Took a week vacation for a trip to Japan where we visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima! Reshma flew in from her semester at France, Hemanshu flew in from Singapore, and Reshma's parents flew in from Vancouver - we all stayed with Shantanu, Vrunda, and Shrey in Tokyo. Shrey turned 3 when we were there!
Tokyo highlights included the Imperial Palace, Harajuko, Omoto-sando, Shibuja, Hachinko, Meiji Shrine, and Hakone National Park. There is so much to do there. We even went on a vintage ship on Lake Ashinoko to view Mt. Fuji.
Travelled by Shinkansen (bullet-train) to Kyoto for two nights and Hiroshima for one night. The Shinkansen was awesome with speeds of 300km/h! Kyoto is full of temples and we visited many of them. Ones that we would recommend are Fushimi Inari Shrine, Sanjusangendo (1001 Buddha status from 1164 AD), Kiyomizu-dera (on top of a hill with beautiful views of Kyoto), and Kinkakuji (Golden Temple). We do not recommend Riyonji Temple which is basically a very boring zen rock garden (unless you like staring at stones). Also Nijo Castle was not that impressive.
Hiroshima was a must to gain an insight into how devastating the atomic bomb was and the effects it had on people for generations to come. The entire city was wiped out when the bomb was dropped on Aug 6, 1945!
It was great to have Shantanu and Vrunda who speak fluent Japanese in Tokyo as langaunge was a definite barrier there. We found people in Kyoto and Hiroshima spoke more English as the two cities are more touristy. For vegetarians, Subway was a life saver with basil-mayo in their sandwiches; also McDonalds with their pancake (hot cakes) breakfast!
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