By this point we have already experienced many aspects of Japan. Tokyo was a modern and trendy metropolis, Kawaguchiko was breathtaking and peaceful and Kyoto was beautiful and traditional. Each city was very different but beautiful in it’s own respect. Here we head down to Osaka, the place I’ve always wanted to visit (mainly for the food). This part we do alot more travelling to different little towns and villages so each part will be fairly short. We used Osaka as our base and went to places all around it.

Osaka

When we first arrived at Osaka, I wasn’t quite as excited as I was in Shibuya. It didn’t have the funky streets, the strange looking young people all dressed up and the interesting shops. At the heart of one Japans biggest train station (I’m talking about BOTH Osaka and Shin-Osaka stations), I can say that there pretty much nothing around it. That is until we discovered Dotonbori and the never ending aracdes of shops but even that didn’t quite save it. So my first impression of Osaka was a rather disappointing one, but of course that isn’t completely true about the city itself. I still had a great time here, but to compare it to Tokyo is like comparing a sour grape to a sweet wine.

Osaka castle. Nice beautiful castle gounds surrounded by water. (That's not the actual castle in the pic btw!)

Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 was mainly about arriving to Japan and slowly settling in and discovering what the place is like. We did a little bit of shopping, eating and sightseeing around Tokyo, but I think personally, part 2 was where the real fun began =)

After staying in Shibuya for a couple days we finally did some proper travelling. I was really excited to see what other parts of Japan looked like. Shibuya blew me away in every aspect. It felt like a perfect city. Clean, friendly, interesting street layouts, funky shops, and a HUGE selection of restaurants and cafes. I even took some time to have a stroll around the neighbourhood whilst Chibi was still in Harajuku, wondering around mindlessly and just observing whatever I came across. It was like a real life theme park. One thing I noticed though is that everyone was like a janitor. There was always someone washing the street, sweeping the floor or wiping a window.

Well that’s Shibuya, it has certainly set the standard! But it was time to move on. We will now depart Tokyo and start making our way down south.

Kawaguchiko

We hopped on a highway bus at Shinjuku, bound for Kawaguchiko (one of the 5 lakes around Mount Fuji).

Read the rest of this entry »