The Plan

So for years I already had a super vague plan of what I wanted to see in Japan, should I ever be able to visit.
Mostly this plan involved cherry blossoms, strolling trough Kyoto, visiting the hot springs, eating glorious amounts of sushi and mochi and wearing a Kimono.

When I finally started planning I was very lost in way too much information. I did not even know where to begin. So what I did was watching lots of entertaining youtube videos to get some starting points. Everything I was interested in - I put on a list.

In the end I took a look at the map of Japan and tried to figure out which spots make sense to connect and which are way off for this trip.

Since I already knew I absolutely wanted to travel during the cherryblossom season some things automatically fell off the list. Like hiking up to the Top of Mount Fuji for example. This guy is only open for hikes Juli to August.

Other things I had to say goodbye to because of bad... let's call it bad luck.
Visiting the Ghibli Museum was quite high on my list for example but it is not possible to just walk in there and get a ticket. You have to reserve way ahead and during a specific time period. I'll add a list of ressources and recommended websites to this post at some point btw.
Long story short we did not get tickets. Well. Shouganai. That's what Japanese often say when things don't work out as planned: It can't be helped.

Okay, so what did I end up putting on the 3 week schedule?

These are the cities I am gonna visit (not neccessarily in order):

- Tokyo
- Hakone
- Kyoto
- Osaka
- Nara
- Koyasan
- Arima Onsen
- Magome / Tsumago (Kiso-Valley)
- Miyajima


These are the activities I have planned there (also not in order):

- A day in Disneyland Tokyo (omgomgomg yesss!)

- A night at a monchs temple including traditional vegan dinner in Koyasan and visiting a very old japanese graveyard

- A visit at a traditional Onsen place in Arima Onsen as well as experiencing a traditional (though slightly vegetarian friendly adapted) Kaiseki Dinner.

- Seeing the Floating Tori Gate in Miyajima and the Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni

- Feeding the friendly deer in Nara

- Staying at a traditional Ryokan and eating Black Eggs in Hakone

- Having a photoshoot Meiko style and visiting the Bamboo Grove in Arashiyama, Kyoto

- Wearing a traditional Kimono and experiencing a tea ceremony in Kyoto

- Hiking a post-town trail from Magume - Tsumago

- Staring at thousands of beautiful cherry trees in Yoshinoyama

- Visiting Himeji Castle

- Getting drunk and Karaoke in Tokyo

- Eating all things Matcha

There will be pictures and blogs about all of these events - sharing the awesomeness. Who else is excited?!