JAPAN

We spent our honeymoon in Japan, for two weeks on winter 2014. It was a little cold, but nothing you can’t handle (except for Hakone, more on that later). It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had, I’d totally go back given the chance. I have a looooot of drawings and notes from this trip, so I’ll keep adding information.

We spent the first week in Tokyo and its whereabouts, and for the second we bought (in advance) a rail pass to travel to Kamakura, Hakone, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Nara, Kobe and Kyoto.

BASIC JAPANESE GESTURES

Below you can see some poses I drew this as a form of “field notes” in my journal, as we discovered how some gestures are different from the ones we’re used to.

TOKYO

Whenever someone asks me about Tokyo, I tell them its amazing because it has the perfect balance between tradition and craziness. I personally loved Akihabara and Shinjuku neighborhoods. We spent hours falling in love of Muji shops, and road a rickshaw cart near Asakusa. We spent six nights and thought it wasn’t enough.

We stayed at the Edo Sakura Hotel, which I recommend very much for a great Japanese experience (with tea ceremony included!)

HAKONE

This is a small town near Mount Fuji where you can sail and take a cable car through the mountains. We stayed at a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel).

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it, but here are some fun facts about our expectations for our honeymoon VS what actually happened, like getting into an onsen, sleeping in a tatami mat and having breakfast served in our bed.

OSAKA

It was freezing by the time we arrived to Osaka. We spent most of our day walking through Dotonbori, where you can see amazing moving signs and taste takoyaki (a ball-shaped snack made of wheat and octopus).

We also visited Osaka castle and Nipponbashi Denden Town (an Akihabara type neighborhood with lots of anime and nerd stuff).

HIROSHIMA

This place is quite emotional, visiting the monuments about the bombing in WWII is a must. There’s also an amazing castle with beautiful architecture where we learned about the samurai. For dinner, there’s a theme park – building full of okonomiyaki shops, where you can see up close its amazing cooking process.

The next day we took a ferry to see Miyajima, famous for its floating Torii gate (and for its cute food-stealing deer, that you can also see in Nara).

KYOTO

Our last stop was Kyoto. We spent most of our trip walking, so we were quite tired and weren’t able to see the whole city. Still, it has amazing shrines, a beautiful bamboo forest and the Manga Museum!

A nice tip for Japan is to eat noodles everywhere! Ramen, udon, soba, it’s the cheapest way to eat and keep you warm.