The 5 Trips I'm Saving For Next Time

Well, my time's almost up. It's been a good run, I'd say, and there are few adventures left to be had yet, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't have time to see all the things I've set out to see when I first landed in Japan. These are the trips I'll be saving for the next time I come!

Okinawa

Photo by Trip Advisor

The southernmost prefecture of Japan is Okinawa - a series of islands that stretch all the way down to Taiwan. It's a tropical paradise with its very own history, food and culture, and one that I would've loved to explore. Okinawa's famous for its crystal blue waters, its lush jungles and its scuba-diving. It's said that the people living in Okinawa have the longest lifespans on Earth, owing it all to a slow, stress-free and peaceful lifestyle, which I would've loved to witness for myself.

Hokkaido

Photo by skyscrapercity.com

On the far opposite end, all the way to the North, is Hokkaido, the largest prefecture in Japan, where the weather drops to subzero temperatures during Winter. Hokkaido is vast and undeveloped in many areas, making it an ideal Winter resort getaway for snow sport aficionados, and great for outdoor adventures and exploration at any time of the year. Its capital and largest city (fifth in all of Japan) is Sapporo, which has a lot going for it in its own right, including the only beer I'll admit to actually not disliking.

Yamanouchi

Photo by afar.com

A little off the beaten path, Yamanouchi is an onsen area, rich with natural hot springs. What Yamanouchi is well known for, though, are the local wild monkeys that are just as likely to jump into the hot springs during the cold Winter days as people are. There are a number of springs in the area where monkeys and people can even bathe simultaneously, promising somewhat of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Gunkanjima

Photo by Gakuran.com

Gunkanjima, or the Battleship Island, as it would be called in English, is the ultimate Haikyo - an abandoned city on an island off the cost of Nagasaki. Hell, you might've even seen it in Christopher Nolan's movie "Inception."  Recently it's been added to UNESCO's list of cultural heritage sites. There was a long period of time during which I was considering getting myself to Nagasaki and rowing a boat to Gunkanjima to explore the abandoned city on my own.

Akita

Photo by goldenjipangu.com

Akita itself is a bit of a sleepy prefecture during most of the year - but at other times, it's also where some of the most outlandish festivals take place. Amongst those is the Kanto Festival, where people can be seen balancing dangerously enormous poles, each with dozens or more lanterns hanging from them. But the one festival that takes the cake is the Oga Namahage, where men dressed as demons prowl the streets at night, promising to eat children who cry or misbehave. They actually proceed to go into people's houses to scare said kids. Fantastic.