Reply To: DW Community Catch-up Thread

We’re still figuring out the details but we’re trying to cram a lot into two weeks. The boyfriend has never been so we want to do some of the typical first-time tourist stuff, but I also want to revisit some old haunts that the average tourist would likely skip unless they had a lot of time. Right now we’re planning to spend a couple days in Tokyo, a few nights in Hiroshima (one on Miyajima, the small island I mentioned), then a handful of nights in Kyoto (from which we can do day trips around the Kansai region), and the grand finale will be a couple nights in an onsen town (likely Hakone since it is the closest to the airport of the areas we’re looking). Two weeks initially felt like a lot of time to be on vacation until I started adding up the places I hope to visit.

March is a great time to go since the cherry blossoms may be blooming!

A friend of mine from HS there recently went with her husband and daughter, so I reached out to ask her for any tips. She mentioned she saw online that in the year 2000, when we were residents, there were 660,000 foreign tourists who visited Japan while last year, that number was 6 million. I remember a lot of the religious sites feeling so peaceful but unsure if they’ll be crowded now. I think spring is more popular for tourism since so many people want to see the cherry blossoms, but it’s pretty temperate in many areas of the country throughout the colder months and I’m hopeful we’ll get some bold fall colors.

Also, I had a tough time finding clothes large enough to fit me by the time I got to HS. I’m just under 5’3″ and probably weighed like 110 lbs back then. Insane! The boyfriend felt tall when we went to Oaxaca a couple years ago and I assume he’ll have that same experience in Japan. He’s just shy of 5’10”, so about average in height for a white American guy.