Asia

Destination

Adventures in Hong Kong

Family, Fog, and Food

We spent 15 days in Hong Kong, March 14th to March 28th. The best part of our two weeks was that we got to spend ten days sightseeing with Pat’s mom, Judith. We’ve been in Asia for five months, so it was fun to see it through her eyes. Despite the fog and occasional rain, we were surprised and charmed by Hong Kong. There was plenty to see and do… and eat, so much eating. Hong Kong offers a wide array of foods from around the world at all price points and we definitely took advantage of it. Hong Kong was easy to get around using public transportation, but navigating Hong Kong Island was beyond tricky. Thankfully, there are lots of tourist signs in English, so we just followed those and gave up on our maps. Since Judith was with us, we got to partake in a classic tourist activity that we have avoided for our travels: shopping. It was glorious. Judith bartered for the first time in her life and turned out to be pretty good at it! And best of all, we walked away with some great souvenirs at prices we were happy to pay.

1. Go

The wonders of the Octopus card are endless. How do more places not have this? Similar to our Pasmo cards in Japan and our EasyCard in Taiwan, the Octopus card covers pretty much every mode of transportation in the city. You can even use it shopping or at restaurants. It makes riding the extensive metro, bus, and tram system even easier.

Hong Kong – Tram Jam

Hong Kong – The Peak Tram is steep

Hong Kong – View from the Star Ferry

Total traveling distances:

Plane – 2479 km
Bus – 152 km
Metro – 73 km
Tram – 18 km
Car – 28 km
Boat – 1 km
Foot – 152,000 steps

2. See

Hong Kong has plenty to see and do regardless of ones interests. We had more than enough to see during our two weeks.

Favorite Museums:

Hong Kong Museum of History – The Story of Hong Kong is a must see for any visitor to understand the city. They claimed 2-4 hours would suffice, but we spent over 5 and only left because it was closing.

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Pat and the kids reading comics

Favorite Sights:

Big Buddha – This is one of those things that everyone does when they come to Hong Kong. We were skeptical, but ended up really liking our visit.
Hong Kong at Night – The view from The Peak is spectacular (as long as there is no fog), but its especially beautiful at night.
Markets – Hong Kong has tons of markets and they are specialized for nearly anything you want. Want a fish, go to the Goldfish Market. Want flowers, go to the Flower Market. Want a bird that you can feed grasshoppers to with chopsticks, go to the Bird Market. Want ladies stuff (?), go to the Ladies Market. Ok, that last one didn’t work out as well.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – The Big Buddha

Hong Kong – View from The Peak

Hong Kong – Ladies Market selection

Hong Kong – Goldfish Market

Hong Kong – Flower Market

Hong Kong – Bird Garden

Favorite Monastery:

Ten Thousand Buddhas – This place was odd, to say the least. There were over 10,000 gold Buddha statues covering the grounds. Each was different from the last… some even had live monkeys adorning them.

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Monkey sitting on the head of a statue

Favorite Outdoors:

Lantau Island – This island is home to the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery which are both huge tourist attractions. It’s easily reached by metro and offers some great walking trails.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Tree Walk

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

3. Eat

Food in Hong Kong is much more international than we anticipated. In addition to the expected Chinese food, we also ate Japanese, Korean, American, French, and Southeast Asian.

Favorite Foods:

Dim Sum – Dim Sum is the best. We ate dim sum three times and just loved it. We prefer the traditional carts so that you can see what you are ordering right away.
Bubble Waffles, aka Egg Waffles – This street food is so fun to eat and perfect for a snack any time of day.
Korean BBQ – This was a big surprise for us in Hong Kong, but we loved it.
Claypot Cooked Rice – Ok, so this wasn’t the most exciting thing we ate but it was pretty darn fun. The rice was really tasty and the topping were decent. It was wonderfully cheap and filled with locals.

Hong Kong – Judith eating Dim Sum at Maxim’s Palace in City Hall

Hong Kong – Din Tai Fun

Hong Kong – Judith excited about bubble waffles

Hong Kong – Korean BBQ

Hong Kong – Claypot cooked rice

4. Drink

We didn’t really go out for drinks in Hong Kong, but we drank lots and lots of tea. Judith loves tea, so we did a tea tasting and ended up buying a fair amount to enjoy at the apartment.

Favorite Drinks:

Tea – We learned tons about how tea is grow, harvested, and served at our tea tasting.

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Our tea choices

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Learning the proper way to make tea

5. Sleep

We only stayed in one place during our time in Hong Kong. We rented a tiny apartment that sleeps three people.

Favorite Sleeps:

Rented Apartment – This place had everything we needed during our stay. It was tiny, but it was just enough with a kitchen, couch, bathroom, and the comfiest beds ever. It was also surprisingly quiet despite being on the same street as lots of bars and restaurants.

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – kitchen, bathroom, bedroom doors

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Living/Dining

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – View

6. Move

Hong Kong has excellent sidewalks, but even more impressive was the ability to get out to nature quickly. Lantau Island is only a short metro ride away.

Favorite walking spots:

Lantau Island – After visiting the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, we wandering some of the nearby trails and were pleasantly surprised.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Tree Walk

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Hong Kong was $87.26. Although accommodation is expensive, there are deals to be found. Food and transportation were so cheap that spending more on accommodation was totally worth it. There were only a few places to see that cost money, so it ended up being pretty affordable. Having two weeks allowed us to take it slow and walk a bit more. We also cooked in a fair amount, although groceries were nearly as expensive as getting take-out.

Check out all our photos from Hong Kong on Flickr and our post, Colors of Hong Kong.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Hong Kong:

Colors of Hong Kong

Nomadic Cadence - Header - Color - RAINBOW

Hong Kong – Tin Hau Temple

Hong Kong – Nan Lian Garden

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Monkey sitting on the head of a statue

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha

Hong Kong – Tram ride

Hong Kong – Goldfish Market

Hong Kong – Flower Market

A collection of some of our favorite photos from Hong Kong, one for each color of the rainbow. Click on the first photo to view a slideshow. Check out our Flickr page to see all our photos from Hong Kong. Also, check out our photo collections by color.

BLACK & WHITE

Hong Kong – View from The Peak

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Our tea choices

Week 43 – Hong Kong

And the Fog Continues

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

We continued our stay in Hong Kong with Pat’s mom, Judith. The weather stayed basically the same – foggy and occasionally rainy. We visited the Museum of History on the worst day, then took advantage of slightly less rainy days to visit Lantau Island and the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. On Judith’s last night, we visited Lindsey’s distant relatives for a lovely dinner at their house with spectacular views (once the fog lifted). We said goodbye to Judith on Friday and as chance would have it the fog and rain left with her. The weekend (Easter weekend) was sunny and warm without a cloud in the sky. Sorry mom!

Hong Kong – The Day after Judith left the weather was perfect… sorry mom!

In other news, we have decided to fly back to the States mid-April. We had originally planned on a year of travel just because we had a year free, but 320 days is just right for us. We had been thinking about six weeks in Spain and Portugal followed by a four week safari in Southern Africa. In the end, we just couldn’t find a safari in our price range that we were happy with. We had a long talk about what we wanted out of Spain and decided that wondering Barcelona and the museums of Madrid were all we are excited about. Clearly Spain has so much more to offer, but the fact that we weren’t excited to see more of it was our first hint of travel fatigue. We’d like to end our adventure on a high note where we still love travel, instead of being so sick and tired of it that we never want to go anywhere ever again.

1. Go

Bus – 47 km. Up to and down from Ngong Ping on Lantau Island.
Metro – 40 km. So easy and so cheap.
Car – 28 km. The ride to visit Lindsey’s distant relatives on The Peak.
Foot – 64,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 32 miles)

2. See

We decided to visit the Hong Kong Museum of History during a particularly rainy afternoon. All our guide books said that two hours should be enough time, and four if you watch all the videos. Well, either we are incredibly slow readers or they grossly underestimated how fascinating this museum is. We spent over five hours there and only left because it was closing. The main exhibit is The Story of Hong Kong which details the history of Hong Kong through photos, videos, artifacts, dioramas, and life-size models. It starts with basic geology, flora, and fauna, then explores the culture, economics, wars, occupations, and entertainment, before it finally ends with the handover of Hong Kong to China.

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Wedding attire

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Pat and the kids reading comics

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Comics

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Post Office

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Opera

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Port

On the clearest day for Judith, we went to Lantau Island. The biggest attraction on the island is Tian Tan Buddha, better know as “Big Buddha” because it is huge, duh. We scaled the 260 steps along with other tourists from all over the world to get up close to the massive bronze statue. We could imagine that there are great views on a clear day. Po Lin Monastery sits just steps away from the Big Buddha and was a pleasant surprise for us. Like most places of worship, they did not allow photos inside, but it was beautiful. There was a large group of monks praying and chanting which made it even more mesmerizing.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – The Big Buddha

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Po Lin Monastery

On the next clearest day, we visited the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. It wasn’t perfectly clear and we did have to dodge the rain a few times, but it mostly held out. The steep hike leading up to the grounds is lined with 500 Arhat statues. Each statue is unique. Some are calm, others are happy, some have arms coming out of their eyes (hello nightmares). The grounds are pretty impressive and totally different than anywhere else we have been in Hong Kong. There are more golden buddha statues scattered throughout the grounds. A few even had live monkeys sitting on their heads.

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – 400 and some steps

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – almost there, 400 steps down

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – chillin

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Seriously needs to get to the salon for some eyebrow care

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Don’t want to get my pants wet

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – This might cause nightmares

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – How do you hold a baby like that?

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Monkey sitting on the head of a statue

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

3. Eat

Since we have an apartment, we continued to cook in for at least half of our meals, but we made sure to eat at least one meal out everyday. We tried a Korean BBQ place right downstairs which was surprisingly good. We ate claypot cooked rice at the night market, which we liked but couldn’t get over Pat’s eel with the spine still in. While visiting Lindsey’s distant relatives, we had a Southeast Asian feast of duck curry, fish curry baked in banana leaves, chicken wrapped in pandan leaves, spring rolls, meatballs and rice. For dessert, they served the most fantastic chocolate cake with fruit on the side.

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Living/Dining

Hong Kong – Korean BBQ

Hong Kong – Pan fried buns

Hong Kong – Claypot cooked rice

Hong Kong – Southeast Asian Feast at Lindsey’s relatives

4. Drink

We continued to drink lots of tea at home this week, but also enjoyed the tea served along with meals at restaurants. During an intense down pour at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, we retreated to the vegetarian cafe for tea and snacks.

Hong Kong – Tea and snacks at Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

5. Sleep

We still love our rented apartment and remembered to take pictures this week. The space is pretty small, but it works for the three of us. We never felt too crowded, but we did need to keep it tidy. Each room had very large closets where we could keep all our bags and stuff out of the way. The only time we struggled for space was during meals. Trying to fit everything on the tiny table was a challenge.

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – kitchen, bathroom, bedroom doors

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Living/Dining

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Larger bedroom

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – View

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Smaller Bedroom

6. Move

Due to the rain, our step count was low this week. We had two days over 15,000 but the rest were under 10,000. Even so, Hong Kong is very easy to walk. The sidewalks are wide, well maintained, and clear of vehicles. One of those 15,000 step days was our visit the Lantau Island, where we took a fairly long walk through the woods to the Wisdom Path and the Tree Path. I’m not sure if we gained any wisdom, but we did learn about the local trees a bit.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Tree Walk

7. Etcetera

A big thanks to Lindsey’s distance family members for hosting us for dinner at their beautiful home. We learned plenty about the family tree just trying to figure out exactly how we were all related. The feast was delicious and the view wasn’t bad either.

Hong Kong – View from The Peak

Also, a big thanks to Sam and the rest of the Stalls. Their first hand advice was invaluable for getting the most out of our stay.

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.

Week 42 – Hong Kong

Fun with Family in the Fog

Hong Kong – Judith and Pat in the wind

On Monday we flew from Osaka, Japan to Hong Kong on a 4 hour budget flight. You’d think after nine months of travel that we would have an easy time, but it was a messy day. Since it’s a budget airline, they would only accept one bag under 20 kg per reservation. We always put our backpacks into one big duffle bag when we fly which is usually just over 20 kg. Other airlines have had the same 20 kg limit, but never said anything when we are a little over. So, we were a little surprised when we hit 23 kg on the check-in scale the check-in counter guy said it was too much. He said we would need to fix it or pay the overweight fee (over $100). Due to language barriers, we thought he was saying 20 kg per person, so we took our backpacks out of the big duffle and presented those. He then started ringing up the extra bag fee (over $100), which made us realize what he meant. So, we put our backpacks back into the duffle and took out some heavier items until it was 20 kg. Finally, we were on to security which was a short line, then to immigration. Pat was first and he breezed through, which makes sense because those from the USA get 90 days upon entry. Then Lindsey went up and handed over her passport. The immigration worker said, “oh, it looks like you’ve over stayed your visa; it was only for 15 days!” To which Lindsey responded, “but I’m an American.” Ok, it was really early in the morning and she was trying to convey that Americans get 90 days, not 15. The immigration worker called over a supervisor who was able to void the faulty 15 day visa and retroactively issue a 90 day visa. All we could think about the whole time was, thank god this happened in Japan where they are happy to help fix a mistake on their end. We were worried we would have to go back to Narita airport where it was issued or get stuck in Japan (not the worst thing). Phew, what a mess.

Once we got to Hong Kong, on-time but over-stressed, we worked on getting settled into our apartment and neighborhood before picking up Pat’s mom, Judith, from the airport on Wednesday afternoon. Once she arrived, we did some big sightseeing days. We walked the harbor, ate dim sum at city hall, rode the escalators to the mid-levels, rode the peak tram in the fog, rode the star ferry, visited temples and monasteries, did and tea tasting, and did lots of souvenir shopping at the markets. Welcome to Hong Kong, mom!

1. Go

Plane – 2479 km. Our flight from Osaka to Hong Kong.
Bus – 105 km. We rode the bus into town from the airport on Monday, then went back to the airport to pick up Judith.
Metro – 33 km. The metro in Hong Kong is very easy to use, and cheap enough that we can jump on it for a few stops.
Tram – 18 km. We took two trams this week. The first was up The Peak which only takes about 10 minutes, but gains 400 meters. The second was after our tea tasting, we rode the tram on Hong Kong Island back to Central. We got lucky and got the three front seats on the top floor with wonderful views.

Hong Kong – View from the Peak… what it should look like!

Hong Kong – Judith and Lindsey on the Peak with the City in the background… or just fog, lots of fog

Hong Kong – Peak fog

Hong Kong – The Peak Tram is steep

Hong Kong – Tram Jam

Hong Kong – Tram ride

Boat – 1 km. We rode the Star Ferry on the way home from Hong Kong Island.

Hong Kong – Star Ferry

Hong Kong – View from the Star Ferry

Foot – 88,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 44 miles).

2. See

Sightseeing with someone new is so fun! Since we have been in Asia for five months, there are some things that we are used to that are still novel to Judith. Just little things, like the way people line up for the subway. Judith is a big fan of walking, so naturally we tried to get in some good walking. We walked along the Harbor Promenade and posed with the Bruce Lee statue. We also spent some time in Kowloon Park and Hong Kong Park watching the turtles compete for the top spot on the rock.

Hong Kong – Bruce and Pat ready to kick ass

Hong Kong – Kowloon

Hong Kong – Judith and Pat in the wind

Hong Kong – fun statues in Kowloon Park

Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Turtles in Hong Kong Park

Hong Kong – Judith and Pat in the fountain

Luckily for Lindsey, Judith is still excited to see Temples (unlike Pat), so we went off without Pat to visit some temples and a monastery. We started with Wong Tai Sin Temple on Sunday. It was crowded, loud, colorful, and smokey. Chi Lin Nunnery was a stark contrast: very few people, peaceful, natural wood, and lots of greenery. Both had nice parks that were great for strolling. Finally we visited the old and incredibly smokey Tin Hau Temple near all the markets. There were hundreds of incense coils making it difficult to see and breath.

Hong Kong – Wong Tai Sin Temple

Hong Kong – Po Lin Monastery

Hong Kong – Nan Lian Garden

Hong Kong – Tin Hau Temple

We spent nearly an entire day wondering the markets of Hong Kong. We started at the bird market and were overwhelmed by all the noise! Birds are so loud! Then we turned the corner to the long flower market where there were tons of orchids. We were a little squeamish at the goldfish market, then bargained our way through the ladies market and the jade market. It wasn’t quiet meal time yet, so we passed on the meat in the window at the food market.

Hong Kong – Bird Garden

Hong Kong – Flower Market

Hong Kong – Goldfish Market

Hong Kong – Ladies Market

Hong Kong – Ladies Market selection

Hong Kong – Market food

3. Eat

Hong Kong has some incredible food and some incredible lines at the popular places. We’ve been pretty lucky by going at just the right times and skipping the lines. We’ve had Dim Sum twice, first at Din Tai Fung which was good, but not nearly as good as their locations in Taiwan and LA. Second was at Maxim’s Palace in City Hall and it was fabulous. It was huge, loud, fast paced, and a bit overwhelming, but so so tasty. While walking around we can’t resist buying bubble waffles (waffles that look like bubble wrap) at every chance we get. For dinner we’ve been so exhausted that we’ve done take-out most nights. There are tons of restaurants on our block that offer take-out and so far we’ve had some excellent wonton noodle soup and Korean rice bowls. We are looking forward to trying more places around (and maybe going back to our favorites).

Hong Kong – Din Tai Fun

Hong Kong – Dim Sum at Maxim’s Palace in City Hall

Hong Kong – Judith eating Dim Sum at Maxim’s Palace in City Hall

Hong Kong – Judith excited about bubble waffles

4. Drink

Judith loves tea, so naturally we had to do a tea tasting in Hong Kong. We found Mingcha Tea and did a one and a half hour tasting. It was fascinating. Judith already knew tons about tea, while Pat and Lindsey know very little. It was great for all three of us. We got to try five kinds of tea and we tried each tea after three different infusions. It was amazing how different the same tea could taste on the first infusion versus the third. We tried Jasmin Pearl Pekoe (green tea), White Peony Supreme (white tea), Pheonix Osmanthus (oolong tea), Teguayin Classic (oolong tea), and Meng-ha Tippy Puer (black tea). We learned about the tea making process as well as the traditional tea ceremony. Deciding to stay with the tea theme throughout the day, we visited the Flagstaff Museum of Tea Ware later that day.

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Infusing

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Our tea choices

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – different cups for different teas

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Learning the proper way to make tea

Hong Kong – Flagstaff Museum of Tea Ware

5. Sleep

Since we are staying in Hong Kong for two weeks and there are three of us, we decided to rent an apartment with Airbnb. It’s pretty tiny, but we do have a small kitchen, toilet/shower room, two bedrooms, and a living/dinning area. Since there are three of us, it’s much more affordable than staying at a hotel and we get the bonus of being able to make some of our own food. We totally forgot to take photos, but we will take some for next week.

6. Move

We did a lot of walking this week and had a uniquely Hong Kong experience riding the escalators to the mid-levels. It was a surprisingly long distance to travel on escalators with fun sights passing by. Afterwards we walked towards the tram through a maze of sidewalks, stairs, paths, and roads.

Hong Kong – Escalator adventure

Hong Kong – Views from the Escalators

Hong Kong – Escalator adventure

7. Etcetera

Can we just talk about Bamboo scaffolding for a minute? All the scaffolding in Hong Kong is made from bamboo. Is this safe? I totally thought this was just a kung-fu movie thing, not real life.

Hong Kong – Bamboo scaffolding

Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.

Adventures in Japan

The Land of the Rising Sun

We spent 27 days in Japan, February 16th to March 13th and loved it. Japan is so easy to travel through. Transportation is well organized, thought out, clean, and perfectly on-time (a huge change from our last few countries). Actually, it’s not just the transportation that could be described that way, it’s nearly everything – the food, the roads, the sidewalks, the restaurants, the tourist attractions, etc. Everything is done deliberately and with care. As a result everything is pretty easy and when it’s not there are lots of people who are happy to help. We were impressed by the sheer quantity of things to do in Japan, maybe even a little overwhelmed at first. We tried to sample a little bit of everything from big cities to museums to nature.

1. Go

Transportation in Japan is incredibly easy (not a surprise), but not cheap (a bit of a surprise). In order to keep costs down, we chose our locations carefully. We decided to limit our itinerary to Tokyo and Kyoto and their surrounding areas. We also found the best travel-hack of our trip so far, the “Seishun 18” train pass. Normally, train tickets from Tokyo to Kyoto are over $100 each, which wasn’t something we were too excited about. We read about the Seishun 18 pass that is only available three times a year and we just happened to be there for one of those times. The pass costs about $100 and has five day-passes on it. Each day-pass can be used by a different person and provides unlimited travel on local trains for a single day for an average cost of $20. We each used one ticket to get from Tokyo to Kyoto (which took 10 trains and 10 hours) and still had three tickets left. We used one to get to Osaka, and then the final two to get to the airport.

Total traveling distances:

Plane – 5,200 km
Bus – 40 km
Train – 995 km
Car – 60 km
Funicular – 1.5 km
Metro – 260 km
Boat – 10 km
Foot – 382,000 steps

2. See

We felt like we didn’t even scratch the surface of what Japan has to offer. Tokyo alone has enough to occupy someone for a year. We chose a few museums, a few nature sights, a few cities, and a few temples/shrines.

Favorite Cities:

Tokyo – Tokyo is massive and has anything and everything you could ever want. There are peaceful parks and quiet streets, museums and shows, clubs and shopping, you name it! It was a bit overwhelming deciding what to do, but we made it work by spending 10 days.

Japan – Tokyo – City View from Mori Art Museum

Favorite Museums:

National Museum, Tokyo – Perfect museum to introduce us to the history of Japan. The displays were well thought out and beautifully curated.

Japan – Tokyo – Tokyo National Museum – before the snuggy, there was this

Japan – Tokyo – Tokyo National Museum

Mori Art Museum, Tokyo – Just wow. We have never seen anything like the Takashi Murakami exhibit and doubt we ever will again. Not only that, but it was on the 52nd floor with amazing views of the city

Japan – Tokyo – Mori Art Museum featuring Takashi Murakami

Favorite Sights:

Nikko – The row of stone statues with bright red bibs and hats is as beautiful as it is surprising. It was very cold, but the leftover snow in the shade was pretty fun.

Japan – Nikko – Narabijizo

Favorite Shrine:

Fushimi Inari-taisha – How could you not love this place with it’s thousands of bright orange torii arcing over the hiking path.

Japan – Kyoto – Fushimi Inari-taisha

Favorite Outdoors:

Hakone – Not only is it beautiful, but part of the fun is taking five modes of transportation to see everything. Unfortunately, we did not get to see Mt Fuji, but it should be just left of center in the photo below.

Japan – Hakone – Lake Ashi

3. Eat

We were so excited about food in Japan. We were looking forward to sushi/sashimi, ramen, udon, and tempera, and we got plenty of that. What we didn’t expect was curry, onigiri, and strange desserts (like banana wrapped in a pancake).

Favorite Foods:

Sushi/Sashimi – Duh! How could this not be on the list. We had sushi everywhere – fish market, shopping mall, grocery store, rotating restaurant – and it was all delicious.
Ramen – Again, duh! We could not have enough of these steaming bowls of goodness.
Curry – Curry rice with fried pork cutlet is just about the best thing to eat on a cold rainy day.
Onigiri – We will miss these so much! They are the perfect grab and go food.

Japan – Osaka – Rotating sushi with the Yamamoto’s

Japan – Tokyo – Sashimi Breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market

Japan – Kyoto – Ippudo ramen

Japan – Tokyo – Curry Rice

Japan – Hakone – Onigiri aka “triangles”

4. Drink

We wish Japan was a little more affordable so that we could have drank a bit more. In our previous countries, we got used to buying iced tea, but had to give that up in Japan because of the cost. The only thing we didn’t cut out was sake and Pocari Sweat (a terribly named sports drink).

Favorite Drinks:

Sake – We had no idea how diverse sake could be until we did our own little tasting. After that, we were hooked.

Japan – Osaka – Beer, sake, and shochu with Yamamoto-san

5. Sleep

We had some great accommodation in Japan. The hostels were very nice, clean, and quiet. Everything was well thought out for best use in a small space. We also had some great Airbnb experiences and had a homestay.

Favorite Sleeps:

Hostel K’s House, Hakone – Although we had to sleep in dorm beds, this place had it’s own onsen (Japanese hot spring).
Airbnb Apartment, Kyoto – We ended up staying here for ten nights and were sad to leave.
The Yamamoto’s Home – The Yamamoto’s generously opened their home to us and invited us to stay a night. It was a wonderful experience.

Japan – Hakone – Hostel Common room

Japan – Kyoto – Our AirBnB Apartment living and sleeping area

Japan – Osaka – Yamamoto Home

6. Move

We were so relieved to be in a country with sidewalks again! Oh, how we missed walking without the fear of being hit by a moped! Japan offers a plethora of wonderful walks, but even just strolling down the sidewalk in Tokyo in lovely.

Favorite walking/running/biking/kayaking spots:

Nikko – We spent the entire day hiking through the tall cedar trees visiting shrines and temples.
Hakone – On our final morning we woke to fresh snow which made for a picturesque but cold walk.
Arishiyama Bamboo Grove – Peaceful and so very green.
Fushimi Inari-taisha – ORANGE! Everywhere.
Yamamoto-san’s Town – Like walking through a Miyazaki film.

Japan – Nikko – Big tress on the way to Takino Shrine

Japan – Hakone – Cedar Road with fresh snow

Japan – Kyoto – Arishiyama Bamboo Grove

Japan – Kyoto – Fushimi Inari-taisha

Japan – Osaka – Morning walk with Yamamoto-san

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Japan was $100.12. We can’t believe it! We were very concerned about our budget in Japan and maybe that’s why it was so low. We did lots of research to find cheap but good accommodation and kept our train travel to a minimum. We didn’t eat out as much as we have in previous countries, taking advantage of grocery stores and convenience stores.

We loved Japan and were sad to leave. Our four weeks was not nearly enough to do this beautiful country justice. We will be back in the future, hopefully with a higher budget! The only drawback for us was that since everything was so orderly, we were constantly worried that we were in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing and would mess everything up. But the Japanese were so friendly and helpful that we always felt comfortable and welcome.

Check out all our photos from Japan on Flickr and our post, Colors of Japan.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Japan: