Travel to Osaka was a short Shinkansen hop from Hiroshima. The trip was made to feel longer by the accumulated exhaustion catching up to us after a week of ambitious tourism and lots of walking in not always gentle terrains. Our energy level results in not much tourism stuff and fewer pictures.
As I wrote before, Osaka is a good place for side trips. Since we've been to Kyoto and Nara many times, we decided to go to Kobe where we've never been.
We had a day to do more wandering in Osaka before heading off to Sapporo. Marie' was off to Kyoto to visit friends and we tried to figure out what we might want to see in Osaka without too much work. The couple of things that popped up were the Tsutenkaku Tower, the Osaka equivalent to Tokyo Tower, sort of, and Dotonbori, the riverside food/tourist district. Off we went...
This will be a bit different post. Because of timing and weather, the wanderings in Sapporo itself were limited. We always planned to spend a good bit of time at the Sapporo Brewery, but the weather was a disincentive for some of the places we wanted to go; Sapporo is surrounded by a lot of nature which is nice in good weather, but.
Sitting in Narita with hours to kill, I thought I'd try to get one more post out. I'm way behind, but I decided it is time to give my audience what they really want, some FOOD PORN...
Time to move on from Fukuoka where we could have spent more time to further explore Kyushu - more ideas for the future. Next stop on the schedule is Hiroshima, another city neither Nobue or I have visited. Exploring the memories that still linger there is top of mind going there.
Hiroshima is a short hour and 30 minute Shinkansen ride from Hakata station in Fukuoka.
Hakodate is the Hokkaido city that we've most visited. Past visits were mostly in the snow, flying up from Tokyo to cross country ski and wander the city in the snow. It is far more interesting and historical than Sapporo - more like Otaru, but bigger. The city has built up the historic areas directly focusing on tourism, both foreign and domestic.
Time to move on from Fukuoka where we could have spent more time to further explore Kyushu - more ideas for the future. Next stop on the schedule is Hiroshima, another city neither Nobue or I have visited. Exploring the memories that still linger there is top of mind going there.
Hiroshima is a short hour and 30 minute Shinkansen ride from Hakata station in Fukuoka.
About a half-hour train ride from Sapporo, Otaru is a popular side trip for tourists (both Japanese and foreign). It is most famous for 3 things:
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- It's canals lined by old warehouses 
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- Glass craft works 
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- Sushi 
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So, off to Sapporo Station to join the crowds |
Time to move on from Sapporo to our other Hokkaido destination, Hakodate. Naturally the weather decides to be spectacular - after a week of not seeing sun, it came out with lots of blue...
The route to Hakodate follows the Eastern coast of Southern Hokkaido which opens
Hakodate is the Hokkaido city that we've most visited. Past visits were mostly in the snow, flying up from Tokyo to cross country ski and wander the city in the snow. It is far more interesting and historical than Sapporo - more like Otaru, but bigger. The city
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Just a quick post on the last long train journey this trip with the added attraction of traveling under the sea - the Hokkaido Shinkansen. This is also one of the newest Shinkansen line which opened in 2016 after the Seikan Tunnel was completed, opening the route from Aomori to |
Back to Tokyo for the final stint of this trip and it's so comfortable. We've settled in a residential neighborhood in Nakano-ku, not far from where we used to live before moving to Berkeley. While a lot has changed - mostly gotten updated and evolved to
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Some paying attention will notice that Day 20 has been skipped over. Nothing much happened - we visited Marie' at her new job near Roppongi with a few shots, but not worth a full post. Some of the better shots include the go-karts at Roppongi Crossing, and a Green |
I took a couple hour wander through the lower altitude Berkeley Hills - the Berkeley Foothills to me - and took the big camera. This was mostly to test a new lens. I came back with some decent shots and this blog is just hanging out here, so why not.
Time to move on from Fukuoka where we could have spent more time to further explore Kyushu - more ideas for the future. Next stop on the schedule is Hiroshima, another city neither Nobue or I have visited. Exploring the memories that still linger there is top of mind going
After the Atomic Dome, probably the most visited site around Hiroshima is the ancient shrine, Itsukushima Jinja, with it's huge off-shore bright orange Torii (gate). It takes about 30 minutes by what is essentially a commuter train and a short ferry ride to the island.
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After the uneventful |
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