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Tokyo youkoso!
Day 1 · Narita Airport, Chiba
Tokyo youkoso minna-san! Welcome to Tokyo everyone! After nearly 14 hours in the air, watching the sun barely set and rise again the next…
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Yumiko’s Apartment
Day 1 · Harajuku, Tokyo
Manners are underrated; real estate is overrated. We found Yumiko’s apartment on airbnb while looking for something relatively…
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Electric Shinjuku
Day 1 · Shinjuku, Tokyo
After finding and checking-in at our first home base in Japan, we were pretty tired from all the traveling and sweaty from the Japanese…
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Busy Shibuya
Day 2 · Shibuya, Tokyo
After a well deserved night of sleep we decided to spend the day in Shibuya, but not before exploring beautiful Harajuku further. The…
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Street market
Day 3 · Ueno, Tokyo
Waking up early with the Japanese sun leads to many nice and surprising trips. We could start using our JR passes today, so we decided to…
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Electric city
Day 3 · Akihabara, Toyko
After visiting Ueno in the morning, we hopped on the train again to visit the electric city, Akihabara, known for its anime, manga and game…
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Tsukiji market
Day 4 · Tsukiji, Tokyo
When we arranged for a guided visit to the Tsukiji market we had in mind that we were going to visit the biggest fish market in the world,…
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Spiritual Kamakura
Day 4 · Kamakura, Kanagawa
After hectic Tsukiji we decided Kamakura would be a good half-day trip from Tokyo, and it couldn't have been more soothing. Mario is…
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An evening in Yokohama
Day 4 · Yokohama, Kanagawa
Before heading home on the 4th day, we stopped by Minato Mirai 21, a large modern area in Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan. One…
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Be one with Nikko
Day 5 · Nikko, Tochigi
After a hefty, Hawaiian-themed breakfast, we hopped on the Shinkansen to visit some of the UNESCO World Heritage temples and shrines of…
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Piss Alley
Day 5 · Omoide Yokocho, Tokyo
When we got to Tokyo after visiting Nikko we were starving, and what's the best place to have a late dinner if not Shinjuku? We got out of…
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High up in Roppongi
Day 6 · Roppongi, Tokyo
Roppongi is a big shopping district and from Roppongi Hills, a 50 something story high building, you can see Tokyo from above, and it's…
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Matsuri in Asakusa
Day 6 · Asakusa, Tokyo
On the last Saturday of July the yukatas got out of the closets and headed to a summer festival in Asakusa. Without knowing it, we did the…
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Fun at DisneySea
Day 7 · DisneySea, Tokyo
The plan was simple: take the train to Odaiba and spend the day there, taking in the Tokyo Bay area sights. But Disney Tokyo was on the…
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See you later, Tokyo
Day 8 · Shibuya, Tokyo
This was our last day in Tokyo before going to Kyoto, and it couldn't have been better. We decided to keep it simple and walk from…
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Yokoso Kyoto!
Day 9 · Kyoto, Japan
It was time to get on the train and head to Kyoto for a break from hectic Tokyo. The Shinkansen is definitely the way to travel — it's…
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9h sleep
Day 9 · Kyoto, Japan
The concept is simple: 9 hours. One hour to check-in and shower, seven hours to sleep in your pod, and an additional hour to get ready in…
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Nijo and its gardens
Day 10 · Nijo Castle, Kyoto
On the first full day in Kyoto we dragged ourselves through the streets, under the scorching sun, with the goal of visiting the Imperial…
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Memories in Maruyama
Day 10 · Maruyama Park, Kyoto
Despite an amazing sightseeing walk, the morning had been rough. Relaxation was in order and Maruyama park was our place of choice.…
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Eastern Kyoto
Day 11 · Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto
By the third day we knew Kyoto is a big city. The rhythm is very different from Tokyo but things are more spread out and you have to walk a…
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Magical Kiyomizu-dera
Day 11 · Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
A few hours later, walking from Ginkaku-ji, we got to Kiyomizu-dera, a temple in the middle of the mountains that leaves everyone in…
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Bamboo & Monkeys
Day 12 · Arashiyama, Kyoto
By the third day in Kyoto we knew already that everything was pretty spread apart, so we needed to rent bikes to see what we wanted to…
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Precious Kinkaku-ji
Day 12 · Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto
After seeing the macaques we pedalled for 40 minutes until we reached the Kinkaku-ji, a golden Japanese temple that is quite the…
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Visiting Osaka
Day 13 · Osaka, Japan
The plan was to go to Osaka and spend the day there, but we were completely defeated by the sun and heat. We did, however, managed to visit…
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Fushimi Inari Shrine
Day 13 · Inari, Kyoto
Guarded by foxes, the messengers of Inari, we hiked the path of the thousand red torii, exploring Mount Inari and its inner shrines,…
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Tanabata Festival
Day 13 · Kamogawa Bank, Kyoto
The Milky Way separated the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, but they are allowed to meet once every year, which is of course the perfect…
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Shiraume ryokan
Day 14 · Ryokan Shiraume, Kyoto
The art of welcoming guests is very present in the Japanese culture. Whether you are just a confused tourist at the station, or you need…
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Kaiseki Dinner
Day 14 · Ryokan Shiraume, Kyoto
After the amazing bath experience, we felt refreshed and new, so we got into our yukatas and headed to the dining room for our twelve…
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Rise and shine
Day 15 · Ryokan Shiraume, Kyoto
After a well-rested night we were ready for a second round of the gorgeous and delicious Japanese traditional cuisine. And then Shiraume…
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Peace at Shoren-in
Day 15 · Shoren-in, Kyoto
The original plan for the afternoon after coming back from the ryokan was to take the train to Nara, but Tomoko-san and Satoko-san gave us…
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Deer Nara
Day 16 · Nara, Japan
The night before, we had talked about day 16 being our last in Kyoto and, although something was missing, we couldn't put our finger on it.…
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Hi again, Tokyo
Day 17 · Akihabara, Toyko
The last days of our trip were reserved to fully enjoy Tokyo without any type of pressure and to get some shopping done. We headed to…
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Newfangled Odaiba
Day 17 · Odaiba, Tokyo
After the previous failed attempt to visit Odaiba, the afternoon was dedicated to wander around the huge artificial island in Tokyo Bay,…
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Tsukiji lush
Day 18 · Tsukiji Market, Tokyo
This was our last full day in Tokyo and the plan was simple: head to Tsukiji market early in the morning, for gift shopping, head to the…
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The last stroll
Day 18 · Chiyoda, Tokyo
We got our market stroll and shopping done before the morning was half gone, so walked to the Imperial Palace gardens to try to see the…
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Mata ne, Nippon
Day 19 · Narita, Tokyo
Our last day in Japan would have been uneventful, if not for the last minute hassle. We nearly missed our flight, which wouldn't be so…