Perfect One Day in Japan
 

Say you had one day to spend in Japan, what would you do?

We will be there for much longer, but I figure this would be a good way to find some hidden treasures.

I would really like to visit hokkaido. That would be perfect.

My perfect day in Japan would involved strolling through a park and having a picnic during cherry blossom time. Assuming it's not raining on that day!

I'd get up super early and wander around the kyoto riverbanks while everything is just opening/closing, photograph some of the birds of prey, and then go find somewhere I could get breakfast; traditional Japanese, or else really good coffee and rolls. Then I'd hit nishiki food market and spend a couple of hours looking at all the fresh produce and poking around the cookery-ware shops doing some shopping. Then i'd hit the main drag of the gion area, go to the fabric shops and at about 11 stop for green tea and wagashi somewhere. There's a print shop up by kiyo-mizu-dera i'd want to see too, and I might pop into the temple for an omamori :) Afterwards I'd spend a few hours working up an appetite walking around the heian shrine gardens and feeding the terrapins! Lunch would be....tempura soba or a small sushi bento. For the afternoon i'd go see my friends and their family, and relax, or else get out of the town and go up the mountains for a bit. In the evening, i'd like to go out and bar-hop with my friends around the town, eat yakitori and bar-food and drink umeshuu, and it would be an awesome, foody, arty laid-back kind of day.

Time of year....maybe autumn when the oleanders are flowering and it's all lovely and fresh before the maples turn.

Wake up in a futon.
Skate the city, go to good spots, talk to people.
Eat food, skate more, go to other rad spots.
Skate at night, go to a ryokan, then maybe go drinking or something