Tag Archives: Japan

Ridiculous Street Signs #17: Bird Droppings- Tokyo

Ridiculous Street Signs, Trip Reports,

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Back in July I wrote about visiting Senso-ji Temple during Day 1 of our trip to Japan. Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple and was very busy with tourists. While we enjoyed seeing the temples, we found the people watching to be at its finest!

While walking in and around the temple grounds we came across a couple of odd signs. Since Kim and I do not speak or read Japanese we couldn’t figure out the exact meaning but we had some ideas.

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Book A Package Trip For Your Stuffed Animal To Japan

Off Topic, Travel News,
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Photo Credit: South China Morning Post ASIA

This just might be one of the funniest travel-related stories/ services that I’ve read about in quite some time.

I came across an article online from the South China Morning Post ASIA about a Japanese travel agency that is offering tours for your stuffed toys.

Tokyo based Unagi Travel has a range of offers to suit every cuddly companion’s purse.

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Ridiculous Street Signs #16- Warning: Deer May Attack- Nara, Japan

Ridiculous Street Signs,

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One of the highlights of our visit to Nara (during our visit to Japan), was interacting with the abundance of tame deer which were roaming all over the area. Even though the deer are relatively harmless, they could be a nuisance and a pain if they noticed you had food.
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Our biggest run-in on Nara (and on Miyajima Island) was when a deer in each area decided to eat a gate-check tag hanging off of Lucas’ stroller! It was pretty funny but I have to say that I was a bit upset when our Singapore Airlines tag from our trip the previous Summer became deer food!
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Japan Trip Recap: Day 7- Nara

Trip Reports,
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After spending a couple of days checking out the sites around Kyoto, we decided to take a day trip to Nara.

Nara is one of the ancient capitals of Japan and is located about an hour away from Kyoto (by train).  Just like our visit to Kyoto, we spent most of our day visiting sites which make up the “Ancient Sites of Nara” which are collectively a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of them are found within Nara Park.

Like Miyajima Island, Nara also has tons of four-legged friends wandering around. Surprisingly these were even more tame and also much friendlier! Interacting with the deer was probably my favorite part of the visit. Lucas wasn’t a big fan and got scared when the deer came too close to his stroller.
Here is what we did in Nara:

  • Kofuku-ji Temple– a variety of buildings
  • Interacting with the Tame Deer
  • Todai-ji Temple- Home to the world’s largest state of bronze Buddha
  • Kasuga Taisha- A shrine with lots of lanterns
  • Mos Burger- Japan’s version of McDonald’s

Japan Trip Recap: Days 5 & 6- Kyoto

Trip Reports,
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It’s been a while since I posted about our trip to Japan so here is the start of the second part.

After a lot of moving around during the first part of our trip we would now have four nights in one place. I’ve heard over the years how beautiful Kyoto was but it didn’t quite seem like what I had envisioned. I expected a more slow-paced city along the lines of Chiang Mai in Thailand or Ubud in Bali.

To find the beautiful gardens and ancient temples & sites you need to travel around the city and get off the main roads. When you enter a site all of a sudden the calm, quiet and slow-paced Kyoto appears.

Kyoto is recognized by UNESCO with various sites being named to the World Heritage List under one designation: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. The sites are located in Kyoto, Uji and Otsu. We visited a bunch of these sites around Kyoto and some are mentioned below.

This post will combine the two full days that we spent visting Kyoto

Here are some highlights:

  • Ginkaku-ji, The Silver Pavilion
  • Wandered around the area of Gion
  • Kyoto Station- Isetan Department Store Food Halls
  • Rokuon-ji- The Golden Pavilion
  • Being taught how to make Cup Noodles from school children
  • Ryona-ji- The Dry landscape
  • Ninna-ji, Five Story Pagoda
  • Seeing 1,000’s of torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine

Ridiculous Street Signs #15- Train Fishing- Tokyo

Ridiculous Street Signs
a sign with a man and a girl on a leash

While waiting for the train in Tokyo, Kim and I spotted this interesting and odd sign.

Although we don’t speak Japanese, we felt that the sign was pretty much self explanatory.
If you drop something from the platform onto the tracks, don’t go and get it. One of the transportation employees will reel it in for you.

a train station with a sign

I was curious as to what they use to get your item back.

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Japan Trip Recap: Day 4- Miyajima Island

Trip Reports,
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Getting to our destination on Day 4 of our Trip to Japan took several modes of transportation, but that didn’t stop us. In order to get to Miyajima Island from Hiroshima we had to take a street car to a train and then catch a quick 10 minute ferry ride. Luckily, we made all the connections without waiting too long so the full commute took us less than an hour which wasn’t bad at all.

Miyajima is a walkable island with a good amount of sites to see in close proximity to each other. We picked a very hot and humid day for our visit. Kim, Lucas and I really liked the island and are glad we added it to our itinerary.

Here are some of the things we did:

  • Photos with the island’s four-legged residents
  • The Floating Torii and Itsukushima Shrine
  • Tasting a new sea creature for lunch
  • Ropeway (cablecar) ride up to the observatory on Mt. Misen
  • Quick stop for photos at Goju-no Tou, 5 story pagoda

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Japan Trip Recap: Day 3- Hiroshima

Trip Reports,
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We started off the third day of our trip to Japan very early so we would arrive in time for some sightseeing. We caught a 6:30 AM train to Hiroshima (from Tokyo) and were out exploring the city by around 12:30.

Most of our time was spent at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park which is made up of a museum and lots of monuments dedicated to the various groups of victims. We also spent a good amount of time walking around and exploring the main shopping area- Hondori Street.

Here are some of the things we did:

  • Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
  • Checked out the memorials around Peace Park
  • Spent time viewing the A-Bomb Dome
  • People watching, stores and lunch on Hondori Street

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Japan Trip Recap: Day 2- Yokohama

Trip Reports,
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After having a fun and busy day checking out Tokyo on the first day of our trip, we took a day trip to Yokohama. Yokohama is Japan’s second largest city, about 45 minutes from Tokyo by train.
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The main reason for visiting Yokohama was to catch a Japanese League baseball game. I was hoping to see a game in Tokyo but the date I needed tickets for was sold out. After reading a bit about the city, we also found a couple of museums that we were interested in visiting. Both museums were about Ramen and I had written about them in late 2011.
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Here is what we did:
  • Visited the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
  • Yokohama DeNa BayStars baseball game
  • Had an awesome time at the Cup Noodles Museum

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Japan Trip Recap: Day 1- Tokyo

Trip Reports,
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We’re about half way through our trip to Japan and it’s time to start sharing some of what we’ve been up to.
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Feeling refreshed after an excellent flight on American Airlines (more on that another time), we got out relatively early to explore Tokyo on our first day.
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We made a bunch of stops, some being food-related. We also visited a beautiful temple and took in views from high above the city.
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Here is what we did:
  • Kappabashi- “Kitchen Town”
  • Senso-ji Temple
  • Daikokuya restaurant for tempura
  • Impressive views from the Sky Tree
  • Doughnut Plant, a favorite of ours back home

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