AbD Japan April 2019 Inaugural Trip

Sounds like a fantastic arrival day! A lot of useful information, too, since I am also flying ANA to Tokyo and from there to Osaka. (Only I'm flying from Chicago). Was the flight from Tokyo to Osaka crowded? I did a flight like that from Madrid to Barcelona, and it was the pits! Here's hoping my experience is as good as yours!

Lucky you still seeing the cherry blossoms!

Looking forward to more reports!

Sayhello
 
What an amazing trip you've had already! Hopefully one day I can take a trip to Japan with my oldest son. Thank you for sharing some great information and tips! Your hotel location was perfect and glad you had an uneventful flight. Can't wait to read more of your trip!
 
Following along, as I'm on the sept/oct one!
Did you book the pre tour hotel nights through ABD? Is that the only way to get transport from airport through them? I realized I will most likely be arriving a night prior.
 
Following along, as I'm on the sept/oct one!
Did you book the pre tour hotel nights through ABD? Is that the only way to get transport from airport through them? I realized I will most likely be arriving a night prior.
Hi. Yes, we booked one pre-night hotel thru ABD & they included the transfers a day early. It was easiest for us to have the entire reservation through them. I am not sure if you could get transfers if you booked pre-nights on your own, I’d suggest calling AbD to ask them.

If you do decide to book a pre-night thru AbD, ask them if your pre-night includes breakfast the next morning. AbD never mentioned it to us, but the hotel said we had breakfast with the pre-night. I was not sure, and we had such an early start Sunday that we did not plan to breakfast at the hotel anyway.
 


Hi. Yes, we booked one pre-night hotel thru ABD & they included the transfers a day early. It was easiest for us to have the entire reservation through them. I am not sure if you could get transfers if you booked pre-nights on your own, I’d suggest calling AbD to ask them.

If you do decide to book a pre-night thru AbD, ask them if your pre-night includes breakfast the next morning. AbD never mentioned it to us, but the hotel said we had breakfast with the pre-night. I was not sure, and we had such an early start Sunday that we did not plan to breakfast at the hotel anyway.
The pre-nights I've booked through ABD (for 5 trips) have always included breakfast the next morning. The only time I had an issue with that was the first time I booked a pre-night through ABD (Alaska) and I was sure it included breakfast, but the hotel said it did not. Turns out I was right.

Hi - it seemed to be a full flight, but that was at 7:10 a.m, so I don’t know if that would be the case throughout the day. This flight was fine, no issues or concerns.
Cool! Thanks for that. My flight is late afternoon, so I hope that holds true.

Sayhello
 
Sunday April 14 -

We both slept well, but are awake around 3:30 a.m., not too bad. That is 11:30 a.m. to us back home, so I’m feeling pretty good about starting to adjust to Japan time so quickly.

Himeji castle, known in Japan as Himeji Castle National Treasure, is our destination for today, a 45 min trip on the Shinkansen. It is considered the best and most beautiful of the 12 remaining old Japanese castles, and one of Japan’s first UNESCO world heritage sites. It is also the largest in terms of how much of the castle and surrounding structures are still there, Since it is so close via a day trip on the train, and is not on our AbD, we could not pass up the opportunity to visit.

Himeji Castle. http://www.himejicastle.jp/en/index.php

We have an early start today as our train leaves at 7:20 a.m. While the hotel opens for breakfast at 6:30, we are opting for grab and go from the 24-hour Family Mart by Kyoto central station, to eat on the train. It may be cutting it too close to try to eat at the hotel and we do not want to miss the train. While eating is discouraged on most trains, it is acceptable and standard on the Shinkansen trains. My son wanted to experience Japanese convenience store food so this takes something off of his list. And the selection of items seems way more extensive then a typical 7-11 in the US. It was also reasonably priced. I have to share this pic - this is the banana I picked up, packaged with all sorts of writing on the wrapper. James says he and Tomomi, our guides, will help translate so I kept the packaging, I am very curious to know what all of the writing is about on a banana.


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It is approx 20 min walk from our hotel to Kyoto station & train platform for our trip to Himeji. We are on the 7:20 train to Himeji. Some rain is expected today in both Himeji and Kyoto, most of the day and approx quarter of an inch, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

We arrive in Himeji approx 8:04 a.m. The Shinkansen is so quiet and smooth, with comfortable airline type seats, and fast! We are looking forward to riding again on our AbD trip to Hiroshima on Day 3. It is a 15 minute walk to the main Himeji Castle entrance; a bus is also available, We have booked a free English speaking guide tour through Himeji English Guides, http://www.i-guide.jpn.org/ and our guide recommended the early start as the castle is very busy in the spring. We met Miyako at the castle entrance approx 8:20, to be there for the castle opening at 0900, as it gets very busy at the castle on the weekends in the spring.

Himeji Castle did not disappoint- it was amazing!! And having Miyako as our guide only enhanced our visit. While there is a brochure and some minimal signage in English, she was able to provide so much historical context and information. One interesting fact - similar to St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Himeji Castle also survived massive bombing of the town during WWII. Another tidbit - the main keep, or main building, is the same height as the Statue of Liberty, I also got to check another item off of my wish list for this trip, as there were dozens of cherry trees still blooming around the castle, some still close to full bloom. It was beautiful to see them on the grounds and around the castle. We are so glad we made the trip to visit.

Something to be prepared for, there is no elevator, so to get to the top floor of the main keep is a lot of steps, some a bit steep. There are stops on each floor, it is not like climbing the Statue of Liberty with one straight trip to the top. According to my Apple Watch, we climbed 17 flights of stairs over our time there! Still, very much worth it to see such a beautiful, historic site.

We were also happy to have arrived for opening, as by the time we finished the castle & grounds two & a half hours later, it was much more crowded. We got a combo ticket to also see the adjacent Kok-oen Japanese Gardens, which has representation of various Japanese garden styles found at the old castles. We visited the gardens, and they were nice; however by this time it is a light but steady rain so we did not spend a lot of in the gardens. I have so many pictures, here are a few of my favorites.

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There are a lot of cat cafes in Japan, which if you are not familiar is a place to relax & get a coffee, tea or soda where there are comfortable seats and lots of cats. You can pet and interact with the cats; there is a small cover charge. While researching Himeji, a cat cafe was mentioned in one of the articles so I checked it out. This one happens to be located between the castle and the train station and has only black cats, the only one with only black cats in Japan.

So, now curious enough to want to check out a cat cafe at some point while we are here, and having time before our return train to Himeji, this is the one we will visit. We can also do so on our pre day as not sure how much free time we will have on tour days. It was an eclectic Japanese experience. One other visitor was so relaxed among the cats she fell asleep! This was my favorite - the black cat curled up on the black cat pillow.

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I also finally found my first painted manhole cover today. I came across them in my trip research - here is one article with a bit of history about them. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-japans-artistic-manhole-covers/ I’d decided wanted to try to find some as we traveled around. I have not yet found one in Kyoto but did find this one in Himeji.

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Return train to Kyoto left just after 4pm - both the stations and the trains are much busier than they were on the outbound trip.

The official AbD first day is today, with the only scheduled thing being to arrive, check in with the guides, have the tour-included dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, and explore the historic district area around the hotel which we did yesterday. Our return train from Himeji got back to Kyoto approx 5:00 PM. We met James and Tomomi, our guides, in the hotel lobby. They were to be there from 9am to 5pm to greet arriving adventurers. I’d called James on Saturday evening to let him know we’d miss him due to our Himeji trip, as they were providing the Sunday night hotel dinner vouchers and I wanted to arrange to get ours. He said they’d stay a few minutes over until we got back to the hotel, which was very nice.

They both are fun and energetic, typical Adventure guides, and we can tell they are very excited for both this first Japan Adventure and to share their love for Japan with us. There will be a total of 36 people in our group - 30 Adventurers, James and Tomomi, one new guide from Japan who is along to observe and learn so she can help guide some of the later adventures, and three from the AbD team. We also got our first Japan Adventure pin.

We had our dinner in the Japanese restaurant in the hotel and can highly recommend it as the option for your dinner voucher; the other two choices are Italian or a steak & seafood grill. The food and presentation were excellent.

First tour day is tomorrow with a group breakfast and an early 7:15 report time.
 


This is a random collection of things that might be good to know, which we’ve learned after our first couple of days in Japan.

The hotel -
  • our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, provides complimentary bottled water in the rooms. We had two bottles to start, I took one yesterday & it was replenished when the room was serviced. We had bought a couple on our first day, not knowing this as we were not yet in our room
  • The room and bathroom area are nice but may seem cozy by US comparison. We do have enough room for the two of us and do not feel cramped. There is not a lot of floor space for luggage. The closet is shallow; suitcases would not seen easily fit more than one. There are two drawers in the closet but both have some provided items in them. There is minimal counter space in the bathroom - all amenities including tissues are found in the drawers in the bathroom. Only things on the counter are water glasses and soap.
  • In the shower/soaking tub area, when turning on the water, the hot comes first followed by the cold. If you turn the faucet all the way thinking you will get hot water, you will be very surprised by the icy cold shower!!
  • The room has several courtesy amenities you usually need to request from the front desk - razor, 2 toothbrush kits, hairbrush along with a sewing kit, swabs, etc.
  • In case your purchases do not fit in your suitcase or you want to ship stuff home, there is a flattened cardboard box in the closet with shipping tape and mailing labels in one of the drawers.
  • James and Tomomi gave us a taxi card, with the hotel address in both English and Japanese. This could be useful if taking a taxi as not all taxi drivers may understand English.

Around town
  • Useful website - http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html this is the Japanese version of the NOAA in the US. While we can get temperatures and general precipitation forecasts thru weather.com, this site has more detailed information especially about the rain. There is an English language version of the site.
  • When paying for things at a store or counter service restaurant, place the money in the tray on the counter; you do not hand it directly to the clerk. They may hand your change to you but most also put the change in the tray. We learned this from a helpful clerk at our first stop to buy something.
  • The toilet seats are heated - both in the airports and train stations as well as public restrooms around the city and in our hotel room.
  • Most restrooms do not include toilet seat covers, There is a hand sanitizer type dispenser to be used to clean the seat before using....I’ve opted for some travel packets of seat covers.
  • There are no towels in the rest rooms. Many have air hand dryers but some do not. I’ve got hand sanitizer and lots of Kleenex.
  • There are not a lot of public trash cans - it is very much not like a Disney Park with trash cans every 30 feet or so. We’ve seen a few in Kyoto, mostly on sidewalks in the area of bus stops but not at the stops themselves, and not in places you’d expect them like the train stations.
  • There are no napkins at the counter service restaurants or convenience stores. They will provide a small wrapped wet cloth for cleaning your hands prior to eating. Again, I’m glad I have lots of Kleenex with me.
  • In case it is needed, we are traveling with a portable private wi-fi device from Global Vision WiFi https://visionglobalwifi.com/. It has been very helpful as while there is a lot of free WiFi places, this is more secure plus once you set it up on your devices you will not need to change settings at each new hotel or location. It can manage a few devices.
 
Loving your day! I was thinking of doing Himeji, but I booked a lunch with a local instead. It looks beautiful! And I'm so glad you got to see so many cherry blossoms! That has to be wonderful. Thanks for all of the tidbits. They're going to be very useful!

Sayhello
 
Himeji Castle looks amazing. I may have missed it, but did you have to purchase train tickets in advance? We were planning on just walking around Kyoto, but this looks like a pretty cool option. Thanks for the tip about the Japanese restaurant. That's what we are looking at as well.
 
Himeji Castle looks amazing. I may have missed it, but did you have to purchase train tickets in advance? We were planning on just walking around Kyoto, but this looks like a pretty cool option. Thanks for the tip about the Japanese restaurant. That's what we are looking at as well.
We bought our train tickets in the main ticket office at the station with an attendant the day we arrived, to travel the next day, because that is where we were directed. However as we walked to the Shinkansen boarding area, we found the vending machines where those tickets are sold. There is an English option on the touch screens which was very easy to follow ( we checked it out) and we could have bought our tickets there on the morning of and it would have been faster. Shinkansen ticket machines are on the second floor; follow the signs to Shinkansen & they are on the left before you go to the assigned tracks.

Here is a link to the JR West timetables. https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/timetable/ Use Kyoto and Himeji stations, then when the next screen comes up de-select all but Shinkansen. It would br helpful to know your desired train numbers ahead of time when buying.

We opted for direct trains with no transfers. There are other options that return earlier than 4pm if you don’t want to stay that long. We also opted for reserved seats which were ¥5270 per person round trip; I dont know how crowded the unreserved cars are. The seating configuration is 2 on one side and 3 on the other. And that configuration can be different by train aw our train there had the 2 on the right while the return train has the two on the left.
 
This is a random collection of things that might be good to know, which we’ve learned after our first couple of days in Japan.

The hotel -
  • our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, provides complimentary bottled water in the rooms. We had two bottles to start, I took one yesterday & it was replenished when the room was serviced. We had bought a couple on our first day, not knowing this as we were not yet in our room
  • The room and bathroom area are nice but may seem cozy by US comparison. We do have enough room for the two of us and do not feel cramped. There is not a lot of floor space for luggage. The closet is shallow; suitcases would not seen easily fit more than one. There are two drawers in the closet but both have some provided items in them. There is minimal counter space in the bathroom - all amenities including tissues are found in the drawers in the bathroom. Only things on the counter are water glasses and soap.
  • In the shower/soaking tub area, when turning on the water, the hot comes first followed by the cold. If you turn the faucet all the way thinking you will get hot water, you will be very surprised by the icy cold shower!!
  • The room has several courtesy amenities you usually need to request from the front desk - razor, 2 toothbrush kits, hairbrush along with a sewing kit, swabs, etc.
  • In case your purchases do not fit in your suitcase or you want to ship stuff home, there is a flattened cardboard box in the closet with shipping tape and mailing labels in one of the drawers.
  • James and Tomomi gave us a taxi card, with the hotel address in both English and Japanese. This could be useful if taking a taxi as not all taxi drivers may understand English.

Around town
  • Useful website - http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html this is the Japanese version of the NOAA in the US. While we can get temperatures and general precipitation forecasts thru weather.com, this site has more detailed information especially about the rain. There is an English language version of the site.
  • When paying for things at a store or counter service restaurant, place the money in the tray on the counter; you do not hand it directly to the clerk. They may hand your change to you but most also put the change in the tray. We learned this from a helpful clerk at our first stop to buy something.
  • The toilet seats are heated - both in the airports and train stations as well as public restrooms around the city and in our hotel room.
  • Most restrooms do not include toilet seat covers, There is a hand sanitizer type dispenser to be used to clean the seat before using....I’ve opted for some travel packets of seat covers.
  • There are no towels in the rest rooms. Many have air hand dryers but some do not. I’ve got hand sanitizer and lots of Kleenex.
  • There are not a lot of public trash cans - it is very much not like a Disney Park with trash cans every 30 feet or so. We’ve seen a few in Kyoto, mostly on sidewalks in the area of bus stops but not at the stops themselves, and not in places you’d expect them like the train stations.
  • There are no napkins at the counter service restaurants or convenience stores. They will provide a small wrapped wet cloth for cleaning your hands prior to eating. Again, I’m glad I have lots of Kleenex with me.
  • In case it is needed, we are traveling with a portable private wi-fi device from Global Vision WiFi https://visionglobalwifi.com/. It has been very helpful as while there is a lot of free WiFi places, this is more secure plus once you set it up on your devices you will not need to change settings at each new hotel or location. It can manage a few devices.

Seems you're already getting the hang of a lot of the little differences :)
 
Monday April 15 -

I am still waking up around 3:30 each morning; it is a great time to write & post from the prior day before our next day starts.

Today is the day we meet our fellow adventurers and start our AbD touring. Our report time is 7:15 a.m. for breakfast and tour orientation; it is a buffet and the room opened at 6:30 a.m. We are to be ready to head out right after breakfast. The rain has passed and we should have a beautiful day. On the agenda -

—Rickshaw tour: Arashiyama and Bamboo forest
—Arashiyama district walking tour
—lunch at Yoshita restaurant in Arashiyama
—Pure Water Temple walking tour
—welcome dinner at the Sudoh
—Maiko & Samurai performance with costume photo op

Meeting - it should be a fun group, we range from a few first-time AbD travelers to folks with 8-12 AbD adventures trips. @WeLoveABD and I figured who each other is from our intros around the room; it is nice to meet them and put faces to names. One of the AbD team members shared that this Adventure was about 5 years in the making from the first discussions through all of the research and planning. A long wait, for sure, but well worth it from what we all have seen so far.

On the bus - There is bottled water on the bus for us, and they also have Kleenex-type packets of flushable tissues, which is very appreciated in case it is needed. You can skip the Costco run for Kleenex purse packs before the trip. they also have some individual packs of various Japanese snacks for us to try.

Rickshaw tour: our bus left approx 8:00 a.m. for our time in Arashiyama and Bamboo forest. When we arrived about 30 min later at the spot to board the rickshaws, they were all lined up waiting for us; the photo below,shows half of the carts.

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It will be two per rickshaw for a 90-minute ride and we were given maps to follow along the route. The drivers have such strong legs to pull the rickshaws - similar to speed skaters. Our driver shared that a pair of his special shoes lasts about a month. It was so interesting to watch the drivers manage the rickshaws, from speeding up to turning, slowing and stopping. One thing we were not expecting is that the drivers were also tour guides, sharing info as we went along about what we were seeing, and also answering our questions.

We rode around the town as cars and people go by, and through the bamboo forests, stopping a few times along the way where our driver helped with pictures. Our lines of rickshaws caused a lot of attention from others in the area and we will be in a lot of people’s pictures and video, as we saw several people filming us as we went by, At one point maybe half way through, we were able to get out and walk through a portion of the forest. It was amazingly peaceful. We passed a lot of people walking along the same paths we were riding,...it was nice to be riding!

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After returning to our starting point for one final picture with our driver, we were off on the walking tour of the area that included a tour of a temple. We were accompanied by a a local resident who provided a lot of info about the history of Kyoto and this area. There were lots if people and school field trip groups walking around.

One thing to note here - shoes need to be removed at the temples & shrines (and inside the main keep of Himeji castle if you visit it). Some places provide a plastic bag to carry your shoes with you; others have racks where you leave your shoes and pick them up on the way out. So plan accordingly with socks, though there were a few folks barefoot.

We had lunch at Yoshita restaurant in Arashiyama - in a special room up on the second floor set aside for our group, it was Beef sukiyaki. They are able to accommodate dietary restrictions as one table was identified for the vegetarians in our group. Each place setting had its own individual hibachi type cooker to cook up our meat & veggies ourselves. It was a fun experience. James explained on the bus over that our group meals will be a mix of western and Japanese; today it will be Japanese for lunch and western for dinner. After lunch we had about 15 min to browse the shopping area below the restaurant,

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Then it was back to the bus for a ride across town to the Pure Water Temple. This is a VERY popular temple to visit, there were a lot of people and a lot of cars & busses. It was a bit of a walk up the hill to the temple itself but worth it. We saw a lot of Japanese in kimonos taking pictures. The few remaining cherry trees were the popular locations. One thing to note is there is some refurbishment going on so the large wooden stage and supports, all built entirely without nails, was not completely visible; this did not detract from the visit. At the end of the guided portion of the tour we had about 90 minutes to wander on our own as we made our way back to the bus. The walkway to & from the temple is lined with various shops and food places.

Have to include this pic with our sign - AbD is officially in Japan!!

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Also note the crowds heading up to the temple

And you need patience to wait until a break in the crowds for this shot.

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James mentioned last night that we might have a couple of hours of free time at the hotel between the Water Temple tour and our dinner. This ended up to be 90 minutes due to traffic coming back from the Pure Water Temple. Since we got back around 4:30, it was too late to visit any other nearby sites but no worries, it was nice to have a bit of down time.

We are off to our Welcome dinner at the Sudoh. Dress was casual - some folks did not change from their touring while others did. We were in a room that overlooks the city. Dinner was good, and the entertainment was a lot of fun -

First was a Beautiful geisha, who did two dances. She answered questions after, then we had an individual photo op with her, and then she visited each table for more conversation and questions. It was very interesting to learn about her process to become and be a geisha.

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This was followed by samurais. I was expecting samurai in battle dress but it was a performance so theatre dress. They did a few demonstrations followed by photo ops when we could put on kimonos. It was fun to watch the group photos.

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As we left, an adjacent pagoda was beautifully lit up.

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It was a long day, we were back at the hotel shortly after 9pm. Plan for the morning is breakfast at the buffet with a 7:45 sharp departure for the train to Hiroshima. The Shinkansen waits for no one, so we cannot be late. One fun thing here - it seems at least one member of each travel party has an iPhone, so James was able to use AirDrop to provide our train car door and eating info. Fun use of technology and no papers to lose
 

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Sounds great so far! I must admit I'm skimming some of the detailed descriptions - I want to be surprised - so I appreciate you noting where suggestions & tips are.

That nighttime pagoda is so pretty!

Thanks for the heads' up about the early mornings! Must get in that mindset. I am NOT a morning person!

And I don't have an iPhone. I hope they figure something for those of us with Android!

Sayhello
 
Tuesday April 16

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday - when we are on the busses here, it is the same bus all day and the bus is locked when we get off. So we are able to leave things on the bus if we want to, which is nice.

After breakfast at the hotel, we board the bus for the train station and our trip to Miyajima and Hiroshima. I am very much looking forward to today as I am a WWII history buff plus my dad visited both of these areas when he was stationed in Japan in the Marines over 50 years ago. He was sharing his pics and memories as we prepared for our trip.

The AbD agenda for today -

—Shinkansen train Kyoto to Hiroshima and Miyajima
—lunch on own in Miyajima
—Torii Gate photo op
—Shinto Shrine and Buddhist Temple tour
—Hiroshima Peace Park
— Museum visit or fold Origami cranes
—return cranes to Peace Pavilion
—Okonomiyaki dinner experience in Hiroshima
—Shinkansen train back to Kyoto

We depart at 7:45 for an 8:30 train, even though the drive is only 10 minutes we cannot be late and will need time to navigate our large group through the station to platform. We went through another entrance to the train station rather than the main central entrance, so it was a breeze getting us through the station to our platform. Since we were there a bit early there was opportunity to take photos of the other Shinkansen before our train arrived. No time with our train - there is 90 seconds for departing passengers to exit and is to get on, so efficiency is the key.

—Shinkansen train Kyoto to Hiroshima - it was an hour & 36 minute train ride to Hiroshima, with three stops before ours. While the train moves very fast, it is not so fast that we can’t see things out the windows as we pass.

We are met by our bus and a local expert guide who will be with us throughout the day. We have a 30 minute bus ride through Hiroshima to the station for the ferry to Miyajima. Once on the ferry, it was maybe a 10 minute ride to Miyajima. We could see the island’s famous Torii gate as we approached; it is visible from the right side of the ferry. No worries if you cannot get a spot on the rail for photos on the way over as it will be visible from the left side on the say off the island. Caveats - we were on the 11:00 a.m. ferry over so it was not too crowded; there were a lot more people leaving the island on the 3:30 pm return ferry.

It is a beautiful day for Miyajima. Once on Miyajima, we had a short walking tour with our local guide through the town as we headed towards the Torii gate for photo ops. We took a group photo & then did individual family group photos. It was almost to low tide when we were there, so not a lot of water under the Torii gate, there were a few people who had walked out to get under it; we’d see a lot more people out there at the lowest of the tide during our free time.

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After the photo stop, we went into the Itsukushima Shrine for a tour. It is a beautiful shrine that sits out over the water of the bay. Since it is almost low tide, we see mostly the shore underneath as we walk around. There are some stone lion statues and opportunities for more photos of the Torii gate, I took so many pictures, it will be hard to narrow it down to those I will end up keeping.

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In case you are wondering what is the difference between a temple and a shrine, our rickshaw driver explained it during our ride yesterday - a temple is with the Buddha religion and a shrine with the Shinto religion. I keep them straight because Shinto and shrine both start with “sh”.

We were fortunate that our day on Miyajima included the first day of a three day Shinto festival, so we were able to see a bit of a Shinto theatre performance at the shrine as we walked to the exit of the shrine.

We are now on our own for lunch - we have about two & a half hours to explore the shops and food booths. And there are a lot of them - a couple of hours may not be enough time. Several adventurers had shopping bags with them today when we headed back to the ferry. With the festival happening, there were a few extra street food booths by the temple. And, believe it or not, there is also a Starbucks! We had a few Starbucks bags in our group as well with people picking up the Starbucks “we are there” mugs with Hiroshima on the mugs, to add to their collections.

While walking around the town before the hike, we saw a rickshaw coming down the path. Have to share a picture - it is a bride and groom on their way to their wedding at the shrine we had just visited. What a special treat to see them on their happy day.


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There was an optional hike up to the Daishoin Temple for the last hour of our free time. About half of our group did the hike. It was not a steep hike and is all along paved paths; there are also some stairs. We were rewarded with some beautiful gardens and Buddha statues and more insights from our local guide. I’d recommend going if you can pull yourself away from the shops.

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We are on the ferry back to Hiroshima and then on the bus to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. We don’t have a lot of time in the museum, just under an hour. However, it is very doable in the time as it is not a large museum...unless you are someone like me who likes to read every description by every artifact and display. It starts on the 3d floor and we work our way down to the first floor.

Many did a quick look at everything. Some folks spent more time with the survivor interview videos where survivors talked about their memories and experience of both the bomb and after. This is similar to the Holocaust museums. I knew I wanted to see the artifacts in the special exhibitions area so skipped about half of the third floor and the second floor to spend most of my time there on the first floor. I was also the last person out of the museum for our group...first time they’ve been waiting on me. It was a sobering, thoughtful, moving experience. It might not be good or easy for younger kids to see some of the things and photos in the special exhibition area such as tattered clothing that family members had kept in home shrines as memories of lost loved ones before donating to the museum. I don’t know how often that is changed out, so later visits may see something different there. The museum is optional for those who might not want to go in.

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We walked over to the 1000 cranes memorial and displays, past the Hiroshima Dome still standing in its aftermath state, and over to the Orizuru tower where we made our origami cranes. You can keep your cranes or leave them to become part of the cranes display; we chose to leave ours. We also had another group photo op here with the Hiroshima skyline in the background as we are up on the 11th floor.

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It is back to our bus for our Okonomiyaki dinner experience in Hiroshima. While these can be found in most major cities of Japan, Hiroshima is known for them and the many different variations available. It was very interesting to see those being made and everyone said they were delicious. And while it is not always easy for diet accommodations while traveling and especially so in Japan where substitutions are not done, I was quite impressed that AbD was able to arrange an alternative version for me with the chefs as I cannot eat cabbage, the main ingredient in okonomiyaki. I was prepared with peanut butter & crackers but those were not needed.

We walked to the train station across the street for our ride back to Kyoto. Another observation about the efficiency of Shinkansen- there was some sort of medical situation in another car, and the train was delayed about two minutes at one station. They come over the PA to apologize for the slight delay, and we still end up arriving back at Kyoto exactly on time.

It is a long day, our train gets on at 10:14 and then it is another 20 minutes before we are in the hotel lobby. We have a later report time tomorrow, 8:30 a.m. which is nice.
 
Ok this may sound stupid. But I am super excited that you got a picture with the orange ABD sign. When we went on our first ABD Knights and Lights we were told that in Europe it's not as safe to carry it around. And that many trips that year just didn't use them. But since Japan is very friendly I want a picture holding the sign! I'm silly like that.
 
I mentioned seeing cherry trees in bloom on our drive in from the airport. We got so excited to see our first trees, but by the time we got to the hotel they had become a somewhat common sighting. One thing I was not expecting was to see so many of them, both along the way and throughout the city, scattered here and there. I decided quickly my wish list was too short - Mt Fuji, check; cherry blossoms, check. So I added cherry blossoms of every color, and was able to mark that off as well. Most of the trees here are past prime viewing, but still some flowers and with rain expected for Sunday I’m happy we got to see them today. The rains are likely to wash away most of the rest of the blossoms. I am trying to imagine how beautiful the trees would be at full bloom....we are hopeful for more at Takayama which has not yet started blooming.

Its one of the reasons the season is SO beautiful... so many cherry trees! I really like "hanafubuki" too when they are coming to an end and billow off the trees. I just arrived home after 19 days in Japan on Monday. Here is what some of the trees in Uji & Kyoto the first weekend in April:

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We had snow in Takayama though - it was much colder than the forecast had predicted. I hope the flowers are in full swing by the time you arrive!
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Wednesday April 17

We had a later start today, 8:30 a.m. I think I am maybe finally adjusted to Japan time, or else it was the late night, as I did not wake up until almost 6:00, so no time to post an update before we headed out for the day. Our agenda for today is -

—Honpo-Ji temple tour & Taiko drumming
—Bento box cooking class
—bento box lunch - eat the boxes we made during cooking class
—Hozugawa River boat ride
—Dotonbori food district tour (optional)
—Hozenji Temple
—Dinner on own in Kyoto

This morning we have two very immersive experiences scheduled. First up is the Honpo-Ji temple tour & an hour of Taiko drumming. We had a short tour of the temple grounds as we walked to the room for the drumming. Grounds were beautiful and it was interesting to learn about Japanese Buddha cemeteries. We got to the room, removed our shoes, and saw 18 Taiko drums waiting for us.

This was the most fun activity!! Our teacher was an excellent drummer! He also had a sense of humor, needed as our adults-only group seemed to get a little child-like in playing with the drums and drumsticks. It was two per drum, and soon we were learning and playing the drums. This was definitely one of those AbD extras that is so nice. By the end of our session we were staying on beat...though I don’t think there is much chance any of us will be performing at the Japan pavilion in Epcot any time soon. We do have a new appreciation for what it takes to be a drummer at that level.

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After that, we headed to our bento box cooking class. This too was fun - the ladies there to help were great. A lot of work to put together a box lunch every day; our guide Tomomi shared it would take her mom about half a hour to put her box together for school lunch. We had a choice of lunch box options to make; once finished, we then ate our creations.

After lunch, we headed out of the city to the Hozugawa River boat ride. I did not realize Japan had this type of area. It was a mostly relaxing ride, with a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean for our very low-rapids. Our host boat guides were also funny - one of them has been a guide for 44 years, loves Disney, and his favorite character is Mickey. This was a beautiful, peaceful ride. We saw some lingering cherry blossom trees, and still a lot of evidence from the typhoon that this area a little over a year ago. We also saw lots of Japanese maple trees which will likely make for some gorgeous fall colors for the September and October departures.

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Our river ride was almost 2 hours, after which we had a short walk through town to our bus. We ended up in Arashiyama, which is where we had our rickshaw ride on day 1. It was fun to see our drivers out on the sidewalks; we have new friends in Japan as we chatted with them while waiting for for the light to change.

Back to the hotel, for a very quick break to drop stuff before dinner. Choices are to stay local in Kyoto or hop back on the bus for an approx hour drive to Osaka for the optional Dotonbori food district tour and visit to the Hozenji Temple. About half of our group chose the Osaka option. This was a lot of fun, I would encourage others to do this. Dotonbori is a street lit up with neon and lights. We walked to the center meeting place as our guides pointed out options for both sit down restaurants as well as street foods along with tips for the street food places. (If there is someone out front hustling for customers it is probably not the best choice, as the better places will have lines.). We had a couple of hours to wander and explore.

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There are fun signs above some of the places - DS said the Kobe beef ramen here was good.

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He also wanted to try the Takoyaki, which are fried octopus fritters - they do not taste like chicken! He said they were good; this from the kid who would not an adventurous eater when younger.

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We ended our food tour with Melonpan, a bread with a very slightly sweet melon flavor; we opted to add the,vanilla ice cream. It is very tasty. Many of those in our group had this. I would suggest you not wait until too close to the meeting time to get this as the line kept getting longer. By the time we got to the window it was three times as long as when we got into the line. Also, for those Starbucks mug collectors, there is an Osaka Starbucks right at our meeting place to head back to the bus.

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We were so fortunate with weather this day - all week rain had been predicted, including today with chance of rain for afternoon and evening. We had nothing but a couple of drops on the boat ride. We had some showers while on the bus both to and from Osaka but our time in Osaka was dry with again only a couple of raindrops. Disney Magic was with us today in holding off the rain while we were outside!

Back to the hotel around 10:00, another long and fun day. We have an early departure tomorrow, 7:30 a.m.
 

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