I travelled through Tohoku with friends, between autumn forests, mountain baths and quiet towns, before continuing to Sado, Kanazawa, Kyoto and Tokyo.
During six months in Kyoto, I settled into everyday life and explored further afield, from summer festivals to the islands of the Seto Inland Sea and the Japanese Alps.
A simple guide to build a heated blanket table with parts you can find here for comfy vibes like in Japan.
I began the year with five days across Tohoku, travelling by train to a castle town, a secluded mountain onsen, the Pacific coast and Morioka.
From New Year in Tokyo, I headed north to ski in Hokkaido, then explored hot spring towns and snowy villages in Chubu before returning to familiar faces in Tokyo.
There has been a long break on this blog once again. Over the past two years, Tabimonogatari has been more dormant than I intended, even though the experiences that usually end up here have very much continued in the background.
In no time we reached day 5 of our New Year’s vacation. We spent the whole day in Morioka and returned with fulfilled wishes and filled bellies to Tokyo in the evening.
On the fourth day, we visited Ryusendo Cave in Iwaizumi, one of Japan’s largest limestone caves. In the evening, we enjoyed memorable sashimi dinner in Morioka.
In just a few hours, we traded snow-covered mountains for the icy Pacific coast. Hachinohe, known for its fishery, welcomed us with serene moments at Kabushima Shrine and a taste of fresh seafood.
As a highlight of this trip we reserved a room in a secluded mountain ryokan high up in Yamagata’s mountains. The inn’s 4×4 minibus picked us up at the last stop of the public bus line. The unpaved mountain road at the end was so steep, most cars would have had trouble to climb it.
Our five day trip to Tohoku began with the sunrise over Tokyo’s skyline. Aizu-Wakamatsu checked all our boxes as a travel destination: called the Samurai city, the city was home to Samurai for a long time; until the Boshin war in 1848. We also looked forward to visiting Higashiyama Onsen, seeing the local crafts including lacquerware and of course the local cuisine and sake.
Happy 2024! Having transitioned into the New Year with Japanese customs, we began our 2024 with a vacation in the Tohoku region. Five prefectures in five days.
Season’s greetings! Today I want to introduce some of the Japanese Christmas celebrations and new year’s traditions.
On the afternoon of January 1st 2024 a strong earthquake occurred on the Japan Sea side of Japan. The strongest magnitude was recorded to be 7 in the Japanese scale with shaking being felt in the whole country.
In late November I had the chance to revisit Kyoto, a place I connect with many memories. Here is a list of scenic places I think have not been found by the typical Kyoto tourist yet.
We have great news! We could secure the apartment we hoped for and moved in last week. This means this series is already concluded after two posts. That was unexpected. To be honest, I was surprised that we were able
Our first week in Tokyo unfolded in a quite different way than all those times I came as a tourist. Instead of sightseeing, the most important task for us was to find an apartment to stay.
It’s time again to wake up the blog for extensive Japan coverage. This time, however, I’m neither alone nor traveling as a tourist. In fact, together with my partner, I am moving to Tokyo for 1-2 years.
If you think about Japan in Summer, isn’t fireworks the first thing that comes to mind? In 2022 most fireworks events were canceled because of pandemic-related concerns. All fireworks? No, one event was scheduled to be held and it even happened to be one in the Kansai area.
Kobe always draws me back after my first visit ten years ago. This time I visited the new „a to a“ aquarium in the harbor area, climbed up to Venus Bridge and strolled through the historic foreign house district of Kitano.