Travels to Japan, April 2016
In April 2016, I visited Japan. Here are the stories from my experience, cross-posted from travelpod after they closed down. Photos to follow.
Plane sailing?
April 1, 2016 (part 1) - travelling
After some initial rearranging of tickets (our initial itinerary was via Brussels, which remained closed after the terrorist attack of 22⁄03), we were on a direct flight LHR to Tokyo Haneda with ANA (All Nippon Airways). I have to say we were both very impressed - excellent customer service, lots of legroom, good food and modern entertainment system. Sat apart, we tried out the seat to seat messaging system (awkward initial message with fingers crossed that I had remembered Jason’s seat number correctly… Phew I had!). I used the opportunity to catch up on some viewing - Spotlight lived up to its recommendation, now I want to be an investigative journalist! 2.5mg diazepam later and we both managed a good 4 hours proper sleep. Hooray for tranquilisers. The Big Short was breakfast viewing. I really enjoyed the less than subtle way the The Big Short smacked you in the face for just blindly expecting the financial sector to be knowing what it was/is doing. Plenty to talk about as we disembarked in Japan. An hour later and we were ready to leave the airport, train pass and wi-fi dongle in hand, rucksack on back. Amazingly efficient. Here we go into the unknown!
Word of the day: konichiwa!
Shabu Shabu!
April 1, 2016 (part 2) - Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Although terrified at now being in a place where we are reliant on someone speaking English, it was remarkably easy to get to our hotel. The ride into central Tokyo on the monorail gave us our first glimpse of the cherry blossom in full bloom, beautiful! After a five minute lie down, we avoided the jet lag trap, freshened up and got out of the hotel again. Off to Shinjuku for dinner with Harriet and Yuichi. We refuelled in a hotpot restaurant - you order the flavour of stock then they bring you trays of raw meat and veg which you cook in the boiling stock. You can swish the meat around to immerse it in stock - that movement is called “shabu shabu” and it’s the namesake of the restaurant. Then you pick the cooked meat out of your central hot pot (lovely to truly share a meal) and dip it in a sauce (we had a yummy sesame paste and a citrus soy sauce, mmmmm). This is one way to get royally stuffed as it’s impossible to track how much you’ve eaten… With bellies full, we ventured into the nearby games arcade - a very Japanese experience. We played a drumming game like guitar hero (great for aggression!), some mario kart (much easier with car controls than by button mashing…) and discovered the make up photo booth upstairs. For only a couple of quid, you can take five photos, the computer adds “enhancements” eg massively widening Jason’s eyes, rouging our lid and airbrushing everything, then you get to add text and squiggles on top. Hilarity ensued! All in all, a great way to end our first evening in Tokyo. Our first impressions - Tokyo feels just like it looks in the movies: glossy tall buildings, neon lighting, clean streets. Oh and you get pyjamas at the hotel! Very comfy cotton flannel sorts. Luxury.
Word of the day: campi! Pronounced with a long I (like ‘eye’), means cheers when you clink drinks.
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Welcome to Tokyo
April 2, 2016 - Tsukiji / Ginza / Akihabara / Yukahara, Tokyo
As the sun rose on our first day in Tokyo, we were soundly asleep having enjoyed a normal night. The effects of a diazepam-fuelled nap on the plane were really paying off. We may not have made it to the Tsukiji fish market for 5am in the hope of being one of the few visitors allowed in to witness the tuna auction, but it turned out that rocking up at 10:30am on a Sunday was a perfectly reasonable way to catch our first immersion into Japanese food culture.
The market itself had fishmongers, all displaying their various treasures of the day - fine slabs of fresh tuna, whole squid, live crabs, glistening oysters and scallops; this is a country whose culinary landscape rests on shells and fins. Beyond the walls of the official market lay a myriad of street food stalls and shops, many using the spoils of the sea, complemented by others selling sweet treats to tempt tourists and locals alike.
It was lightly drizzling and so our promenade past the stalls was punctuated by quick manoeuvres to avoid losing an eye to multiple umbrella spokes. The genetic variation in height between westerners and Japanese was to our detriment here. We took a tour of one of the shops selling vacuum packed foods - from dried shrimp and whitebait to tiny eel-like fish. There were little pots of tasters to try before purchase - cue a moment of panic when I picked up what looked like a yoghurt-covered nut, only to detect the beginnings of a wasabi hit on the tip of my tongue and up the back of my throat. ‘Jason! Where’s the water? Quick, quick!’ The panic wasn’t justified - although not particularly pleasant for my isothiocyanate-detecting senses, it is true that real wasabi is far less harsh and more fragrant than the horseradish-based imitators used in the west. Not feeling brave enough to pick up anything fishy, we came away with some of the “hot” wasabi peanuts (for Jason) and some honeyed apricots (for Naomi).
Back on the street and bellies still empty, our noses were piqued by the scent of grilled tuna. To the tuna kebab BBQ! Peeling off tender strips of succulent, steaming tuna was a real delight and remains a food highlight for me. We followed this with a sweet morsel - sugary buns (the texture of the casing was similar to Turkish delight) filled with sweet paste and topped with a strawberry: one had paste lightly toned with the scent of the cherry blossom (sakurya), the other a rich nutty chocolate. This latter bun had a special white strawberry - rather unappealing in look to the westerner but actually ripe and sweet, this must be a special breed of strawberries. My breakfast was completed with a 100 yen omelette very popular with the locals - cooked in a sweet liquid, it was reminiscent of creme patissiere, delicious!
All in all, we spent less than Yen 10 on some beautiful food and a wonderful first experience.
Next stop - the Sony building in Ginza, the main shopping district. This was a tip in the guide book, since Sony have four floors of ‘showrooms’ where you can try out all their different products. Taking a lift to the fourth floor then ambling down the spiralling staircase brings you to mini-platforms featuring 4K TVs, music players and headphones, cameras, phones and game consoles. Another round of the drumming game on the PS Vita, and an appreciation of the beautifully lit fake flowers presented for the keen photographer to test out their cameras, was enough to complete this brief visit. Probably not worth the trip (the first indication of an out-of-date guide book), but it whet our appetite for the next destination: Akihabara, the electronics district.
You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of AKB48 (the 48-strong Japanese (J-pop) girl group that originated from this district) or Gundam (an animated giant robot - ‘Mech’ - franchise), but these both have enough of a fan following to warrant themed restaurant-cafes in Akihabara, complete with cute smiley food, and robot shaped waffles, respectively. We nearly tried the former but then realised that we weren’t 5-year old girls, whilst there was quite a queue for the Gundam restaurant, so we opted for Japanese McD’s. ‘You followed beautiful grilled tuna with that ****?!‘, I hear you exclaim. But I’m a strong believer in trying out the various forms of food from under the Golden Arches around the globe, since it can vary dramatically and is quite telling of local culinary traditions. Japanese McD’s is similar to the UK, with some teriyaki / BBQ pork burgers, and a mega mac (think Big Mac with 4 patties). Sadly no “black burger” today - a seasonal speciality with squid ink-coloured bun that Jason’s sister had previously told us about.
After our (for me, rather disappointing) lunch, we traversed a manga market full of figurines and fluffy toys, and visited the small but popular anime museum on the fourth floor of the UDX building. This small room was a treasure trove of original drawings and storyboards, and we came away with several postcards of these drawings between us, and a keen desire to do some doodling myself when we catch a quiet moment. A final tour of the district ended up with us stumbling over the main high street, which was pedestrianised for the day. Cue many wannabe photographers taking shots of the avenue, bordered by buildings wrapped in billboards of every colour. We spotted a commotion in the lobby of one building and discovered Japanese Oktoberfest - maybe they didn’t get the memo about the date for such festivals but they certainly understood that the German sausage and barrels of German beer were the stars of the show, and added their own flavour with some live J-pop. Rather catchy, but ‘please! No photos of stage!’.
Back onto the JR local trains to get to Yukahara, the entrance point for Yoyogi park, and our first shrine of the trip, Meiji Jingu. This is a beautiful forest park, very calm and peaceful. A quick wander landed us at a popular photo spot - a pretty bridge over a small stream, and two walls of barrels. One wall was of straw-wrapped barrels of sake, a gift to the gods; the other of barrels of Bourgogne wine, for consecrating marriages. Regarding the latter, the emperor to whom the shrine was dedicated believed that importing the best products from around the world would make Japan the best country (‘fill a country with the best things and it will be the best country!’). Not being particular fans of French wines ourselves, I wondered if he’d ever tried a Californian Zinfandel or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Never mind.
The shrine itself was an image of typical Japanese style - the photos tell it all.
Shinto (‘the way of the gods’) is the main religion of Japan, and originates from ancient practices based on honouring gods (aka ‘kami’) and the godlike essence of the natural world. I particularly like that the most respected members of society are honoured as gods after death: the Emperor and Empress honoured at Meiji Jingu lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and this shrine was first built in the 1920s (rebuilt in 1958 after the war). My interpretation is that this form of deification makes greatness more relatable, inspires us to be our very best, and results in the most respected people in both ancient and modern times being rewarded with honour and remembered as role models for all. It is a deliberate attempt to connect the ancient and modern times. This is something that resonates with me far more than other religions.
Worshippers purify themselves before entering by washing each hand and rinsing their mouth in water from a well just outside the gate. Then you can pay your respects at the temple. I’ve nicknamed this practice ‘pay to pray’ as the tradition is to throw an offering of money into a wooden trough before bowing twice, clapping twice and taking a final bow. I quite enjoyed doing this, taking a moment to reflect in peace, and I’ve decided I will do it at every shrine we visit.
We also had our own precious snippets of advice from the late Emperor (at 100 yen apiece, of course) - my little roll of paper told me that if I wanted to climb a mountain, then there would be a path for me to take, otherwise known as “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Thanks Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken for your wise words.
There was also a wall of wooden tablets with handwritten wishes, called votives, where people from around the world expressed their gratitude for their past happiness and hope for their and their children’s futures. The diversity in languages and scripts yet similarity in hopes and dreams (from the languages I could decipher) was particularly poignant to me. We are all human.
Our second evening saw a trip to Harriet’s local cat cafe, complete with a cat design in the milk froth to decorate Jason’s latte, and a nice restaurant a stop away where we grilled our own squid rings. Finally a spot of young culture, sat cross-legged and shoes off in a bar with little manga figurines everywhere. It was reassuring to see a few drunk Japanese youths on the way back to the train station - there is a way to let off steam in this restrained culture based on a hierarchy of respect!
Phrase of the day: Beeru fetatsu - this will come in useful when it’s just Jason and I, “two beers please!”
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Sushi and sakurya
April 3, 2016 - Ueno, Tokyo
After a tip from a friend (thanks Lou!), we had booked ourselves onto a sushi making course on Monday morning. Yuka is a delightful little lady, who once lived on Mill Road, and is a demonstrably knowledgeable chef. She collected us and a bunch of other foreigners (US and one Polish) from Hiro-o metro station and frogmarched us back to her apartment (‘so sorry! So small!’ became her catchphrase).
And so began several hours of careful instruction on how to prepare sushi rice, how to cut fish (it’s very specific - ‘let me cut with you, no like this! No! I do it!’), and then how to make sushi rolls and nigiri. Of particular interest was her depth of knowledge about the ingredients.
Real wasabi (I’m proud to say I tried it) grows in the shallow river beds of the mountains, and tastes fresh and fragrant. It acts as an antiseptic and should be spread on the fish in order to prevent it going off. I’m not converted but at least I understand the point of it now. One thing I did learn - you must never, NEVER put wasabi into the soy sauce dip; apparently it ruins it. Real sushi doesn’t have salmon sashimi, that’s a flavour for the westerners; and you should never pair tuna with egg or avocado, only light herbs, one of which tasted like cumin.
Displaying poor sushi etiquette will guarantee you the cheap cuts of fish in an attentive restaurant since there is no point giving you the best bits if you are just going to ruin them; the chefs save those for the true appreciators. Yuka’s presentation was laced with judgemental tidbits like this, but apparently most Japanese people are unaware of the true etiquette too so you needn’t be too concerned, especially with the ‘fake sushi’ as served in Itsu or Wasabi.
Once we’d made our sushi - quite an accomplishment - we sat down to feast on it accompanied by some miso soups made by Yuka in the meantime. We finished with top quality matcha green tea - a bit like drinking moss stew but not unpleasant.
Whilst extremely informative, and certainly enjoyable, I have to say that I left feeling a little sick. The other guests wolfed down their sushi leaving Jason and I playing catch up, and stuffing raw scallop, tuna and salmon roe down our gullets, all in rapid succession, was a little overwhelming. I’ve been avoiding anything fishy for the few days following this (although admittedly a later experience with bonito flakes is mainly to blame).
When we emerged, the day was advancing well into the middle of the afternoon. We took a stroll through the local suburban streets back to the train line. This was a great way to see the cherry blossom in bloom, impromptu snaps in quiet neighbourhoods. Every district of this huge city has its own flavour. It has been well worth hopping on and off the train to see as many of them as possible.
We changed hotel today, moving from the central Chuo district to the older part of town, Ueno. Once we’d dropped our rucksacks at the new hotel (much money; not luxury), we ventured to Ueno park just as the light was failing. No sunset to be seen since it’s been cloudy every day so far, but a chance to witness a key event in the Japanese calendar - the cherry blossom festival.
Japanese family and friends come together to celebrate the blossom, picnicking on blue tarpaulin under the sakurya, which are uplit by red lanterns at night time. There were food stalls to complement the park’s Starbucks, and we met with a friend from uni to enjoy a light dinner (pork pancake and some of those honeyed apricots from Tsukiji for me) and stroll.
Phrase of the day: arigato gozaimes(da) - thank you, the actual way to say it - it’s taken me two days to work out the second part of this, hard to distinguish vocally but is needed! The ‘da’ adds an extra politeness, important in this hierarchical culture. Thank you is particularly important given the friendliness of the service culture here, and whilst the Japanese customers may not act too politely to waitress or servers, I can’t help but want to return their kindness and patience with a smile, a nod and an ‘arigato gozaimes’.
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Japanese mecca
April 4, 2016 - Asakusa / , Tokyo
Our third morning in Tokyo saw us take a brief walk to Asakusa district. I say morning - actually the tiredness hit and we awoke at half 10, had a leisurely morning and finally stumbled out of the hotel at 1pm. My mother would have had a fit! But we needed the rest.
In Asakusa, there were many market-like shops, including a bakery selling traditional Japanese sweet bread and apple pie (excellent breakfast, the Japanese can really bake!). We succeeded (surprisingly) at the challenge set by friends Viv and Ben - we found kimonos for cats (and small dogs)! We also spent a good while in a very comprehensive chopstick shop, choosing our own sticks for home. It was a bit like Ollivander’s [would be], really quite mesmerising…
The promenade of shops led us, along with a growing throng of tourists (many Japanese), to Senso Ji, the oldest shrine in Tokyo, and seemingly a Mecca for the Japanese themselves. Many had hired/worn pretty kimonos for the day and were taking advantage of the cherry blossom in full bloom to update their profile/family photographs.
This shrine was built in the 7th century, and had elements pertaining to Buddhism as well as Shinto. There were the usual purification troughs and once again you could “pay to pray”, but here there was also a well filled with hot ash to which people were adding burning incense sticks, then wafting the smoke over themselves. I gave it a go, and got stinging eyes in return for my inner peace.
It was really quite crowded but we found a spot to eat our street food lunch - I opted for okinomiyaki, or ‘Japanese pizza’ - it’s a pancake filled with cabbage and noodles, topped with an egg (and this time with bacon too) then covered in a special sweet sauce. Sounds good so far? Then the lady covered it in bonito flakes, which added to the fact that the pancake batter was still raw, really turned my stomach and I’m ashamed to admit that this went in the bin. The real shame was that it put me off fish for many days, and put me off trying the famous Hiroshima-style okinomiyaki later in the trip. Bonito - 2, Naomi - 0.
Moving on, we headed to the river side where there were lots of cherry blossom trees and a nice promenade to the nearest metro station, included a sight of the Golden Flame building, the statue on top of which is known locally as the golden poo. Photo included for obvious explanation.
Our metro trip took us to the Imperial Palace in the hope of visiting the gardens there, however after our late start today we arrived here too late: the park was already closed for the day. Apparently everything closes at half 4⁄5 in Japan. Instead we took a turn through Kitanomaru gardens, past the (closed) science museum and a (closed) martial arts arena. The gate onto the main street was particularly busy - we’d stumbled across a beautiful cherry blossom viewing spot (again), complete with Japanese couples in row boats down in the moat below. A friendly Japanese lady who wanted to practise some English took several photos of us, practically falling over herself to help. Our British awkward bell started chiming and after a good twenty minutes of interaction, she was on her way none the wiser to our growing unease. Really, she was just being kind, but the clash of cultures was palpable. We Brits need to loosen up!
Next stop - Shibuya, to see the infamous pedestrian crossing at rush hour. Here, hundreds of people build up on the side of the road next to the station, then the green man sends them all rushing across the diagonal or straights to their destinations. The Starbucks that overlooked the crossing was clearly doing a roaring trade so we ducked into the quieter L’Occitane cafe on the next corner. A Croque Monsieur and rose tea later (to appease the bonito-invoked disgust), and we’d watched, filmed and photographed the crossing to our heart’s content.
We’d also spotted a guard down at street level, with little to do, just swaying from side to side in the evening chill. This hasn’t been an uncommon sight - there seems to be people employed for anything, regardless of the need, leading to a high employment rate but probably a lot of bored, unfulfilled workers. In the two hours we spent in the cafe, this poor man had been approached once, by tourists needing directions. I just wanted to give him a huge hug.
Instead, it was time to dash to Shinjuku to meet with Harriet and the newly-arrived parent Manns for dinner. We ate Vietnamese (phew! No fish sauce here) at the top of one of the posh Japanese department store chains (Lumine). The rest of family Mann, tired from a day of travelling, retired soon after.
The night was still young for us, and we’d arranged to meet up with our uni friend, Jess, again - this time to explore the nearby club and bar district, notably Golden Gai, a warren of tiny alleyways filled with tinier shanty-style bars. The alleys were so narrow in places (one-person width) that photography was forbidden (I guess to keep people flowing) but it wasn’t particularly busy so we captured a few shots. No Jess as yet so time to catch a drink just the two of us. After spending several minutes window shopping for a quiet-enough-but-not-empty bar (some places had only four seats), which admittedly was more to do with finding the courage to actually enter one, we opted for an upstairs sake bar. This was mainly because it advertised no table charge - a lot of places charged 1000 yen (about £6; some openly called it a tourist charge). Damn, this bar was empty but we couldn’t chicken out once we’d said ‘konichiwa’ to the proprietor. ‘Sake fetatsu’ it was then! Not bad for my first sampling of sake, it tastes just like watered down vodka with an essence of fruit (one was apple-y, the other a little like plum).
We were joined by Jess and several of her companion PhDs (all isotopy specialists, some of terrestrial and others of marine focus) and ventured into a new downstairs bar, before empty but full once all seven of us had entered into this small living room, with a sweet little lady behind the bar. I swear at one point she lay down to hide behind the bar as she took a phone call… She also had little miniature sets of food on the bar top, quite as you’d find in a doll’s house. More sake, accompanied (without request but perhaps to appease the huge table charge this time) with deep fried tofu. Lovely once I’d scraped away the bonito flakes (why oh why umami).
A charming way to end our day. Word of the day - sumimasen, the most useful word ever, for excuse me or sorry. Invaluable in a crowd, on a train, to get attention, to politely apologise for bashing someone with your bag. And today was a day of crowds and tight spaces.
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Bullets and bombs
April 6, 2016 - Hiroshima
Today, we left Tokyo behind and headed south along the Honshu coast to Hiroshima. I was very excited about this first trip on the Shinkansen, or bullet train. These high speed trains are world famous, not only for their speed (topping 200 mph) but also for the fact that they average about 30 seconds late over the whole year. Did you hear that
Aah, there she is. Mount Fuji in all her splendour, and at ~100 mph. Gone. Tick off bucket list. I took the opportunity of a couple of quiet hours to write up the first blog entries, having just been taking notes so far. We’ve done so much already! I apologise in advance, this blog may take hours to read… My defence? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip so I’m documenting it for me as well as you. And I don’t do short.
It’s a tradition to take a bento box onto the Shinkansen for your packed lunch - these even have a special name, ekiben - with each main region having its own kind - like eel on rice in the Hiroshima prefecture. Our fishy unease saw us enjoying sandwiches instead…
In preparation for our trip to Hiroshima (yes Obama, you should visit), I swotted up on some key facts and context, thanks to Wikipedia last night. This was useful as the majority of the peace park museum was closed for renovations, meaning we missed out on sections leading up to the bomb and the peace efforts after. Normally these would dilute the harrowing depiction of the bombing itself and its effects on human health.
Instead our afternoon was filled only with information about the bomb that created a small sun over the city of Hiroshima, with a blast force so great it is beyond comprehension. The quick deaths appeared merciful, albeit haunting that all that remained of some lives were the blast shadow imprinted into stone walls. It was the images of suffering that lasted beyond that instant that troubled me - The charred flesh of bodies cooked inside and out, the clothes and belongings of children, some who made it home only to suffer terribly for hours, days and weeks until succumbing to their severe burns. Whilst there were survivors of these burns, and no one knew what their chances were, I would probably have asked someone to shoot me and end it quickly.
For those not severely burned, the radiation exposure cause severed effects: some vomited up their own internal organs, others disintegrated internally. There were survivors of this radiation sickness, but it was a poignant point that many survivors still live in fear awaiting cancers to develop and kill them.
The radiation also caused disfiguration of fingernails, the blast sent shards of glass into bodies, both of which served as prolonged reminders of this atrocity for years to come with some glass not removed for decades. What I found interesting, although obvious, was that no-one knew what would happen. The B57s flew as a team - Enola Gay famously carried the bomb, but there were planes ahead for weather reconnaissance, and even some that dropped sensors before the bomb was dropped, in order to measure what happened next. This was a huge experiment. There were people with the forethought to document and measure what happened. And so there must have been people with the capacity to imagine the suffering that would be inflicted upon thousands of civilians, children and even allies such as the prisoners of war held in Hiroshima. It has been suggested that maybe this was even a demonstration, of what US nuclear weapons could do.
In terms of whether it was justified, I have always felt conflicted when faced with the different opinions - my repulsion for such an abhorrent act was only sharpened by the articles in the museum, but the background context of the seeming reticence for the Japanese government to back down from their aggressive stance makes me question whether the scientists and military workers involved were much to blame (a position I previously held, how could any human knowingly take part in such a mission? But perhaps it was not an informed decision, this being the first nuclear bombing).
The Japanese government were warned and seemingly ignored the warnings, and even three days after Hiroshima was bombed, a bigger bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Finally the Japanese government gave way, but it seems so wasteful to have used two atomic bombs to reach that point.
There was not much hope to be drawn from the peace movement that has grown from the bombing. One girl who died from leukaemia a few years after the bomb had spent her last months desperately folding origami cranes, in the hope that if she folded a thousand then she would survive. Thus the origami crane has become a symbol of peace, particularly for children, around the world. There were boxes of cranes donated from schools around the world, surrounding the children’s peace memorial in the park. But when we reached the A-bomb dome, any strength of heart I took from the cranes was shattered by the ongoing peace demonstrations around the dome. People who have dedicated their lives to singing and playing very peaceful music with the dome as their background.
Yet new dates of atrocities keep being added to their posters - there may not have been any nuclear warfare since Nagasaki, but there is an endless number of people dying or suffering after acts of violence against one another. We keep adding the dates of the several-per-year attacks on western soil, but there are countless more that don’t adorn our news channels. The peace protests just seemed futile, and the shame and sorrow of what had happened above and around where I was standing, the history clinging to the air, became overwhelming.
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Peace at last
April 7, 2016 - Hiroshima
The next morning, having recovered from the grief of yesterday with the aid of pizza cooked in a pizza oven, we used the excuse of a rainy day to postpone our travel to Miyajima, instead venturing into the Hiroshima of the present.
We found a vibrant, modern city, with plenty of western-style restaurants and wine bars, and a youthful attitude not dissimilar to that of Cambridge. Whilst the lack of buildings built before the 1950s, and the dominance of the peace park in the centre of the city, are unforgettable reminders of the ashes that were, Hiroshima has been rebuilt into a friendly, calm and bright young city that I could (almost) live in.
Having found morning sustenance in an incredible bakery (so much choice, so many tasty calories!), we walked to Hiroshima castle, thanks to the umbrellas loaned by the hotel. The castle is home to an interesting museum looking at the history of this port town, built on a delta, and established during the feudal periods as a city of dominance and power by the sea. There was an amazing collection of samurai clothing and swords (katana), and we could even try on a samurai’s battle gear and a kimono.
Next stop was the art museum, not for its art but for its cafe, where I had rice balls, but ignored the miso soup after one sip - more evidence that I’m not an umami person - whilst Jason enjoyed a delectable chocolate and blackcurrant cake. I thought Japan would ease me into a healthier lifestyle of fish and rice but instead it is proving to be quite the advocate for a life of breads, pastries and cake, such is the talent on offer here.
Once we had persevered through enough of the rain, and reinstalled some hope to our stride after the harrowing experiences of yesterday, it was time to board the electric tram to take us to miyajima-guchi and then to catch the 10-minute ferry across to Miyajima, on Itsukushima island.
We were greeted off the boat by friendly deers, who it turned out are looking for one thing only - food - and they will eat your bag to get to it! We were staying in a ryokan-style hotel, with mattresses directly on the bamboo mat floor (or tatami) - our first experience of the traditional Japanese way of life. Whilst our own hotel did not provide dinner, we found sustenance in a local full-blown ryokan, where we enjoyed our first “set” of food with rice, pickles, miso soup accompanying a main - I had tempura that was easily beaten by Jason’s tasty deep-fried oysters. Never have oysters tasted so good!
This ryokan appeared to be run by two aging sisters, with one speaking good English and keeping the customers happy whilst the other seemed a little crazy, plonking food down in front of guests in a characterful manner. We noticed that food was served extremely fast, even for multi-course meals as enjoyed by the neighbouring tables. So fast in fact that some guests ended up having plates of food stacked up in line as they struggled to finish preceding courses. Perhaps not having any time to wait between bites is considered good service, but the stress of having courses queue up at your dinner table is something we were to experience ourselves on several occasions to come.
We used the opportunity of spending the night on the island to walk to itsukushima shrine and the gate, now “floating” in the high tide, for some night-time photography. Then it was early to bed as we planned to be out at sunrise (half 5⁄6).
Word of the day - tatami : the bamboo mats that cover the floor. You must remove outdoor shoes and wear slippers onto mat.
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World heritage at Miyajima
April 8, 2016 - Miyajima
Alarm at 05:00 after fitful sleep (worrying about the alarm!) - is it cloudy? Can’t tell it’s too dark, let’s sleep a little longer… Ooh it’s a bit brighter but is it too cloudy? Sod it. We’re awake so let’s go anyway. Down to the o-Torii for early morning photos whilst the sun rises. Wrong side of the island to get colours of sunrise but well worth it for access to the gate when low tide and barely any other people (normal holidaymakers still in bed at 6am).
Lots of coins around and even stuck into the gate - guess people on boats drop them into water when it’s floating? Tide came in quickly - some damp socks but no danger. Lovely to have a walk and some fresh air, back in our room by 7, plenty of time before breakfast at 8: Breakfast at ryokan - boiled egg, salad, toast and jam. Really appreciated.
Saw gate floating in daylight then up to the cable car to go up mount misen. Red bridge and flowing river with mini falls - photography stop. Up to midway point (two cable cars, one funicular) and great views of Edo sea, multiple islets, several uninhabited. Could see all the fishing activity - floating farms for oysters, mussels, clams. Even spotted a submarine sailing half-out of water.
Thirty-minute scramble up to top of mount misen. Brief break halfway at the lovers shrine - lit a candle for us. Observation platform at top. Beautiful day for it - hazy clouds all across bay, very atmospheric.
Walk back to funicular station, down steep steps. Repeating mantra of ‘I am not my mother, I can do this!’ in my head. No offence mutti, but you’d have hated it.
Just in time for a funicular, so all way back down. It was apparent we had chosen the right time to do the mountain as the crowds were growing into the middle of the day.
Back at bottom, and had worked up quite an appetite so to the street food stall we went - Jason got grilled squid, I stuck with sweet corn. Tried to sit and eat, but the deer were having none of it. One even nipped me through my jumper, so off we trot, trying to chomp our food as quickly as poss to avoid further venison aggression.
Over an hour before we needed to leave the island, so visited itsukushima shrine - at low tide so not whilst it was floating, but still interesting for photography.
Wandered around local shops, picked up some treats. Local cake - Manja - shaped like a leaf and filled with various different flavours. Saw some being made in moulds and treated ourselves to freshly warm ones - one custard cream, one chocolate at 60p a piece. Note you could make these yourselves midway up the mount, apparently a key dating venue since the press there adds a smiling heart in honour of the lovers shrine. A certain travelling partner wasn’t in the mood for such soppiness though.
Wander around a soy sauce shop, bravely tried a fish cake on a stick, with asparagus in and wrapped in bacon. Actually quite tasty - texture of crab sticks, taste not too fishy. Sun out, lovely afternoon, but back onto feet we went, JR Sanyo line to Hiroshima then two Shinkansens to Kyoto for next tranche of the trip.
Dinner in Kyoto - barbecue. Lots of meat, really moist on its own with lemon juice. Kobe beef? Melted in the mouth, and incredibly rich. Yuzu sorbet at end. Honey plum wine. All yummy. Paid for it with hot night of indigestion.
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Kyoto
April 9, 2016 - Kyoto
Fushimi Inari Shrine with thousand gates, walk up hill, peaceful, scent of cedar/pine and bamboo, sound of stream, good level of exertion to compensate for last night’s feast.
Getting hot and sunny, cue an ice cream to reward ourselves for our efforts! Then we were ripped off by the crepe seller on the way out of Fushimi Inari - £4 for cream with 3 slices banana and 3 tiny slices of strawberry in a crepe… Hmmm this place is a tourist trap!
Metro to gion area - this is the geisha district, and there are lots of kabuki theatres - a type of Japanese entertainment. We were sad to have missed the opportunity to see a show, particularly the current run of a Romeo & Juliet-like performance that was apparently a mixture of kabuki, opera and something else.
Walk to Nishiki market via main shopping street - the latter was clocked with lots of interesting shops, including one selling hello kitty and gudetame (egg man!) paraphernalia. Nishiki market itself was full of food stalls and individual grocers. A real juxtaposition of the traditional and modern shopping experience.
Night before wedding family dinner - yakitori (skewers) Plum labiate - much rejoicing around the table at this, God knows what it’s meant to translate to. Silky tofu, best I’ve ever had Dikon (big radish) crudite. Even had green peppers dusted in bonito flakes. - not strong or like rotten fish, clearly quality difference! Bonito - still 2, Naomi - 1.
Phrase of the day - That was a real feast: gochisosama deshita! A little trick to remember this? It sounds like goats cheese sandwich!
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A shinto wedding
April 10, 2016 - Kyoto
Harriet and Yuichi get married at Kitano Tenmangu shrine, Kyoto. It was a real privilege to attend a Shinto wedding. Harriet, Fiona and Akiko dressed up in kimonos- ceremonial fans in their waist band, beautiful bow at the back. Yuichi in the male version of a kimono.
Processed in two lines (bride and groom) from changing area to shrine, shoes on and off a lot, being papped like celebs as shrine open to public. Not many get to go inside the actual main shrine building though - sat in benches, two families facing each other, bride and groom at head table observing both benches. Priest gives offerings to the kami (deities) - food, sake, etc and says a prayer for the couple, swishes a branch of sacred tree (sakaki). Then it’s the couples turn - swirl the branch, take it to alter to offer to kami, say vows (in Japanese, led by Yuichi with the bride only confirming her name), back at high tables, the couple bless marriage with sake - three cups, three sips (sansan…) of each (take two small ones or just touch to lips then drink on third), cups passed from groom to bride, bride to groom, then third one shared without setting down again. All assisted by two girls - interesting hair ties (like ties to go over long ponytails), moved in unison, very precise like a ballet. Then put rings on, applause. Then the families bound together by sake ritual - jug that poured for first family member (the head, so father of each of bride and groom) crossed to other family - the dad’s got a double dose, rest of family served from jug that was shared with opposite family’s head. Nice way to intertwine two families. Jason postulated may be a poison thing (I trust you enough to drink your sake, or unable to poison it as otherwise own head of family would be poisoned too). Given little wishes (seaweed?) to take away. Process back in two lines to the preparation area again. More papping. Beautiful ceremony, very special, very interesting to watch. Only shame was that people were paying to pray as we were in the shrine, and were tolling the bells loudly, so unable to hear much of the vows.
Lots of photos - multiple people fussing over arrangement of kimonos and fans, had to be just right, shooing people away from the background, nice attention to detail for this important photo. One beautiful blossom tree, just perfect. Flowers fully out with a few leaves but not turned floppy yet.
Taxis to hotel (Keian?). Lovely Japanese garden, into room with tatami and small chairs for dinner - table for yuichi’s family, one for us, bride and groom at head. Akiko had ordered a special wedding cake - they cut this before the meal. F&N had ordered sugar paste figurines of Y&H (from photos of their outfits before, so full kimono etc and good likeness!). Thoughtful presents between these families.
Important father of bride speech including some Japanese. Campi indeed to you, Nic, for the formidable effort! Speech from Yuichi, had us all in tears because of his depth of emotion regardless of fact none of us could understand the Japanese. Even bride had to speak, thanks to all for travelling from all corners of world (US, Australia, England and Japan) - the bringing together of a truly global community.
Dinner was high Japanese cuisine, beautifully presented, multi course - savoury coustard dish with seafood at bottom (gorgeous), sashimi (many of us geijun couldn’t finish this - sad that I can’t enjoy this part of Japanese cuisine, but turns my stomach, did try almost everything though), soup (floating little fish and vegetables, tasty egg roll with asparagus? Inside), cooked fish and chicken and rolled up eel? And egg?, rice, fruits with jelly for pudding - many delectable treats, much of which were a surprise in texture and taste. Although game to try anything, it was quite hard work mentally to overcome some textures, and any fishy flavours.
Finished up with slab of wedding cake - light sponge, cream, strawberries. Once again, Japanese really know how to bake!
Downstairs to basement karaoke booth for a couple of hours, some awful screeching, some slightly more tuneful, but great fun nonetheless. Y&H clearly enjoy this, some impressive duets including one Japanese song. Lovely way to top off a unique celebration.
Quick room party to debrief and catch the Orrs one last time.
Amazing day, such a privilege and unique, unforgettable experience. Also lovely to meet the Ishino family - tried out some more Japanese, lovely people and very happy occasion, particular fondness for yuichi’s gran, little old lady with whom none of us could communicate but she jabbered away in Japanese anyway, very giggly and lots of smiles with us.
Phrase of the day - dozo yo roshku: nice to meet you.
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Family honeymoon to Kanazawa
April 11, 2016 - Kanazawa
Goodbyes to the Orrs and to Yuichi’s family, kindly came to hotel this morning to see everyone off. Looking forward to seeing yuichi’s sister back in the UK (lives in Edinburgh, also married a Brit!).
All aboard the thunderbird express to Kanazawa. Some more yummy pastries.
A few hours of afternoon to explore - much smaller city so only 25 min walk to the Chaya (tea house) district, walking through ohmi-cho market by happenstance, similar to Kyoto one but smaller. Tea district next to river, pretty wth blossom on banks, lots of original wooden houses, were used as guest houses - went in one kept nearly as is since opened 200 years ago, waiting room adjoining guest room, geishas would entertain by playing musical instruments, singing and dancing. Traditional tea ceremonies, we didn’t partake but in general take pretty little tea bowls, add matcha powder then water and scrub together with a hard whisk-like brush, forming foamy moss green drink, traditionally taken with Japanese sweets (cooked or uncooked, eg moshi paste with flavour).
Many tea houses now little shops - including art galleries (see freaky cat statues), and lots of expensive tea cup shops. Kanazawa produces most of the gold leaf made in Japan, us no traditional process of layering with very absorbent paper and compressing to make thin sheets of leaf. Hence a lot of gold products here, including gold iPhone cases, gold flakes to add to your food, and you can even treat yourself to a gold coated ice cream. The main gold shop had a gold outhouse - both exterior and interior walls were coated in gold. Makes me think that most of the gold in Japan is not only made here, but also sold here - it’s a self-fulfilling cycle!
Dinner in the hotel (actually quite highly rated by trip advisor) was a buffet - yummy dark curry, tempura prawns, French style casserole, assortments of desserts including ice cream machine. Good way to stock up on nutrition before attempting two days of traditional Japanese food.
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Our first Ryokan
April 12, 2016 - Kanazawa
More yummy pastries for breakfast (lovely spinach quiche, pear tart).
Kanazawa loop bus - a day ticket that would take us to all the sights in “little Kyoto” as Kanazawa is known to the Japanese.
Kenroku-en garden - pretty, mini waterfalls, stone bridges, lots of trees, some blossom, fun watching heron fishing. Tried matcha ice cream, not disgusting but probably don’t need to try it again. Understatement.
Kanazawa castle - some reconstructed buildings from an palace in 17th century (?) - wooden structures with interesting joins - allow for expansion of wood and movement during earthquakes. More nature watching - kites circling overhead. Little did I know I was about to become the target… Just chatting with some yummy Camembert and walnut bread in hand (once again, Japanese bakeries are AMAZING), didn’t hear or sense a thing, except sudden pinch of finger and my bread was gone. Took a couple of seconds to realise what had just happened, feel lucky to have only suffered a tiny cut on my finger, those talons could have ripped a lot more off… Thanks for the accuracy Kite!
Motoyu ishiya - ryokan in quiet outskirts of Kanazawa. Taxi ride past rice paddies, several people out tending to allotments, wearing triangular bamboo hats (just like you see on tv).
Ryokan is traditional Japanese guest house. Paper walls, tatami mats. Rooms have fire pit for kettle and table with chairs directly sitting on floor. Japanese style dinner to celebrate Fiona’s birthday (multi course, once got past the sashimi was actually quite enjoyable, nice umeshu too). Come back from dinner to find room transformed, table replaced by two rolled out beds (mattresses directly on floor).
Phrase of the day - tanjoubi omedetou (gozaimasu), happy birthday in japanese!
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Well hello, little snow monkey
April 13, 2016 - deep in the forest, Nagano prefecture, Japan
We completed our first stay in a traditional ryokan with a morning wash in the onsen (hot spring bath) - I was glad to have been instructed on the procedure last night by Harriet: get naked and do normal washing first with supplied shampoo etc (sit on a potty-like stool next to shower head, multiple washing stations all side by side), then take a dip in the hot spring (this one was brown water, due to the sediment the spring contained), rinse off and pat dry with a little towel (traditionally you rest this on your head whilst you bathe, to keep it safe and dry) then back into the changing room for a full dry, clothes and a little more pampering - lots of mirrors and lotions and hair dryers. It felt like being at a spa, complete with the slight lightheadedness of having been stewing in hot water for too long. Overall a very civilised way to start the day. And yes, whilst the female onsen was empty when I was there, normally guests just saunter around naked in front of everyone. They are gender-separated but us geijun do seem to struggle with this! I say in for a penny, in for a pound!
Feeling clean and refreshed, we headed back to our dining room for a traditional Japanese breakfast. I’m not sure about fish in the morning - but at least this was cooked (salmon, I think). There was quite a selection of different pickles, seaweeds, even a pot of mushed up yam root (the suspicious texture from last night). I admit I avoided most bits but did like the taste of what we decided what some form of herb/flower paste (a touch of lavender) and I quite enjoyed my mixture of creamy tofu (actually like a curd, soft and creamy not rubbery), rice and soy sauce, which together tasted like dairylea.
An early taxi took us back to Kanazawa station for the Shinkansen to Nagano, the first step of our journey to the snow monkeys. We stumbled across some Japanese marketing efforts - free notepads and a dressed up mascot to celebrate the first anniversary of the Shinkansen line connecting Kanazawa to Tokyo, including our stop at Nagano. Once there, we switched to an express bus to take us to konbayashi onsen guchi stop, ready for the 2km walk into the hills to the ryokan and monkey park. I’ve made this sound very simple, but it’s actually a little confusing for first time visitors to the monkey park as to how to actually get there. In winter (October to April, this year the season ended on 4th April) there are about 10 express buses a day, whilst in the summer season there are only three, so we had a little time to wait before the midday (12:25) bus. There is an alternative route - to take a local JR train to Yudanaka then a local bus to the same snow monkey bus stop but this actually takes a little longer due to the timetables, so is only the better option once you’ve missed the midday express bus.
Anyway, we made it to the right place to begin the walk into the hills, and I was immediately glad we had left our big rucksacks behind at Nagano stations (in lockers adorned with cute characters) and decanted our overnight stuff into day bags. The walk itself was not that taxing but it did take 35 minutes and would be more treacherous in the snow, with steep hillsides hugging the narrow path. I enjoyed reading all the monkey facts that were placed along the route. Particularly one poster showing the before and after face of a monkey with food stuffed in her cheeks for later. Hello, kindred spirit.
We were to stay at the korakukan ryokan, the only one right next to the monkey park. It sits nestled on the hillside overlooking a mountain stream, the monkey park being just beyond it, and is famous for being the first place where a monkey was witnessed warming up by bathing in a hot spring. You can bathe in the ryokan’s outdoor hot spring with the monkeys but we didn’t manage this while we were there. The ryokan itself was another wooden warren of corridors and random rooms, our own “room” being another multi-room paper-walled affair. This particular ryokan had more of a campsite feel, with communal sinks and toilets. The owner proved to be a fantastic chef - our evening meal consisting of local river trout (cooked! Much rejoicing!) with crispy salted skin, locusts (a local delicacy, sweet with a hint of aniseed), wild duck and soba noodle shabu shabu (boil it yourself in stock) with rice and egg to add to the remaining stock at the end. There was some sashimi (like rainbow trout) and a cold meat and veg soup, but we devoured almost all of this Japanese dinner without hesitation or regret. The local beers - one pale ale, one porter - washed it down well, whilst Jason enjoyed two different types of sake. A quick note - sake just means alcohol, the drink that we refer to as sake is actually called nihonshu in Japan.
We particularly enjoyed the company at dinner - four other geijun (two Aussies, two Americans) and a recently retired Japanese man. Talk ranged from our Japanese discoveries (the toilets are amazing!) to politics (Trump?!) and made this ryokan feel even more like a backpackers’ hostel. Whilst the ryokan itself was a fantastic experience (even the guiltily-requested western breakfast was superb - omelette, toast and apple), and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Japan, we had of course come for the monkeys.
There are 160 Japanese macaques in the group that live in and around Jigokudani park. Actually we didn’t need to leave the ryokan to see them, as they were all around the area, sitting on the roof and staring into bedrooms. However, the majority of the group were in an small area around the hot spring inside the park, perhaps attracted to this site as it is where the staff leave food out each morning for them (grains, fruit). The monkeys seem happy, not bothered by the tourists constantly photographing them, and getting as close to you as cats. Whilst not an entirely wild group - there is a clear mutual benefit between their easy food and our easy wildlife watching - this was a fantastic opportunity to watch the monkeys interacting as they would in the wild: these are a social species, with adult females sharing the caring of the young and a single male adult as the overlord. A visit to the park in the afternoon and next morning allowed us to witness mothers feeding babies, cuddling them, many pairs and threes grooming each other, the morning feeding time, juveniles playing, squabbling, and being admonished by seniors, all while the big boss male sat by not really caring. The monkeys enjoyed sitting in the hot spring, then shaking the water off like dogs after, leading to a few wet onlookers. You can catch the monkeys in action directly via the live webcam here: http://en.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/# (scroll down a little and bear in mind Japan’s time zone - your best bet is midnight UK time for their 8am morning play).
A note from my perspective - the area that I researched during my PhD was about the mother’s body during pregnancy and how it might affect the development of the unborn child. Some basic associations have been noted in humans but much of the mechanistic research is done in animals, including rats, mice and even sheep. There is one group that uses Japanese macaques as their model, because this is the closest we can get to modelling humans and this is particularly pertinent when we want to find out how higher level behaviours are affected. Although an advocate for the use of animals in well-guided research, I am not sure I could do the research required in these monkeys. It would certainly be a privilege to interact with them so closely, but I much preferred to observe them in the wild.
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Refound in translation
April 15, 2016
We made our way back to Tokyo yesterday, ready for a final stab at this crazy city before heading home.
Kappabashi-dori - the road with all the restaurant shops, each shop a specialist in cooking equipment, crockery, aprons, menu boards, fake food for window displays.
Imperial palace gardens for a lie down in the beautiful sun (bets we’re heading back to rain?)… FAIL - closed, couldn’t find an entrance we could get through, not alone - multiple tour groups, families with guidebooks out and confused faces, perhaps something to do with G7 meeting coming up?
A quick trip up the Japanese metropolitan government buildings (LOVE these, thanks for being patient Jason), with a viewing gallery near the top - stunning view over Tokyo as sun beginning to set over beautifully clear blue sky, could just make out Mount Fuji in the distance. Down the lift and quick trot over to the Park Hyatt hotel, to go back up a lift - we topped off the night with a cocktail in the sky bar here, a la Lost In Translation, before heading to a ‘Japanese pub’ for tapas-style dinner.
As our trip came to an end, we took a moment to reflect on what we’ve seen of Japanese society and life…
Extreme functionality was much appreciated: Trains that run on time, or - shock horror - with a three-minute delay. Note-changing machines on buses so that you can always pay with coins / get the right change Blind awareness - textured tiles on every pavement, different sounds depending which way crossing at a junction The pedestrian lights that show a countdown to when they’ll next change Queue lines on platforms Music jingle at each train station (different jingle each time, get to know the stations by sound!)
Respect: Impressive customer service, but comes at cost of individuality Nice to show humans a level of mutual respect, catch myself bowing to others all the time now (note this disappeared the minute we stepped, exhausted and travel-weary, onto the piccadilly line at Heathrow…)
Food: The station bakeries - amazing flavoured breads and pastries, a cheap lunch but invaluable for struggling westerners in Japan One of main excitements about coming here was the food, turns out I really like westernised Japanese food, less so the real deal. Lots of foods I did like, not known in west, eg yakitori, shabu shabu. but not going to miss sashimi or miso or just general savouriness of foods.
Overall, an experience of a lifetime.