Hello everyone, I recently just finished my trip to Japan (again). This time I went with Nico and Jimmy, and we were exploring the ‘mainstream’ Japan, i.e. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and adding Hiroshima. Along the way we were also stopping at the famous tourism spots of Japan such as Nara and Himeji. This is the documentary of the trip, the first article of a 9-part series!
The actual trip lasted for 10 days from 27 March 2015 until 5 April 2015. Our flight was Delta DL 166 which arrived at Narita, Tokyo at 14:30.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”200%” img=”https://krisnadi.blog/wp-content/uploads/IMG_9093.jpg” align=”center” lightbox=”on” caption=”Left to right: Me, Nico, Jimmy” captionposition=”center”]
Upon arrival in Narita airport you need to exchange your JR pass exchange order into the actual JR Pass. JR Pass also covered the Narita Express which was the fastest and most convenient way to get into downtown Tokyo.
I would recommend to rent a pocket wifi as a means of connecting to the internet during your stay in Japan. You can pre-order and pay online before your trip, and they will drop it into the post office of the airport terminal of your arrival for you to pick up. They will provide you the return envelope, so that at the end of your travel you can just drop it into any mailboxes in Japan to return it. Talk about service and convenience!
We transferred in Shinagawa to board shinkansen Hikari 479 to Shin-Osaka.
Travelling westbound from Tokyo to Osaka will give you Fuji view on the right somewhere along the journey, if weather is good. Try to get right side seat on the train if you can!
We arrived at Shin Osaka station around 20:00 that night.
Our hotel in Osaka was Hotel Elsereine, a short 10 minute walk away from JR Osaka station. Here’s a few shot of the hotel:
We spent that night exploring Hozenji Yokocho, in the downtown area of Namba. It’s quite a bustling area even late in the night. We had our first Japanese ramen there as well.
We started early the next morning. Our plan was to visit Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine and Osaka Castle before lunch time.
The Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine is just a short walk away from Sumiyoshitaisha station, which was very convenient. The temple grounds and the shrine area itself were really beautiful, especially with the striking red colors.
We visited Osaka Castle afterwards. The castle grounds was quite vast and it took some walk to reach the castle itself.
Our next destination was one night in Koyasan – which we deemed not convenient to bring our big luggages – so we decided to store our big luggages in Namba station. Unfortunately all the lockers were full, so we had to spent an hour or so to find a forwarding service that will send our luggages directly to Hiroshima. This takkyubin (baggage forwarding) services were very convenient and safe though, you can definitely consider that when you travel in Japan. It could be found in convenience stores or in major stations around the town.
2 comments