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Tokyo
As most of you will know, Tokyo is the Japanese capital and therefore an obvious destination of choice when visiting Japan. Aside from being the most populous city in Japan, Tokyo is also the most populous metropolis in the world. This cosmopolitan labyrinth consists of 23 city districts stretching over some 2, 000 square kilometres; which each boast their own unique character and charm. The larger province (or prefecture) of Tokyo consists of numerous mountain towns and villages to the West as well as various subtropical islands to the South, such as the Izu and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo is a vast, bustling metropolis offering all manner of entertainment and attractions from museums, gardens and historical sites in areas such as Asakusa and Chiyoda; to shopping districts, restaurants and lively entertainment in neighbourhoods such as Akihabara and Shibuya. The best thing to do in Tokyo is to simply wander and explore! Hop on the train to get from one district to the next and simply immerse yourself in the multidimensional Japanese travel experience through the sights, sounds and smells of traditional restaurants, bizarre shops, innovative technology and modern design grouped with ancient tradition; all of which is shared by over 12 million people.
Matsumoto
Located at the centre of the Nagano Prefecture, roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo by train, Matsumoto is the second largest city in the area and famous for its historical castle and picturesque landscape. The Matsumotojo Castle, dating from the Bunroku Period (1593-1594), is the oldest remaining castle tower in Japan and is considered one of the most beautiful monuments and a national treasure. Matsumoto is also a popular base for hikes to the Japanese Alps and Utsukushigahara Heights. The city itself demonstrates a metropolitan vibe that has managed to retain its historic importance and traditional values, and this well-run city is embodied in its clean streets and friendly residents. Aside from its castle and historic importance, the city of Matsumoto is also famous for certain gastronomic attractions such as soba noodles, juicy apples and raw horse meat. It attracts visitors in summer for the popular Taiko Festival (Japanese drum festival) held at the castle, and is well-known as the birthplace of the Suzuki music method as well as the contemporary artist, Yayoi Kusama.
Miyajima Island
Also known as Itsuku-shima Island, Miyajima Island forms part of Hatsukaichi City which lies in the Southwest region of Hiroshima, roughly 4 and a half hours from Tokyo by train. The whole island is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and is renowned for its colourful, mountainous landscape along with its many important historic sites. It is considered one of the three most beautiful locations in Japan and has been a worshipped location by the elite and powerful for centuries who believe Miyajima to be an embodiment of God Himself. The island is home to the ancient Itsuku-shima-jinja Shrine built in 593, which is magnificently lit at night showing off its bright red colouring. There are also a number of other important temples on the island worth seeing such as Daiganji Temple from the 13th Century. Aside from coming here to see the shrine and the various temples, the island is hugely popular in summer for its beaches and camping grounds.
Yokohama
Located roughly a half an hour south of Tokyo by rail, Yokohama is the capital of the Kanagawa Prefecture and Japan’s second largest city. It established its importance when, in 1859 at the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), it became one of the first ports to open to foreign trade. This move saw the city grow from a small fishing village into the major economic centre it is today. Yokohama is a popular city among expats and contains one of the world’s largest Chinatowns, housing some 500 Chinese restaurants. As well as the being Japan’s major base for foreign trade for over 100 years, the city also promotes international language learning exchange and lays claim to finding Japan’s first English language newspaper in 1861, the Japan Herald. This welcoming of international trades and customs has seen Yokohama grow into a uniquely open-minded and multicultural, modern city that now inhabits over 3 and a half million people. Business and culture alike thrive here and many international and national businesses have branches in the port city. It is also a trendsetting city for fashion, design and innovation which simultaneously fosters traditional art and cultural practises displaying a high level of respect for traditional Japanese popular and performance arts.
Kanazawa
Capital of the Ishikawa Prefecture, Kanazawa is located in central mainland Japan and with a population of 458,000, is the cultural and economic centre of Hokuriku – an area comprising the prefectures of Ishikawa, Fukui and Toyama. With mountains to the Southeast and the Sea of Japan to the Northwest, the city itself sits between the Saigawa and Asano Rivers. The city is famous for Kanazawa Castle Park as well as Kenrokuen Garden. The latter is considered one of the three greatest gardens in Japan along with the Kairaku-en Garden in Mito and the Koraku-en Garden in Okayama. Construction of the garden began in 1676 and over the next 170 years expanded to a 105, 000 square metre garden of spectacular beauty. The city also has numerous shopping districts popular with tourists from all over the Hokuriku region such as Korinbo, Kata-machi, Musashi, and Kanazawa Station, all of which sell modern goods as well as traditional handcrafts from dyed silk, (Kaga-yuzen), Kutaniyaki pottery to gold adorned craftwork (Kanazawa-haku). Although, extremely popular with the Japanese, Kanazawa remains a hidden gem among foreign tourists and is one of the best off the beaten track locations in Japan, and not just for shopping but also for some of the most well-preserved historical sites from the Edo Period. With numerous shrines and temples, most of which are gathered together in Tera-machi – a group of 70 such temples – not to mention artefacts left behind by geishas, lords, merchants and samurais, Kanazawa has been listed as a City of Crafts and Folk Art by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. As if this wasn’t reason enough to visit Kanazawa, the cuisine here is hard to beat and is famous throughout the country for its high quality produce, particularly its delicious seafood.
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Hey travellers!
How are you? We are happy to tell you about Haikugirl’s Japan. Her real name is Alison Muskett and she is passionate about Japan. Way Away interviewed Ali and here you have amazing recommendations when travelling to Japan:
– What is the most impressing place in Japan you have ever been? What advice would you give to someone who wishes to travel there?
It’s hard to pick just one impressive place in Japan, but one of my most memorable experiences has to be my trip to the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) in Sapporo, Hokkaido. I had never seen so much snow in my life, and seeing gigantic snow and ice sculptures there was just unbelievable. As well as enjoying the festival while I was in Hokkaido, I was able to try local food, such as ‘soup curry’ (which certainly warms you up!), and visit other tourist attractions, including a chocolate factory. The Yuki Matsuri happens yearly in February, and it’s an unmissable experience. Dress for the cold weather – the snow will be piled high, and streets do become slippery – but remember lots of layers because inside it will be very warm.
– What do you hate to forget in your suitcase when travelling?
I’m a big fan of lists, so I don’t think I have ever forgotten anything while travelling. I guess the one thing I would be gutted to forget would be my camera battery charger – I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t take photos.
– What would you say to those travellers who are afraid to travel on their own, and end up going to a travel agency even if they do not like taking part in organized tours?
The first time I went to Japan in 2006 I was 24 years old and had never travelled alone before, but I had the best two weeks of my life. I travelled around Japan, using a JR Pass (a kind of train pass only available to foreigners) and, although I couldn’t speak any Japanese at all, I really didn’t run into any problems. The key to my trip was planning – I was nervous about travelling alone, so I planned everything meticulously before I went, and booked all my accommodation in advance. I spent months planning, and was then able to relax and enjoy myself for the whole of my trip. Now, there are so many blogs and websites giving advice about travel, and it must be much easier than when I went 7 years ago. So, if you’d like to travel alone but you’re feeling a bit scared, my advice to you is to just go for it! Plan, plan, plan – and then have the best time of your life.
– What kind of food have you tried on your travels around Japan and you found it delicious/surprising? Can you recommend us any place where to try it out?
I’ve tried a lot of interesting food in Japan, and I really think it’s the country with the best food in the world. As a pescetarian (I eat fish but not meat), it was sometimes difficult in Japan, but I could always rely on sushi. For a genuine taste of Japan, though, I would recommend trying takoyaki from Osaka. If you just walk around downtown Osaka you will come across a number of stalls selling freshly made takoyaki – a kind of dumpling with octopus in it – and you can just stand on the street eating it. It’s very hot inside – so be careful not to burn your mouth!
– Finally, tell us something that happened to you travelling and that you will never forget!
This is another difficult question to answer, because I had so many amazing experiences in Japan. Something I will never forget, though, is attending a festival with my Japanese friend. The festival was called Oni Matsuri (Demon Festival), and it was a proper local festival, bound in traditions. At the climax of the festival, lots of white flour-like powder is thrown out into the crowd, and you have to dive in and try to grab these lucky bags. We got covered in flour, but it was so much fun, and incredible to be involved in something so traditional that must have happened in that town for years. When travelling, I like to try to get involved in local things as much as possible, and to try to see the country as residents must see it. One of the best ways to do this is to attend local festivals and events.
Ali, thank you very much for your time and your advices. We are sure, travellers are going to take them into consideration!
Best time to visit Japan is April to May and October to November.
The summer months are very hot and humid. If you visit in June to August, don’t forget to take an umbrella and a raincoat.
The winter months tend to be cold, with snowfalls in some places. You should therefore take warm clothing.
April, May, October and November are the mildest and clearest months. Although the temperature is good, don’t forget to take something to wrap up in, particularly at night (especially if travelling in November).
September is typhoon month and is therefore not a good time to travel to Okinawa, the Izu-shotō and Ogasawara-shotō.
Weather in Japan (climate):
Summer is rainy and wet, with possible typhoons in September. Winter is rather cold with snow. Spring and autumn the mildest periods with the most pleasant temperatures (average 20ºC).
Weather in Tokio
Tokyo, capital of Japan.
I want to be Japanese. I want to be able to walk like them, quietly, almost not touching the floor. I want to give and take things with that sweetness, with both hands and a gentle head gesture, as if everything was a little treasure. I want to live in their houses, with that light that wrap everything up instead of illuminate it. I want the pleasure of feeling their tatamies in my bare feet and sleep in their futons. I wan to eat in their bars with a Japanese cook that prepares sushi piece by piece, as if each maki was a unique jewel. I want to walk in their gardens, surrounded by those trees that you only get after years of patience and tons of caresses.
Travelling in a high-speed rail from Tokyo to Takayama
We are travelling right now in a high-speed railway named Shinkansen, the famous bullet-train. Twenty two story wagons, moving at more than 300 kilometres an hour. In the 60’s Japan decided that their transportation logistics was going to be based on the train, not on the plane. There are decisions that mark the future of the companies and the same happens to the countries. There are not many, quite the opposite. At the most, there are one or two every term of office. Maybe more in the business cycles.
In those cases it’s impossible to be certain about which one is going to be the right choice. There are always technocrats, scientists or bureaucrats, if not simple politicians, in favor or against one decision or the other, arguments in one direction and the other, losers and winners. All of them have their own reasons. If that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t really be decisions. A posteriori, it is not easy to know if those decisions were a good choice because we are talking about issues whose consequences, most of the times, won’t be seen until many years later. Actually, the very same leaders, the real good ones, the ones that at the end of their lives have shown and proved to be successful once and again, when their are asked about the key of their success, they answer that it is just luck.
It is the theory of the window and the mirror. All these leaders “look through the window” in order to look for the reasons that led them to their success, meanwhile they also “look themselves in the mirror” to look for the reasons that led them to the failures, that they also had. In other words, they believe, blindly, that when they were successful it was because of a combination of lucky circumstances, in which they are not included; however, when everything went wrong, they point at themselves as the only guilty ones for not having been able to foresee or solve it. These are the results of a study carried out among the managers of the 50 companies that have increased the most their value in the stock market in the last 20 years. Now, look around. Look at your political leaders or the managers of your companies and notice how they act. In front of a fiasco, do they admit they are responsible or look through the Windows pointing fingers at others? And the other way around. When things go well, do they confess that they are just lucky or they don’t stop claiming the merit?
Now, we are going to pretend that we are the leaders, that we make those decisions that change the course of a company or a country. In order to do that, let’s see how the ones who were successful did it. In the same study that we mention before, they were also asked about the method that they utilized when they had to make a critical decision: 75% of them said that it was mere intuition. Now that they are retired they are not shy about telling the truth. There was no system in place or trick, no magic wands or deep analysis at all. As smart as they could be facing a problem, they were always capable of finding arguments in favor and against, of defending one side or attack the opposite and do it again the other way around. It was so easy that at the end, they could not rationally distinguish which option was the best. They would let their instinct decide.
So let’s forget about everything we know or we have been told and let’s our intuition guide us towards the right decision. If you were the president of your country, which transportation system would you choose? Train as they have in Japan, or plane as in U.S.A.? If you choose the train, would you use a radial or a concentric system? Joining the capital with the rest of the important cities or creating a circle around the country? If you chose the plane, would you prefer a giant hub in the centre of the country or several hubs distributed in the areas where there is more business? You probably think that it’s a stupid game, but it is not. These types of decisions are the ones that mark the success or failure of a country, and in too many occasions the regular citizen pay little or no attention to them.
The two big plane manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, had to bet about how their market is going to be in the future: if the more advanced countries will choose to have one or several hubs. The Americans have decided to develop smaller planes that need less gas and are take off and land easily. In other words, they believe in a net with many interconnections, more hubs and therefore, less travellers per flight. The European consortium, however, have decided to bet for a super plane, the A380, long distance and the maximum number of passengers. They are convinced that the flights will centralize and, the number of hubs won’t increase, and therefore, the distances will be longer and there will be less flights with more passengers.
It will take many years to know which company made the right decision, in the meantime, we have learned our lesson from those “big men”. Facing the great decision we had to make about our starting or not our Round the World trip, we looked for the reasons and arguments but, at the end we let our intuition guide us. If not, we would still be sitting at our desks working instead of being in this Shinkansen at 300 km/h while we eat sushi.
Kyoto, former capital of the Japanese Empire
If you have never tried sushi before, it’s going to be hard to believe. Raw fish. Gross. Even disgusting. And you are right. It is not easy to feel attracted to it. But you have to try it. The first day you taste it, you are not going to like it, but you are going to feel something special. It is something that, although you’re not going to be able to tell what it is, it will make you want to try it again. Then, it will be too late to go back because, without noticing, your addiction to sushi will have started. In a few weeks, or even days, you will go back to a Japanese restaurant. You may think that it is by chance or fate, a business dinner or some friends that you haven’t seen in a long time, but it will be really the sign that you are falling for it.
And you still don’t like it, but like spicy food, in a way difficult to understand, you will keep eating it once, and again, until one day, with no warning, all its pleasure will explode in your mouth. When that happens, you will look up surprised and you will see that people at your table are feeling the same thing. You will recognize the feeling in their faces, in the way they eat it slowly to make the moment the sushi gets to its climax last. Different flavors and textures combined with such harmony that when they invade your palate, they consolidate multiplying its power and making each moment better than the last one.
Surprised at what you have just felt, you will look at your plate again because you won’t be able to believe that those little rice grains with raw fish made you feel such a pleasure. Very slowly, you will grab the next piece of sushi with your chopsticks, dip it in the soy sauce, softly so that it doesn’t awake that madness of sensations that seems to be inside of you, and bring it close to your mouth. With your eyes half-open, you will get ready to bite it, expecting to feel that frenzy again. You forgot, however, that all that happened at the end, because, at the beginning, more than a bite, it felt like a kiss. Soft, seductive, with the cold but not freezing texture of the fish, delicate and pleasant, like a full lip. It will take you some time to appreciate its flavour because you will be lurking around waiting for the right moment for it to go from least to most. It will be a gradual increase, more and more. And even more. And more each time. Just like the first time. A continuous wave of pleasure that, although it started very shy, it doesn’t stop growing until it conquers every corner of your mouth. It is a feminine gastronomic orgasm that will leave you stunned for a minute until you react wondering what the hell happened. And then you will see that the chopsticks are part of your hands, as if they were your own claws. Claws that, unable to do anything to stop it, will be flying over the remaining sushi on the table to jump on it and make you feel the sin in your mouth again. This way once and again until you are so ecstatic that you concede to the evidence: you hopelessly adore sushi.
Hiroshima, ground zero of the first launch of the atomic bomb against civilians
Perhaps some of you have been at the Ground Zero of the Twin Towers in New York. Some people don’t feel anything and others are shocked. If you are one of the former, come to Hiroshima: 150.000 in one hit, plus some thousands more little by little, like a Chinese torture. The ones that the bomb didn’t kill August 6th, 1945 at 08:15 were dying a little bit every day throughout the years as if they had a radioactive dropper on them, not to mention those ones that were physically and emotionally mutilated the same day. In order to be able to develop the atomic bomb it was necessary the effort of hundreds of scientists, each of them contributing with their little grain of sand, enough so that none of them felt like the father, nor responsible of such invention. Among all of them, only a few (maybe six or seven), sent a memorandum to the government to request the cancelation of the launch. They only got their promising scientific careers buried at that very moment.
Among all the tours that we took in Hiroshima, the most shocking was seeing several schools reading a peace declaration, praying, and singing in front of the Children’s Peace Monument (in memory of the children that died that day). The most outrageous, however, was indoors. In the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, built next to ground zero, we could read the secret letters (not secret anymore), that the American commanders exchanged weeks before the launch. They are not much different from the ones we can find nowadays in any marketing department of any company. They talk about primary targets, product tests, analyzing the results correctly, different consequences of the launch, justifying the investment of so many resources if there is no launch, etc. Actually, the only difference is that they are typed and have spelling mistakes. We understand that those beasts had neither liquid paper nor soul. There is a big difference between launching a new ice-cream or melting (literally) thousands of people.
However, it is difficult to point the finger, because there were not one or two, but thousands of people involved. The main excuse they always used, that the “collateral damage” had the purpose of ending the war and avoiding more casualties, is so cynical that it is not even worth it to be discussed. That is why I wonder if we are ruled by a group of people who are moron or we are the moron because we allow these people to rule us. It is not right to think that this is something that happened 60 years ago, that it happened in another country or even that it has nothing to do with us. It’s just not right. Most of our occidental countries supported a war with the one excuse of avoiding future terrorist attacks. In order to contextualize all this, the number of civil casualties in Iraq, so far, is bigger than the number of casualties of all terrorist attacks in the history of Mankind. This is what one of the commanders we were talking about before would call an out of proportion response. Absurd, isn’t it?
As absurd as thinking that we are the good ones and the others are the bad ones. That power has corrupted them, but it would never happen to us. Look around you right now. This one or that one. Or that other one. Anyone would be able to press the red button if it were at hand. Not suddenly. First, it would be like a caress, a small decision that would not affect anybody’s life. But little by little, we would press the button harder, on behalf of the principle of common good and, blinded by power arrogance, we would cross a line with no turning point. The thin line that it is said (and well said), to be red. That’s why we cannot leave any button at anybody’s hand, not even ours; and that’s also why the leadership of countries and politicians is dead. We are tired of flags that embarrass us. We are tired of leaders that use a sack of ballots to impose the tyranny of the majority, because a lot of asses are still a lot of asses together. The future is on cities’ and citizens’ hands. Yours, mine and our neighbours’. The people we know their faces, their shoe sizes, but not others. We don’t want them to impose anything to us. Let them go to hell but let us live alone and in peace. As the current mayor of Hiroshima said in one of his continuous declarations to claim the elimination of every nuclear weapon:
“Now the city governments are rising, and with them the citizens’ voices, to participate in international politics and end up with its immorality”
Things to do in Japan in 14 days (suggested itinerary)
