Tonight we’re staying in a Tokyo Haneda Airport hotel, between flights. Made a quick side-trip to the Kawasaki Daishi temple. This statue depicts Kobo Daishi, a ninth century monk who established the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage. We’ll walk part of it for a day later in this trip.
Tag: Japan 2023
MSP–HND
Boarding at MSP with our nephew and his dad. Grateful for this chance to explore Japan together.
The Sun Will Shine
Did risk analysis for next week’s trip. This system will have passed by the time we fly into Kagoshima (blue pin) to hike. Nearby Sakurajima (volcano) is active, but not enough to close the airport. The red line is the anticipated path of a typhoon. We will hike, the sun will shine.
Avoiding Russia
In normal times a flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo would take us through Russian airspace for several hours. This is no longer possible.
Japan Loose-Ends List
Here’s a list of planning details that needed attention as we got closer to traveling to Japan with our nephew and his dad.
A Soldier in Occupied Japan
My partner’s uncle was a soldier in occupied Japan at the end of the Pacific War. The story could’ve been so different.
Show-and-Tell
Started assembling materials for a show-and-tell tomorrow with our 15-year-old nephew and his dad. We’ll be backpacking in Japan for three weeks, traveling by train using national rail passes, and staying in mostly budget hotels.
Japan Plan
On a bone-chilling day, planned for warm weather in places I love. Made hotel reservations for a three-week trip to Japan with Dwight, our nephew, and his dad. We’ll fly to Kagoshima, then slowly make our way to Tokyo by train. The pandemic put the kibosh on previous attempts at this trip.
Temple Plumbing 2022
I hiked to two temples of an 88-temple pilgrimage and photographed the plumbing.
Travel Planning
Spent the afternoon researching 2023 travel and booking fragments of trips: two hotels, a one-way flight, and a round-trip ferry.