After spending a week in the Tokyo area with friends, we flew back home and Katie (who lives in Yokosuka now) came down with us! We visited the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum and Park down in Itoman, followed by the Himeyuri Peace Museum. The Peace Memorial Park is located in Mabuni Hills, where the Battle of Okinawa came to an end in 1945. W[...]
On our last few hours in Tokyo we decided to make a pit stop at the popular Meiji Shrine before heading to the airport. Meiji, a shinto shrine, was completed in 1920 and dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken after their death. It is located in a gorgeous 170 acre forest area in the Shibuya district, in between Yoyogi Park and Harajuku Station, so b[...]
While researching things to do and places to see during our girls trip to Mainland I found Enoshima Island and quickly added it to our list. We road tripped from Yokosuka, a short 45 minute drive with stunning ocean views all around! All in all it was a wonderful place for a day trip! [...]
After visiting the AMAZING TeamLab exhibition in Odaiba (my absolute favorite experience in Japan to date), and seeing the city from above at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, we headed to the world's busiest crossing in Shibuya!! It was our friend Allison's first time! It's always a super fun area to explore and shop around. I always go up to t[...]
There's nothing like seeing the concrete jungle that is a huge city from the top of a tall skyscraper! We've previously seen Tokyo from the top of the Tokyo Sky Tree, Osaka from the top of the Umeda Sky Building, Sapporo from the top of the Sapporo TV Tower (post coming soon!), Hong Kong from the top of Victoria Peak and sadly missed seeing Taipei from the[...]
After walking along Komachi-dori, getting lost and finally finding the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) at Kotoku-in, we ended our time at Kamakura by visiting the Hasedera Temple. This is one of the most popular temples in Kamakura and is known for housing a massive wooden statue of Kannon. Kannon is the Japanese name for Guanyin, a being of enlightenment and comm[...]