As you may know, we’re in Japan now, soon on our way to our next destination (have a peek at our Kyoto flat). But before we go, we thought we’d share a few pictures and stories from our time – nearly two months – in Tokyo and Kyoto.
Tokyo
We spent only a week in Tokyo, because we weren’t at all sure we’d like it. But in fact, we loved it! We stayed in a beautiful little ryokan with an onsen (= sauna, more or less) on the rooftop. It was located in Shinjuku – so, right where all the action is – but on a very quiet side street. And it turned out to be perfect. Not least because the below is what met us for breakfast! (Don’t ask us because we still aren’t exactly sure what everything was. But isn’t it glorious?)
We did all the usual stuff in Tokyo, including visiting the Shibuya crossing (said to be the busiest intersection in the world) and going to a bunch of shrines and eating sushi at Tsujiki fish market (it turns out that conveyor-belt sushi is the best sushi!). And we went to a number of museums and parks too. We even found a tiny izakaya (pub, kind of) near us that we went to three times during our short visit. By the time we left, we had pledged undying love to the owner, who escorted us out of the building and down the street. Yes, sure: he was probably just making sure we were really leaving…
Natural Beauty
Japan is not a very big country, but it packs a wallop in terms of mountains and rivers and stuff. Like this little beauty, Mt. Fuji. Which behaved itself for our visit by popping out of the clouds, as it does roughly 25% of the days of the year. But there were other gorgeous things, too, including the deer at Nara, who number about 1500 and are exceedingly tame. We did not expect them to be as tame as they are, though. They follow you around, and, being good Japanese deer, they bow their heads for food (not kidding) and, occasionally, butt you if it doesn’t arrive (unlike Japanese people).
People of Japan
Only 19% of Japan is inhabitable, a lady in a bar told us. And that means people have to get along. So they do. In general, everyone behaves as though they are among their parents’ friends, whom they want to impress. Perhaps this would not be everyone’s cup of tea. But given how some countries are behaving at the moment, we find this civility deeply touching.
If you ever want to feel like a rock star, go to Japan. People are super-friendly, even and especially when they don’t know much English. They are willing to go the extra mile, always, and everyone seems genuinely delighted to see you. Like the train ride we took where the workers stopped to wave as we went by. Or every store you enter, where there is a person greeting you, and offering a farewell when you leave. Or the adorable lady selling tickets at one shrine, who said they would be ‘twenty hundred’. When we told her that in English we say ”two thousand’, she asked why. We don’t know, especially since twenty-one hundred is right. Do you?
As a general subset of the awesomeness of the Japanese people, consider their cleanliness. There are very few public trash cans in Japan. In some countries that would mean you find trash everywhere. In Japan, it means there is no trash anywhere. People put it in bags (which they carry with them) and take it home. Seriously. Once, on the way to breakfast, we saw crows who had gotten into a bag of trash out for the weekly pickup, and had made a mess of it. But by the time we came back home, it had all been cleaned up.
Juxtapositions
One of the most entertaining things about Japan is the way that they put things together that most westerners would not think go together. Often these are food items, such as seaweed-peanut butter rice crackers (surprisingly good), or matcha with, well, anything (never worth bothering, at least in our opinion). But sometimes it is whole categories. As in the above picture. Or the below (where you need to make sure you read the very bottom.)
On the other hand, the Japanese seem to us to have lots of things right. Like the way there are more bathrooms for women than for men. (Even if a place has only two bathrooms, one is marked for men/women, the other women only.) Not to mention the way the bathrooms are all, always clean. How does this magic happen? We have no idea!
Food of Japan
It has been a struggle here to not eat ten meals a day. From Nishiki market, where everything is outrageous and delicious, to our new go-to restaurants, we’ve been enjoying Japanese favourite foods new and old. Old: sushi, udon, tempura, tonkatsu, miso. New: okonomiyaki, yakisoba, onigiri, and so many more!
We especially love the way everything is packaged and presented beautifully. Even cheap 7-11 rice balls are attractive (and surprisingly good).
So to sum up: Japan is a country we adored. If we had made a little more headway with the language (which uses two alphabets – both syllabaries – AND Chinese characters!), it might even be a place we wanted to settle in. But we’ll certainly come back. We read somewhere that in terms of activities of all sorts, Japan is rarely the very best place for anything. That may be true, but we found that it has a number of remarkable things, and for generalists like us it has been just perfect.
