After our stay in Tokyo is was time to head out west to Yokohama to visit our good friend Yoshi. It turns out that Yokohama is the second biggest city in Japan which surprised me as I always thought that title belonged to Osaka but alas. Based on population size Yokohama is bigger but I…
Tag: Tokyo
Tokyo: Our Tourist Edition
During our time in Japan, we spent plenty of time visiting the tourist spots of Tokyo but but more as a tour guide to our friends and family rather than a tourist. We loved this because when life in Japan became more ‘normal’ seeing the magic of this crazy country through their eyes made it…
Makuhari Revisited
For those of you who have followed The Travelling Holts’ journey from the beginning, you will know that this blog started eight years ago when we decided to move to Japan. It has grown so much since then, currently leading us to Sweden. However, how we left Japan never sat well with us. We always…
8 Amazing Side Trips from Tokyo
When we lived in Japan, we used to get a lot of visitors. Some used to visit for long periods of time, around two or three weeks. This would give us time to see the more popular sites further a field like Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, etc… which are highly recommended if you have the…
Rikugien Gardens
Japan is a country of four distinct seasons. Winter is all about skiing and hot pot (Shabu Shabu), Spring is all about the famous Cherry Blossoms and Sakura flavoured food. Summer is the season of Matsuris and firework displays, which brings me to my favourite season… Autumn. Around late October to early December the changing…
Typhoons and Earthquakes
When we first decided to move to Japan the language was the only thing we really worried about. We knew it would be a huge cultural change and there were going to be difficulties with communication but we never once considered the number of natural events that happen here compared to the UK and how…
Sengakuji Temple
Sengakuji Temple is rarely on the top 10 places to visit in Tokyo but it is not somewhere that should be so quickly overlooked. If you like your Japanese history, then you will be very interested to know that it is the burial home of the 47 Ronin. The story goes, in summary, that there…
2018 Review
It’s that time of year again and so it is time for my annual summary of the year as 2019 draws in. So how was 2018? It started with our trip to Karuizawa in February enjoying the snow, star gazing and onsens to get us through the winter months. It felt like luxury and a…
TeamLab Borderless
When you are in the full flow of work, it is easy to find yourself in a rut where each weekend becomes a carbon copy of the one before. Sleep, eat and a short walk to somewhere local for a stock up. However every now and again you plan something interesting to break the routine…
Hoshinoya Karuizawa
2018 has been quite the travel year so far. The summer was a huge step for us but in all the excitement and planning I forgot to write about the little side trip we went on at the start of the year. February was the perfect opportunity for us to explore yet another of the…
The Travelling Holts 