I spent my week of spring break relaxing and exploring Japan. The flight from Seoul to Tokyo is only about two and a half hours, so it would really be a shame if I lived this close for several years and never made it to Japan. I went with my roommate Kari, and, for the first time, we both made it out of the airport! We had both flown through Narita (Tokyo) airport several times before when flying between the U.S. and parts of Asia. However, until this past week, neither of us could say we had been to Japan, since we had never stepped foot out of the airport. Thankfully, that shortfall has now been remedied. We spent five days in Tokyo, the current capital of Japan, and two in Kyoto, the historical capital of Japan.
After successfully leaving the airport (yay!), we took a train to where our hotel was. However, before checking into the hotel, we stopped for dinner (it was about 8 p.m. at this point). We ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant. While that in and of itself would make it a unique first cultural experience, there was something else that set this restaurant apart from the rest: It was a vending machine restaurant. Now, I probably just confused most of you. Let me explain. You ordered and paid for your meal from a machine that looked just like a vending machine. For each option, there was a picture and the name in Japanese. No English. Thankfully, all of the restaurants in Japan have displays outside their restaurant of the dishes they sell. We looked at all our options, chose what looked good, and remembered its number for the vending machine. Once the meal is chosen and paid for, the machine spits out a ticket that we had to give to the chef so he knew what to make. I would say it was a once in a lifetime experience, but we did it twice while in Japan, so I guess I can't really say that.
For our first full day in Tokyo, we explored the area around our hotel, which ended up being a quiet, mostly residential area in Tokyo. We spent most of the morning at Ueno Park, which had lots of cherry trees. Unfortunately, only a few had started to bloom, but they were still beautiful. Later in the week we saw more cherry blossoms, so we still got our share of cherry blossoms. After spending some time in the park, we discovered more about Japanese history through the Tokyo National Museum. We saw lots of historical artifacts, archaeological discoveries, paintings, and sculptures. After getting our fill of the history of Japan, we went to one of the downtown areas of the city, Shinjuku, to see modern Japan. One of the buildings down there has a free observation deck, so we were able to get some awesome views of the city. Our timing was perfect, and we were able to see Tokyo in daylight, wait about 10 minutes, and see the city at night. Beautiful!
We spent the next day doing something that was not historical, modern, or even particularly cultural (at least not for Japan). We went to Disneyland. Yes, that's right, we, two grown women, went by ourselves and spent the day at Tokyo Disneyland. We had a blast! From what Kari tells me, the rides were a lot of the same ones they had in the States. They had many of the same rides in Hong Kong, but the park in Tokyo is bigger. Tokyo also has DisneySea, which is another Disney theme park that is sea-themed. We weren't able to go (not enough time), but it would be fun to check out some other time. Oh, and for those of you keeping track at home, this was my second Disney park in three months, both of them outside of the U.S. I have yet to go to any in the States. Alas, some other time! Family vacation, maybe???? However, I don't think any State-side parks will have the magnificent assortment of hats that the Asian parks seem to have. We're not just talking Mickey ears or baseball caps. No sir, we are talking full out hats of all of your favorite Disney characters, including (but not limited to) the traditional Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, etc.), Monsters Inc. characters (Mike, Sully), and Toy Story characters (Rex, Slinky Dog, and my favorite, Mr. Potato Head).
After spending an entire day at Disneyland, we needed a bit of a slower paced day with a little less walking. As a result, we hopped on a hop on/hop off bus tour of Tokyo. The bus had a stop in the same neighborhood as our hotel, so we were able to get on there instead of going to its starting point. The first stop we hopped off at was the Imperial Palace. Tokyo has been the capital of Japan since the mid-1800s (the capital was Kyoto before that). The Imperial Palace in Tokyo is still used today. Tourists are not allowed to go in the Imperial Palace without being on an escorted tour, and those tours are limited and must be applied for in advance (online). We did not apply for one of the tours, so we were only able to see the outside of the Imperial Palace and walk through the many gardens that surround the palace (the gardens are open to the public). It was a nice look at some traditional Japanese architecture as well as a nice glimpse of green in the city.
After the Imperial Palace, we traveled to the Asakusa area, which has beautiful parks for cherry blossom viewing (but again, still a bit early for most of the trees). Asakusa also has a famous shopping street, which is awesome for souvenirs. Kari and I spent several hours picking out what will hopefully be the perfect souvenirs for our family and friends. By this time, it was late afternoon, so we headed back to the starting point to hop on a different route of the bus tour. This route took us to a different part of Tokyo, and we got to see more of the port as well as the Fuji Television Headquarters. The building was purposefully designed to look like a widescreen television, and at night, it is lit up with multiple colors. Since we were fortunate, once again, to be doing this right as the sunset, we were able to see the Fuji Television building all lit up because it was getting darker but still get good pictures of it because it wasn't entirely nighttime yet either. Hooray for perfect timing!
We actually spent our last day in Tokyo outside of Tokyo--we went to see Mount Fuji! Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan, and it is a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1707. It is only open for climbing two months out of the year, July and August, because it is too harsh to do it any other time. It is snow-capped for most of the year, except for the summer months. We went to Mt. Fuji through a bus tour company, so we started the morning in Tokyo and rode on the bus to Mt. Fuji, which is about two hours outside of Tokyo. We first stopped at the Visitors Center and learned more about Mt. Fuji, as well as saw some of our first views of the mountain. Unfortunately, our trip to Fuji corresponded with the first cloudy and rainy day of the trip, so we weren't able to see the top. However, it was clear enough in the morning for us to see some of the snow that was still on the mountain. Because of the snow, our bus was only able to go a little ways up the mountain, which was our next destination. At the highest point we could reach, we got off the bus, took our pictures, and had a snowball fight. Yep, that's right, a snowball fight. We had a snowball fight on Mt. Hallasan (South Korea's tallest mountain) in November, and now a snowball fight on Mt. Fuji (Japan's tallest mountain). Basically, at this point it is tradition for Kari and I to have a snowball fight whenever we are on a mountain. After our snowball fight (which I pretty much won, by the way), we got back on the bus, headed for our lunch stop, and then onto our afternoon plans. We were scheduled to do a gondola ride and a lake cruise, both of which were supposed to have fantastic views of Japan's scenery and mountains. However, the clouds and mist really moved in, so that we could not see where we were going on the gondola and it looked like were simply ascending into the clouds. No view whatsoever (except of mist and clouds). Oh well, that's what you get sometimes.
The next day we left Tokyo and headed for Kyoto. We traveled to Kyoto by the Shinkansen (which means "Super Express" in English). If you guessed that it is the Japanese bullet train, then you are right! We took the bullet train, going over 300 km/hr, to Kyoto. The entire trip took us about 2 and a half hours. Now, if it takes that long on a bullet train, imagine how long it would take in a car of a bus. No thank you! I'll stick with the train, thank you very much! If you've never ridden a bullet train before, you should put it on your bucket list. The ride is incredibly smooth (not jerky), and it is quite fun to see the scenery whiz by, but you're not quite going fast enough where it is all a blur. It was a great way to see more of Japan.
Once in Kyoto, we saw Nijo Castle, which was used as one of the residences for the shogun and his guests when the capital was in Kyoto. The grounds of Nijo Castle were gorgeous and included the Ninomaru Palace. We were able to tour Ninomaru Palace, which is one of the only remaining palaces from the Edo period (1603-1867). What surprised me the most about the palace was that its architecture differed greatly from traditional Chinese and Korean architecture. I expected it to be very similar, which the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was. However, the gates and other architectural features were very different. Inside the palace, the rooms had beautifully painted sliding doors and walls, intricately carved details and decorations, ornate ceilings, and nightingale floors. The floors were designed to purposefully squeak when someone walked on them. The purpose was so that no one could sneak around the palace. I don't fully understand how it works, but the way it was designed was that when you put the pressure on the floor it moved down and created the creaking sound. It actually sort of sounded like nightingales. There were lots of people touring the palace, so we had plenty of opportunities to hear the floors with every step they (and we) took.
Our second day in Kyoto was filled with more history and culture (why else do you come to the historical capital of a country, right?). We first stopped at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, which you once again needed to apply to get a tour of. We did not get on the tour, but we did walk around the outside and enjoy the beautiful gardens. This time we got to see plenty of cherry blossoms. More were blooming in Kyoto than in Tokyo because Kyoto is farther south (and therefore warmer) and it was later in the week. Regardless of the reason, though, they were beautiful! After the Imperial Palace, we went to Kinkaku Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion because the second and third floors are entirely covered with gold leaf. While Kari and I don't often visit temples or shrines as part of our sightseeing, this was unique and famous enough that we didn't want to miss it. The Golden Pavilion is situated on a little pond, so it is reflected in the water. The entire scene was breathtaking.
After the Golden Pavilion, we spent our afternoon doing a walking tour of the Gion area of Kyoto. This area has many other temples and shrines that we passed as we were walking. We admired the architecture and kept right on walking. The Gion area is also known as the traditional home of Kyoto's geishas. We were able to see a couple women dressed as geishas walking around. After capped off our afternoon by going to a performance at Gion Corner, which highlighted many traditional Japanese art forms, including a tea ceremony, flower arranging, harp playing, several dances, a little comedy play, and a puppet play. The performance lasted only an hour but allowed us to see a nice glimpse of some of the intangible history and culture of Japan. It was probably one of my favorite experiences of the trip.
Our last hurrah in Japan was dinner our last night in Kyoto. After the performance, we went to one of the sushi conveyor belt restaurants. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain. All the seats in the restaurant are around a conveyor belt. On this conveyor belt, different plates of sushi come around. When you see one you like, you grab it off the conveyor belt and eat it. When you have eaten all the sushi you want, the waiter will come around, count your plates, and figure out your bill. Thankfully, the restaurant we went to had all the dishes labeled as to what they were. A picture of the dish, along with the Japanese and English names, usually preceded each different kind of sushi. It was very handy. I tried four different kinds of sushi, including tuna, yellow tail, and shrimp (I don't remember the 4th one). I've had sushi before and was not a fan, but I wanted to do it because it was Japan and you can't get any more Japanese than sushi. Besides, I figured Japan ought to have pretty good sushi, so I wanted to give it a try. It was okay. I didn't like the tuna one I had (it also had a lot of wasabi), but the others were pretty good. The shrimp was my favorite. No matter what, though, it was a great last experience in Japan.
One of our biggest concerns in traveling to Japan was that Japan is supposed to be a very expensive country. Based on our experience, that is not entirely true. The price of most things was fairly comparable to South Korea, which is very comparable to the U.S. Some items were slightly more expensive but not outrageously so (for the most part). As long as you are smart, you can do Japan on a budget. Choose your hotel wisely and use public transportation. The most outrageously priced thing we could find was the taxis. In Tokyo, the base rate was 700 yen (about $7). Yikes! However, the public transportation system is so well-developed, especially in Tokyo, that we didn't need to use a taxi. Also, eating at smaller Japanese restaurants instead of more expensive Western restaurants will save you money as well. Kari and I had a lot of Japanese noodles (udon) and tempura on our trip. Oh well. Japanese food is good, though not terribly varied in flavor profiles. Also, we found that Kyoto was, surprisingly enough, more expensive than Tokyo. Since it is a smaller city, we expected it to be less expensive, but pretty much everything was more expensive (hotel, food, public transportation, etc.). The only things that was cheaper in Kyoto than in Tokyo was the base taxi rate, at 580 yen ($5.80) instead of 700 yen ($7). So, if you're planning to go to Japan, plan to spend a little bit of money, but be smart in what you buy and how much you pay for it. Know what you're willing to pay a little bit more money for (like a bus tour of Mt. Fuji or a cultural performance) and what you're not willing to pay for (taxis).
