Japan!
Had a Great Flight with JAL. Japan Airlines. Took the skyliner train to near our place in Tokyo.
Thursday visited the Imperial Palace Gardens, which have impressive walls. The Palace was closed for September.
Koi
In the Asia Museum - took hundreds of photos. This is from China:
In the Japan Gallery, a cast iron dragon
More museums Friday, OMG THE RAIN! Soaked, but still traipsed around the museums. And had dinner at the World's End Irish Pub!
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Saturday the Bullet train Shinkansen down to Nagoya!
Visited Ghibli Park Sunday - 90F out whew! We had a ticket for entry at 1pm (though that's an ambiguous/weird thing). It's not like any other theme park. Very static. Made for Selfie pictures and wide-eyed enjoyment.
Took the 'subway' really skyway to Inuyama Castle. One original preserved castle, not bombed or rebuilt. Steep interior steps from floor to floor, and in your socks - you have to carry your shoes in a bag. Great, commanding view of the river, which is the point.
Heading for Osaka, we 'subway'd' in to Nagoya Station, booked a fast train on the Kintetsu line, which is not as fast, but cheaper than the Shinkansen. Boarded, settled into our assigned seats, and there was an announcement in Japanese, and everyone got up and off the train - some incident canceled their line for the evening. So we had to get a refund. Took the Shinkansen Bullet Train to Osaka, then the subway to our Hostel "Amber's Hostel". Exhausted. Travel days have us hauling all our backpacks, etc from train to train and to hotel. Bleah.
93F out, but we braved the rails and walked Osaka Castle:
The interior is pure museum, not castle interior at all, but informative about 16th Century Japan.
In Kyoto visiting temples/shrines.
Walked through hundreds of Torii Gates. Probably blessed now!
Thursday was a catch-up day. Only went into town for dinner and some shopping.
Friday was taking trains to Kobe, then a bus to the Godzilla Interception Operation theme park. We weren't sure the tickets we bought on-line would work, but they did! We watched a short movie about how they 'inactivated' Godzilla and we need to check if there is any activity by zip-lining into his mouth, and on the way back, shoot any growing pustules (looking like zits!) to keep him inactive. It was cute. There was a museum as well. We had to wait 2 hours for a bus with 3 open seats, but we made it to Tokushima!
In Tokushima, Laurel showed us around town, the Central Park, which was where the castle was- big walls and a moat! Tram'd up the local mountain for views, and bicycled around.
We had a traditional dance demonstration from some of her friends, and ate at a famous Ramen place and Bubu's Noodle house, before viewing an Awa dance demonstration, which was super impressive!
Sunday took the bus and rail to Himeji Castle, and viewed it from the outside due to not enough time, and being super crowded, then we caught the Shinkansen to Kagashima. The bullet train makes up to 199mph covering 700 miles in 3.3 hours!
Visited the 150+ year old Last Samaurai Residences in Chiran
In the town of Chiran, along the street is a stream with waterwheels, mini-dams/waterfalls, and lots of large Koi fish!
and the Kirishima Temple
To compare the size of Japan (not the latitude, but it's not far off. We're in the latitude of Northern Florida not in Kagoshima.
Our general route through Japan:
