🍮 Japan Travelogue 2017 🍮


OK so I just decided to make this to keep track of my memories because tumblr is amazingly slow. tbh this was a pain to make too because blogspot was also being a bitch i mean i just can't really. anyway I hope some of you guys will enjoy this and maybe find this helpful if you’re intending to plan a trip.

My family and I went to Japan earlier this year from the 5th - 20th May 2017. This was a really long trip, almost two weeks - the longest trip I’ve ever gone on other than school trips. We went to many places: Nagoya - Takayama - Toyama - Kyoto - Hakone and Tokyo. crazy haha I took so many photos but I'll just try to select some good ones. many are unedited or edited with an inconsistent filter lolol what a photographer so please don’t mind them. ok so here goes ( ´▽`)


Day 1: SG to Nagoya

We took the night flight as usual and arrived early-ish in the morning? This time instead of flying into Tokyo as we had previously, we flew into Nagoya first and departed from Tokyo at the end of the trip.

To give some background, this is actually my 5th time in Japan. I’ve been very very blessed to be able to go on so many trips. tbh ever since my family came to Japan for the first time in 2013 we just fell in love with the country and kept coming back. this trip was different in that we went to more places with nature and sight-seeing instead of just shopping in the cities.

PS. you can read my first travelogue at http://cheesebakedrice.tumblr.com/tagged/travelogue


We took a train from the airport into Nagoya Station. 

The moment I set foot on Japanese soil I was just so happy - I honestly missed it so much. Japan’s orderliness, quietness, and just overall charm. It’s very different from Korea. And yes I stuck the holika holika gudetama stickers on my nails, especially for this trip! gudetama nails in gudetama’s homeland~

We didn’t do much on the first day - just explore around the station and get food for lunch and dinner. my aunt and parents are getting on in years so we can’t really go all out even if my brother and I are energetic lol. but holidays are supposed to be relaxing anyway~

Small ramen shop we had lunch in - the 7 of us took up most of the space. tonkotsu ramen is my FAVE - the oily rich broth. and no one does it better than in japan duh

Our hotel was a small boutique one with an AMAZING view. It’s hotel Meitetsu Nagoyaeki Shinkansenguichi, if anyone intends to go here. I highly recommend it - it’s small but the design is modern, functional and clean.



Japanese convenience stores sell soo many yummy things I made it my plan to try many many different things every day

We had lunch at Nagoya station. this store sold only tuna - whether it be raw aburi tempura, with noodles or with rice. only tuna haha. at first, my family went it because they thought this was beef hehehehe oh well

The view from the room at night 

Day 2: Nagoya to Natoya

The next morning in Nagoya - we were headed off to do the Nakasendo Trail.

Some background of the trail: The trail between Magome and Tsumago is a well maintained section of the former Nakasendo, the route that ran along the Kiso Valley and connected Tokyo with Kyoto during the Edo Period.  It is about 8 km long and should take two to three hours to complete at a leisurely pace.

The trail leads through the countryside and passes right alongside the houses and fields of local residents. The trail also intersects with the road and hikers must tread along asphalt for some portions.

it was very sunny but chilly at the same time so you had moments where having a sweater was too hot, but then just wearing a plain t-shirt was too cold. it's a happy problem though, i'd rather this weather  than SG's constant 28 degrees weather~


You could see the buildings and villages of old japan. this trail routes through a touristy portion before going into a more grassy area, and some residential areas as well.





Spotted a cat along the way (◕‿◕✿)







This was the more touristy part of the trail first. the sky was so so so blue



This part marks the end of the touristy portion and goes on to the grassier/more foresty portion of the trail. there's not much to the navigation, you just needed to follow the signs of the route and just keep doing forward! we met some others on the way as well



There were many bells along the way which they encouraged you to ring, especially in the grassy parts to ward off bears :o
The paths was easy to walk on - they were mostly asphalt, dirt (but well-maintained dirt?) or stone paths.

We came across this cherry blossom park(?). The house on the left is where the park’s caretakers stayed throughout the day. This was deeper in the mountains so it was more chilly than the previous portion. There was a fire going on in the house and the caretakers invited tourists in for tea. I was sooo happy that we got to see these cherry blossoms because cherry blossom season was way over. but i guess the weather here was cooler or something that the flowers were still able to bloom.





The quieter parts of the trail routes through residential areas so these are actually people’s houses. we saw like 3 houses that had shiba inus!!

There were fields in which the residents were growing crops. 7.2km was no joke considering we never really walked that much before. we also weren’t mentally prepared for it since my mum only told us about it on the day itself. it was super tiring but there were many many beautiful sights which made up for the fatigue





Saw nice little streams along the way 


The end of the trail ends with another touristy portion with lots of shops. they sold many traditional knick knacks and snacks.I didn't get many photos of this because we were too exhausted by then lol

Then we were headed back to Nagoya~ back at the station for a steak dinner because we were craving beef. This place wasn’t a steakhouse or anything, it was more of a franchise that sold steak hot plates. You could choose the amount of steak that you wanted (100g, 150g etc), whether you wanted rice/noodles and the type of sauce to go on your steak. You can see the butter on top with the lemon, it was really good!!!

More loots from the konbini.
They had these ready-made marinated eggs which would go so well with ramen!
Just peel off the packaging and you're ready to eat. 


Day 3: Nagoya to Takayama

We moved on to the next place which was Takayama. We only had 1 or 2 nights in each place since we were moving around a lot. 



Trusty Nike Free Runs. I swear these are THE most comfortable shoes ever I didn't even need to break them in.
Also, my favourite konbini item!!! i love eating this for breakfast. it’s pancakes with legit butter and maple syrup in the middle like hello??? yummy and convenient??? whoever invented this was a genius

After reaching the station and putting our luggage at the hotel we went to explore the town, it's a small quiet place we stayed in the town center, near the bus/train station

Some background of the town: Takayama (高山) is a city in the mountainous Hida region of Gifu Prefecture. To differentiate it from other places named Takayama, the city is also commonly referred to as Hida-Takayama. Takayama retains a traditional touch like few other Japanese cities, especially in its beautifully preserved old town. It now ranks as one of the prime candidates among travelers wishing to add a rural element into their itineraries.



I loved these buildings

This town is famous for their hida beef - it’s another type of prized japanese beef other than kobe beef. this was hida beef in ramen. apparently, this restaurant is a chain? like there was le midi ramen and le midi western food which served legit hida beef steaks just a couple stores away

Sitting at the counter waiting for our food 

Found this bridge in the heart of the touristy area



The scenery was so beautiful I could hardly believe it. I envy the Japanese so much because their country is so picturesque. A lot of people like Europe’s scenery, but for me, it’s Japan all the way.

There were whole streets of traditional buildings. I think it’s the hallmark of this area of Japan. my filter may have enhanced the colors of the picture but the sky really was amazingly blue and clear

This is the Sanmachi Suji district -the heart of Takayama’s old town, which lies just to the east of the Miya-gawa River. The streets are lined with traditional houses, shops, restaurants, sake breweries and cafes (as expected of a tourist attraction). These quaint streets are among the most picturesque in Japan, and if you mentally Photoshop out a few electrical wires and other tourists, you can imagine what Japan looked like around the turn of last century.



Spotted a huge dog! the owner paused for a while to let people take photos lolol she drew lot of attention (◕ᴥ◕)



sunset in takayama~ 

we went on in search of a good hida beef restaurant and eventually settled for one in which the chef trained in france. it was expensive - like a set of this steak, soup, and dessert was almost $80? But it was worth it imo probably one of the best beef I’ve ever had - it was flavorful and tender and juicy *^* it’s definitely only something you do on a special occasion like when you go for a holiday. the lighting was bad in the restaurant so the photos came out crappy.



Day 4: Historic Village of Shirakawago and Gokayama

Taken on the train on the way to our destination

We headed off the Shirakawago the next day.
Description of the place: Shirakawa-go (白川郷, Shirakawagō) and neighboring Gokayama (五箇山) regions line the Shogawa River Valley in the remote mountains that span from Gifu to Toyama Prefectures. They were declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995 and are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.

Gassho-zukuri means "constructed like hands in prayer", as the farmhouses' steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. The architectural style developed over many generations and is designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that falls in the region during winter. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms.

Gokayama is less developed and less crowded than Shirakawa-go, its villages are smaller, more intimate and with less intrusion from modern buildings. Gokayama's nicest villages are Suganuma (which we went to) and Ainokura.

It was in the mountainous region so it was more chilly than usual - about 15 degrees celcius?

The houses are made of wood so there were signs telling people not to smoke near the houses or when walking because they could catch fire. 

We arrived at the Omigachi village - the biggest one in Shirakawago.
You can see the surrounding mountains 

Came across this stream while we were walking around the village. it winds around one side of the village and there's a bridge you can cross which we will eventually go on 

Even though this is a heritage centre and a tourist attraction, there are people actually living here. it’s pretty scary to me though to be so cut off from ‘civilisation’. but I guess they’re used to living simple lives. 

This is the path up a hill which leads you to Shiroyama Viewpoint. This is where you could see the entire overview of the village (below). 

Rare derp pic of myself lol 

Crossing over this bridge to the other side of the town.

You can see there are many many tourists on the bridge lol. they had this carpark on the other side of the village and it was literally filled with so many tour buses. there were many tourists smoking in that area too since they weren't allowed to smoke near the houses. :/
My brother and i climbed down the rocks to get near to the water. the water was freezing! 



They were growing these tulips and i have never seen such vibrant colors ever 

We took a bus to a neighbouring village - Suganuma Gassho Shuraku. This was much smaller but had the similar gassho houses. I thought this made for a pretty nice picture cuz you can see the house's reflection in the pond!

The view while walking to the village.

amazingggg its a mountainous area so we got to see these kinds of views. oh and we encountered 3 snakes along the whole day, once when this picture was taken, once when we were playing around the bridge (it was hidden among some grass and I almost stepped on it omggg) and once in plain view as we were hiking up the hill *^* what an experience


In the winter time, everything would be covered in snow!! i googled the image and it was so pretty, pity it wasn’t the season to see it. they were saying that snow rain and wind could damage the roofs of these houses and it takes really long and is expensive to repair :o when we were there, we saw some workers repairing the roofs as well. 

lunch in one of the houses with traditional tatami mats. it was run by this elderly man. i think his restaurant was on the first floor and family lived in the upper floors. you could see baby toys crowding the entrance because his son/daughter had a toddler.

There was a fire going on and he was roasting fish that one of the guests ordered

Aaaand that sums up this day! I think we were a bit sick of sightseeing at this point lol. we didn’t even want to go inside the houses because we had to pay, and it wasn’t a small sum. either way, it was still a good experience because the view of the mountains around the village was great. I think it would have been more spectacular if it was in winter though.

Random review moment: ate my grape gummy that i bought before while we were waiting for the bus back. It was .. interesting lol no like the usual grape gummies that are on the market. It had a grape like skin and the inside was all mushy  *^* it wasn't horrible but needed some getting used to

Day 5: Takayama to Toyama (Kanazawa)

Off to another place again! This time it was to Toyama which was where we could head to do the alpine route the following day. This day was more like a filler and to give us some breathing space after travelling so much. I don't really talk about it but the travelling can really kill you lol. Dragging your luggage around from train to train.

Lunch at the hotel’s restaurant - mentaiko pasta :P i love japan’s unique pasta flavors. their cream pasta isn’t super cheesy like traditional pasta is, it has more of a light oily flavor which I appreciate for a change. 

Instead of staying in in the town itself we decided to head to Kanazawa, which was a few train stops away. by this time my mum and i were sick because she passed the flu bug to me :( so i was tired and grumpy and cold on this day lol thus not many pictures were taken. adding on to the fact that it was raining very heavily prior to these photos it was just a bad day in general. 

we were supposed to go to this market where they sold Kanazawa’s supposedly famous gold leaf ice cream? but the market was really empty and sold mostly normal produce. also, the ice cream was ridiculously expensive, we saw no queue so didn’t get it in the end. I have a feeling we went to the wrong market, or maybe because it was not the right season/ just raining that day (and thus freezing) that there wasn’t much of a crowd.

As we were exploring we chanced upon Oyama Shrine and went in.



There were these planks going around the entire pond so you could literally walk, over and around the pond. there was a group of Japanese students walking over the planks too. funny how the girls stayed on the land while the boys attempted to walking the planks. they were exclaiming how scary it was lmao. and it actually was becuase there were some planks that were a little creaky. almost gave my a heart attack when i was walking over them.

chanced upon this sole cherry blossom tree on the compounds. you can see that they barricaded it so i thought the tree was really important. i picked up some cherry blossoms that had fallen on the ground to take a picture. 

however, this japanese elderly man approached me and started saying something in japanese. at first, I was like oh shit but then he plucked off some cherry blossom from the tree and handed them to me saying something like the ones that were on the tree were more beautiful! (or something like that given my limited japanese) and i was so shocked like :O i have a feeling he could be one of the shrine’s caretakers or something like that.
but yeah this incident touched me - i was grateful for his kindness. and that’s how this picture came about :)


Headed into this cute little cafe for tea and to dodge the rain. the menu was entirely in japanese RIP i was struggling because I forgot so much of my katakana. hiragana is always ok but katakana for me is just bleh lucky they had some pictures.

Ochazuke for dinner :) warm tea with rice and salmon is great for a cold

Day 6: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Tour 

We woke up and headed off really early to take the train to Tateyama to go on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Tour. This is a mountainous sightseeing tour of Mt Tateyama.

Again with the description: The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (立山黒部アルペンルート, Tateyama Kurobe Alpen Route) is a unique and spectacular route through the Northern Japan Alps which is traversed by various means of transportation including cablecars, trolley buses and a ropeway. The main attraction of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is the magnificent scenery of the Tateyama Mountain Range, part of the Chubu Sangaku National Park. Visitors can enjoy varying vistas during different seasons of the year. In spring, accumulated snow form a majestic snow corridor whose snow walls reach up to 20 meters high. A section of the snow corridor around Murodo is open to pedestrians usually from mid April to mid June.

As mentioned, we had to take a series of buses, trams, cable cars etc to really get to the top. The route consists of 3 major stops, one where you could see the snow corridor, one at the highest peak on top of the mountain and one at the Kurobe Dam. 

And there were many many tourists with us as usual.

This is the scenery on the bus going up the mountain.
It was like a rollercoaster lolol twisting and turning 

Apparently, this was supposed to be one of the biggest waterfalls in the region or something like that. The bus stopped for a while to let us get a glimpse of it 

I didn't take any pictures at the first stop. We were supposed to go on a walking tour to see the snow corridor. But it was snowing very heavily that day and visibility was horrible so they closed the route for safety :( that was upsetting because that's supposed to be the highlight of the trip. However, it was totally understandable. We weren't able to go on the walk but we could go out for a bit to see the weather. Holy crap it was freezing and you couldn't even see more than 5m ahead of you.

later on in the afternoon, when the weather was slightly better we came back down from the other stops to take the bus back and but the route was still closed and it was still freezing lolol. somehow it seems that the winds at that altitude were much stronger than at the higher altitudes of the second and third stop? 

We then took a cable car up to the second stop.
It's a small centre that sold tourists gifts, snacks etc, there were some places where you could get lunch. And when you walk out you get this view ୧☉□☉୨


 We're 1828m above sea level!

Thank goodness the weather cleared up. You'd actually have to take a while to get on the cable cars/buses because they only leave at specified times. Which is good to stagger the crowd.




 Soba with raw egg! 

 Taking the tram to the final and furthest stop - Kurobe Dam. 

The Kurobe Dam (黒部ダム) is Japan’s tallest dam at 186 meters. It is a major attraction along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, especially when water gets discharged spectacularly through its gates daily from late June to mid October. (obviously didn’t get to see this)



 crazy crazy views 



 Me trying to prevent my hat from getting blown away lol. 
the winds were really really strong at the sides near the water you can see my hair getting blown back


Taking the tram back to the second stop. We had a bit of time before the next cable car, and there was a rooftop view which we didn't get to go up before so I decided to do that. It was freezing and the steps were slippery and steep as hell but it was worth it.

the view is really nice (imo) so I'm just gonna make all pictures extra large haha

the final steps up to the topmost part of the roof

  it's a pity that it was so cloudy that day though or I think the view was just have been spectular like just crazy



  my friend saw my pictures on instagram and couldn't believe this was in Japan lol 

Looking down at where we were earlier

Taking the ropeway back down to the first stop. they pack the carriage really full and the first time coming up I was in the centre of the carriage. But this time I was right next to the window so I could take these pictures!


sigh japan is really majestic. it just blows my mind how big this world is actually. how beautiful and amazing and big nature can be and how we’re all under this same sky!!

but looking at this remind me of what I learnt back in history as well - Japan has a mountainous terrain and hence limited land for growing crops etc. so they basically had limited resources to expand their territory and their reign, which made them decide to start conquering other countries which eventually led to WW2 :/


taking the bus back to the train station. caught a glimpse of the snow wall that we didn’t get to experience

Here’s an interesting thing about japanese tour buses. in normal tour buses is that there’s usually an aisle in the middle for people to walk through. however the seats on the bus were full and my family were mostly standing. however, you could pull out a compartment from one side of the chairs and it opens up into a seat. so basically we were sitting on these makeshift seats in the middle of the aisle lolol. and thank goodness we got to sit because the 30 min journey is full of sharp turns. there was no way we could have made it standing.

I was sitting in the middle of korean ahjumma tourists and she fell asleep on my shoulder. I can’t even lmao didn’t think I’d be encountering an ahjumma again just 5 months after my exchange.

Anyway, overall I really really recommend going for this if you're in the area. the view is just.. amazing. truly. there are no other words to describe it.


dinner was kaisendon!! finally!!! i really love sashimi and obviously japan’s sashimi is the best - the freshness at that kind of price?? only in japan  🍣🍣🍣


bought another egg from the konbini and it turned out to be an onsen egg i love runny eggs omggggg


Phew ok, so that’s it for the first 6 days of the trip. this was painful to do tbh. I met with so many  obstacles trying to get this stupid format to work  and it was just such a HUGE struggle. luckily I figured it out in the end but just UGH I'm glad this is done.

This is already so long so I’ll have to split it up into 2. It was really hard choosing only a couple photos for each place and even then it took so long to upload because even Blogspot is laggy and the whole page just freezes like WHY my internet connection isn’t even bad seriously

But for those of you that made it to the end for now THANK YOU(人◕ω◕) I hope you’ve enjoyed this and look forward to the next part? Not to sound like a stereotypical writer or whatever but if you enjoyed this do leave me a comment either here, or on tumblr - it really encourages me and makes all the struggle in coming up with these posts better LOL

Anyway, till the next post! (⁎˃ᆺ˂)

Disclaimer: Most of the descriptions came from japan-guide so credits to them





























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