The place I would most like to revisit would have to be the place we visited on our latest holiday. We definitely did not have enough time there and were only able to touch on the basics things in a couple of different areas.
Starting with Tokyo the capital of Japan is big and busy. No where busier than Shibuya Crossing. Five streets merging together right in the front of a major train station. Just all the fashion and people watching was fascinating.
I had never heard of Takeshita Street but it was even more full on than Shibuya Crossing. A closed off street mall full the latest trendy shopping and people everywhere. Everyone was taking photos of the live screen feed just under the Welcome to Winter Sign, Including me LOL.
So other than the amazing busy Tokyo city streets. There was plenty of other things to see. We were lucky enough to be there on Japan's National Foundation Public Holiday which is the day that Japan was formed under the first emperor as one country. The Meiji Jimgu Shinto shrine was packed out with people dressed up and carrying mini shrines to and from the main shrine. It was great to witness some traditional customs.
The Imperial Palace Eastern gardens was very interesting too. It is the only part of the Imperial palace that tourist can enter freely. A great walk in a lovely garden with lot of historic buildings and walls all around the place. Next time we get to visit, I would like to run the perimeter of the Imperial Palace lots of people were testing themselves on the seven odd kilometres around the outside, Probably one of the better places to run in Tokyo as you would not have to cross any of the busy roads.
Speaking of running we just loved that Japan has parkrun and a lot of them. This one was a Tokyo Bay we are in the middle just to the right of the guy with the yellow sign. It was also @consciouscat 's 250th parkrun event, that's a lot of parkruns and it was great to Celebrate it at a parkrun in a different country. It was cold, windy but the course was fast, flat and on a concrete path just the way I like them. Tokyo Bay is where we chose to stay while in Tokyo as it was also the home of Tokyo Disneyland and had good transport options to the airport and into town.
Other than Tokyo we visited Sapporo which is the major city of the northern Island of Hokkaido. It was even colder and had snow and ice piled up everywhere even at the airport.
The city centre of Sapporo was a busy, amazing bright and a colourful place, luckily there were a lot of warm shops and underground arcades as it was tough for us to stay warm as tourists from Australia in the freezing minus 13 degrees Celsius temperature.
We had timed our the trip and were braving the cold so we could visit and see the annual ice and snow festival. A first for us and well worth the effort. This street display was in the Susukino section of the festival. There were 3 separate area, this was probably my favourite as the sculptures were smaller and more detailed. They closed the streets to traffic at night but during the day cars were driving up and down with the sculptures in the middle.
Odori park was another of the snow festival areas and the biggest one with lots of bigger sculptures ranging from Pokémon to historic buildings. Lots of the sculptures had sponsorship signs as I suppose it all had to be paid for some how. We were able to just walk around for free.
Another of our reasons for visiting Japan in Winter was to ski and that did not disappoint either. Japow they call it as Japanese power snow is so dry and fluffy which makes skiing and turning a delight. So much better than the wet heavy or sheet ice snow cover we get back home in the Australian ski fields. I have skied and snow boarded in a few places around the world. New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland. It is hard to make a call on which is the best but Mount Isola in the Rusutu Resort had a lot going for it. Great snow conditions probably the best I have experienced. The Mountain is not that high above sea level only 994 metres but as it is so cold and very close to the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan which seems to help make for great dry, light and fluffy snow. The other thing I like about skiing up north on the Island of Hokkaido was there was next to no lift lines queues or crowds we could pretty much just ski straight on and back up to the top quickly and easily.
Another nice place we got to visit during our short stay was Miyazaki in the south. This was the Devils washboards an unusual rock formation which surrounded a small island. It also has a popular beach in summer
Miyazaki had Obi castle as well. I never knew Japan had castles like Europe, or at least similar, they where just filled with Samurai warriors instead of Knights. This entrance was a replica and there was only a few stones left in original positions. Sign and information boards stated most of the castle was just re purposed over the years and there is now a functioning primary school within its grounds.
I thought this was some special sort of place but after taking the photo I worked out it was just somebody's front yard. I really need to do a bit of serious work at my own place back home to get to this sort of standard.
Miyazak also had a parkrun and we were there on the first day of Spring. That's me at the back in the centre sporting the Hive singlet. I like to get it as out and about as possible.
There are lots of temples and shrines to visit in Japan. All have history and legends to learn.
This one is called the Udo Shrine and was in side a cave in some cliffs above some wild coast line.
The food in Japan was very interesting too. I was not always sure what I was eating but definitely a great experience.
We always felt safe and welcomed every where we went in Japan but every place has things you need to know about. I don't think it happens often but where are lots of Tsunami warning signs along the coast line and it seems help to know your height above sea level if you ever got a warning.
This concludes my entry into TravelFeeds contest, probably to longest post I have ever written. I don't expect to be amongst any of the winners but it was fun to make a post and relive our trip to Japan. Hopefully some time soon we can revisit this wonderful place for some more skiing, parkruns, beaches, hikes in places we did not get to see on this trip.
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