Hello! 6 months later, where to start?
Well, first off, whoever you are I’m sure (or at least I’m very hopeful!) that you will have a fantastic time during your trip to Japan. It is a country with a long history and fascinating culture. The landscapes are beautiful, varied and strongly seasonal, which means there is always more to explore. Japan has also fully embraced modern consumerist culture, making it, and Tokyo in particular, one of the most exciting places I’ve ever been to and a great holiday destination!
I’ve made a list on Google maps of some of my favourite places; most places include a note explaining why they are on the list. I’d recommend you flick through this, and add the places you like the look of to your own, personal list.
To give some flavour to the places tagged on my list, below I’ve written some descriptions of the most interesting places I visited, as well as my reflections. Essentially It’s a little run down of everything I’ve done, and some of the things I’ve thought, over the past 6 months in Japan. I hope it’s enjoyable/useful, and do let me know if you visit any of these yourself!
I’ve split this into the following sections, each with their own page (this post was getting rather long!):
- Some musings on Japan
- The best food in Japan
- Japan: a reading list
- An absolute beginner’s guide to resources for learning Japanese
- Learning Japanese: 6 months later
- Three top things to do in Tokyo
- Travels around Japan: near Tokyo
- Kamakura
- Travels around Japan
- Kyoto
- Kanazawa
- Hiroshima
- Naoshima
- Himeji
- Okayama
- Naruko onsen town and Matsushima
- Hokkaido – Rishiri island and Sapporo
Addendum
Despite the above, I should like to add that I’m slightly wary of handing out a whole load of recommendations. Partly this is because there are so many great places in Japan (whether that’s for eating, drinking or sightseeing) and so it’s important you do some adventuring of your own. Also partly because everyone who visits Japan has a fulsome list of ‘favourites’ and ‘must sees’, which can all become overwhelming quite quickly; you need to do a bit of your own quality control. Finally because, armed with a guide book and a quick Google, you really won’t go too far wrong!
Rupert Swallow 