This will be a bit long at the beginning as it has some extra details – feel free to skip the first few days if you care more about the logistics/non-heritage stuff we did. We did get the 21 day JR pass (math said we'd get a little extra value so we wanted to see how well it did with the new pricing) and it ended up being worth it, but it requires a LOT of travel, so I'd still probably not recommend it unless you're moving around a lot on Shinkansen.
My wife and I are both Yonsei – 4th Generation Japanese Americans – and have always wanted to dig further into our heritage in Japan, so the main focus of the Honeymoon to Japan was to visit the village locations that each of our great grandparents were born in, and if possible, find a grave or something. Unfortunately, we didn't get all of our Koseki in time for that, but we did get a big surprise with my paternal line (detailed below).
Note – Because we're 4th gen (from California) we don't have much Japanese speaking or as much information about our family history due to WW2, so most of our digging came through old documents and asking any surviving Nisei what we could!
Day 1 – July 31st/August 1st – Arrival and Home Base Hotel
Depart SFO to HND on JAL 1.
Arrive at HND in the early afternoon, picked up a 21 day JR pass and headed to our hotel in Sumida.
Checked in to the hotel in Sumida- this would be our "Home" in Tokyo and where we would store our big luggage when it was not in use. The check out date was August 23rd.
Got Dinner at our favorite Udon shop in Tokyo (Taniya) and then passed out at the hotel.
Day 2 – August 2nd – Treats, Temples, Tokyo Dome
Explored a confectionary shop in Setagaya my wife had found online, visited a few parks and shrines/temples in the area and then headed to Tokyo Dome City.
At Tokyo Dome, we visited the Baseball hall of fame, got dinner, and then watched the Giants vs Swallows.
After game finished, went back to Sumida, picked up some snacks at 7/11 and packed our carry on bags for the trip to Kochi Prefecture.
Day 3 – August 3rd – Arrive in Kochi and Meet Locals/Hidaka Village
Kochi is where my paternal line is from, and thus my family name and family crest (which we did not know). When doing my ancestry research, I found that the original village was no longer around, as it merged with 2 others some time in the 1950s due to shrinking population. Luckily for me – the newly merged village had a small Tourism Board, and when I reached out using bad google translate, the person running it happened to know English, and said they would be more than happy to help me find out where my family lived, and if they could, find the gravestone of my ancestors!
We woke up early Tokyo so we could make sure we were packed and ready for an early afternoon flight from Haneda to Kochi Ryoma airport. Flew into Kochi, picked up a rental car and checked in to a hotel in Kochi City to use as home base while we were in Kochi (I could not find any hotels in the family village, but was told later they have some, but they don't have an online presence, so next time I'll just use my contacts there!).
When we arrived, I messaged the tourism board on Line to let them know we were in town and excited to meet them the next day for some exploring around the area. They invited me to a small "Izakaya" sort of gathering in the village that night, so my wife and I drove down, ate at a local restaurant using the tiny bits of Japanese we know, and met up with my contact at the tourism board.
It was a VERY small location that looks like it is rented out on occasion for small get togethers like this one, but I got to meet the person I had been communicating with, his friends, and his friends' kids. We chatted a bit (with the contact doing his best to help translate, but also with some of the locals using small bits of english and us using small bits of Japanese), ate, drank, and set off some fireworks and played with some bubbles. One of the people also gifted us a pair of Naruko hand clappers with our names in Katakana, the wedding date, and art/kanji to wish us a happy marriage. Incredibly fun and kind folks, and one of my favorite nights of the entire trip.
After hanging out with them for a few hours, we headed back to Kochi City with plans to meet back up for a caving expedition – The first full day in Kochi was to explore the area and learn about it.
Day 4 – August 4th – Learning about Hidaka and watching minor league baseball
We woke up early and met up at the Tourism Board office at 8am to explore a local cave (Saruda Cave), a flood abatement pond area with a LOT of Dragonflies (got to see the rare Oni Dragonfly alongside a bunch of others), and then took a tour on the Niyodo river for lunch. All of these were incredibly fun, and it was pretty cool to imagine that my Great Grandparents may have explored the cave for fun as a kid, or swam in the river to cool off on the warm summer days.
After our lunch on the river (they have a boat that explains some local history and a shop that sells bento to eat on the boat), we headed back into Kochi City for baseball. We got back to the hotel to change out of our caving clothes and into some lighter clothes AND our Fighting Dogs Jerseys to support the local team! Got to enjoy a Kochi win and then headed to the local Round 1 to play some DDR and a few other arcade games. Went to sleep early so we could be ready for a full day of family history on the 5th.
Day 5 – August 5th – Learning about my family and Hidaka
Woke up early again to meet up at the Tourism Board office at 8am. From there we caravaned in our cars to the Okina area of Hidaka where my ancestors apparently originally lived. They had a small meeting center there where I got to visit people currently living IN the Okina area, and they showed me the land records dating back to the 1920s or so. Unfortunately my family had apparently moved out of Okina before the 1920s, so while the Koseki had their address, the land records indicated that a separate family had bought and worked on the land afterwards. They still were able to track down the actual locations of the homes, however, so we hiked up the hills to see the 1st original dwelling that was on record, and I took a photo next to the well that would have been used by my family for water. The 2nd dwelling had been destroyed in a mudslide sometime in the past, so the building had been rebuilt, but we still hiked up there too and visited the area.
Around this time, the group showed me some photos of them going through the forest just outside town and up into the mountains searching for my family's old gravestones, and they told me that the gravestones USED to be right outside the 1st and 2nd dwellings, but had been moved around 10 years ago by the descendants of my great grandfather's brother, and they were excited to meet me and show me the current location of the graves later that afternoon/evening! Until then, however, we had a few more things to do in Hidaka.
Next up was the local Temple. The priest? (Not sure the title used) had helped with determining the correct temple/shrines my family would have utilized, so I was shown how to pray/pay respects to the souls of my family that had come before. He also provided me with 5 sticks of incense for us to burn at the actual gravesite (that was located in Kochi City).
After all of the heavier emotional stuff, we had a little break for Omu Raisu (the local specialty in Hidaka) and after learning that my hometown in California had a lot of Tomato farming too, they showed me to their main greenhouses and tomato/produce factory. It was pretty fun to see, as I've spent a LOT of time on my cousins' tomato farms back in the states when I was younger, and it was fun to see the differences (mainly their greenhouse use for their specialized Tomato stuff vs my US family just having giant tracts of land uncovered for the tomatoes. Also – different varieties of tomatoes too due to the specific needs of one vs the other.)
When we finished with all the produce related activities, including a stop to buy produce as tribute for the ancestors, we caravaned again to Kochi City (the exact location I saved on my phone, but I can't remember the area off the top of my head, and it's not too important for the internet to know) where we met up with an older gentleman and his two sons. They ran over to our car, gave us ice cream and ice cold bottles of tea and said "follow us" and jumped into their cars to show us the gravesite (which was maybe 1 km away from their house I think). I was able to "meet" my ancestors. There were a good chunk of graves, and I was shown the different stones for each relative, as well as the Family Crest. We paid our respects/prayed, and talked a bit at the gravesite, eventually moving to a local cafe to continue the conversation for a few more hours. Exchanged contact information and helped update each other's family trees! Once we were all done, and lots of bowing and gift exchanging later, my wife and I finally got back to our Kochi hotel and rested. That was the end of our Kochi stuff for the most part, and we would be leaving to Osaka (area) the next day.
Day 6 – August 6th – Udon and heading to Koshien
Our favorite food is Udon, and we had a mission to eat Udon on every island of Japan this trip for fun. We already had some at the first restaurant in Kochi, but we don't know how often we'll be able to visit Japan, so we wanted to go back to the Udon School in Takamatsu that we had visited before.
We drove from Kochi City to Takamatsu and attended the Udon making class again. Afterwards, we drove to Kinashi station, where on our 1st trip to take the Udon class we erroneously though we'd be able to get a taxi, resulting in a 6KM hike into Takamatsu. Took a photo because I thought it was funny, and then drove all the way back to Kochi City in time to return the car, get a snack in Kochi Airport, and fly out to Itami airport.
Once arriving at Itami, we headed to Koshien Stadium for our hotel (a few blocks away).
Day 7 – August 7th – Summer Tournament
Woke up early, headed to Koshien Stadium to watch Opening Ceremony and the 1st game.
After 1st game, they had everyone leave, so we grabbed lunch at the KFC across the way and went back for the next 3 games afterwards.
After the last game, we took the train to Shin-Osaka Station to stay in a hotel there for our next day's travels.
Day 8 – August 8th – Train to Hokkaido
Woke up early, caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo, took the train to Sumida, swapped out clothes/did laundry.
In the early afternoon, we boarded the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate station in Hokkaido where we would connect to the local train into Sapporo that evening. Grabbed eki ben for both of us on the trip!
Once arriving in Shin-Hakodate, transferred to the train to Sapporo (had to check with the gate attendant, as Navitime and Google were telling me a different platform number than it looked like the correct train would be, and was able to get the right train) and checked in around 10:30 (ate a fami chiki for energy by the end of the night).
Day 9 – August 9th – Noodles and Chocolate
Needing to get Udon on Hokkaido, we found a shop only a train station away.
Headed to Shiroi Koibito's factory for an afternoon of fun. They have a little history of chocolate walkthrough "museum" thing you get to learn at, as well as a view of the factory floor as chocolates/treats are being made. We also got high tea styled tea and treats in the shop upstairs and did a chocolate cookie treat thing workshop (you have to pay, not included with the entry). There's also a little animatronic show I think every hour in the garden, as well as a whole play area across the street. If you're in the area, it's definitely fun!
After Chocolate, we had a reservation at a Ramen shop, as we figured we had to try Miso Ramen if we were in Hokkaido! Grabbed dinner, explored one of the underground malls at the train station, and headed back to the hotel.
Day 10 – August 10th – Nippon Ham Fighters and Pokemon Store
As part of my love of baseball, I figured we'd have to watch the Fighters play in Es Con Field, so we hopped on the train again and took in the game. (The only PL game we saw, the rest of the NPB games were CL)
After the game, we went back to Sapporo to get dinner and realized there was a Pokemon Store in one of the malls, so I went in searching for something, anything Scyther related (my favorite Pokemon). After being disappointed that they have plushies and toys for like 75% or more it seemed of the original 151, but NOT my Scyther, I found a series of stickers with all 151 original (yay). So if you really like one of the original 151, and it's NOT one of the popular ones, check out a store – the stickers should have all 151. Mostly in order, except the popular ones are at the top (like Pikachu is probably top left instead of Bulbasaur, but Scyther was near the bottom, as he's number 123)
Got Tonkatsu after Pokemon, and went back to the hotel for a VERY early morning train to the airport.
Day 11 – August 11th – Back to Honshu, beginning of the rest of the ancestors
We booked the 1st flight to Haneda out of Sapporo/Chitose Airport, so we had to get up pretty early, but a mini nap on the plane helped us get back to our Sumida hotel.
Dropped off all our baseball merch/Pokemon stuff, grabbed our laundry detergent, got lunch at a local burger place nearby (McLean Burger) which was pretty darn tasty, and hopped on another Shinkansen to Hiroshima, where something like 90% of Japanese Americans (older families, not more recent immigrants) came from, and the rest of our ancestors except one came from.
Checked into our hotel near Zoom Zoom Stadium and grabbed some Gyoza at an Izakaya, returned to the hotel, and went to sleep.
Day 12 – August 12th – Wife's side Heritage (and a little of mine) and the beauty of Hiroshima Prefecture
Woke up early (again) so we could grab the rental car from Hiroshima Station.
Note – I am 1/2 Japanese (both parents are 1/2 also, so that's fun), but my wife is 100%. 7 of her 8 great grandparents were from Hiroshima Prefecture. 2 of my 4 were – the other 2 were in Kochi. Also, my wife's maternal grandfather actually spent time in Japan after being born in the US, and lived in Hiroshima for a while where his friend painted a waterfall from a local hike. Our big goal for this day was to find that waterfall and let my wife see this place that was so important to her grandfather.
I did a bunch of research ahead of time for all our ancestors, and was able to – at the very least – get the name of the village they were born in/came from, so equipped with a list of the villages and marks on my google maps for my best estimate at the location of something to indicate the village's existence, we headed out on a trip around Hiroshima Prefecture!
Our first stop was Shinanotaki Waterfalls, which we had tracked down to be the waterfall in my wife's grandfather's painting. The drive through the countryside was beautiful (Shikoku was too, so if you get a chance to drive, go for it!) and we arrived at the trailhead while it was still early. We went a few KM in to visit all 3 of the waterfalls and are pretty sure we were able to find the correct fall of the 3 matching against a photo of the painting. She was able to pay her respects to her grandfather there as well, and we spent a lot of time just enjoying the quiet nature. (Be careful if you're out there though, there are snakes once you get further in to the area where it's less traveled)
Next, we hit a series of villages/areas our family was from. In some, they had museums detailing the history of the area (some museums were a little bigger, with english translations, others were very small and had Japanese only), in others, the only proof of existence was a bus stop or train stop with the old town's name. After some digging around, we found that those with just a train or bus stop more or less just ran out of people/dissolved, and the stops were named, as they are in the location the villages used to be. So – we still got to visit the locations!
Next trip we are determined to find more, so if we are able to focus and learn Japanese better, we will try to speak with local temples and others in the area to try and narrow down where gravestones may be.
Thankfully, most of our ancestors lived in locations that were able to be one big loop around the prefecture, and we got to our last stop – my maternal side – an hour or so before sunset. I got a photo next to a government building that marked the village's location (it was now a suburb of Hiroshima City), and have noted it for a future trip when I can hopefully get a chance to find the grave.
After the long day of exploring, we got Pizza at the Pizza Vending Machine (which was just a fun thing we saw online and wanted to try), and got ready for an expected emotional day to come.
Day 13 – August 13th – Peace Museum, Costco, Sore Yuke Carp
Being Japanese American, we were very interested in visiting the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, so I booked an early slot (8am) due to the date being close to the anniversary AND it being Obon season. This was the right decision as it was packed inside.
If people can only do one thing in the city of Hiroshima, I think the Peace Museum should be one of the candidates. It is so full of emotion, education, and just incredible stories of survivors and the whole lead up to the Atomic Bombing(s). There isn't much I can write here to convey how powerful everything was visiting, but in a sense it reminded me of the Holocaust museum in its call for action and the devastation caused by the bomb. If you can go, I suggest going. They sometimes have survivors speak, as well as folks who are continuing on the stories of those who survived. I recommend listening to their talks as well. Don't forget to explore the whole Peace Park too, they have more free exhibits and just walking through the place that used to be a bustling district feels eerie.
After the museum, I knew we would need some time to digest everything we saw, so after realizing there was a Costco in Hiroshima, I asked my wife if she wanted to go just for the novelty of it.
Costco is as you would expect. It's a Costco. Feels pretty similar to a US one, but with some differences in products (although it's like in the US, where there are differences based on region). The food court was great. We got the (pork) hot dog, bulgogi bake, a smoothie, ice cream sundae, and the bucket of chicken fingers/potato wedge things. Ate – got some cheap water, bought some non-perishable Japanse groceries we'd usually get in the US, but in a bigger size because Costco, and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for the baseball game.
For those who don't know – the Hiroshima Toyo Carp are a BIG part of the city, and are very strongly connected with the city, it's struggles, reconstruction, and perseverance. .
Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium is where my wife fell in love with the Hiroshima Carp, and maybe fully committed to her enthusiasm of Nippon Professional Baseball. All the NPB games we had been to so far were wonderful experiences, but the joy and love of the sport and their team was just something special in Hiroshima. Even though they lost that game, my wife immediately asked me to try and find more NPB games to watch on our trip, so I bought tickets to a Swallows vs Carp game and Giants vs Carp game later on the trip.
If you can only watch 1 baseball team in Japan, I'd say the Carp are up there. Can't get their song out of my head either, or some of the player songs!
Day 14 – August 14th – Miyajima and Hofu for the final ancestor
This was our last full day with a car in Japan, and while I had originally planned on taking the train to my wife's final ancestor village in the city of Hofu, it wasn't too much of a drive, and the specific location wasn't really that close to a subway. Plus – driving would let us stop at anywhere fun we found along the way, such as Miyajima island (which DOES have a JR station if you want to visit it from Hiroshima but don't have a car).
We got to Miyajima early, which was nice, as we were able to visit the shrine with it being a little less crowded. There are 2 ferries to get there, one of which is operated by JR, so the JR pass WILL work on it (you still have to pay 100 yen I believe total on the way TO the island, but the way back is free) and saves you like 400 yen, so a good Dandy Ice Cream bar and a drink.
There was a local museum about the area near the shrine that we visited, as well as just walking through the streets. I think you could spend the better part of the day here if you wanted, there's an aquarium as well as a whole other park and area to visit up the mountain (you can take a tram or walk I believe). Unfortunately, we wanted to make sure we got to have fun in Hofu (Yamaguchi Prefecture), so we left after a lunchtime snack of yakitori.
The drive, once again, was very pretty on the way alongish the coastline and towards Yamaguchi prefecture. Getting into Hofu, our first stop was the village my wife's final ancestor had come from, and they had a community center we were able to take a photo in front of! Unfortunately they were closed at that time, but next trip, we'll try to go in and learn a little more! The village is just a suburb of Hofu now, and part of it is even just a big ol' Aeon mall, but it was really special to her, and a little funny when we realized the family that came from there didn't have as cool of a name as we thought they did. The name was just the Village name with da after it, which we are assuming would be ç”°. Either way, it was really cool to be able to hit all the villages!
After the community center, we saw that we were not too far from Hofu Tenmangu Shrine, so we drove there and visited. It's quite peaceful, and was very relaxing (and refreshing) to just view the city from the top of the never completed pagoda.
After paying respects to the kami/shrine, we left Hofu to get back to Hiroshima, do laundry, and sleep!
Day 15 – August 15th – Head to Yamaguchi on Hello Kitty Shinkansen by way of Hakata (you read that right)
Our original plan for this day was going to be taking the Hello Kitty Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Yamaguchi, drop off our luggage, and then take the train to Hofu to find the village my wife's last ancestors were from. We already visited the village though, so we figured we'd just take the Hello Kitty Shinkansen to Hakata to maximize Hello Kitty time and to maybe sneak an Udon in Kyushu so we could get every island down, and THEN back to Yamaguchi (well, the big 4)
We started the day by heading to a batting cage/arcade in Hiroshima, as we had the car until around 2pm (The Hello Kitty train was due to arrive at 2:08pm, so we were going to return it at 1ish and get to the platform). Batting cages are always fun for me, and this one had 2 pitching cages as well as the usual Japanese styled batting cages (they have players pitching to you and the release point is where the hand would be, so you can get timing down. They also have different pitches the machine can throw at you). After feeling accomplished as a former High School pitcher in making contact with some pitches thrown at around 140 kmph and getting a few good strikes thrown at a whopping 100+ units per hour (I'll pretend it was MPH), we played some Initial D, rhythm games, and headed to Hiroshima station to return the car and ride on the Hello Kitty train!
After the car return and lunch, we got to the platform in time to see the 2:08 train arrive. Us, alongside a bunch of other folks who did NOT check the JR train status pages that morning were excited as we recorded/watched a normal ol' Kodama show up. (Hello Kitty had maintenance issues that morning and had to be cancelled/replaced with a normal train)
I was more bummed than I should have been, but my wife was very supportive and convinced me to rebook a train for the following day to ride the Hello Kitty train if possible – more on that on the 16th.
We arrived in Hakata, stored our luggage using ECBO Cloak (which was pretty convenient) and got ourselves some Udon. After eating dinner, we explored a bit and visited some shrines/temples. Fun overall day, and we will have to visit Kyushu again!
Jumped back on the Shinkansen back to Yamaguchi to sleep and prepare for our Onsen day in Yamaguchi.
Day 16 – August 16th – Hello Kitty can't escape us, Onsen time
While on the Train to Hakata the day before, and because we had the JR pass so it was no additional cost to us, I booked a trip ON the Hello Kitty Shinkansen from Yamaguchi to Okayama and then back. It was silly, but it would also give us somewhere to store our luggage (on the train with us) between our Yamaguchi Hotel and our Onsen we were staying at in the Yuda Onsen area of Yamaguchi.
Hello Kitty was fun, it's just a normal train with 2 special cars at the front and Hello Kitty stickers/decorations on the doors between the other cars (and in a few other places), but it was still something different, and we got a photo with the cat herself! Unfortunately not much Kerropi stuff for my wife (her favorite Sanrio character), but we still had a good time.
Check in for the Hotel/Onsen/Ryokan was at 3pm, so even after our shinkansen fun time, we had time to burn, so we dropped our luggage off at the Ryokan and explored the area. Found a nice little park "Inoue Park" and enjoyed some time there before fully being lazy and enjoying the hot springs and our hotel/room (we got one of the fancier rooms that also had a private hot spring bath for us).
Ate yakuniku for dinner down the street, and returned to the hotel to be lazy again.
Day 17 – August 17th – Getting to Nagoya, being thankful to the ancestors and luck
Note – If you were in Japan during August or watched the news/weather, you may have seen that there was an Earthquake near the beginning of the month as well as a series of storms/typhoons. We were SUPER lucky the whole trip. The earthquake hit southern Japan when we were in Hokkaido, the first typhoon (that I remember at least) was avoided by us as we went from Hokkaido to Tokyo, and the storms flooding Tokyo hit while we were in Yamaguchi/Nagoya. We even avoided a massive rainstorm later on the trip by seconds and got out of Tokyo back home to the US right before the next typhoon hit. Not sure if we're lucky or what, but I'll give thanks to my ancestors as well for keeping us safe 🙂
My wife had a friend she had tutored in school years ago (helping her with English when she was in the US for a few years) that lived in Nagoya, so we visited her for a day and brought her some requested items – Ranch Dressing, Takis, and Chili candies. We also hung out and did Karaoke, that was the 17th and 18th, so there wasn't much else in Nagoya THIS time around, but we'll be back for sure.
Day 18 – August 18th – Leaving Nagoya and more Baseball
After leaving Nagoya we went back to our Sumida hotel and swapped out our luggage/clothes again/did more laundry. We had lunch on the train, so we just made our way to Meiji Jingu Stadium to watch the Carp take on the Swallows. We sat in the Carp cheering section for this game so my wife could join in on the cheers while I kept score.
Not much else besides how much I love (NPB CL) baseball 🙂
Day 19 – August 19th – Day off and Kimono Shopping
Now that we were back in Tokyo at our main hotel, we wanted to grab some Kimono. With my family crest now known, I also was hoping I'd be able to find something with it, but realistically just wanted to get us some new Kimono now that we had lost so much weight and also just as something to wear in warmer months (our Kimono we have are for colder weather).
My wife was able to get a really nice kimono and yukata (with the shorter sleeves now that she's married 😛 ) and I was able to find a lighter one for myself as well. While looking at Kimono we also saw a Haori with my family's crest, so I grabbed that as well!
We got back to our hotel , ate dinner and got to sleep early because the next 2 days were going to be on Mt. Fuji!
Day 20 – August 20th – Mt. Fuji and the Subashiri trail
Because I totally botched things and wrote the wrong day down to reserve mountain huts, I ended up booking a guided hike (in english) up Mt. Fuji with the Fuji Mountain Guides, as it came with a hut, but also was nice to have guides help us out/get timing figured out to watch the sunrise at the top, and a bunch of other small things along the way that were useful.
We met up with the guides in Tokyo, took a private small bus to the Subashiri 5th station, and began the hike.
It's pretty steep, but doable if you are in okay shape. Just take your time and be careful. We did opt into buying a non-walking stick to get branded/stamped at stations we stopped at along the way.
Hike took a while, but we had beautifully clear weather on the way up and we were able to get some Udon along the way too, so we got 4 island and Mt. Fuji for our Udon pilgrimage. As we neared the 8th station (the hotel we were staying at – Fujisan Hotel) the weather started to get a lot colder and much more overcast. I stepped into the hotel dry, and as my wife was stepping in, the heavens opened up and it started to POUR. Her backpack (with a cover) got hit with water, but she was 1 second or so quick enough getting in that she didn't get hit. (yay for good luck!). Ate dinner at the hotel, and then an early sleep as the plan was to visit the summit just before the sun rose.
Day 21 – August 21st – Sunrise on Fuji and dying on the way down
I didn't get to sleep immediately because I was too excited about everything and was playing on my phone. That was a poor decision, just as trying to drink less water so I'd have to pee less (toilets cost per use on Mt. Fuji) so I woke up with a pretty bad headache from lack of sleep, dehydration, and probably a little bit of altitude sickness.
I powered through, and with the assistance and encouragement of my wife (she's pretty awesome btw), we made it to the top before the sunrise came. Once I was up there, had a bunch of water in me, and I think just the beauty of it all, I was feeling a lot better headache/nausea wise and we were able to enjoy some time visiting the shrine, getting the summit stamps, and enjoying the view. (She brought her film camera on the trip, so she was having a blast taking photos as well).
The way down the Subashiri trail (not sure if the others are like this too) was rough. It's "fast", but it's pretty steep and a LOT of really loose sand. If you go slow, you won't fall much, if at all, but it's really tough on the knees! By the time we got to the bottom it felt weird walking on levelish ground, and our legs were super sore. Thankfully we were able to hop on the bus and get dropped off in Gotemba where we took a series of trains to get to Hakone and the hotel my wife's dad's cousin gifted us a stay in as a wedding gift (Hyatt Regency Hakone).
With dead legs, we cleaned ourselves, rested, ate dinner at the sushi restaurant in the hotel, and I just lay on the couch while my wife soaked in the hot spring downstairs. We ended up splurging and getting room service, and the cajun fries were surprisingly delicious!
Day 22 – August 22nd – The final FULL day of Japan, and more Baseball!
Still sore from Mt. Fuji, and with our JR pass having just expired, we took the hotel shuttle to Odawara and booked the Romancecar from there to Shinjuku. From there we were able to take local trains back to our hotel in Sumida and start reorganizing and packing everything up. We also did a full load of all our laundry so we'd have less to do when we returned home.
For our final big event, we watched the Hiroshima Toyo Carp take on the Yomiuri Giants. For baseball fans, it was pretty exciting, a 1 run game going into the top of the 9th where the Carp tied it against the starter for the Giants who had been throwing a wonderful game. We sat in the Giants' cheering section this game, so my wife had to hide her Carp love and wear a Giants hat this time around (as Northern California folks, our families rooted for the SF Giants, so we have by default been rooting for the Tokyo Giants too, in addition to the Carp).
After the carp pulled out the win in Extra Innings, we stayed until the stadium was closing to wait out the subway rush, but also to just enjoy the last few moments of baseball.
Finally, we returned to Sumida for one last night and packed our last few merchandise items away.
Day 23 – August 23rd – One last Udon and leaving Japan
We had a blast this trip. I can't wait to come again and visit the relatives again, maybe find more once we can speak better in the other cities too! But – before we left, we wanted to get our favorite Udon spot again, so we went to Taniya once more (There's a reason we stayed in Sumida, it's close to Taniya!) and ate some Udon while watching the Koshien Summer Tournament's final game, which was also a great one to see.
When finished, we headed to the hotel to collect our luggage they were holding, and hopped on the local train to Narita airport and headed back home.
Things of note –
JR pass was worth it to us by a non-trivial amount, but a large part of that extra buffer is the re-booked Hello Kitty Shinkansen round trip. If you aren't planning on taking as many/as long of a Shinkansen route as we did, it is probably not worth it, but please still check one of the many calculators online. I personally like the Navitime one for estimating the cost, but it seemed to be stuck on the 7 day pass when trying to tell you your value, so just take the number you'll spend on rides from that and compare it against the JR pass webpage (the .net one is the one done BY JR I believe)
If you're going during Obon or any big festivals, try booking your trains a few days in advance at least, because it seemed pretty busy on most of ours (I booked mine almost entirely the first day of the trip once I got the pass, and I had zero issues finding us spots, but it was pretty close on some trains). Also, please book the oversized baggage seats if you're gonna have oversized baggage. There were a lot of people who didn't, and it caused some discomfort/annoyance on the fuller trains.
I love the heat, my wife enjoys/tolerates the heat. It was definitely hot in August. I know I'm weird that I enjoyed the heat and humidity. Folks told us that this was hotter than usual, but things have been hotter than usual recently in Japan, so if you are sensitive to the heat and you CAN avoid August, I'd suggest it. If you like the heat, or if you don't have a choice, don't be too deterred. It's hot, but if you have an umbrella to shade vs the sun, and you plan trips into Convenience Stores when doing long walks or malls, or places with A/C, it will help. Also, just hydrate a lot and bring sunscreen 🙂
Japan is super busy with tourists – but it seems to be only in the "popular" spots. Our trip took us outside of the hotspots, so we didn't really see any overcrowding for almost the entire trip (outside of subways right after baseball games). So – I'd say if things are crowded in Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto, go visit the countryside! There's so much beauty out there, and you may find something cool! Even within Tokyo, a lot of the places we went weren't very full of tourists, and we were some of the only foreigners there.
We converted currency at Haneda and got a reasonably good rate. Same with Hakata Station's bank conversion machine. We were able to use Credit Card for most things in cities, but just ask/check ahead of time. The smaller towns needed cash a lot more.
For internet/phone we did a combination of sim cards and a pocket wifi. SIM card worked the whole time quite well, and so did the pocket wifi, but the pocket wifi sometimes needed to be restarted to reconnect after it had lost signal for a while (Shinkansen, or tunnel, or just on our hikes outside of cell service). The pocket wifi also had a pretty good battery and would last essentially a whole day (If you are heading out early and plan to stay out late, I'd bring a power bank to give it an extra 2 or so hours)
Sorry for the enormous post, but I hope this can be of help to someone, and I hope I didn't leave out anything.
by Sucitraf