Japan is one of the advanced country in Eastern Asia. Kingdom of Japan is located at Northeast of Asia and it is an island nation. Japan has 4 main islands and thousands of smaller islands that goes from North of Hokkaido all the way to the South of Okinawa. Japan has been known for many of its advanced electronic brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Canon, and many others. Japan's car companies are also the most popular car brand in the world. It is fortunate that there is a direct flight from Portland to Japan, operated by Delta Airline. Thus we decided to go on a one week vacation in Japan.
The Delta flight leaves around 12:30PM from Portland and arrives at Japan Narita airport around 2:30PM in the afternoon. We were very satisfied with Delta Airline's service. We were served with Ben & Jerry ice cream! It was our first time having ice cream on the airplane.
Once we got off the plane, we first rushed to the travel agency at Narita Airport Terminal 1 to get our JR Rail Pass exchanged. JR Rail Pass is for foreigners only and it offers amazing discount to use all JR owned railways. While we were there exchanging the JR Rail Pass, we also booked the Narita Express train to Shinagawa, and then take the Shinkensen to Kyoto.
On day 1 when we arrived in Japan, we immediately took Shinkensen to Kyoto. The ride was about 2.5 hours from Shinagawa to Kyoto station, but we enjoyed the ride a lot because it has a lot of leg rooms. The only thing we forgot was to purchase bento box and enjoy the food. Once we got to Kyoto, we grabbed some bento box at Kyoto station and immediately checked in to Hotel Granvia Kyoto, which is right beside Kyoto station. There are so many people at Kyoto station and it was crazy!
On day 2, we woke up very early at 5AM and went to Arashiyama. It was quite easy to get to Arashiyama from Kyoto station by taking JR train. We got to Arashiyama at around 7AM and there was not many people there. For lunch, we went to Taisho Hanana to try its famous bream fish sashimi. After lunch, we went to Ranzan Sakuramochi for crashed ice dessert. We then took Kyoto city bus to Kinkaku-Ji to check out the famous golden temple. Afterwards, we went to the famous and oldest temple in Japan, Kiyomizu-Dera, to look around and shop around the area. At night, we got some buns and went back to hotel to enjoy dinner.
On day 3, we woke up even earlier at 4AM because we have a long day ahead of us. We first went to Fushmi Inari Taisha to check out its hundreds of Toshiis lined up together. Then we went back to Kyoto station to take Shinkensen to Himeji to visit Himeji Castle and Koko-En Garden. It is around 1 hour of train ride. After that, we took Shinkensen again to go to Shin-Osaka station and visit the famous Osaka market at Dotonbori to try its famous Takoyaki at Juhachiban Takoyaki.
On day 4, we left Kyoto and headed to Hakone. We first took Shinkensen to Odawara station, then take Hakone Tozan train to Kowakudani and checked in to Manatei Hotel. Since our room was not ready yet, we took Hakone Tozan ropeway to visit Owakudani and checked out its black hot spring egg. We then went down to visit Lake Ashi and took the pirate ship cruise to the South side of the lake to check out Hakone Shrine. At night, we had dinner at Hayakawa, which is included as part of the stay at Manatei Hotel.
On day 5, we went to Hakone Yumoto by taking Hakone Tozan train. We visited Gyokuren Shrine and made our prayers there. Then went to Yama Soba for lunch to try out its amazing cold noodle soba. Later we then went to Gore Park, which is a less popular place for tourist.
On day 6, we took Shinkensen to Tokyo station. We got to Tokyo around noon and went to Meiji Jingu. Then we went to Sakuratei to try making Okonomiyaki ourselves. After having a great lunch, we went to Nishimura Fruit & Parlour for an amazing luxurious dessert. Then we checked out Shibuya and tried the UFO machine, but unfortunately did not get anything.
On day 7, we took Shinkensen to Utsunomiya and then take the train to Nikko. At Nikko, got to try out Kimono and visited the famous temples. We also tried Gelato Rusk ice cream. In the afternoon, we went back to Tokyo and went to Sushizanmai for dinner. Its tuna sushi was the best sushi we have ever had.
On day 8, wen visited Senso-Ji and shop around Asakusa. At lunch time, we went to Ichiran Ramen. We have wanted to try it out for so long and finally had the chance to do it. In the afternoon, went to shopping at Shinjuku. At night, we went to Akibahara to play the UFO machine again and caught 3 prizes! We were very lucky that night.
On day 9 and it is the last day, we headed to Narita Airport and get ready to head back to Portland. The schedule of this Japan vacation was quite tight, but we enjoyed it a lot. We have visited a lot more places than we wanted to. After visiting Japan, we were most impressed by Japan's railway network. It is so convenient and we did not have to take bus at all. If we had the chance, we would visit Japan again and try to catch more price with the UFO machine!
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