JAPAN

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If you are an American or European citizen, NOW is the time to book your flights to Japan because of the strength dollars, Euros, and pounds all have against the Japanese yen. It was even named #3 in a traveling magazine as a budgeting location for traveling in 2024. I recently just returned for my 3 month stay in Japan and I just thought I would talk about some of MY recommendations (there are more) that might spark your interest to go to Japan.

1. If you have been researching Japan recently you would know about this infamous sign that is in the heart of Osaka. The Glico sign was probably my favorite photo op throughout the entire trip, but do you know how to get to the place where I am standing? This is a really cool FREE photo spot to get a one on one spot with the infamous sign. Basically you want to go over the bridge and down the stair so that you are across from the glico sign. Once you get down the stairs there will be a beauty store on the right hand side. You want to walk into the store. Once you walk into the store you will see the blue lines and photo op spot to the right of you. There was a line when I went but it was less than a five minute wait and the people behind me even offered to take my picture.

2. If you plan or want to go to Arashiyama’s bamboo forest, I would opt for this one instead. Still in Arashiyama there is a shrine that is called Adashino Nembutsu-ji and it has its very own bamboo forest! Granted it is A LOT smaller. It was just enough for me to get a picture, walk through it and be down. Btw there were maybe 5 people there in total. So definitely not as crowded as the bamboo park. The view at the end of this shrine’s forest too is just so peaceful. I would definitely recommend this. Also if you keep walking up the hill of the STREET to the very top you will find a shrine called Otagi-Nembutsu that I would very much recommend

3. TENNOJI tower and everything around it. There is no secret about this place and there are lots of tourist. BUT i absolutely loved this place. The architecture and street really made me feel like I was in Japan and it was just fun the walk around and eat.

4. Nara is just a 20 minute train ride from Kyoto and if you have a day I would definitely recommend going down for a day trip. In Japan Nara is known for its deer. There are just thousands of deer roaming the area and walking up to this temple (Todai-ji) is just an amazing experience. Not to mention Todai-ji is a HUGE temple, probably one of the biggest I saw, and there is a huge Buddha statue inside which was very impressive.

5. When you’re in Japan, I would 10000% recommend signing up for a morning or day class of ZaZen. It’s a meditation class that teaches you how to meditate like a monk. I absolutely LOVED this. I’ve never really taken into meditation before so it was a very cool experience and afterwords I just felt like anxiety didn’t exist in my life. I did the day class which was 2hrs meditation, 2hrs yoga, and 2 hrs meditation through drawing. After doing this, I am now a person who meditates everyday!