More than a week has passed since we returned home, and the next (and last) entry is long overdue. Yakushima’s beauty still vividly present in our minds, we continued our journey towards Okayama. As usual, the Shinkansen proofed itself as the best and most comfortable way of travelling through Japan. That’s how a train ride should feel like! Shinkansen time! In Okayama, we visited the black “Crow” Castle, where – thanks to a Japanese gentleman insisting we should come with him (contrary to other places, this is – mostly – not a dangerous thing to do in Japan) – we…
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Several days have passed without writing anything. Sorry. It’s just that, when returning home in the evening, we’re always pretty beat from all the impressions and experiences we made during the day. Tokyo is an incredible city. It’s not huge, it’s endless, as we confirmed yesterday from the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. But let’s go back to Monday, when we changed our couchsurfing host and moved closer to the city center (only 20 minutes on foot from Meguro station). Before arriving at our new host’s place in the evening, we spent the…
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It is hot. So very, very hot. Yesterday, we had 37° C, but it felt like 48 (officially confirmed by the authorities). In the morning, we went out to the bay to Tokyo Big Sight, where Comiket takes place twice a year and attracts more than 500.000 visitors each time. And that’s about the amount of people we met. It was crazy. Over the top. Fascinating. Emotional. Awesome. Now, if you have no geekish genes in your body, you might want to skip this part, as you might get bored by reading about Shingeki no Kyojin cosplayers, multiple (and, in…
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A lot has happened since I last had the chance to blog anything, so here’s what happened. Hikone’s mascot Hikone Castle After two incredibly wonderful days in Nara, we went to Hikone where we wanted to visit the famous castle, which was quite impressive. Again, we were more than lucky with our wonderful Couchsurfing host, Emily, who took us to a great little Japanese restaurant where we enjoyed delicious food and mouthwatering homemade yuzushu (liqueur made from yuzu fruits). We tried to give back a little by singing Happy Birthday in German to a Japanese lady very fond of German…
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Today it’s time to say goodbye to Nara. The less than two days we spent here left us with many fond memories. Feeding a deer Yesterday began with delicious crepes made by Hiro, our wonderful couchsurfing host. Afterwards, Danie, Ihsin, and I set off to explore Nara Park where we fed the “wild” deer (only that they’re not really wild, but very much used to being around people and fed and petted by them). I will probably never get the chance to get this close to a free deer, and they are indeed not fenced in, but freely roaming the…
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A few days have passed without posting anything, so this is what happened. On Saturday, we visited Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was breathtakingly beautiful. We spent hours walking through the bright orange Torii gates. Again, it was so very hot and we suffered quite a bit, but it was so worth it. Definitely the highlight in Kyoto, sightseeing wise. And that’s saying something in this city. We sampled some Tofu ice cream (flavors: sesame and sweet potato – awesome!) and tried other Japanese sweets that I can’t remember the name of, sadly. The Torii Gates of Fushimi Inari Taisha In…