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For five short December days each year, sunlight pierces the heart of Newgrange, a 5,200-year-old tomb whose perfect alignment draws thousands to Ireland’s Boyne Valley — but to see it up close an...

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Wed Nov 12th, 2025

See all our posts for "Japan II and Australia VIII" at https://100countries.info/trips/2025-3-japan-ii-and-australia-viii/Our borrowed Lonely Planet guidebook for Japan and websites such as www.japan-guide.com/e/e2001.html devote several paragraphs to "slipper etiquette". The when, where and how to wear the correct choice of slippers inside and outside a traditional hotel, restaurants, and homes in Japan needs some getting used to!Our hotel in Tokyo supplied no less than 4 different types of slippers to be worn inside or outside, in the room or outside, and even a special pair for emergency use only. There were many, many signs at the front door providing instructions on where and how to remove outdoor footwear and store those outdoor shoes in a special room containing ~200 keyed shoe lockers for storage of the outdoor shoes when going in, and the indoor slippers when going out. Bizarrely, there was but one small bench seating just one person at the entrance where all footwear was to be swapped.#japan #slippers #tokyo ... See MoreSee Less

Japan's Slipper Etiquette - 100countries.info

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Japan's Slipper Etiquette

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Tue Sep 30th, 2025

After visiting Tokyo and the day after the sumo tournament, we headed for Japan's second largest city, Osaka. We went on the Shinkansen (bullet train) because on our first trip to Japan we took conventional rail and had a bullet train pass us on a dedicated track like we were sitting still. We just had to try it out! We covered the 515 km (~250 miles) between Tokyo and Osaka in less than 2.5 hours and reached Osaka-shin (the dedicated bullet train station) in no time. Sadly, although we sat on the right side of the train for views of Mount Fuji there was nothing but a cloud bank over the peak.Most of our time in Osaka was spent visiting family (Osaka is our daughter-in-law's home town), so we really had just 24 hours to do touristy things. We chose a hotel in the Namba district so that we'd be centrally located and on the main metro line.#bullettrain #Dotonbori #Glico #japan #Namba #Osaka ... See MoreSee Less

Visiting Osaka - 100countries.info

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Mon Sep 29th, 2025

The much anticipated day for the Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament finally arrived! We had a relaxing morning with another soak in the natural hot spring onsen in our hotel and then walked through the Sensoji Temple area (photos are in our "Visiting Tokyo" post). We got to Ryōgoku Kokugikan, the dedicated sumo venue, in time to have lunch in the area; a delicious (and huge) meal of Japanese pancakes called okonomiyaki. As we exited the restaurant we had to contend with a throng of people lining the sidewalk, but quite far away from the main entrance. Turns out that it was the entrance to the sumo equivalent of the stage door and the sumo wrestlers were arriving by taxi and limo to huge cheers from fans.We had bought our tickets through an agency that provided a guide for the event, and we quickly met him and went into the Ryōgoku Sumo Hall.#japan #sumo #tokyo ... See MoreSee Less

Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament - Sept. 22, 2025 - 100countries.info

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Mon Sep 29th, 2025

Our second trip to Japan began with a direct flight from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo's huge Narita airport. We flew on JAL (Japan Airlines) and even at YVR we were reminded about just how orderly and efficient just about everything Japanese is. Our flight was scheduled for 14:05 and our online boarding passes said that boarding time was 13:45. Say what? Twenty minutes to board an entire aircraft? At check-in at the airport the time was changed to 13:40, which still didn't seem like enough time. Then when we headed down to the gate promptly at 13:40 boarding hadn't even begun. "Aha!" we thought; they are going to be late leaving for sure. But then at exactly 13:45 boarding started, everyone boarded in an orderly fashion and took their seats, and we pushed back from the gate 3 minutes early! Wow; an entire 787 Dreamliner boarded in 17 minutes.An uneventful flight that arrived 20 or 30 minutes late due to strong headwinds.#japan #tokyo ... See MoreSee Less

Visiting Tokyo - 100countries.info

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Sun Aug 10th, 2025

Last month, Tourism Fiji recently launched a contest to promote travel to Fiji using Wilson from the movie Cast Away as the centrepiece. After recovering from our initial surprise (Cast Away was filmed in Fiji? It's been 25 years?!?) their promotion made us think that we really need to see more of Oceania.We've been to all seven continents in the world, but of the six continents that have countries our travel record of countries visited is very uneven. We've been to nearly all of the countries of North America, South America, and Europe, and to a good number of the countries of Asia and Africa, but we have only visited two of the 14 countries of Oceania. Fiji is certainly one of those Oceania countries that is high on our list of places to visit. For whatever reason, the Tourism Fiji contest is only open to residents of the USA so we won't win a free trip, but it looks like a destination well worth the airfare!#CastAway #Fiji #Wilson ... See MoreSee Less

Fiji Inspiration - 100countries.info

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