Time frame: March 27-April 10

I chose to visit Japan at this time because it was the tail end of ski season, so lift tickets would be cheaper due to the off season, and it also happened to be the time of year when the sakura (cherry blossoms) come in to bloom. With that agenda in mind, I flew in to Hokkaido and traveled the country north to south. I invested in a Japan Rail (JR) pass, which was, as is often advised, expensive but totally worth it. With that pass I could ride the all JR trains (bullet trains included), hopping on and off at whichever city I felt like stopping in. I haven’t seen a train system this well-organized since Switzerland. On that note, every thing in Japan is pristine and efficient…to the degree that you can buy soft serve ice cream from vending machines, and even the public toilet seats are heated.

I’ll walk you through how my unplanned Japanese journey unfolded. Select “Japan” under the “countries” tab and you will find posts for each city I visited.

In order…

Niseko

Hakodate

Tokyo

Hakone (Mt. Fuji)

Kyoto

Nara

Osaka

Kobe

Hiroshima

Fukuoka

Japan is not as popular on the backpacker route…which meant I had a lot more alone time. That me-time, combined with double culture shock from returning to the States, and 4+ months of traveling, brought about a shift in mentality and travel style. You can read about that here.

Overall, Japan was filled with incredible food (sushi, kobe beef, ramen…and a lot of 7-11 meals that were shockingly tasty), everything Sakura-ed (as in decor, flavors, clothes, events), snow and cold weather, sun too, cities, temples, soft-serve ice cream, onsens, a lot of live street music (all of which I accidentally stumbled across), buying pretty things and funky accessories, interactive lights/music exhibits, impeccable standards, and shy but extremely kind people. I will be coming back!