Eight days 'til I'm in Japan again!

[Dan B]

I'm getting pretty excited about my trip. I'm leaving next Friday, 23 July and will return on Sunday, 8 August. I'll be staying with some friends in Okayama but, since they'll be working for a good portion of my trip, I'm going to go on some day trips in the Chugoku and Kansai regions.

Here are the trips I'm planning right now, based on places I already know about or recently read about in "The Rough Guide to Japan."

Kurashiki
Ikuchi-Jima
Miyajima and Hiroshima
Himeji Castle and Osaka Castle
Takahashi (Bicchuu-Matsuyama castle)

The stuff I'd like to see, really, are the things that many tourists miss. For example, in December I visited a pair of shrines (one Shinto and one Buddhist) that were only about 30 minutes away from Okayama. My friend and I took a small one-car train to the town.

I'm afraid that I can't remember the town's name, but the two shrines were right next to each other, nestled into the side of a mountain. They were absolutely beautiful. But I gathered that they were off the normal "tourist path."

That's the kind of stuff that I'd like. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Dan

[Arch]

Hi dan well, i admit i cant help you just about at all but ill try as usual. In hiroshima they are the peace parks, if you want to sit down and have some quiet time, They is also of hirshima castle, but this can get quite popular. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3400.html
In Kurashiki they are many houses you can visit and canals, which are not busy tourist destinations.http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5751.html. They are also museums and gallerys.
In Miyajima they is the itsukushima shrine, that seems a great place to visit - http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/miyajima/english/top2.htm

Thats basically all i have , soz not alot of information , but good luck and enjoy ya self

[Dan B]

Arch,

That's great! Thanks for all the information and links!

Dan

[Dan B]

Does anyone else have any suggestions, particularly about places that I haven't listed but are in the Chugoku or Kansai regions?

Again, I do want to see some of the "big-ticket" attractions, but I'm most interested in smaller places that relatively few visitors might notice.

Thanks!

Dan

[Dan B]

It was a great trip! I went on many short day-trips, visited Kumamoto and Nagasaki in Kyuushuu, and was able to spend a lot of time with my American and Japanese friends. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I've already booked my next flight to Japan (December) and, after 8 months of thinking about it, I've decided to go ahead and move back to Japan next summer. I hope to get a job teaching at one of the international schools in the Kansai region.

Dan

[King of Tokyo]

Welcome Back Dan B. Hope you had a good time in Japan. I have to wait two years before I can go T_T.. Heh..

[kirei_na_me]

Welcome back, Dan. Here's your 'welcome back' gift: :balloon:

;-)

[jovial_jon]

Glad you enjoyed it Dan! Welcome back to the forum! :cool:

[Dan B]

Thanks, King and Jon! And thanks for the balloon, Rachel!

King, have you thought about trying to go on a summer group-trip with other high school students? On my flight to Japan I sat next to a student who was about 17, and he told me that he'd gone on several overseas trips during his summer breaks. This time he was headed to Kyoto and apparently there are a lot of relatively affordable travel-packages like that for students.

One of the teachers I work with has three daughters, and they've taken trips like that. They raised money throughout the year with their Girl Scout troops and then went on multi-week visits to Europe during the summer.

So maybe you could do something like that and get to Japan a little sooner!

Dan

[Glenn]

Welcome back, Dan! I'm glad to have you posting on the fora again, but I'm a bit saddened that you want to move to Japan. You see, I think that the US could use as many educators like you as we can possibly get! Anyway, I'm glad that you had a good time. :wave: :beer:

[Dan B]

Glenn,

Thanks for the warm welcome and the compliment. I appreciate your kind words and faith in my ability as a teacher.

I've been fortunate in that I've worked with many really wonderful teachers. I trust that our kids will be well taken care of by my colleagues, although I'll certainly miss seeing some of my former students grow up and go on to college and work.

Thanks again for your kind words. Teachers seem to be getting a lot of grief these days and it's nice to have someone say something nice! :-)

Dan