The best moments of my trip to Japan
Travel Diary

The best moments of my trip to Japan

From Fushimi Inari at sunrise to an almost empty night in Miyajima: the moments from my trip to Japan that stuck with me most.

Choosing just a few moments out of 17 days is genuinely hard, but if I had to keep the ones that truly stuck with me, these would be them.

Floating torii in Miyajima at night
Miyajima at night, one of the moments that stuck with me most.

Fushimi Inari at 7 in the morning, practically alone. Climbing among the red torii gates with nobody around, in total silence, just the crunch of gravel underfoot.

The first bite of wagyu at Tsukiji. It'll sound over the top to say it this way, but it was literally the best piece of meat I've ever had in my life.

Seeing Mount Fuji reflected in Lake Kawaguchi. It's not always clear, so when we saw it whole, without a single cloud, it was a stroke of luck we were hugely grateful for in the moment.

The night in Miyajima, once the tourists left, was one of the most special moments of the entire trip, no question.

Getting lost around Shirakawa-go with no fixed plan. An entire village of thatched-roof houses, surrounded by mountains, that looks like it's straight out of an animated film.

The omakase in Tokyo. Sitting at the counter and letting the chef decide everything, dish by dish, without asking anything.

The chaos of Dotonbori in Osaka at night. After so many days of temples and calm, a brutal change of pace — and a necessary one, honestly.

The day before Fuji: the one we enjoyed most

Curiously, the best day in the Fuji area wasn't when we saw the mountain, but the day before. It was cloudy and we couldn't see Fuji, so we spent the day strolling around Fujikawaguchiko. We took a ramen class, did a sake tasting, went to the hotel's onsen and rested a lot. It was the first calm day after Tokyo's chaos, and we could wander with no destination around that very quiet village. We loved it.

A walk along the river in Kyoto

We also loved walking around Kyoto along the river and having a few drinks at a bar with a terrace facing it, watching the people.

What moved us most

More than a specific place, it was the change from city to city: being able to experience several phases of Japan in a single trip.

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