Epic Mountainscapes: The Japanese Alps

So we went for some mountaineering in the Japanese Alps, the northern ones to be precise. From Osaka, you can take the “Thunderbird” train to Toyama (the city next to the Alps where we stayed) in 3 hours. When we arrived, we were welcomed by a huuuuge impressive mountain range!!! And we were going to …

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500 Disciples of Buddha

During our holiday in the Japanese Alps, we stayed in the city Toyama. There we visited a very impressive shrine; 500 statues of disciples of Buddha, overlooking the city from a beautiful green hill just west of the city center. This place is magical, since all the statues have their own design, facial expressions and …

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100 different cherry trees

What, a hundred?? Yes! I’m a bit embarrassed to say, but I used to think there were only a couple kinds of cherry trees… Until today! We went to the Mint Museum in Osaka, which is surrounded by a park with hundreds and hundreds cherry trees. But not the kind you usually see in Japan, …

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Sakura Season Start!

It might be raining and it might still be pretty cold, but in Japan spring has begun because the cherryblossoms have started blooming!     Every year this is celebrated elaborately with festivals, music, foodstalls and especially lots and lots of beer drinking while sitting on blue plastic mats underneath the blooming trees. At work …

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