So I got way too lazy to write up a day-by-day blog of all the things I got up to during my trip to Japan. I thought it would be easier to write up two blogs which summarise the most important things instead.
In order, the places we visited during our trip were:
Kyto
Yakushima
Hiroshima
Osaka
Takayama
Japanese Alps
Tokyo
We had purchased the 2 week JR train pass and had used it with maximum efficiency during our 3 week stay. This involved travelling a lot in the first 2 weeks, and basically staying in Tokyo for the last 5 days.
Hiroshima, famous for the atomic bomb blast, was chilling. It's a beautiful and sadly modern looking city with lovely park areas and steep hillsides only a few kilometres away from the city center. We walked around a lot and got to see how the bomb had devastated regions of Hiroshima differently. Most buildings were made out of wood, so the cement industrial hall (where the bomb exploded pretty much right on top of) was battered but still standing, whereas the wooden components of the castle a 1km away was completely demolished. We went to the museum nearby and got to see the stories of how the victims died. The most interesting thing I learned was that the nuclear radiation after the bombing left distinctive black spots on the gums of survivors days afterwards; apparently this was because the throat/mouth, gentiles and bone marrow are extremely prone to radiation. Hiroshima was also the place where we started to use air BnB accommodation. Sadly it was one of those really anti social, high profit, air BnB complexes where you never meet your host and are given a key via a code. I've written a separate blog post about this, and how I think think these super small, ultra efficient and anti social styles of living a very much the future. Despite this, our tiny independent accommodation turned out to be quite good for us. We got to cook our own food for a change and meet an elderly Japanese couple in the bar downstairs. The couple were super friendly, even though their English was pretty bad; in fact, I've consistently found over the course of this trip that the elderly Japanese are always WAY more social than the younger generation. We also tried Okonomiyaki, a famous Japanese savoury pancake, from a famous street stall in Hiroshima. To this day, it's the best food I've tried in Japan (and probably top 3 in my life). Holy shit, phenomenal.
Osaka, the second largest city in Japan, was very overwhelming! We went to Dontonbori, an insanely over packed street filled with shops, restaurants, bars and strip clubs. It was an explosion to the senses seeing so many people and giant advertisements on buildings. But this turned out to be nothing compared to the casinos they have here. The Japanese love their casino's (which they call Pachinko's), and each one is just a giant room filled with slot machines, cigarette smoke and loud jingles. We've seen Pachinko's all over Japan - they're super popular. It's a bit sad to think of Japan, a very proud and traditional country, succumb to such petty forms of cheap entertainment. We also met up with Dan (a friend of Kaz's who works as an English teacher in Japan) over a very expensive 'catch you're own fish at eat it' dining experience.
Takayama was a very relaxed destination. Despite it's remote location near the Japanese alps it's a surprisingly large city with westerners everywhere. Kaz's birthday present to me was paying for our accommodation, which happened to be a very fancy resort with traditional Japanese rooms, free onsen service, and a breakfast buffet. We did a pretty chill hike around the shrines nearby and tried some traditional Japanese BBQ in the evening.
Japanese Alps
Next stop was the Japanese alps. We (ie kaz) perfectly timed our transport which involved Taxi --> Bus --> Train --> Bus to get to Nakabusa onsen. It's amazing how smoothly the trip sent considering we factored in 5 minutes rest between each mode of transport. The accommodation was just as remote and tranquil as I expected. The whole area was littered in natural hot springs; many of which were outside. The accommodation included breakfast and dinner which was perfect for us since we were low on cash. The next day we began our hike to Enzensou hut. It was the type of hike I love; extremely steep, good views, and featured changing terrain including patches of snow (for which crampons were extremely helpful). Kaz found the hike quite difficult which was a shame because it slowed us down a lot, but fortunately the distance wasn't too long and we easily made it to the top by 2pm. The views were stunning; I've never seen such a picturesque mountain before. My only regret is listening to the conservative online advice I got about the hike beforehand. Overall the hike was extremely easy and I think we could have easily planned a longer loop route. Lesson learned. At the top we met up with an extremly friendly Japanese couple in their 50's. Once again this reinforced our belief that the elderly Japanese are very social and talkative. Strangely it's the younger Japanese that seem to lack these skills.
Tokyo
Tokyo was our last stop. We met up with Paul Essing and his new girlfriend, Mimi, on our first evening at some very Japanese place. The Japanese place was made even even more Japanese when Mimi rocked up wearing full traditional atire, including wooden sandles, waist bows and make up. It's really cool how these types of traditions can harmoneously exist in super modern Tokyo. Everyone got a bit drunk on Sake and we ended up playing a fighting game at an old fashioned gaming arcade. In the following days we systematically ticked multiple destinations off our list including; the government building lookout, the national park, Tokyo Tower, One Peice museum (a tribute to a popular Anime show), studio Ghibli (a much better tribute to much better Anime), and a cinema where we got to see Godzilla - it just seemed like the right thing to do while in Tokyo. I also got to try my new favorate Japanese meal at a street corner in Shinjuku. Goodbye Katsudon, hello Udon Ramen with tempura and egg. Absolutely delicious.
As a final message of wisdom to all of those who still read this shitty blog; another way to say 'hello' in Japanese that isn't 'konichiwa' is by shouting out "Hai!"
