Tamagotchi Explorers

Well I've been able to reserve accommodation in Kyoto and Tokyo which will see us spending 14 of our 18 nights in Japan.

Firstly is the Kyoto ryokan Tour Club! its a quiet little place 9 minutes away from the Kyoto central rail station. It will be our base for the first 5 nights allowing us to easily visit Nara, Ueno and Osaka during the days. Kyoto itself is rich in Temples and Shrines and I'm sure plenty of sightseeing of "old japan" will be done during the opening of our holiday!

Everyone needs a Zen Garden - particularly Josh

Modern Japan living?

Our 2nd base of holiday operations! will be none other than Tokyo. We wanted to be close to the center of Tokyo to make seeing as much as possible easy! With this in mind i found a little place in the Asakusa district which is rich in atmosphere with the street lined markets and traditional temples. Once the entertainment district of old Tokyo.

and yes when i said "little place", i meant wooden shanty.

The Taito ryokan will be our home for 9 nights between the 26th of October to the 4th of November, and will allow us to see all of the central Tokyo districts aswell as make daily trips to Mt Fuji, Nikko, Nagano and Kamakura.

As for accommodation in Takayama, Miyajima and Osaka i think the attitude at the moment is meh.. and "winging it" may be applied.

Scheduled Flight Dates
Depart - Sunday Oct 21 @ 11:30AM
Arrive in Osaka at 8:20PM in Kansai Airport

Return - Sunday November 08 @ 8:50pm
Arrive in Sydney at about noon at the Intl. Airport

Itinerary

Oct Sun 21: Arrive at Kansai Airport, and travel to ryokan in Kyoto.
Oct Mon 22-Wed 24: Spend two full days in Kyoto and one day in nearby Nara. Nara is an easy day trip from Kyoto.
Oct Thurs 25: Day trip to Iga Ueno, visit the ninjas. If finish early spend evening in Osaka or Kyoto before returning back to Kyoto Inn.
Oct Fri 26: Take the bullet train from Kyoto to Toyko in the morning. Check into ryokan and explore Asakura district.
Oct Sat 27- Tues 30: Spend four full days in Tokyo
Oct Wed 31: Day trip to Hakone, Mt Fuji & the Five lakes.
Oct Thurs 1: Day trip to Nikko
Nov Fri 2: Day trip to Nagano (snow monkeys!)
Nov Sat 3: Day trip to Kamakura
Nov Sun 4: Travel to Takayama in the morning, spend the night here.
Nov Mon 5: In the early morning, travel from Takayama to Hiroshima (4 hours) and visit the Peace Park. In the afternoon, continue to Miyajima and overnight there.
Nov Tues 6: Get up early and spend a few more hours on Miyajima. Leave the island around eleven for Himeji (2 hours). Spend the afternoon exploring Himeji Castle. Travel to Osaka for the night.
Nov Wed 7: Spend full day in Osaka
Nov Thurs 8: Spend the day in Osaka before checking into Kansai airport at 6pm fly home that night.

So that's that then. A full 18 days in the land of the rising sun. It's going to be action packed that's for sure. Honestly, I can't wait :-)

Stay tuned avid fans - For there will be regular updates to our blog over the coming weeks. Including plans of the attractions we wish to see, accommodation, and much much more!

A quick email was all it took for everyone to jump on board of Brad's planned holiday, both Darren and I invited ourselves and got Brad to do all the planning.

After getting approval from family members, loved ones, employers, mum and dad (Brad) and several different deity's, flights were booked to Japan. A rough guide was then completed and we found out our first piece of bad news, there will be no sumo wrestling while we are there! I am very fond of the fat bastards and would have liked to have seen a fight, but oh well the travels will continue without them.

Looking forward to getting this site spick and span for the trip so subscribe to the page to make sure you are kept up to date with all of our posts along the way.