First built in the 14th century and over time expanded and modified multiple times, Himeji Castle has survived WWII and earthquakes. It is nowadays one of the most visited castles in Japan and was just recently renovated in 2015.

As you can see in the photos, the weather could have been better but at least temperatures were ok.

We continued our journey with the Shinkansen and reached Osaka just after noon. We stayed again near the JR Station although in Osaka one has to keep in mind that the areas of interest to tourists tend to be more south while the station is in the north. But riding the subway is no issue and gets you to the “hip” areas quickly.

We took the subway to Shin-Imamiya-Ekimae and walked around Shinsekai. The areas is famous for Kushikatsu, deep-fried skewered meat and vegetables.

A friend recommended to check out Kushikatsu Doteyaki Nadai Tsurukameya, so that’s where we had the first of several afternoon snacks.

It is a really enjoyable, bustling area to walk around. As we got further north, we’ve reached Uranamba with its countless Izakayas, Japanese-style pubs.

We stopped for Ramen at Ichiran, which was probably the best we’ve ever had. By then we had probably reached 30’000 steps and took a break for an hour at Lilo Coffee, a small cafe with some serious coffee!

Dinner turned out to be a funny story; I had never seen that many restaurants so densely. Yet we wandered around for over an hour since the choice was so overwhelming. Netflix effect.

In order to avoid starting our trip in one of the mega gateways of Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya), we set off in Hiroshima. From there we made our way overland through the tourist hotspots of Osaka, Kyoto, the Mount Fuji area and on to Tokyo. Since pretty much any Spring vacation needs a bit of beach time, we extended for a few days and flew down to the Yaeyama Islands to soak in the Okinawan spirit on Ishigaki.

It has been a fun two weeks and thanks to Japan’s great public transportation system not too hectic despite the few stops along the way.

Below is our itinerary:

Looking back, we’re pretty happy with the itinerary. Two weeks is way to short to see such a densely populated country with rich history and obviously only scratched the surface. However, given the time, we were happy with our choices. After last year’s spring vacation to Chengdu/Thailand/Singapore, we wanted to pace things a bit slower, especially since we covered most of the trip with public transport. Having multiple nights at all stops except Osaka was nice and we never felt that we spent too much time in a location. The only exception might be the Mount Fuji area where we got very unlucky with the weather and it actually snowed on the day we intended to go hiking.

Being end of March, it was still chilly apart from Ishigaki. We had to wear a jacket on most days and it was still too cold for wearing shorts. Just something to keep in mind should it matter to you.