Our 2019 Japan Trip To Nagoya Women's Marathon

6 months after our trip to Hokkaido, we were back in Japan again.

I ran in Okhostsk-Abashiri Marathon during last year's September trip and this time around, I ran in Nagoya Women Marathon. My 14th full marathon.

But unlike our Hokkaido trip when I registered to run in a marathon long after we booked our ticket and had our itinerary roughly planned out, this year's trip had to fit around the fact that I had registered to run in Nagoya Women's Marathon very early on.

We bought a 5-days Kintetsu Rail Pass for 3,800 yen and used it to travel around Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Ise Shima. We started using it on our second day there.

The pass also has a LOT of discounts for tourist attractions and for shopping.

For a few days we were in Osaka, mostly visiting malls and shops.

Then we visited Mount Yoshino.

And stopped by Nara. (Well, Mount Yoshino IS in Nara prefecture, but you know what I mean la... Nara as in the temple & deer complex lah).

Before heading to Nagoya, we visited Ise Jingu.

We then spent a night in Toba, Mie Prefecture at a ryokan (Japanese inn) and ate lots of seafood.

On the last day, we visited Kyoto.

We've visited Osaka, Nara, Nagoya, and Kyoto a few times over the past 17 years so we skipped all the usual tourist attractions. We only visited some places that we personally like and look for local specialty food.

The highlights of the trip, apart from me running in Nagoya Women's Marathon was our trip to Mount Yoshino and Ise Shima.

We were truly satisfied and happy about the trip that we made there. It would've been great if we managed to secure tickets to watch the Grand Sumo tournament in Osaka but tickets were sold out pretty quickly. We always watch the tournament highlights on TV during the tournament season and it would've been great to see it live.

Maybe next time, for the next Grand Sumo tournament season? 

More posts about our trip later. Stay tuned.

Total ground arrangement spending for a week holiday for two? 85,000 yen.

About RM3,000 and that includes Ise ebi & oyster splurge in Toba.