Our last Sunday in Japan…

During our last Sunday in Japan,  I wanted to tell everyone how much I will miss

 

Japan’s Sights

 

I’m not saying Japan has all of the best sights in the world, but it does have some! The variety here is incredible, both with natural beauty and man-made. This is one post where the pictures can speak much louder than my words.

Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto. A gold leaf plated temple built in 1397 and rebuilt in 1955 after a fire. Each of the 3 floors was built with a different architectural design to pay homage to different points in history (Shinden, Samurai, and Zen). The garden is specifically laid out to make the temple seem as magnificent as possible. And it WAS.

Sapporo Snow Festival, Hokkaido. An entire street was laid out with the most elaborate snow sculptures found anywhere. This was one of the biggest; just incredible to see that much snow made into what looks like a real building!

Tokyo, a city of over 13 million people, all packed in as tightly as possible. It really is a sight to see from Tokyo Tower or Tokyo Skytree (the world’s tallest tower).

Another picture from Kyoto, the Fushimi Inari gates. This city is known for its hundreds of temples, shrines, and gates; and this was one of the most awe-inspiring places.; founded in 711 (no, I didn’t miss a digit, its really as old as 711). Just hundreds of gates lined up leading to the large temple at the end. The purpose of the gates in the Shinto religion is to designate a sacred space leading to the temple at the end of the path. Each of these gates has been donated by a Japanese business to gain good fortune.

This may seem like any ordinary firework display at first glance, but its actually an UNDERWATER fireworks (or “hanabi” はなび )show in Kamakura! They spend about ¥50,000,000 or $500,000 each year on this display where they shoot off the fireworks from boats speeding by and dropping them in the water. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Well, me, my friend Amanda, and about 300,000 other people sitting on the beach.

Can’t forget about the Sumo tournament held in Tokyo. Its an incredible arena with so much tradition put into the games. (Notice the bottom few rows are “box seats” with only a square pad for you to sit on, “Japanese Styyyyle”)

Chinatown, Yokohama. It’s Japan’s largest Chinatown (think about that for a second haha! Before I moved here I didn’t know the difference between the two countries at all). The structures here are so intricately designed. Not to mention there’s delicious food and fun souvenir shopping everywhere you turn. Super fun place.

So this one I couldn’t find a good picture of (the website is here), being a hot spring and all, you can’t really take good pictures while you’re in the water all day. This is Yunnesun hot springs in Hakone, the hot spring (“onsen” おんせんor温泉) capital of Japan. Here we bathed in green tea, red wine, coffee, charcoal water, sake, orange peel water, and then water freshly pouring out of the rocks beneath us. It was incredible, you have to see it to believe it.

Ok, again with Kyoto. Just LOOK at this! Its an overview of the city. Nestled in between the mountains they somehow manage to squeeze 1.5 million people in this small area. Just looking at how everything works together so well, I’m astonished. Not an inch of space is ever wasted, and yet while living in such close quarters (like in this picture) they still manage to keep a low crime rate and be ranked as the #1 safest country in the world to live (the U.S. is #88).

Otaru, Hokkaido. You may not see much in this picture, but this town was one of the most beautiful and quaint I’ve ever visited here. It has a European feel to it because most of the buildings were built when trade with other countries became big in the local port. The snow was 10ft deep in some places, the food was delicious and always hot, the seafood was fresh out of the clean water, and talk about amazing desserts… don’t even get me started.

One more in Tokyo… this is the famous crosswalk in Shibuya. Movies like Resident Evil, Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, and the “Panic Station” music video by Muse (just to name a few) were all filmed and take place here. It is just about as thrilling as a roller coaster ride to see thousands of people all cross the world’s largest crosswalk at the same time. Every 5 minutes.

Finally, the famous Cherry Blossoms, or sakura (さくら). This was taken at Odawara castle, a great place to see them, but really anywhere is great. This time of year they bloom out across Japan making an incredible sight and reminder of Japan’s natural beauty.

 

The list could go on and on and on…but these were some of our favorite places to see. I would definitely go back to all of them if given the chance.