Afterward

It is more than 8 months since we visited Japan and reviewing this journal we seemed to be really busy but we in no way regret it. Despite not being the best time of year to visit - It being cold, wet and largely devoid of any cherry blossoms - We still had a great, though exhausting, time.

Some video “snippets” from our trip…

With the previous experience I had visiting Japan and the language I prepared long in advance for this trip taking particular care to pre-book attractions well in advance. If I had not done this we would never have been able to visit Ghibli Park, for example, and our Visas on arrival would have been a bit trickier. It was well worth the hassle and meant we had nothing to particularly worry about once we arrived other than arranging train tickets.

Generally, the process was:

1. Agree on dates
2. Book flights
3. Arrange Japanese visa
4. Research - Determine where we wanted to stay and general itinerary (some of this was based on the most limited ticket availability for attractions, specifically, Ghibli Park)
5. Book hotels
6. Book attractions that needed to be booked in advance
7. Relax and enjoy the ride!

We were also careful to allow a few “free days” to allow us to simply take it all in, but, truth be told, every day we had a fair amount of time without anything booked to allow us to explore. Even with this, I still needed to keep track of everything in a spreadsheet.

This was your first visit to Japan. How was it?

It was absolutely incredible. It probably exceeded my expectations and changed my perceptions that I had. I thought it was going to be, well, especially Tokyo, I thought it was going to be really busy and just full on with people and sure there were lots of people but it was very very calm it was really really amazing.

Did anything surprise you about Japan?

How beautiful it was? It's a really really interesting mix of old and new and it really surprised me with just how friendly people are and how helpful they are. It's really, really lovely.

What was the best thing about Japan in your opinion? The best thing about Japan?

Well, the food definitely was probably the nicest Japanese food I've ever had. Everything's so fresh.

What was the worst thing? Did you find anything you particularly didn't like?

Um… Oh boy. What didn't I like?

Travel?

No, travel was always good. Had no issues. The trains were fantastic. It was difficult to figure out some of the train signs and figure out where you're going and stuff, but that's more a language thing. So that would probably be the biggie that I didn't have enough of the basics of Japanese, which would have made it much easier for getting around.

How did you find the people?

The people were absolutely lovely. Very respectful, courteous, friendly, helpful. And everyone was just generally pretty quiet.

Do you have any regrets about the visit? Did you want to see something that you didn't see?

There's more I'd like to see. I'd like to see just more of everything, really. And visit more areas of Japan as well, but they would be too far to have done on this trip. They would need to be separate trips. But yeah, I'd love to go back. Also, to go back when I'm feeling better, so… Yeah, loved it.

How did you find Sakura, the cherry blossom festival?

Well, unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side and it was unusually cool. So there were very few Sakura trees in bloom. Many were just starting, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Actually at first it was a lot of a disappointment because we had booked a couple of things that were specifically for Sakura and we didn't get to see them. So we'll have to try again another year.

So you definitely want to go back?

Absolutely.