Being from the U.S. — and not from the East Coast — I never really had the opportunity to take a lot of trains. But my first few trips to Europe changed that for me, and I’ve been a big fan of trains ever since. So I will actively seek them out when they’re available — whether it’s an overnight train in Thailand during a solo trip, or trying Japan’s famous Shinkansen bullet train on our honeymoon this past autumn.

The Shinkansen is famous because it was the world’s first high-speed rail line, built to reach speeds of more than 210 km/h (130 mph) back in the 1960s. These days, you can travel between 285-320 km/h (177-199 mph) depending on the line!

While bullet trains aren’t so uncommon anymore, and we regularly take Spain’s high-speed rail service, we couldn’t miss the chance to check out the Shinkansen. So… here’s my review of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line from Tokyo to Kyoto. [Read more…]

Before our trip to Japan, we spent quite a lot of time researching and reading about the top cultural experiences that you couldn’t miss out on. And one thing that we saw mentioned over and over was to visit an onsen — a traditional Japanese hot spring. Most of the recommendations were to book a private one for your family, typically in your hotel or guesthouse, and most often quite far outside the major cities.

We had already booked all our hotels for Japan, and it didn’t sound very convenient to go super far outside the city, anyway. But I still wanted to have a traditional onsen experience. So I turned my attention to the other type of onsen: public ones.

As I was reading about public onsens, I found that pretty much all of them were gender-segregated. And that’s because you have to be naked.

We decided we wouldn’t let the potential awkwardness prevent us from having a totally unique experience on our trip, so one night we made a short trek out to a Tokyo suburb to a public onsen called Toshimaen Niwa no Yu, with basically no idea what we were in for.

So… here’s what it was like to get naked with strangers at a public onsen in Japan. [Read more…]

We’ve been home from our big honeymoon trip to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea for a few weeks now, and I’ve had lots of time to catch up with family and friends! Everyone has been so curious to find out what the trip was like — and one of the biggest things people have been interested in are the cultural differences in Japan.

Japan is definitely a country where I experienced a lot of cultural differences that I had never seen before, and while they did surprise me, I actually loved it! Because it makes me really stop and think: “Wow, I am certainly not in the U.S. or Spain anymore!” And I weirdly enjoy the fish-out-of-water feeling of cultural discomfort.

With that being said, here are just 10 of the cultural differences in Japan that surprised me — both big and small. [Read more…]

Now that you know exactly what we got up to during our two weeks in Japan, I wanted to focus on some of the cultural experiences in Japan that really made our trip special. While the experiences themselves ranged from “touristy” to very local, I’m still grateful to have taken part in each one, and each taught me something about Japanese culture.

Here are the three cultural experiences in Japan you shouldn’t miss during your visit. [Read more…]