Traveling in Japan is challenging, but extremely rewarding. It’s easily the most modern country we’ve been to (or probably ever will) but that doesn’t make traveling there easier. Actually, budget traveling is difficult – if you had money to burn it would be a breeze. Hotels are everywhere and the Shinkansen (bullet train) is fast and efficient, but both are hideously expensive when converted to Australian dollars (or any other currency). Budget accommodation is difficult to find (in summer anyway) and the public trains are hard work when traveling between cities with packs. Away from the tourist attractions most people don’t speak English. Luckily, we both speak a bit of Japanese and really enjoyed finally being able to speak to the locals in their own language. It helps when trying to buy things and find your way around too.
We flew into Osaka and spent 5 hours on a series of local trains getting up to Nagoya, to catch up with Brad and Marcel (ex-MYOB). Hard lesson number one was trying to squeeze into local trains with a pack and a daypack each. Japanese trains are not meant for those with enough gear for a lap of the world.
We spent a busy few days staying with Brad and Marcel in Nagoya. Thanks for your hospitality guys! Marcel took us for a cycling tour around town, terrorizing pedestrians (I scored the girls bike) and to his favorite Ramen noodle shop. Brad took us out for some drinks, and karaoke. When we left Karaoke at 5:30am the sun was already up and it was broad daylight. Nagoya doesn’t have many tourist sites, but it has wide tree lined boulevards, a huge range of restaurants, and cool people (not including Brad of course!).
One morning we filled in as Kindergarten teachers where Brad and Marcel sometimes work, and earned a few extra yen in the process. Not sure how much English the 4 year olds learnt from us though. Have a look at these pictures on Brad’s site.
We parted with a very large sum of money for the privilege, but we really enjoyed catching the Shinkansen (bullet train) down the Hiroshima, at Japan’s southern end. The Shinkansen is the only way to travel; at up to 300km/h it is very fast, and the tracks are ‘continuously welded’ making for a smooth clickity-clack free ride. The rice fields and neon lit cities slide past very quickly. Anything close to the train is an indistinguishable blur of colour.
Turning up late at night in Hiroshima we learnt traveling in Japan: lesson number 2. Unlike Thailand, you can’t just turn up at a town and expect to find transport waiting for you to take you a guesthouse which, if you don’t like the look of, you can walk to another. In Japan during summer holidays you have to book ahead. And during our 2nd week there the such n such festival where people return to their home towns to visit relatives was occurring, so accommodation was scarce. Eventually we found somewhere. A hotel with small tatami mat and futon rooms, and a shared Japanese style bathroom. Hiroshima was fantastic. We spent a day looking around the Peace Park, and the informative Peace Museum, dedicated of course to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in WW2. Everybody should have to visit there.
To save a few hundred Australian dollars we skipped the Shinkansen and spent 8 painful hours on public trains going back up to Kyoto. Kyoto is the ancient capital and cultural heart of Japan. We dedicated a few days to visiting temples and castles, and exploring the old parts of the town. We even managed to spot an elusive Geisha on her way to an appointment.
We had hoped to have a few more days in Japan, so we could climb Mt Fuji with Brad, but couldn’t move our flights, despite the fantastic efforts of our wonderful travel agent, Megan, at East Burwood Travel. We left Kyoto and spent our last couple of days in Japan shopping and looking around Tokyo. A big thanks to Dave (also once from MYOB) who let us sleep on his bedroom floor for a few nights.
From Dave’s it was an hour or so into central Tokyo on the trains. We visited Akihabura (the electronics district) and bought a nice digital camera (so you can expect a few more pictures and less words on the site from here on hopefully). We checked out the posh shopping area of Ginza, rubbed shoulders with the trendy youth in Shibuya, and drank sake in a cool bar in Shinjuku.
The youth in Japan are ultra cool. You can just tell that their fashions are way ahead of everywhere else. State of the art mobile phones are an important accessory. The most popular way to pass the time on the trains, besides sleeping, is by sending SMS and emails from your phone. But because everyone is Japan is mega polite it is very rare to actually hear a beep from a phone, and even rarer to hear one ring. If you go to a tourist attraction it is also quite likely to see somebody taking a photo using their phone.
Interestingly, we scarcely saw another backpacker the whole time we were there. Most of the foreigners we met were actually living and working in Japan and spending their summer holidays touring around. Japan is not geared up for the backpacker like Thailand or Malaysia.
Because it was so expensive we spent almost everyday we were in Japan on the go. We did a lot of walking in the heat and mostly it was hotter than Thailand. We often had to search hard for affordable restaurants but we managed to sample much of the wide range of Japanese food which we love. Obentos (Japanese lunch box) from convenience stores saved us from hunger (and going broke) quite a few times. We were exhausted but satisfied when we left. We are already looking forward to going back again some time.
Just a quick post to say that we are alive and well in Japan. Internet access is few and far between here, and what we have found is expensive, which is why we have been so quiet until now.
We are having a fantastic time travelling in Japan, but are finding that travelling here is the hardest we have experienced so far. We will write more details later, but I`ll just say that so far we have visited friends in Nagoya, toured around Hiroshima and are now staying in Kyoto, spending a few days looking at historical temples and castles. Next stop will be Tokyo and hopefully we will climb Mt Fuji too.
We also have a post on the way for our few days in Hong Kong.
