Writing Prompt: What place would you recommend someone to visit in Japan?

Figured I’d switch things up with a Japan-related prompt every so often.

Although this question certainly isn’t any easier!

A Trip to Kyoto

Here’s something that I never got around to posting about, which is a trip I took to Kyoto with a few friends over a weekend last fall.

I have 162 pictures from the trip, which only lasted a few days.

Basically, we left on the Friday evening right after work and arrived in Kyoto at around 1am. Spent all of Saturday and Sunday morning sightseeing before undertaking the ~7 hour drive back to Nagano.

The entire weekend was gone, but the memories will remain forever.

My home away from home – Nakano City, Nagano

Seeing as I no longer live there, I feel like I can comfortably write a little about where I was living during my two years in Japan, and that’s… Nakano City! But not the Nakano City of Tokyo.

No, this Nakano City is much more rural.

And cute? Stay tuned for details!

Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo 2022

I’ve been taking it easy since returning to Canada, and will continue like that for a bit.

Figured I’d just share some of the nice cherry blossoms I saw during my 10 day stint in Tokyo before coming home. Luckily, I had managed to arrive just in time for full bloom, with the blossoms just starting to blow away in the wind. After about three or four days the blossoms were pretty much all done with.

As I had no plans during my initial days in Tokyo, I went out and saw what I could!

Even More Japan Tidbits

As always, when I’m not writing about my personal experiences here, I like to try and bring up some lesser talked about tidbits about Japan. It feels like pretty much everyone mentions the same basic points like “don’t stick your chopsticks into your food” and “take off your shoes when going inside” in their “Top X Things to Not Do in Japan” videos / posts.

Not that there’s anything wrong with those posts, I mean I read a bunch of them before coming here. So you can bet that I was totally prepared when it comes to what not to do with my chopsticks around food.

But of course there are so many things that I had no idea about before coming here. Which is why I wracked my brain to scrape together some more tidbits. These aren’t Earth-shattering points, just small things that maybe aren’t as known!

I’ll share some pictures from my recent trip to a scenic road in the mountains – we could even see Fuji-san from where we were, which was cool. And high up enough we reached snow, which was also pretty surreal in a way.

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Some More Unexpected Aspects of Living in Japan

I’ve been living here in rural Nagano Prefecture for the last year and a half, so I have to say that I feel like I’ve adapted to quite a bit since I first came to Japan.

When I first arrived to Japan, in Tokyo, just the streets, cars, buildings, etc. were foreign enough to make me want to take pictures of basically everything I laid my eyes on. I’ve definitely gotten past that, at least. The mountains here still catch my eyes all the time though, so I’m glad to say that I haven’t gotten over them.

Like some of my other posts, here are some more things that I didn’t know I’d have to deal with when I moved to Japan.

Summer in Japan 2021

Last year in the summer I went on a good road trip with a few friends through Nagano Prefecture.

This year, I didn’t get up to as much, but I’ve realized that I did do a few things that I can share. So that’s what I’ll do.

Unexpected changes in my life after moving to Japan.

Felt like writing a blog post, so here we are.

Since moving to Japan a lot has changed in my life. I mean really I could never have fully anticipated how everything would go. I’ve made attempts to go out and do more, learn more, experience more. And compared to how I was in Canada, I’d say I’ve managed to do much more on that front.

But anyways, there have been some unexpected changes, some of which I could never have expected.

So I’ll share some of those with you all.

Re-visiting Tokyo

While I first came to Tokyo, Japan on March 13th, 2020, I didn’t leave Tokyo until the end of the month. So this year, during the spring break, I was able to re-visit Tokyo, pretty much at the exact same time I was there last year.

I was able to meet with friends and do some fun things, so I figured I’d share some of the pictures I took here!

Yomu in Japan: Cultural Festival Edition

All right, I’ve been dragging my feet a bit in regards to writing this post. It’s actually been a little over a month now, as the cultural festival I attended at one of my schools was actually in late September.

But I did say I’d write about it, so here we go.