Nara, Japan
Kyoto Station To Nara
Nara Station
The next morning, we took the Shinkansen again and headed to Kyoto. After which, we transferred to a line that went to Nara. We rode to the first train that came and we only realized that the train we took was not a rapid as it stopped at every station. It took us more than an hour to reach Nara. It was very cold that day in Nara, maybe around 10 degrees Celsius. The Nara station was of wooden type style which was kind of rustic. The Nara Park is around 30 minutes by walking from the station. Walking to Nara Park is good as you will see and enjoy all the small shops that sell souvenirs, beauty products, clothes, tea, and also parlors and restaurants. Around Nara Park you will see many deers just roaming around.
NARA PARK
Albert had lots of fun with the deers. I told him that the deers were friendly. At first, he was too excited and he wanted to chase the deers.
Deers at Nara Park
NARA WITH THE DEERS
Kasuga Shrine
This important Shinto shrine was founded in 768 and is filled with over 3,000 bronze and stone lanterns.
Kofukuji
This temple has two pagodas, one of which is the second-highest in Japan. Many Buddhist statues and artworks are on display in the Treasure House.
Nara National Museum
Opened in 1895, this museum houses many pieces of Buddhist art plus temple artifacts and archaeological finds from local tombs and sutra mounds.
Todaiji
Founded when Nara was the capital, Todaiji was the head temple of all provincial temples in Japan. It is home to the largest Buddha statue in Japan, which weighs 250 tons.
Nara Street
The scenery around Nara Park is very pleasant. We had a simple lunch at Nara Park. Then we walked back to Nara Station and took a train back to Kyoto. At Kyoto we took JR train to the nearest station to castle. We walked around 1.5 km and sad to say we, they were already closed when we reached the entrance.
Kyoto Castle
We reached our hotel early. I packed our things as we needed to check out the next day and check in another hotel and in Tokyo.
Hiroshima, Japan
Royal Park Inn Nagoya
3-27-5 MEIEKI NAKAMURA-KU
Nagoya 450-0002
Japan
Price Per Room Per Night : SGD188
Inside the Shinkansen Train
It was a long journey to Hiroshima from Nagoya. Although the two cities were more than 400 km apart, it only took 2 hours 20 mins for the Shinkansen. At Hiroshima Station, you could see many stalls selling “pasalubong”. We encountered many tourists around; Westerners around and old Japanese on group tour. From Hiroshima Station, we expected to reach Horoshima Castle for 30 mins walk (according to Google Maps). But it took as a little bit longer because we followed one group of Japanese seniors which was heading to Shukkeien, on the same way to A-dome. At the Shukkeien, we followed the group and didn’t realize that there was an entrance fee. After taking some pictures of the cherry blossoms, we quickly went out. We then walked to the Hiroshima Castle.
Inside Hiroshima Train Station
Hiroshima Train Station
City view of Hiroshima
Bicycle Parking
Shukkeien
Address: 2-11 Kami-nobori-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-221-3620
Access:
From JR Hiroshima Station
Walk 900 meters.
Take a Hiroshima bus bound for Asahi-machi or a Hiroden bus bound for Yokogawa Station, and get off at "Shukkeien Iriguchi".
Open Hours: From April to September, 9:00-18:00, From October to March, 9:00-17:00
Admission Fee:
Adults 250 yen
High school students or college / university students180 yen
Elementary or junior high school students 120 yen
Hiroshima Castle Gate
Hiroshima Castle Cherry Blossoms Trees
Hiroshima Castle
Address: 21-1 Moto-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-221-7512
Access:
15 mins walk from Kamiya-cho-nishi/Kamiya-cho-higashi Sta. on Tram from JR Hiroshima Sta.
Open Hours: 9:00-18:00(9:00-17:00 weekdays from Dec. to Feb. ) Entry permitted until 30 min. before closing time
Admission Fee:
Adult: 360 yen
Children: 180 yen
Instead of going directly to A-Dome, we first decided to have lunch. From the map we though Sogo was an affordable place to buy our lunch. But we were wrong; Sogo was an upscale Department store in Japan. So we just looked for food in a supermarket just beside Sogo.
After our lunch, we headed to A-Dome which was another 10 minutes walk. After taking pictures at A-Dome we went to Aioi-bashi Bridge and Peace Memorial Park. From Hiroshima we took a tram for Y150 each. Albert played and talked gibberish with an old Japanese lady who only spoke in Japanese. They were laughing and tickling each other as if they knew for a very long time.
Aioi-bashi Bridge, Ota River
The Bell
Peace Memorial Park
Address: Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-247-6738
Access:
From JR Hiroshima Station
Take a bus bound for Yoshijima ,get off at "Peace Memorial Park".
Take a Tram bound for Eba, get off at "Genbaku Domu-mae" and walk 3 minutes.
Children's Peace Monument
A-bomb
Atomic Bomb(Genbaku) Dome
Address: 1-10 Ote-machi Naka-ku, Hiroshima City
Access:
TRAM "Genbaku Domu Mae"
BUS "Kamiya-cho" or "Hiroshima Bus Center"
After Hiroshima we were supposed to stop in Osaka but we were very tired so we decided to skip Osaka.
3-27-5 MEIEKI NAKAMURA-KU
Nagoya 450-0002
Japan
Price Per Room Per Night : SGD188
Inside the Shinkansen Train
It was a long journey to Hiroshima from Nagoya. Although the two cities were more than 400 km apart, it only took 2 hours 20 mins for the Shinkansen. At Hiroshima Station, you could see many stalls selling “pasalubong”. We encountered many tourists around; Westerners around and old Japanese on group tour. From Hiroshima Station, we expected to reach Horoshima Castle for 30 mins walk (according to Google Maps). But it took as a little bit longer because we followed one group of Japanese seniors which was heading to Shukkeien, on the same way to A-dome. At the Shukkeien, we followed the group and didn’t realize that there was an entrance fee. After taking some pictures of the cherry blossoms, we quickly went out. We then walked to the Hiroshima Castle.
Inside Hiroshima Train Station
Hiroshima Train Station
City view of Hiroshima
Bicycle Parking
Shukkeien
Address: 2-11 Kami-nobori-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-221-3620
Access:
From JR Hiroshima Station
Walk 900 meters.
Take a Hiroshima bus bound for Asahi-machi or a Hiroden bus bound for Yokogawa Station, and get off at "Shukkeien Iriguchi".
Open Hours: From April to September, 9:00-18:00, From October to March, 9:00-17:00
Admission Fee:
Adults 250 yen
High school students or college / university students180 yen
Elementary or junior high school students 120 yen
Hiroshima Castle Gate
Hiroshima Castle Cherry Blossoms Trees
Hiroshima Castle
Address: 21-1 Moto-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-221-7512
Access:
15 mins walk from Kamiya-cho-nishi/Kamiya-cho-higashi Sta. on Tram from JR Hiroshima Sta.
Open Hours: 9:00-18:00(9:00-17:00 weekdays from Dec. to Feb. ) Entry permitted until 30 min. before closing time
Admission Fee:
Adult: 360 yen
Children: 180 yen
Instead of going directly to A-Dome, we first decided to have lunch. From the map we though Sogo was an affordable place to buy our lunch. But we were wrong; Sogo was an upscale Department store in Japan. So we just looked for food in a supermarket just beside Sogo.
After our lunch, we headed to A-Dome which was another 10 minutes walk. After taking pictures at A-Dome we went to Aioi-bashi Bridge and Peace Memorial Park. From Hiroshima we took a tram for Y150 each. Albert played and talked gibberish with an old Japanese lady who only spoke in Japanese. They were laughing and tickling each other as if they knew for a very long time.
Aioi-bashi Bridge, Ota River
The Bell
Peace Memorial Park
Address: Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Tel: 082-247-6738
Access:
From JR Hiroshima Station
Take a bus bound for Yoshijima ,get off at "Peace Memorial Park".
Take a Tram bound for Eba, get off at "Genbaku Domu-mae" and walk 3 minutes.
Children's Peace Monument
A-bomb
Atomic Bomb(Genbaku) Dome
Address: 1-10 Ote-machi Naka-ku, Hiroshima City
Access:
TRAM "Genbaku Domu Mae"
BUS "Kamiya-cho" or "Hiroshima Bus Center"
After Hiroshima we were supposed to stop in Osaka but we were very tired so we decided to skip Osaka.
Nagoya, Japan
Royal Park Inn Nagoya
3-27-5 Meieki Nakamura-Ku
Nagoya 450-0002
Japan
Price Per Room Per Night : SGD188
We started our Japan journey in Nagoya. Nagoya is the third largest city in Japan and is located in the Chubu region.
Our Singapore Airlines flight reached Nagoya around 830 am. We took a metro to Nagoya Station and reached the hotel around 10 am. Unfortunately, no rooms were available for early check-in so we went to Takashimaya and checked the shopping mall where we found the supermarket. In the Basement 1 of the mall, we found all kinds of Japanese food from Bento to Sushi. We always bought our food when traveling because it was much cheaper. I managed to take one picture but I was informed by the security that I can’t take any picture. After roaming around we went back to the hotel.
Our hotel, Royal Park Inn is just less than 3mins walk from Nagoya Station. It was very convenient for us since we were traveling daily across Japan by JR (Japan Rail). The hotel also has a free high speed internet and just few steps away from two convenient shops. The room that we booked was small but it was clean and well organized. We were very tired so after eating our Bento lunch, we took a rest because we didn’t manage to sleep in our flight. After 3 hours of snoozing, we all woke up and got ready to explore Nagoya.
We headed back to JR Nagoya Central Tower and bought our Metro ticket from a machine which was all Japanese. We didn’t see any single English letter and after a minute of staring at the machine we saw button that said “English”. We bought tickets to Hisaya-Odori at Y200 each. From the exit Nagoya TV tower was already visible. We walked from the Central Park or Hisaya Odori Park all the way to Oasis 21. Albert wanted to eat at McDonalds but we just bought him fries instead and find other restaurants. We dined at Saizeriya, a Japanese chain of Italian family-style restaurants. The restaurant was high-tech (of course, what else can we expect in Japan). We didn’t know that you needed to press a button for a server to come to your table. Luckily, Albert accidentally pressed the button and a waitress came to our table.
After our dinner we had a short walk in small street near the restaurant and headed to station. When we reached the central Nagoya station, we went to the JR Information Centre and activated our Japan Rail Pass. And that’s for all for our first day. The following day would be a very long day for us.
3-27-5 Meieki Nakamura-Ku
Nagoya 450-0002
Japan
Price Per Room Per Night : SGD188
We started our Japan journey in Nagoya. Nagoya is the third largest city in Japan and is located in the Chubu region.
Our Singapore Airlines flight reached Nagoya around 830 am. We took a metro to Nagoya Station and reached the hotel around 10 am. Unfortunately, no rooms were available for early check-in so we went to Takashimaya and checked the shopping mall where we found the supermarket. In the Basement 1 of the mall, we found all kinds of Japanese food from Bento to Sushi. We always bought our food when traveling because it was much cheaper. I managed to take one picture but I was informed by the security that I can’t take any picture. After roaming around we went back to the hotel.
Our hotel, Royal Park Inn is just less than 3mins walk from Nagoya Station. It was very convenient for us since we were traveling daily across Japan by JR (Japan Rail). The hotel also has a free high speed internet and just few steps away from two convenient shops. The room that we booked was small but it was clean and well organized. We were very tired so after eating our Bento lunch, we took a rest because we didn’t manage to sleep in our flight. After 3 hours of snoozing, we all woke up and got ready to explore Nagoya.
We headed back to JR Nagoya Central Tower and bought our Metro ticket from a machine which was all Japanese. We didn’t see any single English letter and after a minute of staring at the machine we saw button that said “English”. We bought tickets to Hisaya-Odori at Y200 each. From the exit Nagoya TV tower was already visible. We walked from the Central Park or Hisaya Odori Park all the way to Oasis 21. Albert wanted to eat at McDonalds but we just bought him fries instead and find other restaurants. We dined at Saizeriya, a Japanese chain of Italian family-style restaurants. The restaurant was high-tech (of course, what else can we expect in Japan). We didn’t know that you needed to press a button for a server to come to your table. Luckily, Albert accidentally pressed the button and a waitress came to our table.
After our dinner we had a short walk in small street near the restaurant and headed to station. When we reached the central Nagoya station, we went to the JR Information Centre and activated our Japan Rail Pass. And that’s for all for our first day. The following day would be a very long day for us.
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