Trip Report: Tokyo Disneyland Resort & Tour of Parts of Japan 2024

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Koi pond? Of course!

What's better than sitting by the water and watching the koi fish? Why, having a nice soft-served matcha ice cream, of course!

There was also a small waterfall, but I think this is more to add to the sound ambience than as a water feature.

We found a small shrine on the grounds.

Interestingly enough, there was also an area where tea was grown, and it looked like a few rows of the tea bushes had been recently harvested.

Nestled right in the middle of the tea plantation is a small tea room where you can make a reservation to attend a proper Japanese tea ceremony.

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We spent almost the entire morning at the garden before hopping back onto the coach as we continue heading toward Hiroshima. Our lunch was at a rest area, but this is nowhere near the type of highway rest area that I often encounter here in the US (unless, of course, you often encounter a Buckee's or Iowa80, the world's largest truckstop).

These were our lunch for the day. They were yummy!

But what surprised me was that there was a bakery on site, and they were making a lot of these "melon bread". This is not to be confused with what the Japanese called "melon pan", which isn't a bread made with melon. This one here is actually a melon-flavored bread. I bought one because they were freshly baked.

It was one of the best thing I ate over the entire trip! I told everyone that sat around me on the coach to tell them about the bread, and for the rest of the trip, we kept looking for me of these melon bread. It was that good!

Our next stop was the village of Kurashiki. We got to roam around Bikan Historical Quarter. The central canal was lined with traditional houses of the Edo period.

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Yup, I took a lot of pictures of the traditional buildings.

There were also several swans in the canal, one can be seen in this picture below. Since we were not in the UK, the swans are not owned by the Crown.

We got back onto the coach and headed straight to Hiroshima, which will be our base for the next couple of night. The hotel was quite close and almost across the street from the Hiroshima Station. This was where we will pick up and be dropped off by our tour coach.

Here we were walking from the Hiroshima station heading toward the hotel.

These were the views we had from our hotel room.

It was a long, but an awfully fun day.

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Day 8 was a memorable day because we visited two locations that are on UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. After a hearty breakfast (I knew it was going to be a busy day), we got on our bus early in the morning.

Our first stop was to get onto a ferry heading to Miyajima Island, the location of Itsukushima Shrine and the famous "floating" Torii Gate.

It wasn't a long boat ride, maybe 30 minutes. But from afar, we could already spot the floating Torii gate as we approach Miyajima.

It was a perfect picture since the tide was still high, making it look like the Torii gate was.... floating!

We reached Miyajima early enough that the place was not crowded yet as we walked toward the shrine.

We were greeted by a few of the friendly locals.

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We reached the shrine and did a quick tour of it. There was actually a wedding ceremony going on, but a big crowd was already there viewing it that we decided to just walk around the grounds.

I noticed that the tide was receding and we could walk up close to the Torii gate, so we did.

If you looked at it long enough and start to say to yourself that this looks familiar, you're correct! This was the inspiration for the red Torii gate in front of the Japan pavilion at Epcot. The only difference being that the one at Epcot is always "floating", while the real one does reveal itself completely in the sand during low tides.

I wish we had more time there, but by late morning, we had to make our way back to the ferry. I took another photo of the Torii gate as we passed by it on the ferry, and sure enough, the tide was out and you could see all of it by that time.

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We had another wonderful lunch at a service area before making our way to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. As I've stated early while when I first reported from here, this was the most emotional part of the trip in light of my recent visit to Pearl Harbor in 2022. I just kept having the sense that thousands of lives were gone in a matter of seconds all around me many, many years ago.

We visited the Atomic Bomb Dome that was preserved exactly the way it was after the bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

We then proceeded to the rest of the peace park and entered the Memorial Museum where, if you were not wrecked already, you'll be thoroughly devastated by artifacts, pictures and videos in there. I did not take pictures inside the museum, not because it was prohibited, but I just couldn't.

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We took our coach bus back to Hiroshima station (close to the hotel), but we didn't go back to our hotel. Instead, we went to a restaurant within the station called Otafuku where we got to make our own Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, and then eat them! Remember earlier that in the Dotonbori district, we had Osaka-style okonimiyaki, so this one is slightly different.

Despite the fact that we were all amateurs, the okonomiyaki turned out pretty well. Mine was delicious! It was a wonderful end to a memorable day.

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On Day 9, we left Hiroshima to make our way to our last city, which was Kyoto. But before that, we had one last look outside of our room at the beautiful city of Hiroshima.

We dropped off our luggage to be picked up, and then headed for breakfast. Found a lovely spot to sit.

My final breakfast in Hiroshima.

We got on our coach and started our journey. Our first stop was a rest area. Again, the Japanese do not do these things lightly. The rest area was exceedingly beautiful because it had an amazing rose garden next to it!

Oh yeah, I could spend hours there, but we had to move on.

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Our next stop was one of the most memorable places on this trip. We stop at Bizen City to visit a pottery center. I had heard of Bizen pottery before, but was very ignorant of it. I wish I had learned a bit more about it because I now have so many question.

We were brought to Studio Kibido, the home of the Kimura family pottery.

We got to tour not just the store, but also the pottery-making area and see their stock of items that they were prepping for the upcoming festival.

Our gracious host was Yosuke Kimura. He gave a very detailed explanation on what Bizen pottery is, its history, and how they are made. I did not know that Bizen ware do not use any kind of glaze. They are glazed naturally using the wood ashes that they are buried in in the kiln during the firing. That's mind-blowing!

A look at the huge kiln.

We went back into the main store and I just knew that I had to buy something, because this was way too special.

I ended up buying a couple of Japanese tea cups. Here they are on display in my home right now. They came with a card indicating that the pottery artist was Yosuke Kimura.

Since I got back, I have found quite a bit more about Bizen pottery, and in particular, about the Kimura family and their long tradition in this type of pottery. Read this article if you are as well.

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Our next stop after that is another UNESCO World Heritage site, the Himeji Castle.

Honestly, when I first set my eyes on it, I thought that this was the inspiration for the architecture of the Epcot building at the back of the Japan pavilion. Turns out, by golly, I was right!

We had tickets to go up the building, so we began the slow, long climb with the crowds.

This is the view from the top.

After we got down, we got to look around the grounds a bit more. It was a very impressive building.

We finally made it to our final hotel of the tour in Kyoto and settled in for the night. It was a very long day, with another busy one the next day.

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Don't you hate it when real life got in the way of your trip reporting?

Day 10 of our guided tour started off with a visit to Kinkakuji with the temple of the Gold Pavilion. It was still early in the morning and it wasn't that crowded yet.

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We then headed on over to Nishiki market, one of, if not THE most famous shopping street in Kyoto.

Unfortunately, we weren't give that much time to explore the place (we went back to Nishiki Market a couple of days later). We had an appointment for a private Japanese Tea Ceremony.

I recorded part of the tea ceremony in this video:


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We had lunch after that, and then we headed to the Gion district. This area is filled with old, traditional buildings and houses. Supposedly, at certain times of the day, one might also see Maiko going about their job, but we were there at the wrong time and didn't see any.

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Our final stop of the day was what I consider to be the highlight of the day. We were at the Fushimi Inari Shrine that's renowned for the thousands of bright-red Torii gates.

It was only after we got home that we found out that the place was open 24 hours and that they recommend coming at night when it isn't crowded and nightly lit. Drat! I could have stayed there all day!

It was a delightful and packed day, as you can imagine.

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