On our second day with the rental car, we visited the Sounkyo Onsen Village, another part of Daisetsuzan National Park, to see what we could find. I apparently didn’t quite know where we were going or what we were doing. Whatever. The village itself was lovely, though we really were interested in getting lost for a while in the nature of Daisetsuzan National Park. We took the gondola (they call it a ropeway) up the hill for some better views….
We’re officially in love with Hokkaido. Everyone should come here, twice. On second thought, one thing we loved was the feeling like we’d gotten off the Gaijin trail. We only saw a few white people in the several days we spent around the parks and onsen villages. So stay away! Most western tourists probably only make it to this island for the famed ski resorts, not for the national parks, like amazing Daisetsuzan. We’ve been using Asahikawa as a base…
On Tuesday, we packed up our things and headed to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen to Hokkaido. The Shinkansen is the infamous Japanese bullet train. Our particular train goes as fast as 320km/hr (that’s 200mph). It was so fast! Service to Hokkaido just began in March, so the trains are new and pretty cushy. We definitely did a lot of “oohing” and “ahhing” over the speed and things flying by through the window. Here’s a video of my husband…
On our first night in Tokyo we ducked into Fuunji, a tiny ramen place near our AirBnB in Shinjuku. I thought it was good, but I wasn’t sure if this was because it was our first meal in Japan, or if we were just really hungry. Amanda, on the other hand, knew we had found something special. It was the dipping noodles (or tsukemen), not the ramen, that blew us away. It was so good, we went back on our…
We decided to get out of Tokyo craziness for a day trip to Kamakura, known for its abundance of temples and big buddha. After the 1-hour JR ride, we arrived to check out Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. No trip to Kamakura would be complete without a visit to this big guy, Daibatsu. I’d been once before, but had no memory of going inside. We went inside. With a few hours to spare before heading back to the city, we headed to Enoshima Island,…
We landed on Tokyo on Thursday afternoon. After customs and the Narita Express into Tokyo, we got to our Airbnb and then went out to find dinner. OMG. We went to this place called Fuunji Ramen. They have tsukemen. HOW HAVE I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE?! We were so excited and hungry that we forgot to take pictures. The head chef is this J-Rock dude who swings the noodles around. It’s a tiny hole in the wall and you order…
After checking off what seemed like an endless list of TODOs, we got the house AirBnB-ready, said all our goodbyes, packed our bags, and flew to Japan. It’s Amanda’s first time in east Asia (India is a world of its own), so she’s getting in her first impressions. Amanda has been feeling under the weather, so we bought her some cold meds from a friendly lady at the pharmacy, along with a few masks. One of our first activities in Tokyo was…
Well, here we are. Seated at Seatac, waiting to board our plane to Tokyo. It’s a bit surreal, and we keep saying to ourselves, “what the HELL are we doing?!” But we’re also excited for this adventure to finally begin. The past few days have been a crazy whirlwind of seeing friends and family, packing, and preparing the house for guests. Our belongings have all been put in storage, the house cleaned and pretty bare for guests, and loose ends…
We’re nine days out! At this point most things are lined up, with the exception of a few last-minute details that we really can’t take care of until this coming weekend. I’ve mostly figured out everything I’m bringing, though Shawn is still working out a few details. Shoes have been the hardest decision because we plan to do a fair amount of hiking and are traveling through many different seasons. I plan to post a packing update once we’ve narrowed…
Our outbound flight is booked! We are heading to Japan first, and will continue our way west from there. Shamanda RTW is about to become a real thing! I’m feeling pretty excited right now, but at the same time, there are a lot of stresses coming from making sure I have everything I need, plus packing up our house and belongings. We’re going to put our house on Airbnb, so I’ve been spending my time trying to line everything up…