Kobe Chinatown
Kobe is home to a large Chinese community. Nankinmachi is a pedestrian-only lane about 1 km long guarded on both ends by Chinese arches. It is a good place to stroll in the evenings when the street is illuminated gaudily in shades of red. There are some side lanes off the main street where you can find small family-run Japanese restaurants, some of which serve Kobe beef.
Hoba miso & Hida beef
Do not miss these two specialties (combination possible) when you visit Takayama. Many restaurants serve hoba miso set meals which are generally meals comprising of rice, small side dish, soup and vegetables or meat cooked in miso (fermented soy bean) on a hoba (magnolia) leaf over a flame. I find that the miso gets too salty when combined with vegetables but works wonders with a good cut of the beautiful marbled Hida beef. You can find many restaurants serving Hida beef or hoba miso there.
Shirakawa-go
Shirakawa-go (Shirakawa village) is a secluded snowy mountain village retains the historic landscape with some 150 traditional vernacular farmhouse-style houses called Gassho-zukuri. The Gassho-zukuri style house is 18m length and 10m width. Ogimachi is the largest village and main attraction of Shirakawa-go. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old.
Stamps collection
When you finished touring the Hiroshima Peace Museum, you may notice that there are some stamps like the one in the picture sitting out. These stamps are very popular in Japan. The Japanese will often stamp brochures or pamphlets, and you can do this too if you have any from Hiroshima. Also, if you have/bought any books, you may want to stamp the inside cover. These stamps are not only in Hiroshima. I found that many museums or tourist attractions have them as well. I always enjoyed stamping books and other materials from the place where the stamp advertised. It’s a fun and unique type of stamp collecting!
Shibuya – Hachiko Statue
There’s one famous story about Shibuya, it’s about a dog name Hachiko. Hachiko routine was to send his master (a professor in university) to work and waiting for his master to come back home from work everyday near Shibaya station.This daily life continue everyday until one day in May 1925, his master didn’t return home.He died of cerebral hemorrhage at university that day.Poor Hachiko kept going to wait for his master everyday for 9 years until he died.There is a statue of Hachiko adjacent to the station,it become a celebrity for his loyalty.That area become a famous meeting point for many people.