My Top Ten Japan Experiences

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It’s hard to make a list of my top experiences while in Japan because the experience of being there and seeing everything was amazing. I tried and this is it:

1. The first time eating sushi while in Tokyo. Sitting in a small standing room only sushi restaurant with two girls I’d rather wished were my sisters, I had my first Japanese sushi. It was surreal. I was with a friend of my friend Kendall’s who’s living in Tokyo and a girl from my dorm.  We found the 10 cent sushi place I had read about on the internet. Not all the sushi was 10 cents only one of their rolls, the others were normal prices. It was one of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had.

2. Exploring Kyoto city. I’ve heard about how beautiful Kyoto was and it lived up to it all. Immediately stepping out of the train station you feel the difference between it and Tokyo. The air feels different, it’s calmer, buildings aren’t as high and are more beautiful. I imagine it’s how tourists might feel between New York and D.C. With the highest concentration of temples out of any Japanese City, it possesses a beautiful juxtaposition between modern and traditional architecture. Rivers and waterways play a crucial role in dividing the city, but also in creating its charm. I spent four nights there and could have spent four more.

 

3. Eating in Japan. Prior to going to Japan I had never been more excited to eat in a country I was visiting, once in Japan I’d never been happier to eat in a country I was in.

4. The monkey park in Kyoto. Originally I didn’t want to go, but the guy from my dorm who I went to the bamboo forest with beforehand wanted to go. The monkeys are wild and come to the park, which sits atop a 200m rise.  They come because the rangers feed them and watch over them. I could have sat there and watched the monkeys all day, but had other things to do.

5. Eating conveyor belt sushi for the first time in Tokyo. We have them in New York and I’ve passed by them while traveling, but I’ve never eaten in one. I’ve always wanted to though. My first time there I sat next to a nice French couple who thankfully spoke English and who was loving the conveyor belt sushi as much as I. Since they had been there for some time, the guy who sat next to me gave me insight on what was good and what wasn’t.

6. Visiting Himeji Castle and the Garden beside it. Again this was something I wasn’t going to do, but after meeting Jonathan, my monkey park partner, he told me how easy it was to get there and I love castles. I also thought Osaka was going to have a lot more to do, but after seeing the Osaka castle and riding around the city I didn’t really need another day there.

7. The Robot show. If you read my previously blog you know that this was recommended by Anthony Bourdain as something you must do while in japan, I was deciding whether or not I was going to do it up until the day before I actually did it. I’m really glad that I did.

8.  Visiting the Fushima Inari shrine. A short train ride outside of Kyoto the shrine is the famous orange gate trail. Starting at the base of the mountain it goes up and loops around for a hike that lasts between 2-2.5 hours. I woke up early to go with Jonathan and Deepak another guy in my hostel. We didn’t do the full hike because it was the first morning of the typhoon and we were soaked 45 minutes into exploring them. With hardly anyone else there, engulfed by the the scent of pine trees and falling rain and a path of giant orange gates made for a memorable experience not possible anywhere else.

9. Mori Digital Art Museum. The museum is one of the first of its kind using hundreds of digital projectors to project moving images onto the walls without a divide between the rooms of the museum. I had seen something about it prior to going and was interested in going, but I was cautious that I’d be like one of those pop of Instagram places that New York City has so many of. The ticket was also $30 and I’ve never paid that much for a museum, but I decided to it. I still have mixed feelings about it, on one hand it was interesting and would be an amazing place to be if they limited the amount of people that could enter at any given time. The amount of people ruined the full experience; within the museum are “exhibition” rooms that I had to wait up to 45 minutes to get into and once inside only had a limited amount of time. On top of that, they should ban phones because phones in Japan have the camera shutter sound when taking a picture, so when you hear hundreds of people taking selfies it ruins the atmosphere the museum is trying to create.

10. Walking around the Akihabara district of Tokyo. The Akihabara district is as Japanese as Japan gets, it’s the area for Otaku’s or people with an obsessive interest. In this area it’s manga and anime; manga is the comic book form of anime (the animated form).  The streets are covered in with anime and manga icons, cosplayers line the sidewalks, especially for maid cafes.  Places where men go to have women dressed as maids complement them and tell them what they want to hear.  A weird place, but a place to see as it represents a huge part of the current Japanese culture.

Other notable experiences:
-Riding the bullet train. I didn’t think I’d find it as awesome as I did, but when it pulled up to the station I got really excited. First off it looks amazing, the front is beautifully sleek. When it pulled into the station it was like witnessing a mythical beast come in. I also think it’s because while growing up we learned about it when it was the first of its kind and then to actually be on it, even though I thought nothing of it prior to getting on it, was really cool.  It was also the smoothest train ride I’d ever been on, so smooth I was able to draw without fault, forgetting I was even riding on a train.
-In Osaka the hostel owner took two others and me out to eat. Throughout Japanese cities they have these really small restaurants and bars that look like shacks. In Tokyo the famous area is called Golden Gai, but a lot of those place charge a cover and some don’t let foreigners in. Most of them only have Japanese menus, so walking around alone it was impossible for me. But, on my last night in Japan he took us to one of these where we drank saké and ate raw chicken. The three of us, one of who was Japanese but has lived in NZ since he was two had never had it. We were all hesitant, but when in Japan, do as the Japanese do.  Raw chicken was only the first dish and after we had more cooked meat.

-Walking around the Kyoto Bamboo Grove and the surrounding area in the early morning. I woke up at 5:15 to beat everyone else. The best part was walking through the city and being up before the crowds and before the sun rose. You get to see life lived by the people who live there rather than the tourists. It was beautiful, but I’ve seen tall bamboo before. I like to say, once you’ve seen a bamboo forest, you’ve seen all bamboo forests.

-Karaoke in Kyoto with the people in my dorm. It was a fun Japanese experience, but I’ve done it many times in Korea and it’s better here. The rooms are bigger and it’s not as expensive.
-Walking around Osaka castle. Osaka castle sits in the middle of Osaka, it was built in 1583 and is a beautiful site contrasted with the high rise buildings around it.

-Spending the morning in Shinjuku park in Tokyo.  The girl from my dorm who was there the first time I ate Sushi in recommended this place.  I decided to do it the morning before seeing the robot show.  It’s a beautiful park right in the middle of one of the busiest districts of Tokyo.  A place to relax and get away from the noise.