Hello everyone!
Lovely to touch base with you all once more. This time around I'll cover what we did in late December/early January.
Pre-Christmas in Tochigi
Just before Christmas, we took advantage of a long weekend to visit Utsunomiya again (details of the last visit are in June's blog post here.) This time we also made it out to Nikko, something we didn't do last time because of the bad weather. We also made a side trip to the Bandai museum just outside of Utsunomiya.
Bandai Museum
Utsunomiya is famous for its gyoza, but it's also in close proximity to some other cool stuff. The Bandai museum is near Omochanomachi station, only about 15-20 minutes from Utsunomiya station on the Tobu line.
There were vinyl toys and playsets throughout the last century from Japan on display:
It was really interesting to see the evolution of characters from the 40s and 50s to the present day, and also interesting to see the parallels between Japanese, European and American toy production from the start of last century. A great place to visit, and not too far off the beaten track.
Nikko
The following day we went to Nikko, again, not far from Utsunomiya. We caught a taxi to Kanmangafuchi Abyss, around a 5 minute drive from the station. Kanmangafuchi Abyss has stunning scenery because of the swiftly-flowing stream over the rocks, as well as a long line of Jizo statues, a Bodhisattva responsible for the care of the deceased. Kanmangafuchi Abyss is located opposite Nikko Botanical Gardens, separated by the gorge and water.
We walked through a nearby cemetery after we had surveyed the length of the Jizo statues, before making our way back to Nikko on foot.
Along the way, we stopped at Shinkyo bridge, renowned as one of Japan's three most beautiful bridges.
More photos of Utsunomiya and Nikko are HERE.
New Year's in Okinawa
Just before new year's eve we headed to Naha, thinking we'd have a beach holiday to ring in the new year. Naha wasn't really our cup of tea, and doesn't have a beach near the city centre, so we probably wouldn't make a repeat visit, but here are some highlights of our few days there.
Naha
We spent most of the time in Naha, Okinawa's capital, located on Okinawa island, the largest island in the group of Okinawa islands. It's a pretty small city, in relative terms, and it's compact as a result. There's a monorail that goes through the centre of town, ending at the airport.
The centre of Naha is Kokusai Dori, a street with most of the restaurants and bars in town. At night there are a whole bunch of military out and about, and the vibe was kind of weird.
A highlight while we were in Naha was our visit to Makishi markets, a large covered market with clothes stalls and a section hidden away dedicated to fish and meat sales. After visiting the fish market, if you make a purchase, you can take your seafood to one of the restaurants upstairs and ask them to prepare it for you.
Churaumi aquarium and surrounds
While in Okinawa, we took a bus tour to the Churaumi aquarium. The bus companies have deals with a couple of tourist spots on the way there and back, so we got the pleasure of getting taken to the Ryugujo butterfly house.
Appearances can be deceiving though. The place was run down like crazy, but there were some pretty butterflies inside.
The main attraction, the aquarium, was pretty cool. Here's some photos of that.
Our last stop on the tour was Nago Pineapple Park, and here are some pictures of that for you to draw your own conclusions on.
It was a long day out, but we got to see some sights we wouldn't have ordinarily have stopped for if we'd been driving on our own, and got to taste some seriously awful pineapple wine, so there is that. The aquarium was worth the trip out to the other spots too.
Zamami Island
We were keen to get to a beach, and Naha wasn't really going to do that for us, so we took a day trip to Zamami Island, easily reachable by ferry from Naha. It was overcast and a little cool, but we made the most of it, and it was probably the high point of our trip to Okinawa.
Shuri Castle on new year's day
We headed to Shuri Castle the day before we left Naha, this castle is reachable from the monorail terminus and was holding new year's day ceremonies that re-enacted the traditional ceremonies done by the emperor in the past.
More photos of our Okinawa trip ARE HERE YES HERE OKAY.
So, given that this update was so belated, I'll do my darndest to get the next set of info up soon, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me again sooner rather than later.
Until then, goodbye!!
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