Fun things to do in Japan

Located on Shikoku, the smallest of the four major islands of Japan, Matsuyama is the island’s largest city with a population of 450,000 and is 400 miles southwest of Tokyo and faces the Inland Sea. Matsuyama is the capital of Ehime Prefecture.

The city is famous for hot springs (onsen) and is home to Dōgo Onsen, the oldest hot spring bath house in Japan.

July 2003

See My Travel Page for more information.

My Virtualtourist guides....thank you all so much. Just returned from Japan last night....My time in Hakone was remarkable...Huge hail storm prevented our trip via the cable car to the top...BUT there is a bus that does the same thing, so we waited about fifteen minutes and took it up...took the same bus down all the way to the JR stop Fujisara.

Hakone can be visited easily from Tokyo. We organised a tour before we left home. We were picked up from our hotel - taken by bus to see Mt Fuji - then transported to Hakone. It was bitterly cold in Hakone - we visited in Winter. Finally we caught the Bullet train back to Tokyo. Well worth a visit.

Thank you very much;

Yes , Koyasan, i know and plan to stay there. And i want to stay in Nara aera and Miyajima and Kyoto.

I also just find Soto zen homepage,very useful:
http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/fre/temples/foreigner/index.html

Soreja..

Pascal

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Basho is one of the most well-known haiku poets in Japan. He travelled extensively around Japan during late 17th century. You can find Basho monuments in old highways such as Tokaido, Nakasendo, or Oshu Kaido.

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Where are the places to get the photos just like Utagawa Hiroshige described in his masterpiece Tokaido 53 stop series?

Photo#1 FUCHU
The mountain behind the Hiroshige's Fuchu currently in Shizuoka city is said to be Mt. Tokuganji. But as you cross the bridge over the Abe River along the Tokaido highway, you will soon see that both the direction and the distance do not fit for the mountain in question. The mountain in #1 photo is the peak where Abe castle ruins is located. It perfectly fits the frame.

Photo#2 NISSAKA
Although "Night-weeping Stone" is no longer on the Tokaido highway and what's more confusing there are two night-weeping stones, the landscape with the backdrop of the mountain is unchanged. You can see this landscape like #2 photo as you pass the Oogiya shop. The mountain on the Hiroshige's Nissaka is Mt. Awagatake 532 meters in elevation.
Sayono Nakayama area is about one hour walk from Nissaka area of Kakegawa.

Photo#3 KANAYA
Hiroshige's KANAYA is viewing Shimada mountains from Makinohara Hill area. You can see the similar landscape from the road between Suwabara castle and Ocha No Sato tea museum.

Photo#4 MIYA
Miya(Atsuta),#41 stop of Tokaido used to be the largest lodging station in Tokaido highway. With the exception of the Atsuta Shrine, and some of the traditional houses a few remains to show that it was once the huge lodging station. Shichiri-no-Watashi ferry from Miya port to Kuwana has been run for special occasions, four times a year since 2008.

Photo#5 KUWANA, #42 stop of Tokaido is a nice town with some historical places. With reconstruction of Banryu Tower in 2003, Hiroshige landscape of Kuwana has finally come back.

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Tsumago is one of the old post towns along the Nakasendo. The Nakasendo was the road that once connected Edo (Tokyo), with Kyoto. Travellers would stop to rest in the post towns on their journey's. Tsumago has been kept as much as possible in its original state from those times. There are no telephone poles or TV aerials in view, and the road is closed to traffic. It was very interesting to spend time wandering around here and also very relaxing. There were no where near as many tourists as we had expected, and in the early morning we had the place pretty much to ourselves. There are a number of little tea/coffee shops and also a great little ice-cream shop selling green tea ice-cream.

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If you only have time to visit one castle in Japan, try to make it Himeji. This castle is known to the japanese as "Shirasagi-jo" or, "The White Egret Castle", and is one of the 12 feudal castles still remaining. We spent the entire day at Himeji, exploring the castle and grounds and found it not only fascinating but beautiful. I think we were lucky, as it was cherry blossom season, which made for a lovely backdrop...however, a nice japanese man approached us and gave us an envelope full of photo's he had taken of the castle in all seasons, and it looked brilliant no matter what time of year!
More photo's in my Himeji travelogue.