My husband and I spent a 3-week vacation in Japan in last June, even 3-week felt too short for us.  We absolutely loved what we saw and where we went.  The most memorable things we did including a 7.8km hiking trail in Kiso Valley called Nakasendo path in between two ancient towns Tsumago and Magome, we saw Japan's mountainous rural villages.  Staying at a Japanese style hotel Ryokan was definitely a worthwhile experience, sleeping on a tatami and tasting delicious multiple courses home-made meal, nothing is more Japanese than that.  We loved Hokkaido for its nature, it has four Japan’s National Parks, too beautiful a place to be missed.  However Japanese culture is quite different than ours, even delicious fresh seafood could be a challenge such as caveats, fish eggs and squid for breakfast......but I still love Japan.

Shinkasen Japan’s fast train is so convenient, so fast and so clean, definitely a way of travel from place to place.  Shinkasen is not cheap, if you plan to use train as your main method of transportation and you plan to take fast train more than three times, don’t forget to purchase Japan rail pass before you go.  It can save you a lot of money.  The pass valid for 1-week, 2-week or 3-week can only be purchased in overseas by foreigners and be activated after you enter Japan.

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