Planning travel and adventures can take many paths. Some adventures are inspired by books! Other travels become part of our itinerary because of movies or even music. Reminiscing about travel always begins with the reason for the adventure. Always a beautiful memory. The why. The reason. The inspiration!
Our Japan adventure started with a travel discussion over a cup of coffee. Talk of adventure and coffee, definitely good things always come from this combination.
This journey will begin with trips on our own to Nikko and Matsumoto starting from Tokyo. After exploring these two cities we returned to Tokyo to meet out Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) group.
Nikko is know for temples and Matsumoto for the castle. We also spent time in a Ryokan-a traditional style Japanese lodge or resort. The ryokan was near Nikko.
Trains, transfers and more trains ended in destinations beyond our imagination.
Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy the photos as we travel through Nikko and Matsumoto, Japan!
The food presentation at our ryokan was gorgeous. The photos just show a glimpse of the meals we enjoyed during our stay.
Sake tasting at dinner our first night.
Breakfast!
We visited several temples in Nikko. The area is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Leaving Nikko was difficult but a spontaneous interaction on the train lightened the mood.
Before we boarded our train we purchased cookies. Thinking they were monkey cookies in honor of the snow monkey that lives in the mountains. Here is how we learned they may have been panda cookies!
We observed many families traveling on the trains. Babies and toddlers all the way to teenagers crowded on the same seats as their parents. Most of the time just the mother making the journey with them. On this occasion we watched two young boys as they cautiously explored the area. These boys were so good that their mother was actually able to read as they bounced around their seating area.
I really wanted to give them the cookies but not without asking permission. We had used a translator but did not have a lot of experience with the device. I decided to give it a try and asked the mother if the boys could have a cookie. She smiled and immediately said yes. The younger boy held the package and even gave it a sniff! Bob reminded me that it is considered impolite to eat in public so he just had to smell for now. Soon the mother and youngest boy brought me this handwritten thank you note! So sweet!
These are the type of experiences that make travel a learning adventure and not just sightseeing. I hope we have many more interactions like this as we travel through Japan!
Monkey? Panda? It really didn’t matter!
Next stop on our journey was Matsumoto.
The fortified city of the Japanese Alps.
The castle is also known as Karasu-jo which translates to The Raven’s Castle and is the oldest (1504) in Japan.
Another UNESCO World Heritage Sites and considered a national treasure in Japan.
The photos below are from a tea ceremony we attended in the castle garden.
The young girls were serving the tea to us and then sat near us as the ceremony continued.
It was fun to watch them giggle with each other after they were finished helping.
Our journey to Matsumoto and then to Tokyo included stopping in smaller cities. Here are a few photos from our stops. Not all adventures happen on the fast trains, sometimes the local trains have opportunity for more escapades!
One of the regions is known for apple orchards. We had fresh apple slices at breakfast and bought an apple tart at a bakery. Delicious!
The menu at this restaurant was totally surprising! Apparently the town is know for their horse meat dishes. Almost everything on the menu included horse meat but below you’ll see I found salmon sashimi!
“The smoking cage” as we started to call these designated smoking areas. Very rare to see anyone eating or smoking while walking in the city.
“The world is a canvas to the imagination.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
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