WELCOME TO SHIKOKU! The highlight of our day today was exploring Ritsurin-koen (i.e. Ritsurin Garden). This beautifully landscaped 17th century daimyo koen (i.e. strolling garden) is situated in the city of Takamatsu, our base for the next few days. Ritsurin-koen is one of the most famous historical gardens […]
ALL THE WONDERS OF NARA-KOEN IN ONE DAY Our mission today: to explore as much of Nara-koen (i.e. Nara Park) as we could in 1 day. We didn’t quite get around all 502 hectares of it, but we certainly saw some of the major highlights of this historical […]
TODAY WE STUMBLED ACROSS THE HANAKEUSHIKI FESTIVAL IN YOSHINO Being Sunday, Nara-shi was really busy today. So, rather than fight with the crowds of tourists and local picnickers, we decided to go out of town and visit the tiny hamlet of Yoshino instead. This small village is perched […]
LEAVING THE HIGHLANDS, BOUND FOR NARA-SHI Welcome to Nara-shi, blog fans! Nara-shi is a former capital of old world Japan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to some of Japan’s best preserved ancient temples and shrines, and our home-away-from-home for the next few days. We left […]
FINALLY: FUJI! Mt Fuji finally revealed itself to us! We woke this morning to this view: And then we went for a walk down to Lake Kawaguchi and saw this: Oh, and then we went up Mt Kachi-Kachi via the “ropeway” (i.e. cable […]
Wandering Soles 