Category: Japanese
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Japan on a Budget: Tazawako and Nyuto Onsen
Tazawa is a beautiful, almost circular, lake in Akita-ken. Getting near the lake is easy: use the Akita mini-shinkansen, which if you’re coming from the south runs together with the main Tohoku line and forks off at Morioka (from the north, change there). Getting to the lake itself is harder. Having failed to find a…
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Japan on a Budget: Sendai, Matsushima and nearby
Dancers, Sendai Getting to Sendai is easy: grab a Shinkansen train from Tokyo Eki. The Hayate services are best: you’ll need a reserved seat, but these fly past all but the biggest stations. Step out of the huge Sendai JR station and you’re within walking distance of just about everything, although there’s also a subway…
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Japan on a Budget: Tohoku by Train
Matsushima, near Sendai, Miyagi-ken I came back from last year’s trip around southern Honshu determined to work on my kanji and head back the next year. One year, one hundred and twenty kanji and three more terms of general study later, I was on a plane to Narita again. And this time, with something approaching…
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Japan on a budget, 2: Tokyo
(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series). Arriving International flights arrive at Narita, outside Tokyo. It’s worth claiming your Japan Rail Pass in the large JR office here (follow signs to the trains, and it’s before the ticket gates)…
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Japan on a budget, 3: Kyoto
(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series). I arrived in Kyoto on my second day, via Shinkansen from Tokyo. You arrive at the huge JR Kyoto station, from which you can link to the local JR lines, the private…
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Japan on a budget, 4: Northern Kansai
(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series). I didn’t really mean to go to the North coast of Kansai, but managed it anyhow. A national holiday fell on the Monday of my trip, and on the Saturday before every…
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Japan on a budget, 6: Nara and Yokohama
(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series). Nara, the capital of Japan before even Kyoto, is all about the parkland, deer and temples. It’s a short train ride from Kyoto, so I rolled up early in the morning. If…
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Ten Tokyo Travel Tips
It’s been a while since we returned from Japan. I’m not even going to attempt to explain what it was like – just go, see, enjoy – but I did think I’d jot down a few tips for anyone planning a similarly short visit to Tokyo. And so here’s the ten things that I’d absolutely…