My Japan pictures

From 1 - 22 April 2006 I travelled through Japan alone (female).

Thanks to Uji here on the forum and all the other people with all their contributions to this forum my trip was wonderfull and unforgetable. I want to thank everybody for this !

If anybody is interested in my pictures you can see them at http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i132/vierelfjes/

Thank you for the feedback. Nothing makes me happier than to get feedback from forum users who enjoyed their trip to Japan. Nice photos! Maybe we met each other at the Takayama Festival, although I could not find myself on one of your pictures of the festival :)

I really enjoyed your pictures- thanks for posting them. By the way Uji, you have also been so helpful to me and my wife, I have never posted - but we extensively used your advice from this forum to plan for three recent trips to Japan - all of which were extremely rewarding. We hope to return soon.

Elfjes, I have a question about the pictures labled "hostels" or have hostel in the name.

I plan on going to Japan with a friend and his brother this December, and were trying to save as much money as possible. And i've been looking at hostels, but only looked at what they call "youth" hostels, now were not exactly kids. But those hostels that were in your pictures, were they relativly cheap and comfortable. They look kind of expensive.

Also how far in advance should we make reservations for those Hostels. Because right now everything is still kind of up in the air.

Thank you, PD! It is good to hear that I did not seem to have provided too much misinformation.

I don't remember if I thanked Uji after one of my trips or not but I will now.
Thank you, Uji.
Your advice and directions were invaluable. Because of your advice, I was easily able to navigate throughout Japan.
No doubt I'll be asking more questions on my next trip in 2007.
Thank you!

Lil, I am looking forward to try to answer your questions.

I have just finished looking at all of your pictures - they're great!! I've never actually seen photos of some of the places you visited, so it was really interesting. For example I've heard & read many things about Koyasan, but NEVER seen photos.

I'm a teacher of Japanese, and would love to have your permission to show some of your fantastic photos to my students. Is that OK?

Hi elfjes

Thanks so much for sharing the photos!! I hvt just returned from Japan last week too! U r so lucky...u got to spot Mt Fuji at Hakone!! Im so jealous! :)) I don hv such luck over the 2 mornings that I was there! sob sob...

Dear Uji,
I hope to take this opportunity to thank u again and others who have been great help to my planning.... u will soon hear more of me again (ha ha) as I hope to plan my next visit to japan, and to cover Hokkaido too! :))

Elfjes was what was the best part of the trip and also what was your worst expeerience in Japan?
Thanks in advance.

nice photos and glad to hear you had a good time. Its nice to hear people report back.

Kyle

The hostels I have visited in Japan where great, cheap, friendly and most of all very clean. And the hostels and Youth Hostels in Japan are visited by people of all ages and also middle aged Japanese couples etc. So no worries you will not feel "old" at all !

The accomodations I had:

Tokyo - Backpackers Hotel Matsushima, nice cheap hostel close to Minowa station

Moto Hakone - Moto Hakone Guesthouse, very nice Japanese house, everything Japanese style, very nice owner giving lots of tips of what to do and see in the neighbourhood.

Hiroshima - International Youth House Aster Plaza, the location is perfect just 5 minutes walk from the Peace Memorial Park and for just 3620yen you get a luxourious single room with yakuta, tv, tea, tootbrush, etc etc. And the building from outside is stunning too ! But they dont have an English website only Japanese but if you book by phone they speak English and ask them to fax you a confirmation with the directions to the hotel on it.

Koyasan - Youth Hostel Koyasan
A beautifull traditional house from the outside and inside, everything Japanese style and breakfast and dinner is delicious too and the location is perfect.

Kyoto - K´s House Hostel
Wonderfull hostel, so superclean, lots of facilities etc. and just 10 walk from Kyoto Station

Takayama - Hostel Tenshoji
This is a youth hostel in a buddist temple also visited by all ages they have large dorms and also single rooms everything Japanese style. The only thing is because this is in a temple the monk has his own rules 21.45pm you have to be in. 22.00pm lights out and at 07.00am he wakes you up with nice Japanese music (breakfast is delicious too) but I didnt mind actually, after lots of sightseeing its more welcome to have a long and good night sleep !

Back to Tokyo I stayed at Khaosan Asakusa Annex (the one on the other side of the bridge) just 7 min walk from Asakusa subway and 15 min walk from the temple in Asakusa. Nice location in a quit neighbourhood.

All the hostels I stayed in I noticed where very popular so they filled up quickly, especially K´s House in Kyoto and Aster Plaza in Hiroshima.

Sensei

Ofcourse its ok to show the pictures to your students.

If you want I can give you the specific names etc of all the temples, shrines etc on the pictures.

Glen

I did not had any bad experience in Japan at all so I cannot say what was the worst for me, there just wasnt any ! Everything went smootly, had a great time, didnt run into problems etc.

Every place I have visited in Japan was very nice and every place had his own beauty so its hard to say which one is the most beautifull. Every place is actually ! Tokyo f.e. is so much fun and so much to see, Hiroshima is a nice city and Miyajima is very very beautifull. Himeji castle although it rained very hard when I was there, still was beautifull. Kyoto nice city and tooo much to see so you really have to pick out a few things you want to see.
Koyasan is beautifull and so tranquille and mysterious sometimes. Takayama is a lovely city and the old streets are so nice.

Ow my favourite neighbourhood in Tokyo is definately Harajuku with the Meji Shrine, Takeshita dori and surroundings and Omotesando Hills !

The only thing I was dissapointed about was ....Nara...in my opinion Nara is overrated. The big wooden temple with the huge buddha inside is really nice but the rest...no a little bit overrated.

Ow what also was very nice, really lovely is Enoshima Island close to Kamakura !! The walk to the island and go all the way up and walk all around on top of the island, with all the temples the nice houses and restaurants is so nice !! And I saw no other tourists there ....only lonely me.

But overall if I really have to pick out 1 .....Miyajima.

Elfjes I was in Japan in February. My best experience was the walk up the bush track to the snow monkeys in the onsen while it was snowing. Being in the onsen while the monkeys were around was great.
My worst experience was a night in a capsule hotel in Aomori. The bath was cleaned with about 20 times too much Hospital Cleanser the smell was horrible. Besides the bath we enjoyed the fun of the night. The capsules were quite roomy and one of my friends rated it as the most comfy bed he slept in while in Japan.

Enjoyed looking at your pictures. They are terrific. Looks like you had a clear day in Miyajima and got to watch Japanese style wedding. Wao.
Takayama festival it is..., especially the night float looks terrific. We've been to Takayama but haven't had chance to see the festival there yet, so it was a treat to see.
You've covered a great deal of areas. How did you like Koyasan?
Hands up for a female who traveled alone. Banzai! thanks much.

A generous thought for you to share your fine photos, and thanks to everyone for sharing experiences. It would be nice if this whole thread could be formatted into "trip reports" for the sake of future travelers.

Thanks Elfjes for allowing me to use your photos, and your kind offer. Actually I can identify most places - the only ones I haven't been to are Nikko & Takayama.
I find that my students are not very interested in temples etc, but really interested in Japanese houses, food & toilets! You have some great shots of all of those!!

Thanks again
Sensei

you were lonely on Enoshima? What about the cats:-) Actually you should count yourself lucky as I think if you had gone on a busy weekend you would have hated it.

Hope your students will enjoy the pictures Sensei !