Japan Visit

• Japan - our first Asia vacation while living in Asia! While only a 3 hour flight from Shanghai, a world of difference. The sense of order is unbelievable - from one-directional pedestrian traffic to cabs patiently waiting one behind each other for embarking passengers. The Japanese are reserved, polite and unobstrusive; price haggling and elbow bumping is not practiced like in China. Tokyo has a silent energy like no other. Bright lights, high technology, and funky fashionistas living amidst a city with no sound (unlike the loud banter or incessant beeping horns that we have become accustomed to in Shanghai). Can you tell I'm a bit over China after visiting Japan? :o) The city is abundant with high fashion department stores and boutiques literally everywhere and easily accessible thanks to the modern subway system that has more than 18 different lines running throughout the city. The food is incredible - from uber-fresh sashimi & homemade soba to heaping Italian dishes to delectable French confection. You soon learn that Tokyo has mastered international cuisine so well that you pretty much forget you're in Japan! Below a couple suggestions for those of you thinking about planning a trip (which we HIGHLY recommend!):

Tokyo

Sights

• Tsukiji Fish Market - wholesale auctioning from 5am - 7am, great surrounding sushi bars and fish, vegetable/fruit markets
• Ginza - Tokyo's Fifth Avenue, carries just about any luxury brand you can think of with enormous high end department stores on every block and gourmet variety food courts sure to overwhelm, my favorite is Ginza Matsuya
• Imperial Palace & Garden- home to Japan's emperor, unable to enter Palace itself but can tour pretty garden outside including lots of bonzai trees
• Tokyo Tower - modeled after the Eiffel Tower but nine meters taller with great views of the city
• Shinjuku - an oddly combined district including upscale department stores (Barney's New York, Isetan) with neon flashing shopping arcades, shrines & strip bars
• Roppongi Hills - shopping, dining, entertainment complex in nightlife district
• Meiji Jingu - shrine built in memory of emporer Meiji & Empress Shoken with beautiful surrounding garden

Restaurants/Bars

• Gonpachi - variety of Japanese dishes in a traditional Japanese storehouse setting
• L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - French/Japanese fusion in Roppongi Hills - recommend the set tasting menu as the menu is entirely in French
• Il Mulino New York - Italian restaurant in Roppongi Hills with huge portions to share
• Tofuya - located right next to the Tokyo Tower, delicious tofu inspired dishes in a traditional Japanese table setting (on the ground/no shoes)
• Park Hyatt - featured in the movie "Lost in Translation", great appetizers, drinks & views

We spent our second week traveling throughout Kyoto, Nara, Osaka & Hiroshima. Kyoto is a 2 hour train ride from Tokyo on the Shinkansen bullet train and a must see for a taste of traditional Japan. We spent 2 days touring the city, there are so many temples and shrines to see that we can hardly remember them all but we do have a couple that we really enjoyed:

Kyoto
Southern Higashiyama

• Kiyomizu deraTemple - famous pagoda with waterfall Otowa-no-taki believed to have sacred powers
• Kodai-ji Temple - founded in 1605 by Kita-no-Mandokoro in memory of her late husband, includes gardens and famed landscaping by Kobori Enshu
• Maruyama-koen Park - pretty gardens & ponds including a famous weeping cherry tree
• Gion - Sannen-zaka & Ninen-zaka are streets with lots of 17th century restaurants and tea houses (many exclusive for geisha entertainment) as well as art galleries & shops, Ishibei-koji is known as one of Kyoto's most beautiful streets
• Chion-in - Largest temple gate with nightingale floors (that squeak with every move to prevent intruders)
• Sanjusangendo - houses 1001 statues of the armed Buddhist goddesses

Northwest Kyoto

• Nijo-jo Castle - 5 buildings with multiple chambers built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first shogun
• Kinkaku-ji Temple - one of Japan's best known sites, beautiful gold foil temple built in 1397 as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Arashiyama & Sagano

• Bamboo Grove - right outside Tenryi-ji temple, this was our favorite spot in Kyoto!

Central Kyoto

• Imperial Palace - famous spot but don't recommend unless you have time as you can't get in without applying for permission to visit, there is a nice park outside but you'll see plenty during your visit

Osaka

• Osaka-jo - breathtaking castle built as a display of power by Toyotomi Hideyoshi after unifying Japan
• Osaka Aquarium - world's largest aquarium tank featuring a whale shark, worth a visit

Nara

• Nara-koen Park - home to 1200 deer that roam the parks and are not shy when it comes to snack handouts from tourists! The deer in Buddhist times were considered messengers of the gods
• Kofuku-ji Temple - transferred from Kyoto in 710 as the main temple for the Fujiwara family
• Todai-ji Temple - Enormous bronze buddha image
• Nigatsu-do & Sangatsu-do - views are one of the best in Nara

Hiroshima

• A Bomb Dome - building was an industrial promotion hall until the US Enola Gay unleashed the atomic bomb directly above it on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
• Peace Memorial Park - includes a cenotaph containing all the known victims of the bomb, Flame of Peace which will only be extinguished once the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed, Children's Peace Monument - inspired by the leukaemia victim Sadako Sasaki who at the age of 10 decided to fold 1000 paper cranes in hopes that she would recover, her classmates finished her goal after her death
• Peace Memorial Museum - narrates the events preceding, during and after the atomic bombing