I have always wanted to go to Japan because of its rich culture and traditional textile crafts. My wish came true earlier this year! We had an amazing family trip during spring break; we visited Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka.
Tokyo is a big city and has various interesting areas like shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa, Akhisabhara etc.Each of these areas are unique and popular for specific interest groups. 
Shibuya has a beautiful park where we saw rows of Sakura trees (cherry blossoms). During the season, Hanami (picnic under the sakura) is a popular activity.
It's also fun to people watch at Shibuya crossing which is Tokyo's iconic intersection famous for the organized chaos of thousands of pedestrians simultaneously crossing from all directions when the lights change.
Harajuku was the favorite spot for my teenaged daughter with its vibrant pop culture, youth fashion, cute plushy brands like Sanrio, Sumikko gurashi and other quirky stores, cat cafes and delicious street side snacks like boba & tanghulu.
After a few days in Tokyo, we took a train to our next destination, Hakone. Hakone is a scenic resort town up on a mountain and famous for its natural, volcanic hot springs, and stunning views of mount Fuji.
Here we stayed at a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan) and enjoyed traditional Japanese, vegetarian buddhist meals (Shojin ryori) and private bath with natural hot spring (Onsen).
I also enjoyed wearing the traditional Japanese garment Yukata (simpler version of Kimono).
Our next stop was Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan. We took the Shinkansen - Japanese high speed bullet train from Hakone to Kyoto. Riding in the high speed train was one of the favorite parts of the trip for my 8 year old son!. He also enjoyed the Pokemon stores and Samurai and Sword museum.
I was amazed by Kyoto for its stunning temples, shrines, and traditional gardens, Gion- Geisha district and its many handcrafts. Kyoto has almost 1000 well preserved temples; each unique and with their own specialty. I was so facinated by these temples with their beautiful zen gardens that we would visit two or three temples each day. It involves a lot of walking and hiking up the hills but was worth it. Most temples also offer an impressive hand - drawn seal called Goshuin which features, beautiful calligraphy and seasonal drawings, with stand out styles like kirie (paper cut) designs, embroidered seals with golden or red/ black ink on hand-made paper. These make a great souvenir of your visits.
Below are some highlights from our temple visits ( mostly in Kyoto and a few in Tokyo)
Meiji jingu- As you enter the temple premises, you come across a purification font which is a ritual water basin where visitors cleanse their hands and mouth with a ladle before entering the sacred area near the main sactuary. Set in a vast, tranquil forest, this temple has great architecture of massive torii gates. You see Sake and Wine barrel offerings along the road leading to the temple. We were fortunate to experience a Shinto ritual ceremony during our visit.
Senso ji - Japan's oldest Buddhist temple founded in 645 AD, features a thunder gate with giant lanterns, and the famous Nakamise-dori market - a bustling shopping street leading up to the temple filled with traditional crafts, snacks and souvenirs. , a 5 storey pagoda, incense burners and offer fortunes called Omikuji. Getting our fortunes was a fun family activity.
Ryoan-ji - This temple features the most famous rock garden. The minimalism and tranquility of this garden really captivated me and I was happy to just sit and stare at it. An interesting feature of the garden's design is that from any vantage point at least one of the rocks is always hidden from the viewer. Even now, I have this picture of the rock garden as my phone screen, it brings calm amidst the chaos of daily activities! The temple grounds also include spacious park area with a serene pond.
The pholosopher's path is a pleasant stone path through Kyoto's Higashiyama district. The path follows a canal which is lined by hundreds of cherry trees. Restaurants, cafes and boutiques can be found along the path as well as many temples. We followed this path to our next temple Ginkaku-ji.
Ginkaku-ji consists of a beautiful moss garden featuring ponds with little islands and bridges, little streams and plants. The circular path along the garden climbs a hill behind the temple buildings from where you get an amazing view of the entire area. It also has a unique dry sand garden. A massive sand cone named " Moon viewing platform" can be found there.
After lunch, we Continued further along on the Philosopher's path to Nanzen-ji. A beautiful aqueduct, which is part of the canal network , can be seen around here.
Nanzen -ji is one of the most important Zen temples in all of Japan. Upon entering, you first see the massive Sanmon entrance gate, then you walk past beautiful rock gardens whose rocks are said to resemble tigers and cubs crossing through water. Also, highly interesting are paintings on sliding doors of tigers drinking water on gold leaf. Outside you come across a large brick aqueduct that passes through the temple grounds.
Koda-ji - This temple building is surrounded on two sides by impressive gardens designed by leading contemporary masters. One of the gardens is a rock garden consisting of a large field of raked gravel meant to represent the vast ocean. The other garden features an impressive pond, hills, recorative rocks and pine & maple trees. The return path to the temple passes through a bamboo grove.
In Kyoto, we were fortunate to stay in Nishijin district which is well known for Nishijin-ori, a traditional, hand woven silk brocade textile. I could walk to the Nishijin Textile center and spent many hours there learning about the various Japanese textile crafts while my family visited the Kyoto Imperial palace nearby.
The Nishijin-ori, which originated 1200 years ago is regarded for its high quality craftsmanship and used in Obi and Kimono. The Nishijin Textile center is a cultural hub and museum showcasing various types of historical Japanese textiles, live artisan demonstrations on looms, Kimono fashion shows and shop selling authentic silk goods. It also offers, hands on work shops, you can rent kimonos for photo ops. I had a super fun time there!
Handlooms of Japan
Tsumugi: Plain weave woven with floss silk spun by hand into yarn. Thread is dyed before weaving. Durable with rustic and warm appearance.
Kasuri-ori: Resist dyeing or partly dyed warp or weft is used to create blurred pattern.
Tate- Nishiki - Nishiki is a general term of textile woven with various colored threads. The way of creating its pattern by warp is especially called Tate- Nishiki
Velvet: A wire is iterlaced as warp in the fabric and pulled out afterwards. Sometimes cut warp thread to create a pile effect. Smooth texture with gentle gloss.
Honshibo-ori: Weave with tightly twisted weft yarns. Characterized by its uneven surface. Mainly used for Kimono fabric.
Mojiri-ori: Entwined with adjacent weft threads creates gap. Mainly used for summer textiles such as Sha, Ro and Ra.
Futsu: Double or triple weave with layers on the surface and cross-section. Opposite color in the front and back to create patterns. Futsu, literally means 'wind passing through', image of wind blowing through pouch like space.
Shouha: Hardly twisted yarn used to form V or mountain-like pattern.
Shuchin: Less contact of warp and weft. Design is created on shiny fabric with various colored weft yarns.
Donsu: Interlace every five warp and weft yarns to reduce the contact as much as possible. Warp or weft is raised on the surface of the finished fabric. Glossy and shiny appearance.
Nuki - Nishiki -Nishiki is a genaral term of textile woven with various colored threads. The way of creating its pattern by weft is especially called Nuki - Nishiki.
Tsuzure - A comb of fingernails are used to rake up weft yarns and weave. The Pattern and its painterly image are created by weft yarn.
Other notable Handcrafts of Japan
Shashiko Embroidery - It's a traditional Japanese form of decorative embroidery using a simple running stitch to create geometric patterns, often on indigo fabric with white thread. This embroidery technique has many similarities with Kantha embroidery from Bengal, India. Both techniques originated from the need to mend, reinforce, and reuse old fabrics and textiles by piecing them together with running stitches. Shaskiko often features geometric patterns, while Kantha stitches are often colorful and more freeform.
Shibori tie-dye - Shibori is a manual cloth resist dyeing technique which results in beautiful patterns on fabric. It originated in Japan, the earliest known example of cloth dyed with a shibori technique dates from the 8th century. Shibori, from the verb root Shiboru, means to wring, squeeze or press.
Kokeshi dolls - They are simple wooden Japanese dolls with no arms or legs that have been crafted for more than 150 years as toy for children.
Washi paper - An 8th century craft, also coloquially known as Rice paper, is traditional Japanese paper processed by hand using the fibers from the inner bark of gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub or the paper mulberry bush. Washi is tougher than ordinary paper made from wood pulp, and is used in many traditional crafts like Origami (paper folding), Shodo (Calligraphy) abd Ukiyo-e (wood block prints).
Overall, this trip was a cultural explosion! I would love to go back to visit Kyoto again!