The Country
Japan is a small country, made even smaller by its high-speed rail lines (they’re called bullet trains for a reason) and general clockwork efficiency. Don’t let this fool you into thinking that the travellers’ pickings are equally as petite. The accessibility of beautiful sights and landscapes, from tropical islands in the south all the way up to world-class ski-resorts in the north, allow people on even the shortest timeframes a stab at unravelling this unique land.
And unique it is. Nowhere else feels like you’ve been simultaneously frozen in the 1980s and launched into the 2080s. Most of the technological systems you will come across are genuine relics of an era when Japan’s growth and innovation far surpassed any other nation on Earth, built to such a quality that they have not needed updating even in 2017.
There really is no other country quite like Japan, a country of so many contrasts. The marriage between a dedication to the modern and to the past appears stable, although this tug-of-war seems to have left Japan in a time vacuum.
Indeed, the concerns of having such an extreme ageing population (and the economic ramifications) are highly visible. A team of octogenarians loaded our baggage into the trunk of the bus at Kansai airport, men who would definitely not be doing the same sort of physically strenuous job in any other country. You do feel a little guilty watching this scene unfold as you stand in the clearly marked passenger lane, feeling that you should really be the one loading your own luggage onto the bus. However, you have to remember that it’s best just to roll with the system, because in Japan, the system really is the most efficient way of getting things done. Every person has their role, just like every compartment in a bento box has its own specific purpose. Plus, as well as being physically and mentally fitter than an 80 year old might be elsewhere, their dedication to doing their jobs fully, to the best of their ability, is a common theme in the national psyche.
I could endlessly list more marked contrasts between old and new that you witness as an observer. The chaotic, loud and lively nightlife in big cities like Osaka and Tokyo, next to the most tranquil of Zen temples and tea ceremonies. The modest clothing of women – shoulders, knees and cleavage covered, next to hyper-sexualised images of female anime characters. Geishas using iPhones to communicate. But I think the only way to really understand it all fully is to see it for yourself.
The Visit
I first visited Japan in 2012 with my mother, visiting Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. On first exposure, I remember feeling a little swept away with just how foreign everything felt, a little lost. It wasn’t the fact that it was a ‘foreign’ country, in the normal sense of the word. I’d been lucky to have spent a lot of time in living and holidaying in various different countries throughout my childhood. Japan was different, even though I could read the familiar kanji (the system of Chinese characters used in more formal Japanese) and saw people who looked not too dissimilar to myself (I mean, there are a lot of places on Earth where I would stand out much more). I loved my visit but felt like I needed to come back one day to scratch at more than just the surface.
The opportunity came when I was living in Beijing with my boyfriend, who needed to go on a visa run. We decided to go to Japan for just over a week. I purchased Japan Rail Passes for us (valid for 7 days) that would allow unlimited train-hopping on Japan Rail services around the country, including the super fast Shinkansen (bullet train) routes. It was pricey, coming in at around $230 each, but definitely worth it considering how many times we took the bullet train (individual tickets for this are about the same as the air fare, if not more). We drew up a rough plan for our 8 days (flying in/out of Kansai International Airport near Osaka), going through Osaka, Koyasan, Hakone, Tokyo, Kyoto and then back to Osaka. A tight schedule, I know. My boyfriend and I had met in Guatemala and travelled together in China and Australia – it’s safe to say a similarly ambitious route on our short timeframe would not have been possible in any of these other countries.
The Route
Of course, this route can be adapted to a two or even three-week holiday. It just means being able to slow down and enjoy everything Japan has to offer at an even more relaxed pace! If we had another week, I would have added Hiroshima and Nara to the list, as well as a trip down to Naoshima Island from Osaka.
Days 1-2
Osaka
Getting from Kansai International Airport to Osaka was very easy, as most things are the Japanese way. We bought a ticket to Namba from the bus ticket office outside the airport, and friendly Japanese staff directed us to the right bus stand (you’ll find everything makes sense once you get the hang of it). The journey took about 40 minutes. Namba itself is a behemoth of a station, so have Google maps loaded on your phone with your destination. We stayed at an Airbnb in a great location on Minamikorie road, right next to Orange Street, home to many trendy shops and cafes. Following internet recommendations, we went to busy Dotonburi for a ramen dinner at the place with the golden dragons (you’ll know it when you see it). I can’t say I was particularly blown away – the broth was average and tasted like the seasoning packets you get in Korean instant noodles (the brand Nong Shim is delicious by the way). It was cheap, however, and satisfying enough.
We went round this area for a little wander and found an ice cream shop tucked under a building, with entrances on two different parallel streets. We were enticed outside by a large group of middle-aged men, excitedly forming on our side of the narrow river, jumping around and taking photos. The cause of the commotion was a group of five young women dressed in 90s rave type gear (think fluorescent tutus, rainbow wrist-warmers and strappy tops), complete with furry thigh-high boots, performing on the other bank of the river. The mostly male audience varied in age, some were probably even 70 or 80, but their flawless knowledge of every dance move in the routine united them. They were also incredibly familiar with the cues to sing or shout on time. It was quite unlike anything I’d ever seen before. At the end of the songs, an assistant began walking amongst the crowd, holding up a sign saying ‘Free High-5s!’. Everyone began queuing up orderly, a helpful superfan came up to us to make sure we knew we could receive free high-5s from the girl band, in case we missed out on the golden opportunity. Another assistant began pumping out hand sanitiser and we watched, amused, as each man received their high-5 from their favourite girlband members in turn, walking away looking as if they’d been touched by Jesus.
In the morning, we went to Kuromon market (a market for fresh food, specialising in seafood). We had some scallops with butter and soy sauce and a bowl of udon each at this little shop within the market itself, owned by an elderly lady. Very tasty.
Days 2-3
Koyasan
The journey from Osaka to Koyasan may seem daunting if you’re looking at a route planner. There are four or five ‘changes’ but in fact, the changes are seamless. We took a train to Hashimoto, then onwards to Gokurakubashi, where we transferred onto a funicular in the tiny station for the leg up to Koyasan. Once in Koyasan, an army of public transport workers greeted us and directed us onto the right bus bound for our temple lodging. We stayed at Zoufukuin, which was a really beautiful temple that I found on Booking.com, right opposite the Reihokan museum. The entire town was so incredibly peaceful and serene, allowing you to stay right in the middle of nature without the discomforts of camping. The temperature was much cooler here too. On our first night, we visited two temples before dinner at 6pm. It was great that there was hardly anyone else around, as I find the overcrowding at religious historical sites often too much to bear.
Dinner was traditional shojin ryori, monks’ vegetarian food, filling and delicious. We wore the yukatas from our room to dinner, sat on little chairs at a low table and tucked into our individual feasts, all in perfect little wooden bowls and plates. We also had a large teapot of buckwheat tea with our meal, which consisted of pickles, rice, miso soup, seaweed, mushrooms, tofu and tempura root vegetables. The flavours were very delicate, some dishes were almost a bit too sweet for my palate, but still very enjoyable and no doubt highly nutritious. There was only one bathroom for the entire temple inn but luckily there were only two other guests staying, so scheduling bathtime was not a problem. There was a small but pristinely kept garden with running water flowing into a pond in the middle of the guests’ area, a relaxing touch. As there was no entertainment, and the environment was so tranquil, we were both asleep by 8pm.
The next morning started early, with a 6.40am prayers ceremony performed by monks of the temple. We had another traditional meal for breakfast, this time with tofu and egg (I think – although it could have been beancurd too). After breakfast, we headed out for a walk through Okunoin cemetery, all the way to the bridge where the monk who founded Koyasan as a mountain of worship centuries ago is still resting in eternal meditation. Down in the basement of the temple, there were hundreds of thousands of tiny buddhas, illuminated by thousands of lanterns. The path through the cemetery to get here was so incredibly beautiful, winding through stone plaques to the buried on our left and right. A group of Japanese grannies walked past us, beaming and chanting “ohaiyo gozaimas!” in unison, it was so sweet. Lots of little effigies and sculptures had miniature knitted hats on and red bibs, maybe to show that those spirits are not forgotten. There was one path that diverted from the main track, which we followed for a short while. As we were talking about how that particular path we were on could potentially be creepy at night (even though the rest of the cemetery was purely peaceful), we suddenly spotted drops of bright red blood on the stone tiles paved beneath us. These carried on all the way until the path reached a fork, where the drops of blood couldn’t be seen anymore, perhaps absorbed into the soil. There was also one section of the cemetery entirely dedicated to shrines for companies. Some of these statues and memorials here looked very expensive, including one for UCC coffee, a major coffee producer/cafe in Japan. We took the shorter route back to Zoufukuin, retrieved our bags and caught the bus to go back down the mountain and onto Odawara.
Days 3-4
Odawara (and Hakone)
We stayed in Odawara in order to visit the famous hot spring town of Hakone. We arrived in Odawara from Koyasan via Tokyo, and the sun had already begun to set as we walked from the station to our ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse). The road to our ryokan was lit up and lively, filled with traditional restaurants and bars opening business for the evening. Hinode Ryokan was lovely and quaint, run by an elderly husband and wife (King Kong and Yumi). The actual guesthouse itself is a 100-year old building. Shoes off at the front door and tatami beds to sleep on. I had one of the best night’s sleeps of the trip there. Again, there was only one bathroom but this didn’t affect us as there weren’t many people staying at all. We dumped our bags in our room then went out to have a look at Odawara Castle, which is lit up at night. We went down a very dark path and saw a tall figure walking across an open field with what looked like a pack of dogs and 1 cat. As he approached us, we realised it was actually a man with a gang of cats, which was instantly much weirder. Coupled with the fact that we were in complete darkness, apart from the distant lights up above us illuminated onto the walls of Odawara Castle, we retreated hastily back down the path and went to go look for some dinner. The town, away from the main stretch near the station, was actually a little depressing, like somewhere in rural Tasmania.
In the morning, we woke up at round 7am and took the train over to Hakone, a 25 minute journey from Odawara. The onsen we chose to spend our morning in was called Tenzan. Men and women were separated into different onsen areas. I rented a yukata in the changing room for about $8 which was a bit of a silly decision as I hadn’t realised just how naked everyone would be. After about 10 minutes I discarded the yukata and joined my fellow onsen-goers, young and old, baring all. It felt very liberating though. The water in the pools was extremely hot (I like my showers hot but this was on another scale) but once I got used to the temperature, it really was very relaxing.
After this we took the bus back down to the main town centre and had lunch near the train station, at a Japanese-Chinese place (日清亭本店) with a very friendly owner (and less pricey as it wasn’t on the main road – Hakone is a very touristy place so the prices are inflated).
Days 4-6
Tokyo
Hakone to Tokyo was very quick (via Odawara), only taking about 30 minutes by JR. We arrived at Shinagawa station and went to Toshima-ku to get to our Airbnb. Beau had booked two tickets for the robot restaurant show later at 9pm, so we went to find some food beforehand. We tried a popular soba noodle restaurant which was actually a bit disappointing despite there being a queue for the table. We had a milky soba dish that we dipped in a sauce put into a little individual cup, and some tempura. Unfortunately it was a freshwater fish and tasted a little like the inside of aquarium, pre-cleaning (muddy and fishy). We then hurried over to Shinjuku to get to the Robot Restaurant in time, stopping at a 7-11 on the way to get some good Japanese pre-packaged fast food for extra sustenance. I LOVE the supermarkets and mini-marts in Japan – they contain everything you need and more than you could ever dream of wanting. We had to get a lot of emergency food at various convenience stores and I can vouch for the 7-11 brand if you’re in a rush or just want a cheap and filling eat.
The Robot Restaurant was a ridiculous experience. Intense and claustrophobic, it was highly uncomfortable. The only positive side was the photogenic aesthetics of the venue itself, where I managed to get a couple of pics for the ‘gram. Think of the most kitsch and elaborate club you’ve been in, multiply it by 1000 and then add a large dose of LSD. Add to that the fact that you can’t escape the room after show 2 for a pee break, plus the long and narrow design of the actual stage… Writing this is bringing back some painful memories.
We first had to queue at the ticket office to pick up our pre-paid tickets. Like us, everyone in the queue was non-Japanese (apart from a few Japanese businessmen), confirming our suspicions that it was probably the no. 1 tourist trap in Tokyo. Upon entering the Robot Restaurant itself, we first gathered upstairs in the bar and had a free drink on the house (see Instagram for crazy interior). We were then taken by a young European man, dressed in a loose robe and behaving very awkwardly, into a lift, where we had to get out on the ground floor. From here, we followed 6 flights of stairs down underground until we reached the performance room. This was set up like a catwalk, with 3 rows of plastic seats on either side of the room and a long walkway in the middle. I hadn’t expected it to be this small and intimate.
The show itself was incredibly loud, to the point of deafening. The violent vibrations of the performers’ drums in the first show genuinely struck chords with my heartbeat, in a bad way. I think I was actually having a minor panic attack, which led to serious considerations of how I was going to make my exit, even if it meant missing the show. I sat through it though and endured the ordeal. There were some really strange and scary robot humanoid characters such as ‘King Robota’ and some weird devilish robots. It was generally a very nightmarish experience. Unique, for sure. Once in a lifetime? Yes. I don’t regret seeing the show but I will never be going back.
Shinjuku was as noisy, bright and busy as I remembered it five years back. I’d forgotten how stunning all the neon lights from the adverts were and they took my breath away just like the first time. Kabukicho seemed quite dodgy, with loads of men loitering around intersections and on street corners peddling various Yakuza-controlled commodities. We went to Golden Gai, an area full of tiny microbars, and had drinks at a little bar owned by an old grandma. It was very cool, except for the fact that it was incredibly touristic and everything was in English. It reminded me a little of Tianzifang in Shanghai, once hidden away, now a little ruined by overdevelopment. We were given ‘bar snacks’ from a bowl the proprietress took out the fridge. These consisted of half-eaten jelly beans and crushed up biscuits that looked like they had been in that bowl, re-used and recycled, for the past year.
On our second day in Tokyo, we went to Purikara in Shibuya as I wanted to get pictures taken in the cute little photoshop booths that kawaii-fy you to the max (kawaii = cute). It was surprisingly fun although quite a rushed experience because all the machines had countdown timers. We collected our printed photos in a little pink album. Beau wasn’t a fan of the finished result as he thought he looked creepy (he did look a little like a girl doll with facial hair), but I looked super kawaii so overall it was a 10/10 experience! Seriously though, it’s worth spending half an hour here if you’re killing time in Shibuya.
We walked around Shinjuku and Shibuya and I took a unobstructed time-lapse of the famed Shibuya crossing from the Starbucks window overlooking the crossing. **Tip alert**. We then went into a pachinko arcade but this was genuinely quite hellish – an inescapable cacophony of various kaching-ing, clacking, dinging noises that fell on the deaf ears of tortured souls addicted to the machines. These were like slots machines elsewhere except on its own scale again.
The next day we went over to the Apple Store in Harajuku as I needed to buy a new laptop (mine had unexpectedly broken down on me after just over a year of infrequent use). The whole process from entering to exiting the shop took no more than a minute (b.t.w. purchases over 20,000 yen are tax-free). We then caught the Shinkansen to Kyoto.
Days 6-7
Kyoto
We arrived in Kyoto in the evening and got to our Airbnb to the north of the city. We wandered down to Gion on the bus, although touristic, it was instantly still much more calming than Tokyo. We stumbled across a temple and saw our first maiko (apprentice geisha). Our visit coincided with the Gion Matsuri festival, which was interesting as the next day an entire procession of bare-legged men dressed in white clothes, including their socks, filed past us banging on drums and carrying an effigy dedicated to the festival. I think the festival has to do historically with driving out pestilence.
The next morning was just as rainy as the first evening. I distinctly remember that Kyoto was as rainy as this five years ago, even though I’d gone at different times of the year. We had some fresh tuna sashimi for lunch from the supermarket nearby and then went to the old town where we had some more lunch, although we were both too full to enjoy our meals. I wanted to rent traditional yukatas to wear that day so we left before our dessert had even arrived. We went down to the Avancy building, a mall near Kyoto station, where we proceeded up to the 4th floor to the yukata/kimono hire shop. This was such a fun activity. Beau and I were led to separate male and female sections. After removing my shoes and stepping through the curtains, I was told that I could select any of the yukatas on display, plus any obi of my choice. After dressing me in the yukata (with a complicated series of undergarments, padding, slips etc. underneath), the super-kind lady also arranged my hair in a pretty Japanese plaited-bun style and let me choose a flower as embellishment. I put my things in a traditional black basket bag, put on some wooden platform flip-flops that were more comfortable than they looked and stepped out the changing room.
We then took the train to Fushimi-Inari shrine (the one with all the iconic red gates). Unfortunately at this point in time the sky decided to torrentially downpour, with lashings of thunder and lightning. On the plus side, there were fewer tourists at the shrine although it was still quite busy. We returned to the shop in time to return the yukatas before they closed and paid 3500 yen each for the rental (about $40, although cheaper if you book online beforehand).
Sometime during the day Beau had suggested we go and see a sumo tournament before we left. We checked online and realised that we were very lucky indeed to have visited in one of the months when the tournament was on (they have tournaments every other month). The July tournament was on its 14th day and our only chance of getting tickets was to arrive early in the morning to get the final few hundred tickets for the competition.
Days 7-8
Nagoya and Osaka
We set off very early in the morning from Kyoto on the bullet train to Nagoya. We arrived at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium at around 8.30am, which was good timing as we managed to buy two tickets to the national sumo competition for 2900 yen each. There are only 7 tournaments a year and it’s a very big deal in Japan, so tickets sell out months beforehand. As we arrived early, the juniors’ competition was taking place (young boys on their way to becoming professionals). This was great for us as there were only a handful of other people in the stadium at this point in time so we could sit down below in the ringside seats on the tatami cushions just metres away from all the action (or lack thereof – sumos don’t move very fast). The judges and officials sat even closer, surrounding the elevated ring, the dohyo (6.7m x 6.7m), where the sumo wrestlers scuffled. Sometimes, a mismatched or particularly boisterous pair of wrestlers would fall out of the dohyo and down onto the observing officials sitting crossed-leg right underneath them. I obviously didn’t want any serious harm to come to the judges, especially as the weight of one wrestler would be equivalent to a mound of 9000 sushi rolls burying a man alive (I used a very random weight website for this). I have to admit it did make things more exciting for me, especially after a long series of short wrestles that all seemed to be quite similar.
We went to the cafeteria for lunch where I had an udon noodle soup and Beau had a pork katsu curry. We then exited the gymnasium as we still had a couple hours to kill before the pros arrived on scene and decided to explore Nagoya. Google searches for things to do in Nagoya proved disappointing as unanimous search results declare Nagoya the ‘most boring city in Japan’. Even Nagoya residents themselves admit this, being the only residents in the eight major cities who voted to live in a city other than their own in a national survey conducted last year. We walked past Nagoya Castle on the way out the gymnasium (No. 1 sight on TripAdvisor), which looked like a slightly version of the Odawara Castle we’d seen a few days beforehand. In the same survey mentioned previously, Nagoya residents were asked what the top things to do in their city were. The top voted answer was ‘nothing’, followed by Nagoya Castle. With this information in mind, we headed back to the arena to go and watch the really big boys, the heavyweight champions, whom we had seen entering the gymnasium on our way out. They all walked in with such bravado, as if they owned the place, which I guess they kinda do. Armed with sumo facts we had found in our short cafe stint, we found some seats and settled in for the next few hours of professional wrestling. The best matches were the evenly-matched ones, where the two wrestlers would be involved in a tussle lasting longer than a few seconds. People in the stadium would get so excited at this point (it had gradually been filling up during the day so that by this point, the stadium was already crammed), shouting the names of their favourite sumos, cheering when the fight was holding out. The difference between the juniors and the professionals was remarkable. There was so much force and power behind the big boys, and the short durations of each fight, coupled with a simple set of rules, all made this a very enthralling spectacle.
We hopped back onto the bullet train just before 6pm, this time heading to Osaka, our last stop before home. It was a shame we arrived so late at night because the Airbnb we had booked into was so incredibly nice. Everything had been thought of, in the Japanese way, from the complimentary food and equipment in the room to the nice bed, comfy sheets and impeccable cleanliness. The location was perfect too, near Kuromon market and only a few minutes away from major transport hubs. A perfect night’s rest for what had been an eventful (but not stressful) week in Japan.
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