Dreams Do Come True — Our Second Visit to Japan

We spent three weeks in Japan in 2018 and ever since we’ve attempted to jockey our itinerary for more, more, more! We tried in 2020, just before the Covid lockdown, with what was to be an albeit inadequate three night stopover in Tokyo between Thailand and Portland, Oregon USA. But that got nixed. What we did get was just an all-day layover at an entirely empty Narita airport waiting to catch what turned out to be the very last direct flight from there to Portland. Delta Airlines never resurrected that route post-pandemic.

So in late March 2024, after our eagerly anticipated west coast USA Archie 3.0 visit (our third visit with Rich’s Grandson, Archie, following his birth in 2022), we arrived in Tokyo for a second three-week visit, to this alluring, gorgeous country.

In addition to visiting Tokyo we took a Shinkansen (bullet train) south to Naoshima, a destination commonly known as Japan’s art island and also enjoyed several spots around Osaka/Kobe. Below are our hotel choices, with pics, followed by a selection of pics from our activities at each location.

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We were here From April 10-13 in the penthouse suite ($300/night including breakfast). Definitely a splurge for us. We struggled to find the right spot for our visit to Naoshima Island, finally abandoning our attempt to stay on the island at the Benesse Museum hotel — their website was impossible to secure the reservation we wanted. It turned out to be a good choice. From this two-year old hotel to the Uno train station and the adjacent ferry terminal is a flat 25 minute walk. There’s a hotel shuttle but it was never convenient for us — it’s not designed for early morning tourist use with the first morning shuttle to the train station not until at 10:14 am. We were long gone for the day by then all mornings. It’s a gleaming hotel with an awesome onsen included — and a self-serve laundry included. We did a one-day visit to the island (adequate for us to visit the Benesse and Chiochu museums on bikes and take a soak in the sweet community onsen in the port town). On our second full day we took the train to Takamatsu to the small museum and garden. The train ride over there was awesome. Great fun visiting a new area of Japan for us!