While we were staying in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, we made a few day trips to the below places:
1.Kobe
We made a stop at Kokubu in Kobe for their kobe beef using the JR pass. The meal at Kokubu was quite filling and worth a stop over if you are near Osaka.
2. Yokohoma
Yokohoma is a quick subway ride from central Tokyo. It is a port city south of Tokyo that is a nice day trip to make. They have a large pier and park that you can walk around. It has a large Chinatown with lots of Asian cuisines.
3. Tokyo DisneySea
We went to DisneySea since the theme park is unique to Japan. As the name suggest, the rides and the park is sea themed. Tokyo also has Tokyo Disneyland, which has more of the traditional Disney rides and characters.
4. Hiroshima/Miyajima Island
We took the JR train to Hiroshima. After arriving, we took the JR bus (it is a red bus) to get to Peace Memorial Park. Although the day was sunny and nice, it felt somber being in the area and reading about what happened and how the Japanese felt about the bombing of the city. One thing that stood out were the paper cranes that were displayed and the Children’s Peace Memorial. The paper cranes were submitted by people all over the world as a wish for peace. We also went to the Hall of Remembrance to learn more about the people who were affected by this event. Afterwards, we went to the Hiroshima Castle to learn more about the building and its history.
Afterwards we went to Miyajima Island. We went around sunset (and had a great ferry ride there) but wished that we had more time on the island. It got a bit eerie after dark and most of the stores were closing. We went to a bakery and got different flavor manjus.
