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Cherry Blossoms at Yoyogi Park
Having seen the cherry blossoms in Okinawa, I couldn’t understand the hype over hanami or cherry blossom viewing. I found the dark pink flowers overrated. To think that people would actually look forward to these flowers blooming annually, I couldn’t help but to find it a tad bit strange and a tad bit ridiculous. They were just flowers that were nice to look at but nothing of the extraordinary.
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Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine
In Kyoto, there’s a shrine that’s super popular, open 24 hours and free. It’s popular thanks to its many tori. Chances are high you’ve come across photos of famous instagrammers in front of the famed red gates (tori) before.
Nothing wrong with that but it does make Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine rather crowded.
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Nanzoin Temple: Banned to Foreigners
Yes, you read that title correctly. The funny thing about it is that I had no flipping clue it was banned to foreigners until long after I had visited it but after learning about it, I now understand why some of the temple personnel looked so off (cold, uninviting, mean and judgmental). Fortunately, I encountered two staff members that weren’t like that but that’s just two out of their many staff members!
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Tokyo Disney Sea
If there’s anything that Disneyland visitors can agree on, it’s the fact that Disneyland is expensive. Do not even get me started on how pricey it is to go to Disneyland in California. A one day admission ticket is like more than $100! That is insanity, people and it explains why I haven’t set foot onto Anaheim’s Disneyland in a long, long time.
So, in Japan, I was able to justify visiting Tokyo Disney Sea. Justified because we don’t have a Disney Sea here in the states and justified because the admission fee is a bit lower than California’s admission fee. (I think it was approximately $80 and that to me is a big difference.)
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Bizarre Japan
The West has a bad habit of making Japan appear bizarre. And I get it. It’s because Japan is quite different from the West.
Different language(s). Different food(s). Different custom(s).
But when you really think about it, no one country is ever more bizarre than the other simply because every country is bizarre. It all comes down to one’s perspective. For example, Americans wouldn’t find Canada to be all that bizarre and vice versa, right?
So, what is bizarre about Japan? I don’t know for sure but allow me to share my bizarre encounters in Japan.