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It's gorgeous. It's like exactly what you'd imagine. We're about to go on a 2-week journey around Japan. [screaming] It's my second time in the country, but it's Jamie's first, so our itinerary will include some of the classic must-see sites. Ow, you just bit me. We'll also be leaving the cities behind, traveling to smaller villages in the countryside, and staying at some gorgeous ryokans. It's just what I wanted. This is We're also going to be hiking some of the Nakasendo Trail. It's like we're walking giant sand garden. In a giant sand garden. And of course, no trip would be complete without indulging in Japan's delicious food. That was phenomenal.
And given Japan's incredible transport network, we're hoping to be able to see as much of Japan as possible in these 2 weeks. This series is sponsored by Wise, the international account for sending, spending, and converting money like a local. So, when we started planning out the itinerary for this trip, Jamie made a list of the things that she wanted to experience in Japan, and then I made some suggestions of things I thought she should see on her first trip there, and then I threw in a few things that I wanted to experience on my second trip there. Very nice to actually finally be here.
So, we merged all of these ideas together, and even though I'm going back to some of the places I went to on my last trip, the majority of the activities we're doing aren't repeats from my last trip, which means most of the things we'll be experiencing will be brand new for both of us. But, we did get to see them running across the balcony with this huge and the flames are way bigger than I thought they would be. In terms of accommodation, we both wanted at least one really good night in an amazing ryokan. We're also staying in a Buddhist temple one night and a couple of other nice places, but in order to afford those nice places, the rest of the time we're just staying in like private rooms at hostels and things like that. This is our little
room for the next two nights. We're going to be traveling around on both trains and buses, and then in the second half of the trip, we're going to hire out a car for 3 days to travel around the Wakayama prefecture because the transport links there aren't as good, and we can reach those harder to get to places. First time driving in Japan, so I'm not going to I'm going to now stop talking to camera and focus on the road. And the last thing to know is we're going to be traveling in the first 2 weeks of March, and the cherry blossom season doesn't start till the end of March, so we'll be missing that along with the high prices and big crowds that go with it. But, you never know, we might get lucky with some early blooms here and there. Well, that
was easy. But, just before we get started, I want to talk to you about this series sponsor, and this one's an easy sell cuz it's a product I've actually been using for a long time, which is Wise, the smartest account for your money at home and abroad. So, if you follow my channel, you'll know that I emigrated from the UK to Canada a couple of years ago, and one of the things I of course needed to do was move my money from my UK bank account to my Canadian bank account. And I was chatting to a friend of mine who's from the US but lives in the UK, and she said, "Oh, just use Wise for that cuz it's super quick and simple, and the fees are way less than other services or going through your local bank." If only she had an
affiliate link, she could have made some money off me, but what are you going to do? But yeah, getting set up was so simple. I signed up for free, synced my Wise account with my UK bank account, and then when sending money to my Canadian account, I can type in either how much I want to send or how much I want to receive, which means I can see the conversion rates that I'll get straight away. Then once I'd hit send, I can track the transfer and the money was in my Canadian account within a few hours. It was super easy and since then I've been using Wise when I'm traveling for loads of different things like paying for things at an Airbnb like activities or transferring money between travel friends who are from different countries. So I'm recommending
it all the time. So you can use the link right here that's also in the description. And by the way, my middle name is Stephen and they auto generate your free link and use your middle name. So that's why that's there. But if you use that link, you can sign up to Wise and get your first Wise transfer fee free for up to 500 pounds. And now back to our main feature for the first of our two episodes of our two weeks in Japan. In this first half of the trip, we'll be starting in Tokyo and finishing in Kyoto. But we'll also be checking out the historic town of Takayama and Shirakawa-go Village as well as doing a section of the Nakasendo Trail. So after flying all the way over from Canada, we touched down in Tokyo and the
train from Narita Airport takes just over an hour to get into the city. And we're staying in Shinjuku at a place called Hotel Set. So we touched down in Tokyo last night. Didn't film any of the arrival cuz after like 30 hours of being awake, our brains were just absolutely fried. Like Lots of good plans, very little execution. Yeah. Yeah, we tried to get some food and my brain was so fried that I kept saying gracias instead of arigato. Like that genuinely happened three times.
We've only got one day in Tokyo, which you might be like, "Oh, how can you see Tokyo in one day?" You can't, but we're just going to see what we can in one day cuz we wanted to prioritize our two weeks in other destinations in Japan. So first up today, we're going We're going over to Tsukiji Fish Market which takes about half an hour to get to from Shinjuku. Just gone 8:00, so we're here before it's supposed to get really busy. So, hopefully it shouldn't be too crowded. This place has changed over the years.
The actual fish market got moved. This place is now just the outer market selling the foods. I really want some really good tuna. Yeah. Tuna for breakfast? Tuna for breakfast, tuna for lunch, tuna for dinner, tuna for midnight snack. Are you ready? Go for it. So, there's three different types of tuna here. A lean one, a medium one, and a fatty one. The fatty one is the most expensive. It's otoro. I actually think I'm a fan of the medium more than any others. The very fatty one is very oily. Right. Okay. You can really like feel it.
I think the most impressive thing is I didn't drop any of them. You did not. You win. We are going to go to Kobe later in the trip, but just showing a picture of Kobe beef and a nice cold beer is the way to my heart. Speaking of ways to your heart, soup dumplings. This is uh shrimp xiaolongbao, which is not Japanese, but Why not? But I love them, and so therefore, I will get Oh, I saw it. Little dessert for our breakfast, little croissant. Yes. You kind of just have to go for it. Made even more complicated by the fact that we're sharing, but it's really tasty all together.
Good. Next up, we jumped back on the metro to make our way over to Shibuya. So, we've come to We're in now, and we're going to head up to Shibuya Sky for a great view of the whole city. Wow. Oh, there's Mount Fuji. Look. That's so great. Wow. Mount Fuji, day one. Boom. Oh, that takes the pressure off, doesn't it? This is really cool though. It's not just like a viewpoint. We move around. I like that you're outside as well. Yeah. Rather than just being inside looking through a window.
The city of Tokyo is about 2.2 thousand square kilometers in size with a population of around 14 million, whilst the greater Tokyo area is over 13,000 square kilometers with over 37 million residents, making it the largest urban region on the planet. I was so worried that we wouldn't get to see Mount Fuji cuz it's always like, oh, is it going to rain? But now like, fully sunny. Done. If we see it again, amazing. If we don't, we did it. So, the last time I was in Tokyo, I went up the Metropolitan building by Shinjuku, which is free to go up. So, I was like, oh, what will this be like, you know, having to pay? But actually, I'd say it's worth it. It's a really cool setup.
I'm still such a rule follower. Like, I still only want to cross at the crossy walk. Where are the crosswalks? The idea for today was basically like, let's do like just a food and booze restaurant crawl. We're wandering on the street, we see some tents. We're like, oh, cool. What's that? It's a wine tasting festival. There's wines from 25 different wineries from all around Japan. So, like a hundred different wines here to taste. This is the closest thing I've ever experienced to destiny, I think. So, let's let's do it. Hey, hey, hey, hey. So we're just enjoying our drink and then this lady started chatting to us and she owns a wine shop in Tokyo. So we
asked her which one would you recommend and she took us to the wine and it was the best one so fair play. absolutely the best one. Shout out to Asuka Wine Market Party We had a wander around for a bit more and then made our way back to Shinjuku to fill up on some ramen. And then we had a little rest before heading out for the evening. Well, it is about 6:30 in the evening but it's about 3:00 in the morning in Winnipeg so jet lag's taking its toll. We first went to check out Omoide Yokocho which translates to Memory Lane and is an old drinking alleyway tucked
away near Shinjuku Station. When I came here 8 years ago it was dead but I think we came too early in the day and now it's rammed. Mostly tourists but it's so cool. I love these tiny little izakayas where you have to squeeze in. I got to go. All right, izakaya number two. They have a variety of dishes. You get different bits of pork including the pork vagina. So yeah. Where's the dick? Where's the equality people? I just want the internet to know that I did try to order the pork vagina but it was sold out. You did. They've They've sold too many vaginas in this izakaya today. So I'm sorry. I tried. And I'm disappointed I can't make that you have vagina home joke.
After we ate some regular bits of pork, we then made our way over to the very popular area of Golden Gai. It's our last night in Golden Gai. We had a lovely but quite subdued time there just because jet lag was kicking in. And it's funny, last time I traveled to Japan, I east to get here. So, during the day I was very tired. Nighttime you just started waking up. Whereas this time we traveled west to get here. So, we were very awake during the day, but at nighttime it's just So, by the time we got to Golden Gai, I was just like deliriously tired. So, I wasn't in the mood for filming much of anything. But we still had a lovely time. But yeah, that's the end of our short but sweet time in Tokyo cuz we're now heading on to Takayama.
Uh got the one night there and it's going to be Jamie's first experience traveling on a bullet train today. I'm going to get some breakfast. We hadn't booked tickets in advance. We haven't got a JR pass for this trip cuz it didn't work out value-wise for what we're doing. But getting the tickets here was very easy. Like the guy at the ticket office spoke perfect English. All sorted. Smooth sailing so far. We boarded the Shinkansen for the first leg of our journey and settled into our lovely spacious seats.
We're heading to the historic city of Takayama where we're going to be spending one night. And so, it's 2 hours on the Shinkansen to Nagoya and then another 2 hours on the Hida line up to Takayama. The train from Tokyo to Nagoya was full of Japanese business people. The train up to Takayama is full of Westerners. It's like there's a tall group up there and stuff. We made it to Takayama and we're actually going to explore the town tomorrow because tonight we're staying at a beautiful Ryokan in the countryside just outside the city. We're going to get picked up from the station in about
half an hour. But for now, I'm just I'm flagging somewhere so I've got some energy in to try perk me up from good old FamilyMart. Introducing Jamie to the wonders of FamilyMart chicken when you just need a quick snack. It's very hot. That was good. Good in it. 195 yen. It's like buck 50. Yeah, it's great. Canadian? Love the shuttle service. Love it.
So, we're just on our way. It's about a 20-minute drive to our Ryokan, Wanosato, which is a 160-year-old building tucked away in the woods next to the river. Right by the river. Oh. This looks amazing. This does look so zen already. Yeah. Huh. Konnichiwa. This just looks amazing. After we'd had our welcome tea, we were shown to our room for the night. Oh, wow. So beautiful. Wow. And the living room.
Oh, I love this. Oh, wow. I don't ever want to leave. The records state that Jamie found this place. This is like our treat for the trip. Like one of the treats. Yes, this place is not budget by any means, but it's traditional, it's in the mountains. It's conveniently located for what we want to do afterwards, and it's going to be really special. Now changed into our robes. I don't know how well we've put them on, but This is just what I wanted.
Yeah, exactly. This is After we'd settled into our room, we went to check out the onsen. Basically the onsen, it's like a public onsen for other guests at certain times, but then in the evening you can book a slot. So, we've booked a slot for the evening, but for now we're going to go use it before anyone else gets in. This is absolutely perfect. Right, I've got to strip off and wash up, then get in.
I'll film this very carefully. I find with an onsen compared to like a hot tub, the water just feels so soft on the skin. Guess that's all the minerals. Anyway, I'm going to turn this off now and enjoy. After enjoying the onsen, we made our way down to the main area where they had some free hot sake. This is the kind of place you dream of staying in when you come to Japan. In fact, if you've never been to Japan, you might think that every place is like this.
This is so special. It's so peaceful and keep using the word zen. And the word zen gets overused, but this is zen. So, the meal tonight is a 10-course meal. [clears throat] 10. They have a seasonal menu for each month. Presentation was phenomenal. And it was nice cuz like lots of things I wouldn't necessarily order, but it's nice just trying out different things and some are preferred to others. And then just when they brought the beef out with the little hot plate, I was like, "Ah, you got me. You know the way to my heart with food." So, It's Wagyu beef, which is like basically the same as Wagyu. Like, don't quote me on this, but like the
point being very, very high-quality cut of meat. Zoom in on that marble cuz it's Steak Nerds are going to be like, "What?" This is absolutely crazy. So, you're supposed to do 20 seconds one side and 10 seconds the other. Wow. That is so soft. It's not like chewy or anything. No. Think about that. The beef we got at the Izakaya last night and it was just like It was so chewy. It was just sitting there for hours. This was just like cool. [snorts] Delicious. Nice. Yeah, it's lovely. It's lovely relaxing dining experience. It's really good. And now they asked our room they've they sorted the beds for us whilst we're having our meal. And we just get to relax in for the evening.
This is a very relaxing day. I'm so tired. Well, good morning. Oh boy. Look at my bed hair. Uh what a beautiful place to wake up to. Um check out's not till 11:00, so we're going to leave at 11:01 to get as much out of this place as possible. Uh we got quite an easy day today, so we don't have to rush off. So we're going uh have a bit more onsen time, have a lovely breakfast, and then go explore the town. Yeah.
You can get very used to waking up to this view. I am making matcha. They have instructions here to how to make matcha for yourself, which I've seen online. It's very popular right now. I've never tried it. We shall see. It feels very ritualized. Right. I just think it's really lovely. It's more so about the process. Oh, yeah. Very nice. Do you want to try? Yeah, it is like a mild tea, but like in good way. Mhm. As I'm going to tea drink, it's nice.
I think you did it perfectly cuz I've never had one before. We then went down to breakfast where we were given enough food to feed a family of seven. Just a small breakfast it's like It's a small breakfast but just a simple breakfast for two. Wow. I don't even know I'm like I've got decision paralysis. Well, it's time for us to leave. Really enjoyed our stay here which goes without saying really but it's nice to have to sort of a you know the very long journey here and the jet lag and going headfirst into Tokyo and then the travel day, you
know, it's just feeling just exhausted so to just be able to at the start of the trip just slow down for a minute, catch our breath, relax and now it's like all right, let's go see some more of Japan. Feeling good? I agree. Slight change in outfit. Slight. Once we checked out at 11:01, we took the shuttle back into Takayama and we're going to explore the town for a few hours before we get the bus to Shirakawa later in the afternoon. So first up, we put our bags in storage at the station, then bought our bus tickets to get the journey locked in and then we went for a wander.
Takayama rose to prominence during the Edo period and its isolation in the mountains helped preserve its traditional architecture and culture. This left behind a remarkably intact historic district and the shops today are filled with everything from traditional crafts, souvenirs, sake and for some reason Snoopy. The main question you have to ask is why?
They're like painted in interesting ways so we like get a few of those and That would look cool on the shelf. I know. Why do you doubt me? We've already got one very cool Japanese knife, but I want two for cooking all the meats on my smoker. I was feeling a little peckish, and so we'll people stacking on these. So, Smell good, taste good. rainy day miso soup That was good. Oh. Hey. This is our winnings. Bam. How many did you one Yeah. To finish up our time here, we decided to fill ourselves up on a heap of beef sandwich. It's just like the sandwich bit almost seems irrelevant. It's just an excuse to have a big chunk of amazing
beef. I love it. It's been good though. We had a lovely little time in Takayama, exploring for about 3 hours, just wandering around, looking in the stores, enjoying all the beautiful Edo architecture. So, yeah. Yeah, we want to Shirakawa-go next, but first more meat. Nice. On to the next one. On to the next It was just a short 1-hour bus journey from Takayama to Shirakawa-go, and then from the bus stop, it was only a 15-minute walk to our hotel, which would be fine if it wasn't pouring with rain.
Normally when people visit Shirakawa-go, they do it like as a day trip from Kanazawa or when traveling from Kanazawa to Takayama or something else, but we decided to stay the night here so we could see it later in the evening and in the early in the morning when the big bus crowds aren't here. So we made it through the rain to the room and we just got settled in. I was like, "Oh yeah, I should film the room before we completely mess it up." So uh Yeah, it's actually pretty nice. Like the pictures looked really small but actually when compared to Tokyo this is huge. Am I ready? And they Yeah, you get pajamas with it. Jamie's put them straight on.
Yeah, all my clothes are wet. That's good. Yeah, they've got a nice little bathroom area. Toilet, shower. It's good. Yeah. We filled the fridge with all the stuff from our fridge last night. It was complimentary and we just took it with us cuz Thank you, Wanosato. Yeah. If you're seeing this, I'm sorry we raided the entire to send you lots of business, don't worry. Everyone watching this, please go stay there and use our affiliate link. All right, good morning from Shirakawa. Yesterday evening it was just pouring with rain so we just had an evening off. Um we're staying in like the little
village of Shirakawa which is next to the old village of Shirakawa-go and there's like three restaurants in town and they were all shut. So we just uh got a nice pot noodle from the convenience store and had a nice evening. Just It was nice to chill and just take a moment. Um but this morning we're going to actually go explore. It was still absolutely pouring it down outside but fortunately our hotel had a free shuttle to the bus station and so we booked our onward tickets for this afternoon, put our bags in the storage, and then went to explore the village. Shirakawa-go dates back over 250 years developing as a remote mountain community where its residents adapted to the heavy snowfall by building farmhouses with steep thatched roofs.
During the Edo period the village became known for its production of silk and gunpowder ingredients, supporting a self-sufficient local economy. Then, in 1995, Shirakawa-go was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, preserving its unique architecture and cultural traditions for future generations. At the end of the village, they got this shrine. And you traditionally wash your hands before you go in. Trying to focus on how pretty and serene it is with the shrine and the snow and the mist in the mountains, and not think about how freaking cold my hands are right now.
Hello. So, we've come to the far end of the village. I'm going to view back to the three houses here. It's very pretty. And there's patches of blue sky as well, so there is hope for today. It's nice to be here early in the morning. Uh it just feels a little more serene, which is kind of the vibe you'd hope for a place like this. So, it's 9:30, and we can count, I think, four tour buses have just shown up over there. So, I think staying here has done the trick. Yeah, this is still very much a functioning village. You can see all the cars and tractors and things like that. People live here.
Heading up to the observatory tower now. Might warm us up a little bit, at least. It's so cold. Well, made it to the viewpoint, and it's like nearly snowing now. It's sleeting. It's a good view, though. So, our original plan for today was to explore Shirakawa-go in the morning and then try and get a bus about midday, but we couldn't get a bus to actually where we wanted to go until 2:30, so we're going to have quite a long time to explore the village, which was fine. We thought, all right, well, we'll get up, we'll explore the village before all of tour bus crowds get here, and then find somewhere to have like a leisurely kind of brunch, if you like. The spanner in
the works with that was that one, the weather's been pretty terrible, and two, most of the cafes and little restaurants have been shut today, and I don't know why. There's like a million restaurants here, but none of them are open. We haven't had anywhere to sit down. We've been trying for 2 hours to find some food. Well, we ordered the surprisingly large chicken, and guess what? It's a surprisingly large chicken. Surprisingly large. It's a perfect appetizer. Surprisingly large, surprisingly tasty.
The place is amazing, definitely worth visiting, just we've been here way longer than we hoped we'd be, and we've just gotten cold and wet, and just a bit miserable, so um not been the best half day, but you know, it's the way it goes sometimes. We're now going to get the 3-hour bus to Nagoya, and then a 1-hour train to Nakatsugawa, and that's where we're staying for 2 nights, cuz tomorrow we're going to do a bit of the Nakasendo Trail, which is hopefully going to be amazing. It's one of the things I've been most looking forward to on this trip, so yeah, very much looking forward to the next stop.
Once we made it to Nagoya Station, we had a little bit of time before our train, so we grabbed a quick beer at one of the bars there. We've got about half an hour before our train, so we're just quickly coming in for a beer. We found a place that's open, so we're back in civilization. It was very good. I thought it was a national holiday, and apparently it's money can't be exchanged for goods and services in About an hour later, we made it to Nakatsugawa where we'll be spending the next two nights. This year, 2-minute walk from the station to our place. Which is nice. Cuz our bags are getting heavier with all the souvenirs.
All the bottles of sake that Sake, yeah. We were staying at the Ryokan O Guesthouse, which kind of had the vibe of a hostel, but it was all private rooms. Green tea Japanese sake. Ooh, we got a Okay, let's try. Oh, what is a soft drink? This is our little room for the next two nights. There's a decent bit of storage space in there, so it's not quite as crammed as it first appears. And we got a fridge, so all good.
Once we'd settled in and Jamie had enjoyed her free sake, we went down the street to get some food. So, we've come to a yakitori place that the hotel recommended. And it's great, guys. We're the only tourists in here, which is a big contrast to the last couple of days. Yeah, everywhere else we've been so far is very loud cuz everyone seems quite tipsy, but hey. Can't beat them.
In the morning, our plan was to hike some of the Nakasendo Trail, which is a 540-km route between Tokyo and Kyoto that passes through a network of 69 post towns in the mountains. Established in the early 1600s during Japan's Edo period, the route was used by samurai, merchants, pilgrims, and feudal lords. Today, the most popular section that people hike is the 8-km stretch from Magome to Tsumago, but we're actually going to start in Sumago and hike the 16 km all the way back to Nakatsugawa. By hiking the opposite direction to most people, hopefully we'll avoid
any potential crowds at the start of the day. Plus, it means we don't have to worry about trying to catch a bus back at the end of the day. Today, we're going to do some hiking in Japan, which is something I'm very excited for cuz last time I was here, I was here in winter, so we didn't get to do any hiking. So, it's going to be really exciting to get amongst it and I think cuz tomorrow we're going to Kyoto, which is going to be so busy. We have to savor the moments today where it's going to just be hopefully very quiet and peaceful. Um before we get the train there, we're going to get a little train and a bus to
where we started. Couple of useful things. This is one of the best inventions you can get for coming to Japan. Like Jamie, you found this on Amazon? And basically, it's a it's like a coin holder for all the change cuz you get so much change here, especially buying train tickets and stuff. It's just a little coin organizer, which is made by our lives very, very easy. Buy at the shop. Yeah, and it's in our Amazon store. It will be. Yeah. Check out I'll put up the links right now for Amazon store. We've got a couple each just cuz you get so much, but yeah. This is a really good invention. What's not a good invention is this.
Banana wrapped in a plastic bag. Like if only this banana had some kind of natural way to keep it fresh and safe, but it is what it is. They do have a lot of these different kinds of iced coffee at the shops, which is good for me. I would have I was looking forward to it cuz our hostel hotel hostel is right next to like a craft coffee roaster. So, last night I was like, oh yeah, that's going to be good tomorrow morning. And they're not open. Yeah. And then we walked to the Starbucks, which is also not open. It's not that early in the morning. It is just before 8:00 a.m. So, it is not like we're up and about at 6:00 like Nothing's open. Well, let's see if the train's open.
The train takes just 20 minutes to get us to Nagiso, from where we'll hop on a bus to get to Tsumago. If you're not sure how to ride the bus in terms of paying and stuff. We have some English instructions about how to ride the bus. It's very simple, very easy. All right, so that's the train and bus journey done. Now we've got to walk back to our hotel. Nakasendo Trail, let's do this. Okay. Let's go. Wow. Oh, look at this. So, this is Tsumago. It's gorgeous. It's It's like exactly what you'd imagine. It's just before 9:00, nothing's open.
It's great. It's so quiet. God, all the Instagrammers would be so jealous of getting a street like this quiet to ourselves. There's a really cool little shrine here. So many little like dolls. Who's having a picnic here during the cherry blossom season? Having a sake. Well, I'm already loving this. This village is so beautiful.
Now we start going up. I think it's about 300 m of ascent today. So that would not be too bad. See how we do. Ask us in an hour, yeah. It's a walking stick. A little bamboo Just my height. Yeah, I'm going to take it. Nice. Cuz it looks cool. Look at these trees. This looks like probably got a magical path through the forest. Ring the bell hard against bears. Oh, look at this. Bears, off you It's like we're walking a giant zen garden.
Six. We've missed five, so Somehow. [bell] Mine is better. Yours is much better. Mine's kind of a lame bell. Maybe next time. [bell] Hey, you got a good one. This is number two. What? Okay, we need to have a word about the numbering system. This forest feels old. Yeah. It feels very old.
So in my ideal world, this is a little hot spring on Sun River, and that pool right there is my own personal little onsen. That's what I want. It's freezing. Give me that and I will be I need nothing else in the world. So, for a snack we have the heater beef. Try heater beef that we bought yesterday. It's like salami. Mhm. Well, that is good. Come across the rest area here. A free tea room. Where are you from? Goodbye, faithful stick. You have been a good friend. May you find many other friends along your travels. Things might have been a bit tough.
Yeah, that wasn't too bad. I think the Australian ascent wasn't really that up. We made it to the outskirts of Megalong Valley. That took us 2 hours back in the dirt, really. Easy. Lovely. Yeah. Perfect. Are you a sophisticated person? I hope so. I have no responsibility to the people. Oh, people just leave some Yes, we made it to the main bit of Magome. And we can see down to the Katsugawa from here as well. Where we are amongst that, I have no idea, but
great view though. Peaks around here. Little bit of snow. Magome-juku is the 43rd post town on the Nakasendo Trail, and its name literally translates to horse basket, which derives from travelers having to leave their horses here before tackling the steep mountain pass. Fires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries destroyed much of the original town, but later restorations recreated its Edo era appearance. Tsumago was pretty, but this is like up a whole other level. This is just gorgeous. Idyllic, yes. Good word. So, we just stopped for a lovely little lunch in a restaurant there. Some soba noodles. Oh, this looks delicious. That's perfect. And now we just get to walk back to town, which is like another couple of hours.
What a great day this is. So, that bus there will take us right back to where we live, but no. We're not going to take it cuz it's just a 2-hour walk down. Well, hour 45-minute Yeah, it's kind of like we went through the old post thirsty village, and now it's just like a regular kind of modern village, really. And we've got a gorgeous view ahead. The Katsugawa where we're heading to. Wow! I didn't know this is swimming. Nice change of scenery now. See it from up over here somewhere, somewhere through all that. Before we continue.
Car is sweat. Oh, it's nice. Yeah, it tastes like you got like a mild Lucozade or something. They put some Gatorade powder in it or something like that. Okay, much better than it sounds. We're like on the old road but adjacent to the big busy road. Some of these houses just insane. It's currently a guest house. It was back in the midst also a guest house selling Sanman mochi. Oh. Which is a mochi with brown sugar. Cool. And now what this plaque is saying is that after 150 years of break Yeah. the descendants of the people who used
to operate this guest house are now operating it as a guest house again and selling the same snack. Unfortunately, it's closed today. Yeah, yeah. So, we've officially made it to the Nakatsugawa post station. And it's literally just a 5-minute walk to our hostel from here. I'm in it. Yay! And we're back. We made it. Time's just after 3:00. We set off at 9:00, so that's And 6 hours for the leisurely Yeah, very leisurely. leisurely pace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. pace. Took our time. Didn't rush at all, so yeah. All right. We filled up that evening on a nice Wagyu burger at our accommodation, and then the next morning, it was time to head to Kyoto, the final stop for the first half of our trip. So, we took the hour-long train back to
Nagoya, and then we jumped on the Shinkansen, which took just 35 minutes to get us to Kyoto station, and then from here, we grabbed a taxi to our hostel, and we've got a private room booked at Kyoto Guest House Hive for just one night. Okay, we've dumped our bags at the hostel, and it's about midday right now, and we're going to head to Osaka midday tomorrow. So, we basically got 24 hours in Kyoto. We're not going to try and see everything, as if that's a thing, but you know, uh we're just going to pick a few of the highlights, and just sort of have a bit of a random explore, and see what happens.
Yes. Kyoto became Japan's imperial capital city in 794, and remained the political and cultural heart of the country for more than a thousand years, until Tokyo became the capital city in 1868. Unlike many other Japanese cities, Kyoto escaped large-scale destruction during World War II, allowing much of its historic architecture and heritage to survive today. So, we just walked through Gion, the Geisha district, and now we're at Kennin-ji Temple. I had it in my head that today was going to be nothing but weaving a way through massive crowds, and there may still be some of that to come, but just to have somewhere like this to walk around, very relaxing. It's a good
start. Saying that though, our plan is to walk up the popular Matsubara Street, which leads to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. When we're in Shirakawa-go, it's raining and freezing cold, they were selling ice cream everywhere, but today it's a nice sunny day, so Good. Mhm. All that is good. Oh, I remember this. [clears throat] So, yeah, you can buy a hanging monkey and then write on your name and date and write your little wish on and then get them hung up here. Well, you can't go hungry around here. It's like all these stalls selling like beef, ice cream, tornado potatoes. That was some good fried chicken, even better than Family Mart.
High praise. We continued working our way up the street having a casual browse through the different shops. Anything you like? My case is too expensive. I was like, that t-shirt looks quite cool. What does it say? It says invincible. That'd be such a douche thing to wear. Kiyomizu-dera was founded in 778 and became one of the country's most important Buddhist temples. Its name means pure water temple, which refers to the Otowa waterfall that runs beneath the main hall, and if you drink from it,
it's believed to bring you health, success, and longevity. We're about to get our fortune. So, you pick a stick out of a box and then there's a fortune associated with that number. It's 100 yen. Why not? You will be able to achieve fame and success through your art. The person you are waiting for will be delayed. Lost items will be found late. It comes with a lot of information and it's not all very specific. It's like, if you do this, this will happen, but if you do this, this will happen. We'd had a really fun afternoon exploring round and then about halfway back down the hill we stopped for a drink at K36 rooftop bar. So we were recommended this bar at the hostel last night and it's a great find. Like we're
been amongst all the crowds like walking down the streets which was great but you know it's busy. So then to sort of have a rest and enjoy the view it's amazing. Got to say it's not too expensive either. So. We'd originally planned just to come here for one drink but we loved the place so much we ended up having three. Once we finally left though we began working our way back towards our hostel and headed down Pontocho Alley to get some food. Oh. Oh yes. Great start but now I need some sushi. Sushi? We've had so much beef. Not complaining about it. But I didn't realize I was going to come to Japan and eat so much beef.
Got some sushi. All is right in the world. And the best thing is I think we're the only westerners in here so. In the morning we checked out of our hostel but left our bags in storage there and then we jumped in an Uber to take us to the famous torii gates of Fushimi Inari. Okay this morning we're doing the very popular Fushimi Inari Shrine which I loved last time I was here it was one of my favorite places. It is very busy but there's a very easy way to lose the crowds just involves using your legs. What if I don't want to use my legs? Then you won't lose the crowds.
Fushimi Inari Taisha was founded in the year 711 and is dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice, prosperity, and business success. The shrine became famous for its thousands of bright red torii gates, many of which were donated by merchants and companies seeking good fortune. Cool. We're quite a way up. Yeah. Well, we came up to a big junction and now it's kind of acted as a bottleneck. Now it's got many people here.
Way easier to get your photo if that's what you're dying to do. Cool. I love all the moss on the shrines here. Like it makes it look like really ancient and mystical. It might only be like 10 years old or something, but it looks really cool. Yeah, with it being tucked away and all covered in moss, it kind of feels like you've stumbled upon some secret even though it's signposted. There's a big green flag. Yeah, but gives the illusion. This place is a very silent. I like the sound of the water drop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This sound makes me relaxed.
Yeah. Yes. So, we just got our own little torii gate personalized. Got our two surnames on it and happiness written in the middle. Rossing and Watson. Watson, yeah. In Japanese katakana and it is called hiuchiishi to make spark to purify this torii gate. Oh. In Japan you have to say this box bring you good fortune. You try. Ooh, good fortune. Okay, okay. Yay. Can you? Sure, I'll have a go. Feel the pressure now, you are saying. Okay, okay. That's a good fortune.
Yeah, that was great, you know, like once you get away from the main crowds, like it still wasn't no one around, um, but I'm sure if you want on that just coming at the crack of dawn, but I admit I started out very skeptical. Cuz the start of it really is like a bit of a slog uphill with tons and tons of people just marching in line. But you I hate to admit Carl is right. Yes. Save that clip forever. This time. No, Carl's always right. Except when I'm wrong. So that was all we were going to do this morning with the hotel, but our Uber driver here from the hostel recommended place called Yodo, where apparently the
cherry blossoms are out. He said he was there yesterday and they're blooming, which is really early, so we may be about to get really lucky. They do. All right, let's try to find some cherry blossoms. Look. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah, there it is. Well, that was easy. Right at the station. Yeah, the Uber driver said cherry blossoms start on March 23rd and today is March 7th. But he just said, yeah, in Yodo they've already come out, so I guess imagine this all over Japan.
Yeah. Well, thank you, random Uber driver. This uh worked out very well. It was right by the station. Yeah, so we saw the stuff straight outside the station, and we thought, "Well, let's just go for a bit more of a wander." And then Jamie saw these pink signs and thought, "What if they led to the cherry blossoms?" So, it's like a little trail along a random street with these flags that say I don't know what they say, but they have cherry blossoms on them. And I thought, "You know what? I bet you that is the route to get to the cherry blossoms." And it's true. The Japanese are very good at making logical signage that like you don't need to understand what the sign says to understand the sign.
Plus, this turned into a rather good project side quest, as the kids say these days. So, it is a Saturday, so I think all the locals just come down to get their pictures. Cherry blossoms in Japan. So lucky. So, I just checked the Uber app, and the driver's name was Hachiro. So, don't worry, gato. Hachiro. We made our way back to the hostel to grab our bags, and then we're going to get the train to Osaka to begin the second half of our trip.
There's Molly. Back on the train. After trying out all of the foods in Osaka and Kobe, we'll be hiring out a car and driving around the Wakayama prefecture. So, we've just made it to Koyasan, and tonight we're actually staying in a Buddhist temple. We'll also be heading to Nara to check out the Omizutori Festival. We just saw something happen. Three guys. We'll explain it later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we'll finish up with one last day in Tokyo. Even though we're right by the very touristy area, there's not many tourists in this street. So, don't come here.
