Naoshima was the one day out of my entire trip which I planned out in advance. I pre-bought museum tickets, looked up train and ferry schedules, and made sure I had enough time to bike between attractions. Yet I still failed miserably accounting for how big the island is and how tiring it was walking and biking the entire day. Hindsight is 20/20 and I would do things differently if I were to ever go again. Let’s backtrack to the…
I had a very busy day of sightseeing after pushing all my shopping to the previous day. I woke up at 6:00am, did my usual morning routine, then made it out to Kurashiki just after 8:30am. The train ride from Okayama was around 20 minutes, then another 15 minute walk to the Bikan Historical Quarter. Since it was still early, I made a stop first at Achi Shrine. The shrine itself was so peaceful early in the morning and it was…
Since I was leaving Osaka for Okayama later in the day, I got up early to have breakfast, repacked and dropped off my luggage at the storage lockers, then checked out of my hotel by 10:00am. I wasn’t meeting my friend Michiko for lunch until 11:00am, so I had some time to kill before heading over to Yakiniku Kitan Houzenji. Last time I saw her she was visiting Canada, so it’s nice to see her in Japan this time around. There…
For my first full day in Osaka, I woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel, then it was off to meet my friend Nabeela at Kuromon Market later that morning. It was my first time at Kuromon and while it was a weekend, it wasn’t as busy as I expected it to be. However, there were still quite a few stalls to choose from and we settled on one and ordered a kaisendon for ¥2,800. We had a really nice…
Another trip back to Japan! While I had planned to take a trip there later this year, hitting for tickets to Arashi’s last concert tour in Osaka was definitely not on my bingo card. I didn’t even want to go to Osaka, but I was very happy I made the trip work with my schedule. The added bonus was being able to travel to Shikoku, which is the last of Japan’s four main islands I had yet to visit. I…