Japan

Tokyo is one of my favorites cities to visit. The colorful, organized, and even the kawaii culture also apply to the food there. The vegan scene in Tokyo is growing every year. I'm always excited to try new restaurants. Here [...]

I have just returned from two weeks in Japan. I went over there with my partner, and we spent two weeks travelling around the amazing country. It was cherry blossom season (end of March), so it was particularly beautiful. The […]

Where to go in Kyoto It had to be fate. We booked our Airbnb in Kyoto quite a while ago because we would be arriving in the busy cherry blossom season (Sakura). When the blossoms start to bloom, Japan is […]

Gorgeous lotus flowers are all over Japan this summer, especially near Buddhist temples. The lotus flower is revered here and is also seen as a symbol for Buddhism. Arising out of muddy waters to a beautiful flower symbolizes the path to enlightenment […]

Approaching the end of our time in Japan we were headed to Kyoto, the place I was most excited to visit. We were getting there at the tail end of the time before our rail passes expired, believing this to […]

Hey, vegan travellers! It is once again time for a good old fashioned Ellie’s Roundup! Before I get started I just wanted to say that being vegan in Japan (at least in the big cities)  is just as easy as […]

We had been moving around Japan quite frequently. This is the simultaneous blessing and curse of the Japan Rail Pass. Ours were active for seven days, so in order to see as much of the country as we could, it […]

When Ross and I left Tokyo for Kanazawa, I didn’t really know where we were going. I knew that it was going to be fairly easy to get there from where we were, via Shinkensen (famous fast trains in Japan) […]

At the time of writing this it has been less than one week since Ross and I left New Zealand behind us, yet it feels as though it has been an eternity. I keep saying that these small increments of […]

I don’t know why our time in New Zealand felt like it lasted forever, but it did. I don’t mean that in a negative way whatsoever. No, the three weeks we spent there were among the best of our trip […]

Konnichiwa! We are in Japan! We have done so much already and yet so little compared to what we have planned for these next two weeks! The day we arrived, exhausted from travelling for many hours and from getting no […]

Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto was first built in 778. Since then, it has been supported by huge public devotion as one of the biggest religious symbols. In other words, it has been a spiritual hometown for all Japanese people, which […]

Shinjuku Gyoen was constructed on the site of a private mansion belonging to Lord Naito, a “daimyo”(feudal lord) of the Edo era. Completed in 1906 as an imperial garden, it was re-designated as a national garden after the Second World […]

The Imperial Palace, where their Majesties the Emperor and Empress reside, is situated in the center of Tokyo. The palace is surrounded by a water-filled moat and tree-covered grounds – a precious taste of nature within the bustling metropolitan city. […]