I was lucky enough to string a number of countries into a single trip, starting in Japan and arcing south through Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.
This was the start of my trip, and where I expected to see cherry blossoms! There were not cherry blossoms - they arrived very late this year... But there was a ton of other things to do, and I would rate Tokyo as the nicest city I have ever visited.
The Imperial Palace was one of my first experiences of Japanese castles, and that part was very impressive.
I wasn't expecting the palace itself to have been built in the 1960s, though!
The gardens were of course as spectacular as you'd expect from an Imperial Palace.
Senso-ji temple was stunning at night, and the surroundings stayed quite lively.
I visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, but unfortunately it was too early in the season to really appreciate them, with only the earliest cherries starting to bloom.
Finally, I was able to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji from the Shinkansen on my way to Osaka.
Osaka had cherry blossoms!
I spent two weeks in town, but I was unfortunately sick for most of it. It had a fairly different feel than Tokyo - much more lived in, with more visible wear. It was still very enjoyable though, and the castles were fantastic! I went to see Himeji Castle one afternoon which was a bit of a train ride, but well worth it.
That's not to say that Osaka didn't have a castle of its own, of course! Osaka Castle was quite large and impressive, with very impressive moats.
Thankfully I had recovered by the time I had to leave for Kyoto, where I would only have a week. (I should have done two weeks in Kyoto and one in Osaka, in hindsight.)
Only a week in Kyoto, but it was a great week! I was able to visit around half of the world heritage sites in the city, but that's because there's an incredible number here. If you like shrines, temples, palaces and the gardens that surround them you will love Kyoto.
One of the first gardens that really stood out in my memory was that of the Heian Shrine - they're relatively young, but quite stunning.
The Buddhist temple Nanzen-ji, which I visited later the same day, also shared some very interesting gardens, but of a completely different style.
The next day I visited the Fushimi Inari-taisha, which is famous for its thousands of torii gates. It certainly lived up to the reputation and was quite a sight, but absolutely try to go at off hours to avoid crowds.
And this is why you want to avoid the crowds - but the farther along the loop I made it the fewer people there were. Most people seemed to just be walking the small loop instead of actually climbing to the top of the hill.
Closer to the center of town, Kyoto Gyoen National Garden included multiple palaces and of course more gardens. I started this visit with the Imperial Palace, which was quite nice, with the Shishinden in particular being very visually impressive.
Afterwards, I was able to take a guided tour of the Sento Imperial Palace grounds, which was quite nice. The buildings themselves were smaller, but the gardens were more impressive to my eyes.
I started the next day with a visit to the Shugakuin Imperial Villa, which is three small villas each with three styles of garden. The buildings were small and cozy - far from palaces, but very liveable. Advance reservations are required for the tour, and there's a lottery! It was a great visit, despite how out of the way it was.
The Kinkaku-ji, or Golden Pavilion, was the next stop, and it was impressive but also very fast. Yes, a pavilion covered in gold leaf is impressive, but it doesn't leave much to see. Once again great gardens though!
One thing to point out about Kyoto though isn't just the major sites, but the fact that there are "minor" shrines and temples every few blocks. I would be unsurprised if a larger fraction of Kyoto's land area was devoted to religious use than in Rome. Just walking south from Kinkaku-ji, I passed by three more shrines including Kitano-temmangū which is a good example of a "minor" shrine that's still in active use.
And then I finished the day with monkeys. A low admission fee plus a decent hike led to a monkey park with views of Kyoto.
I started my Friday with a visit to Tenryu-ji, near the monkey park where I finished the day before. The interiors were very pretty, and the gardens again were very calming. Past the pond, there were large sections of flowers and then a bamboo forest.
I was then able to take the Sagano sightseeing train along the Katsura River, where I took a boat ride back to Arashiyama. The views from the train were pretty, but very crowded, making it very hard to get pictures. Still something worth doing, but make sure you get a window seat!
The boat ride back took longer than I thought it would, but was very enjoyable!
My final full day started with a visit to Jisho-ji, the Silver Pavilion. Very similarly to the Golden Pavilion, the temple itself was not particularly spectacular but the gardens were very nice.
After a few other stops, I had a wonderful visit to Nijo Castle in the city center. The castle and palace fit very well into the gardens surrounding them.
And there was certainly more to Kyoto than just the sights - the food was fantastic!
Okinawa is honestly the least memorable part of Japan to me. It has a lot of US military bases, and was only returned to Japanese control in 1972, and that shows. It was by far the most American part of Japan on my trip. But this is Japan! Why are you looking for the most American part of Japan?
Because you want to visit someone assigned to those bases, that's why.
That's not to say that there weren't any sights to see, of course! The Shurijo Castle was very... Interesting, as it is currently being reconstructed after a fire. It was incredible to see the process, but it's also not what I expected! A major difference between European and Asian castles, that's for sure.
Shikina-en Royal Gardens were pretty, though I was unfortunate enough to visit them while it was raining.
Anyways, the Scuba diving was great! I only spent one day doing this, but the waters of Keramashoto National Park were clear and warm with great snakes and turtles.
Nakagusuku Castle was quite interesting, but also only worth a short visit.
My visit to the Nakamura Residence afterwards was my first real look at a traditional Japanese house, and I would recommend stopping by if you are in the area.
On a completely tone, the Cenotaph for the Navy Casualties and the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters were a very sobering visit.
Coming from Japan, Taipei honestly felt like "warmer Japan". This wasn't a bad thing! The food was great, the people were friendly, and the sights were interesting. Taipei 101 stood out incredibly far above the rest of the city, and was a great visit later in my stay. The temples were seemingly just as numerous as in Kyoto, but with a different style.
Taipei featured a lot of absolutely monumental monuments, particularly the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. No, really, it's huge. It also featured a frequent changing of the guard ceremony, which was well done but had the incongruous inclusion of janitors straighting up the uniforms of the guards after they took their places!
The National Palace Museum was also a fantastic visit, with a wide selection of artifacts brought from the mainland during the Chinese Civil War. One of the most famous items was the world's most succulent piece of rock, carved and dyed to resemble a cut of pork.
After my visit to the museum I found a Michelin hole in the wall serving incredible dumplings!
One of my last visits in Taiwan was to Zhinan Temple and then the Taipei zoo - the gondola ride to the temple was very entertaining, and the temple complex itself was quite pretty. The zoo was well laid out and had a good selection of animals from asia and beyond, including pandas which you do not see in the US.
Singapore is fantastic as a "first Asian city" to visit. English is the official language, it's very clean and safe, and the food is fantastic. However, it's also incredibly expensive in comparison to Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Lots of neat museums, and some pretty interesting history, but I probably spent more on food here each day than I did in a week in Tokyo.
One of the things that stands out the most about the city is the gardens mixed into everything - in Japan and Taiwan gardens were a discrete part of the city, but in Singapore they're built into other things too.
The paid sections of Gardens by the Bay were also spectacular, with a waterfall in one and a huge selection of plants from around the world in the other.
Warm! Cheap! Very little to do!
But seriously, the food was good, things were cheap, ride-hail services were readily available... And there wasn't a huge amount to do. The Petronas Towers were impressive, and one of the tallest buildings in the world is currently under construction, but that didn't translate into a huge amount of things to do as a tourist.
I would recommend visiting the Islamic Arts Museum, but I did not take particularly good photos there.
The Batu Caves weren't skippable, but I wasn't impressed either. Maintenance was lacking, the monkeys were aggressive, and the temples inside the caves were underwhelming.
Finally, the KL Bird Park was very entertaining but also highly weather dependent - I was there on a rainy day while many of the birds were still out it made the experience a far bit worse than it otherwise could have been. It also could have used some more maintenance.
I was in Cairns for a week, and I spent most of it diving. 11 dives in two nights on a liveaboard was VERY exhausting!
Sydney was nice, but once again expensive. The Opera Hall was famous, but also not really impressive. It looked great from a distance, but it's much smaller than you'd expect, and doesn't actually function particularly well as a concert hall. A great example of government contracting in action!
