Japan

We decided to visit the aptly named Japanese onsen town, Kinosaki Onsen, halfway through our 16-day journey around Japan as we thought it’d be a welcomed escape after nine busy days in some of the country’s largest cities.

As expected, it was everything we hoped for and then some.

Between hopping around six of the seven tattoo-friendly onsens found in the town (the seventh was closed for construction during our visit), enjoying incredible food and drink, and checking out some of the other non-onsen sightseeing activities, we really wished we had stayed for more than two nights as we only really got a brief teaser of what this town has to offer!

So, in this one, we thought we’d share more about what there is to do in Kinosaki Onsen and nearby and why you may want to book more nights than you think here!

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Kyoto is an amazing city, quite possibly my favorite in Japan.  It is one of those places you can picture yourself living if you had to move abroad. There is little else that can be said to generalize the place better than that. 

Although Kyoto has well over a million residents, it is hard to tell except for the southern end of town near JR’s Kyoto terminal which has a constant exchange of both locals and tourists alike. 

Unlike smaller towns in Japan, such as Nagano and Nagoya, the city of Kyoto has the benefit of having large town attractions as well, making it rather unique in the tightly packed country of Japan.  However, like all big cities, some of the tourist attractions fall short, especially when compared to other, more unique options that are available. 

The following is my take on some of my favorite things to do in Kyoto that I have visited in the previous 48 hours.

I must stress that this is my views after two weeks of travel in the country.  If Kyoto was the first stop on a trip, the sites may have been perceived differently.

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Kobe, Japan is an interesting city. 

If you would drop me there without telling me where I was and no local signs or people walking around I would guess that I was in a place like London or Chicago – most definitely not Japan. 

Hello Kitty and Cartoon figures are all but missing and replaced with upscale dining (mostly French and Italian), expensive stores (Dior, DG, etc), and English is almost always in a larger font than the comparable Kanji text for most big businesses.

It is so eerie and cosmopolitan that I caught myself on multiple occasions wondering if I was even in Japan anymore.

There are really only three things that I could see coming to Kobe for. 

The first is the most obvious, to live there.  Kobe constantly ranks the top city in Japan for expat living and there is no doubt of that after seeing the city.  For me, all the french restaurants and pastry shops (mostly the latter) have me wanting to move there already as well. 

The second is as an entry and exit point into Japan via the nearby port of Kobe which has weekly ferries to and from Shanghai and Busan (I later took the ferry from Osaka to Shanghai, instead). 

Since I am not able to be classified in the previous two, the reason I went to Kobe falls into category number 3:  Kobe Beef.

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