Japan 2024 Completion Trip

I’ve been traveling to Japan for decades and have been an ardent fan of Japan-Guide.com, a superb destination travel website that highlights areas of interest to visitors and uses a 3 star system to highlight the best and most exciting cities, temples, natural landmarks, festivals, and other attractions.  In 2024 I’m hitting some of the back-catalog of this site to complete visits to more remote and 2nd and 3rd tier towns that i expect will have very few western tourists–especially in the midst of winter.

I’m flying in to Osaka from LAX, a great option to avoid having to arrive and depart from Tokyo and the resulting extra travel to to/from, and generally high costs of Tokyo. From Osaka I can get to lovely Kyoto by train on day of arrival and make that my first few days base camp to get over jetlag, and pick up my Rail Pass when i’m ready to start my train rides.

I’ve been to Nara several times, it is marvelous. But there are SOOO many things to see, Todaji Temple, is indeed, amazing (have visited 2 times before and blown away both times).

I spent the day visiting near-Nara temples and walking 15m (30,000+ steps), yikes. These temples are beautiful but each requires some gymnastics to reach by train. From Nara they are a good 45 minutes or so of walk/train combos. Was a great first day here.

A rainy day in Kyoto afforded me time to get 9 miles of walking around town and superb coffee stops everywhere. Tons of single source pour-overs and delicious flavors. Of course you then have to carry your coffee cup around for hours, as there are no public garbage cans anywhere in japan!

Day trips today to both Iga Ueno and Hikone castles were delightful; nearly 5 hours cumulatively from Kyoto to get to the two and back, but I made real progress on my super lengthy and involving book, Infinite Jest.

The first real leg of this trip is the venture to the north coast of Matsue with a stop-off en route via Okayama to the town of Bitchu-Takahashi. The JR Train stations usually have locker storage, I was able to pop bag at the station and set out on a lovely 1hr each way hike up to the top of the hill where the Bitchu-Takahashi castle was protected by a funny Cat-Lord!

After a day around Matsue I’ll hit Izumofor some more sites en route down the coast to Hagi.

During the lovely sunny day I took a morning visit the absolutely stunning Adachi Museum of Art which punched hard in both its insanely beautiful Japanese gardens, and, one of the most interesting modern art (20th century) collections of Japanese paintings and ceramics. Unfortunately I could not snap pictures of any of the art, there were some stunning gorgeous works and really compelling variations of style that I have never seen anywhere else.

Izumo en route to Hagi turned into a adventure. The Izumo Taisha shrine was great but maddeningly, the main shrine can only be peeked at from afar as it is surrounded by a wooden wall in its entire perimeter. The main shrine is a HUGE wooden structure, 100ft+ tall it would seem. I could only marvel from afar.

As expected the train ride along the north-western coast hugging the Sea of Japan was absolutely delightful. However strong winds knocked out the tracks (fallen tree?) and i had to divert to Yamaguchi for the night… tbd if I make it to Hagi.

Early start for first coffee arrival at the Yūtoku Inari Shrine 祐徳稲荷神社which has a nice 20 min hike to a nice viewpoint overlooking the valley, passing through a few hundred tori gates which are fun for photography.

Hit Dazaifu on my way, grabbed lunch and perused the town but must say it was jammed with visitors from China snapping pics and enjoying the CNY (all the power to them) which kind of bust the mood of being out and about solo, so took a long walk up into the woods and to some minor Buddhist temples. Then made my way to Fukuoka which has the fast Shinkansen terminal so I hit the town for some extra steps, reading time at a cafe, and a yakitori dinner at the station before heading home. 25k steps this day, rounding out my first week in Japan where I averaged well over 20k steps each day—woohoo!

Arrived at Beppu the famous onsen (hot springs) town, where I got rained on pretty hard but still enjoyed the town tremendously. My little hotel (like I’m sure all hotels in town) had a great built-in onsen bath as well as private bath areas that I rented for my own splash party.

Challenging weather day although I did make it to the lovely Aoshima island for a brisk walk and a delightful $6 lunch.

So onwards to the southernmost city of Kyushu, Kagoshima. A+ for the cute guest house, only $40 bucks a night with real charm and great views.

I’ve seen dozens of restored samurai homes, but this one in the Senegan garden’s right adjacent to my lodging was beyond adorable. I wanted to move in—so inviting to walk about on the tatami floors and the peek-a-boo views of the volcano and bay.

If I had more time and it was summer (a lot of nature parks and islands to see, not so good in winter) I would try to hit these places: Kitakyushu, Yutoku Inari Shrine, Yoshinogari Historical Park, Takachiho Mountain Town, and mostly the sub-tropical green island of Yakushima Island which Japan-Guide rates as a 3 star attraction (aka, i trust them, awesome!)

And, the exchange rate and whatever else is going on in Japan with the economy—wow, super affordable. Delicious meals for $6-10 dollars for lunch (set meals). And a great sushi lunch for $25!

Ok so Kumamoto was a bit ordinary in that i didn’t get a distinct vibe. The castle got really hit hard in the earthquake a dozen years back, and is essentially a construction zone / modern recreation—one of my least favorite Castles and that’s saying a lot, since I’ve seen nearly 20 of them!

After a layover and delicious meal in Hiroshima (love this town!) i took the early ferry today to Matsuyama on Ehime island.

For my birthday I did out and back day trip to Ozu & Uchiko, about 40 minutes by train from Matsuyama. Both are super cute but very very small towns, and because it was low season, there were only a couple dozen tourists in the towns and a lot of the shops and cafes were closed. The wax museum in Ozu was a hit, some rich family from the 1880s who made a killing in wax production. And a rich guy’s mansion who margined labor in the Philippines in 1910s, built a mansion for himself in Uchiko. So—rich guys from the 19th century who built mansions in their home towns, was the theme.

On my way back to mainland and the shinkansen to Nagoya I took a hike around the Kotohira Shrine. The steps up the hill weren’t as bad as the hype—took about 30 minutes.

From Nagoya I spent the day finishing my book and riding out and back to the Ise Shima shrines on Shima Penninsual (Ise), which didn’t allow any meaningful photography (out of religious respect) which means I have little to show here, but it was really stupendously beautiful. Infinite Jest was a marvelous read, I’m glad I got through it. Kind of sad it is over.. time for a new book.

Got a lot of steps in walking between the shrines, still holding my 7 day average at 25k steps a day, which has to be a personal best in a long time?

After getting stuck in a 2hr line to try the local Tonkatsu chain, i got my butt out early to a random location of the chain and had a very tasty brunch at 10:30 am!

Kanazawa was delightful as always, cold and snowy.

And to Tokyo to catch Adam finishing the Tokyo marathon.

And to Hokadate where it REALLY is snowing.

On way south to break up the long distance back to Tokyo hit Sendai as a regional hub (eg: cheap hotel by train station) and made it up to Yamadera Temple near Yamagata.

And finally a sunny day after a week, although still plenty chilly. Took the leisurely walk around the bay dotted with cute islands over at Matsushima.

Nikko!This is a fabled 3-star destination according to Japan-Guide, full of amazing ornate temples and a nice nature setting. Particularly intrigued by the Toshogu Shrine.

Ran out of time and didn’t make it to Aizu, Geibikei Gorge, Hiraizumi, Morioka, Aomori, and Hirosaki so those remain for future visits. Even with 4 full weeks, couldn’t see everything!

Kamakura last 3 days were a nice relaxing break for some visits with friends and first meals in 4 weeks with someone else (not alone).

Amazing trip. Really lovely last days with Adam and his family, visiting the Team Lab museum and grabbing a pastrami sandwich at the club in Tokyo before heading to airport..