Two weeks exploring dense cities, lush islands, and abandoned amusement parks

After having spent exactly one month traveling up the Australian east coast, surfing, diving and chilling in the sun, it was time to head north to Japan. Transitioning from Australian summer to Japanese winter was not exactly ideal, but I figured my Norwegian genes could handle it.

Before I went I was really unsure if I should spend two or three weeks in Japan, but in the end, I chose the former and spent the last week in South Korea. Two weeks ended up being enough to see the essentials of Japan, but you could easily lose yourself in this country for months or years.

Quick tips

• Get the Japan Rail Pass if you want to ride the bullet train
• Get a travel sim card at the airport with data
• Use Google maps everywhere! 

ITINERARY

Tokyo, two nights

Night train to Hiroshima

Hiroshima, one night

Osaka, one night

Kyoto, three nights

Nara, day trip

Mount Fuji

Tokyo again, five days

A marvel of engineering surrounded by beautiful nature

After a lovely 8 hour ride on the night train, I woke up to an early morning Hiroshima(not the shot). When you consider that this city was basically rendered flat in 1945 it's incredibly impressive to see the city today. 

One of my favorite parts of traveling is how you meet extraordinarily interesting people! In Hiroshima, this was especially true as Ryan and I had the good fortune to meet other travelers we would bump into several times over the next week.

If you're ever in Hiroshima I definitely would recommend checking out the island of Miyashima just outside of town. 

Mechanical crabs and ancient castle gardens

After the relatively small city of Hiroshima, I once again found myself in a big city. Osaka, while not as large as Tokyo, it is still huge by Norwegian standards (by any standards really). However, just like Tokyo it still manages to have large parks where you can get lost for hours. 

While we were about a month too soon for the Sakura flowering we did get some nice colorful pictures of these other kinds of trees.

Wandering Osaka at night is truly an amazing experience and pretty much as close to walking in a real-life anime as you will find. The city is famous for its mechanical street signs littering almost every restaurant so the endless movement of people in the streets is accompanied by everything from rotating signs to huge mechanical arms sticking out of the walls.

The castle town in the middle of Osaka was a real marvel. When walking around you find yourself imagining what life was like here hundreds of years ago. You can even take a picture with a Samurai, but trust me it doesn't look as good as you think it will haha.

Cold days and warm springs

After spending a day in Osaka we took the train over to the ancient capital of Japan, Kyoto. Kyoto is way more quiet, walkable and even spiritual than any other city we went to. 

You can spend your days visiting countless temples, but my favorite experience by far was walking the Fushimi Inari trail through 10 000 torii gates.

I would also really recommend going to an Onsen while you're there. Onsens are traditional Japanese hot springs and if you're prepared for a small culture shock you should check it out.

We spent three nights here, but you can probably fit Kyoto in two days if you're in a rush.

Nara is also home to a large park with free roaming deer and some of the largest temples I've ever seen.

When you think stereotypes can't be this real. And you're wrong.