A day trip to Miyajima Island

A day trip from Kyoto is Miyajima Island, located in Hiroshima Bay.

The plan was to visit the island and the city of Hiroshima, however the torrential rain had other plans.

I made it to the island only to find the famed giant ‘floating’ Tori gate, Itsukushima, was covered in scaffold!

Nevertheless, the island has a beautiful pergoda and a quaint town with a few deer wandering the streets.

Returning to Hiroshima and soaking wet, I gave up visiting and took the fast train back to Kyoto – I’ll return another time.

Nicole x

Skiing in the Hakuba Valley

The Hakuba Valley is located deep in the Japanese Alps, approximately 3 hours from Tokyo.

Snow Monkeys at Jigokudani

Japan is renowned for its Onsen and precise bathing rituals. With a dusting of snow, an onsen and a lot of cheeky monkeys…

Traditional Japan – Takayama

Takayama is a city in Japan’s mountainous Gifu Prefecture.

Shirakawa-go – a UNESCO village

Deep in the mountainous Ōno District in the Gifu Prefecture lies the small UNESCO village of Shirakawa-go…

The serene and charming – Kyoto

Once the capital of Japan, Kyoto is a city on the island of Honshu. It’s famous for its Buddhist temples, peaceful gardens, imperial palaces, Shinto shrines and traditional wooden houses and so much more…