Continuing the theme of Part 1 on the topic of Japan, as promised, this post will be about my actual trip there. Complete itinerary and review of the places I’ve visited.
As previously mentioned, Japan is a big island with a lot to see. When going there, you need to plan accordingly and try to hit as many places as you can/want. Tokyo is amazing but you might miss out on some awesome places if you just spend all your time there.
We started our Japanese adventure in Tokyo and spent the first few days of our trip there. Chosen based on location and also used it as our home base when we went on some day trips.
TOKYO
We landed at Haneida airport late in the afternoon and took the train to Shinjuku to get to our Airbnb. The place was about 15min walk from Shinjuku station, which is the busiest station in Tokyo. Just to give you an idea, the station was used by an average of 3.64 millions people per day in 2007! It is even registered as such in the Guinness World Records. The station has 36 platforms, how crazy is that!
So it is totally normal if you feel a little overwhelmed when you get there.
SHINJUKU
On our first night, we decided to just check in and explore our neighbourhood, aka Shinjuku/Kabukicho. We walked around Kabukicho, which is an entertainment and red light district. This place is so busy, make you feel like New York is a relaxed city. The place was buzzin’ with people everywhere. Restaurants, shops, bars, nightclubs, tourist attractions…it’s all neon everywhere. The “Robot Restaurant” and Godzilla are in that area as well.
On the second day, we made the trek Asakusa to see the Senso-Ji Temple.
The temple was beautiful and the whole surrounding was very lively with stores and kiosks. There is a whole ritual that people do when they visit temples in Japan. First of all you bow every time you enter one. Once inside you should wash your hands at the ceremonial well. If you do go to the shrine to pay respects you would need to clap twice, bow twice and clap one more time. There is usually a stand that you can purchase a fortune. It is a draw so if you do not like your fortune or if it is a bad one, you can just tie the piece of paper around a fence on site. That way, you are not taking bad luck with you.
We ended up going back to Shinjuku after to go out for dinner in Omoide Yokocho (also known as Memory Lane or Piss Alley) I bet you are wondering why is it called Piss Alley. In the 1940’s, it was an illegal drinking quarter and due to the lack of restroom facilities, patrons would wander off and relieve themselves on the nearby train track. The nickname stuck.
After dinner in Piss Alley, I highly recommend to go walk around the Golden Gai. Golden Gai is made up of six alleys packed with independent bars. When I say packed I mean packed! There are well over 200 bars to choose from! They are all very small. Not more than 10 seats per establishment. Some will have a sign at the door saying “no tourist, no foreigners, local only”, don’t be offended and just find another spot. Most of them have a $10 cover charge but for the experience, it is worth it.
NIIGATA
An old friend of mine from elementary school lives in Niigata, which is on the coast of the Sea of Japan, directly across from Sado Island. Niigata is about 2 hours bullet train ride from Tokyo. The city itself has a population of around 1 million. It is a very nice city that combines modern and ancient elements of Japan. The prefecture is well known for it’s rice and sake. When we arrived, my friend immediately took us to Ponshukan, a sake tasting establishment located within the JR station. For $5 you get 5 token to try sake. The wall is pretty much just a big sake vending machine. You put your token and wait for the shot. Pretty cool.
We drove south of the city to go hike Mount Kakuda. It was a beautiful hike that gave us incredible views of the Sea of Japan. The place had a California vibe to it. Reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway.
Back in the city we went to eat sushi for the first time of the trip. My friend and his wife took us to place called Benkei. It was very busy but we managed to get a table right by the conveyor belt! Win! Fun fact, the Canadian delegation for the Agricultural G20, that was taking place in Niigata that weekend, was also having dinner there. The staff were waving Canadian flags haha.
After a great meal and fun culinary experience, we took the train back to Tokyo.
The next day we decided to go try to see Mount Fuji. As much as is it a big tourist attraction in Japan, Fuji is unfortunately not visible at all times. It does get cloudy quite often in the mountains there and you can see it only around 140 days of the year. Since we had the JR Pass and it is not too far from Tokyo, we decided to give it a shot. We took the bullet train followed by a local train and ended up in the resort village of Lake Kawaguchiko. We walked around and had lunch there. Sadly, as expected it was quite cloudy BUT we did manage to see the famous volcano for a few minutes. Woohoo!
KYOTO
The following day was time for us to pack our bags and leave for the ancient capital of Japan, the city of Kyoto. I was very much looking forward to seeing this place. We treated ourselves to quite the experience for our first night there. We spent the night at a Buddhist temple! Shunkoin Temple was everything like I imagined it would be. We slept on the tatami floor, had a meditation session with a monk followed by a tea ceremony. It was amazing and I highly recommend this place!
The staff is very accommodating and so welcoming. Check in is at 3pm but they told us we could go drop off our luggage anytime after 11am and we could borrow bikes if we wanted to. This is exactly what we did! Biked around the temple and went up to the Golden Pavilion.
The next day we went to our Airbnb and met up with a friend of my boyfriend’s. Turns out we both had elementary school friends living in Japan! She showed us around, took us for lunch where we had Okonomi (Japanese pancake). We then went to the Nishiki market and visited another temple.
FUSHIMI INARI
Kyoto has a lot to offer and one of the “must do” is definitely the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Fushimi Inari is well know and easily recognizable because of the thousand of Tori gates that are on the path to the top of the mountain. It was featured in the movie “Memoir of a Geisha”. It is beautiful and quite impressive but be aware that it is really crowded. It is quite the hike to reach the summit…around 12,000 steps! The crowd gets more sparse the higher you get so don’t give up. The view from the top is nice and you won’t regret going all the way up. Just make sure you are in good shape and bring some water.
GEISHA
On our last day in the old capital of Japan, we booked a walking tour via Kyoto Free Walking Tour on Facebook. You just need to click that you will be attending the event, as they usually do it twice a day, to ensure your place. There is a meeting point and a guide will show you the city. One of the main things I was curious about was obviously Gion and everything related to the Geishas. Luckily for us, our guide was well versed in the subject. He actually taught English to a Maiko (geisha in training), so he had a lot of the inside scoop. We walked around Gion District and he showed us the house where they live, also how to recognize those houses. Explained the significance of the symbols on the lanterns and showed us Gion Square, which is the school where they attend various classes. As we were just stopped in front of one of the houses, we were fortunate to see a Maiko walking down the street! A real one! The thing with Kyoto is that a lot of people rent kimonos and dress like Geishas. It is encouraged and they see the imitation positively but it makes it really difficult to spot a real one.
We also walked around Old Kyoto, which was really nice. The tour lasted for almost 3 hours and it was well worth it! Check out their Facebook page if you are ever in this city, you won’t regret it.
We took the train back to Tokyo after the walking tour and headed to Shibuya for the last 2 days of our Japan trip.
SHIBUYA
This area of Tokyo is very busy and this is where the well known Shibuya Crossing is – the busiest intersection in the world. To be honest, this intersection is just like a bigger version of Dundas Square! It wasn’t as impressive as I thought it was going to be. Still pretty cool to see though.
We did a free walking tour of the Imperial Palace garden hoping to see where the Emperor lives but unfortunately the guide were not very fluent in English and we also didn’t really see the palace itself. Not so good.
HARAJUKU
After that, I ventured out to Harajuku to see what it was all about. It is supposed to be the hub of the alternative culture in Tokyo. The main street, Tasheshita Street is insanely busy at all time. It is located right across the street from the Harajuku subway station which is very convenient. The street is famous for it’s weird clothing and Crepes shops! They are delicious and everywhere!
My highlight of Harajuku is meeting a designer at a store called Yellow House who was telling me stories about famous musicians who have shopped there. Guns n’Roses, Aerosmith, Sex Pistol, Rancid are all customers of hers when they are in Japan. We talked about music and about Canada. It was very cool. Sadly, since it was a designer store and all pieces were pretty unique, most of the items in the store were priced at close to a thousand dollars each. A little bit out of my budget!
On our last night in japan, we went out to a local restaurant in our area to have ramen and dumplings one last time. We had to order from a machine that was all in Japanese…and created a line up in the process haha. Nobody spoke English in the restaurant and it was awesome!
SAYONARA
After spending 9 days in Japan, we boarded our 13h flight home with our heads full of memories that will last a lifetime. It was truly an amazing experience and I would definitely go back again!
cindy vs the world 