Japanory

Travel Advice for Japan

Quite a few people email me asking for advice on travelling to Japan either on holiday or in one case, on relocating completely.

Mostly, I never heard from them again (did I frighten them off?) but one lovely couple kept in regular touch.

Michael & Glynis Thomson made a long dreamed of trip to this beautiful country and managed to fit a lot of sight-seeing into a relatively short time.

Once again, unfortunately, I've lost their original emails and my replies, but I kept this one as they enclosed a gorgeous photograph of them in front of Mount Fuji.

Hi Carole,

I felt that a quick email to you in Tokyo would be in order. Why? Well having read, with great delight your many excellent articles on Japan in our local "Freebie Booklet", I then am happy to say spent an excellent fortnight in the country in question!

Everything you said was a great help to us, on this trip of a lifetime. My wife and I are both ex-art teachers, so you can understand that Japan had to be paid a visit (This is a forty year old dream) to see for ourselves the "real" stuff!

Well the dream came true and we had a really wonderful time all round.

Our trip took us from Tokyo to Nikko, Bandai National Park (Snow still up in the mountains ) Fukushima, on to Toyama-Shirakawa and the GasshoZukuri thatched houses, to Nagoya-Toba and then on to Osaka.

Next came a trip to Matsue, Hiroshima followed by an excellent link in a "700" Shinkansen train to Kyoto. Spent a great time in this city, to continue to Hakone National Park and a cruise on Lake Ashi.

Japan is a strange country but I could cheerfully live there!

I have many interests in Japanese things, one being a collector of Japanese toys- the best being "Pla-rail" which this year celebrates 50 years of age! (See my trains on YouTube under the name of:-plarailmike)

However, enough about me, all I can say to you is, please keep on writing your super articles on Japan for my wife and I to read!!

Best regards,

Michael J. Thompson.

HELLO TO MICHAEL & GLYNIS!! Thank you for following my very slow blog and please feel free to fill in my many blanks about our email conversations! I'm so happy I could help you a little bit with your dream trip.

Email Me!

This blogging platform isn't the easiest for finding where to comment on posts, so I quite often get emails instead. Which is fabulous! Thank you!!

I've now sorted out my Japanory email system so I will be informed straight away of any new emails and won't keep you waiting for months for a reply (I'm really sorry about that)

If you want to contact me the email address is [email protected]

As I mentioned previously, when I recently changed web-host I lost all the emails received apart from a couple I saved in a page on this blog which I've now removed to make it look a little tidier.

 

Just a note to say I love reading your blog, it's really fascinating.

My husband recently visited Japan and we both read your site with interest before he left, it certainly opened his eyes to how very different the culture is to here in the UK.

I think you really capture the mood of what it is like to be a stranger in a country and how life's simple pleasures - buses! - can make such a difference!

Keep up the great blog - love reading it. R

 

Just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed reading your blog. I read most of it some time ago and have just been back to read your latest pieces. Your descriptions of your life in Japan are so vivid that I've been madly googling the places you talk about so that I have more pictures to go with the images your writing has created in my mind. I hope you'll be writing more (and more often!) so that I can keep up with your life.

Thank you for letting me share your experiences with you. H

 

Enjoying the site very much.

If ever you get to Kyoto please send lots of photos - it's a dream destination, but not in this lifetime! Enjoy your experience. D

 

Thank you for a most interesting website. I shall certainly bookmark it as well as pass it on to all my friends. Keep up the good work. R