it meant moving around near-constantly; I didn't stay in any one area for too long.
I did go on two tours, one around Hiroshima to see the Peace Museum and the preserved structure of the nuke-destroyed market building, along with the nearby island and its large torii gate (the path underneath is submerged during high tide) and its temple.
The second tour was to see a bunch of other temples, including the Golden Temple, the bamboo forest, and the Inari temple.
Both of these tours were extremely informative and eye-opening, and I really would recommend them to future tourists.
Apart from tours, I did other things too - like trying out okonomiyaki for the first time (delicious!), having a bunch of ramen and udon, and going go-karting around the Rainbow Bridge (utterly terrifying, that - it's on real roads with real traffic surrounding you, it goes stupid fast at points, and the karts aren't the easiest to control - really not my cup of tea, but I survived it).
Oh, and I also went up Tokyo Skytree to see the views; that was stunning, for sure, especially at night. What else did I do...? That's right - I also stayed in a semi-traditional ryokan for two nights (it of course had power outlets and modern bathroom amenities, so not fully 'traditional'), and spent some time in an onsen; I wasn't concerned about the 'nudity' aspect of that, as I'm really not bothered by that sort of thing (I'm not self-conscious, and being a guy I know exactly what male bodies look like so I wasn't bothered being around other nude guys - my brother was squicked out by that, though, so he didn't join me).
I did visit quite a few Nintendo stores and Pokémon Centers and even the Pokémon Cafe (that needed to be pre-booked), which was amazing as a long-time Nintendo fan, and I was honestly surprised by how pervasive Pocket Monsters was over there, with Pokémon stuff in pharmacies and other, otherwise unrelated, stores too. I took a bunch of photos of pretty much every Poké-thing I saw, admittedly! XD
I really did have a fantastic time in Japan the last two weeks, and it was a needed change of pace for a bit after how many blows I've taken this year (two-year job contract ending in Jan, multiple stressful interviews followed by rejections, Rusty dying on 26 July, etc.). Now I'm back, though.
