Category: travel

2022 golden week trip to hagi, yamaguchi: part 1

hagi sculpture park

This year we went to Hagi for Golden Week. We got the Shinkansen both ways and I purposely booked our seats so that we’d be able to see Fuji-san. Unfortunately it was cloudy both ways, so we didn’t see him. It was lovely speeding along the Japanese countryside though, I never get tired of how green Japan is.

rail crossing surrounded by greenery

We enjoyed lazy days, eating ice creams, going to the beach, sipping coffee in cafes and taking long walks. They all look the same flavour, but the outer two are natsu-mikan (a citrus fruit) and the middle is from Hagi Purin. ...

kurobe alpen route bus tour

snow capped mountains with a hazy moon in a grey sky

Up bright and early -around 4:30am – we arrived at Shinjuku, ready for our bus to depart at 7am. We were off on a two-day bus tour to discover Kurobe Tateyama Alpine Route.

a doctor's office in a museum dedicated to the showa era
traditional shop
mitarashi dango held up
rice cake on a stick

First up, we stopped at Hida Takayama where we explored a museum dedicated to the Showa-era and sampled mitarashi-dango whilst basking in the traditional town streets. It was nice to see the sakura still blooming in the area – getting to see sakura is always a plus for me.

thatched roofed houses of Shirakawa-go
inside a house in the rafters in shirakawa-go
black sesame seed ice cream in a cone being held up
vanilla ice cream in a cone being held up
2 sticks of dango in a chestnut-miso sauce

Then we were on our way to Shirakawa-go to see the thatched houses. The village is open for ...

Mt. Nokogiriyama

Have you been wondering what I did during this year’s Golden Week? Going out of your mind imagining all the amazing things I probably got up to? Well the wait is over! It must be good if it’s taken me this long to get something together, eh?

Well, we went to two places – Yokohama and Mt. Nokogiriyama.  I have no photos of Yokohama, so you can imagine the amazing time we had.  No, that’s not fair, we did have a good time eating our way about and sitting in the park.  I don’t think I would rush back though. ...