Japan, Japan, Japan
A few countries have shaped me. India where I grew up, USA of which I have consumed most media, movies, the tech scene/startups, Germany where I have lived for the last 6 years and Japan for anime, games and food.
But until 2023, it never occurred to me that I should visit Japan until my wife suddenly had this idea that we should go to Japan and I was like “yes, why not”.
For her, Korea/Japan are like pilgrimages, she consumes Korean dramas and manga pretty frequently, she had already done a solo trip to Korea in 2016.
But anyways back to present time. Since March 2023, I have visited Japan twice already and my next trip is already planned. Hence Japan x 3 title.
March, April 2023
Our way of exploring Japan was pretty simple. Keep going to random stations or keep walking random. If something is interesting, check it out. If hungry, find a nearby restaurant where people is suits seem to be going. The only thing we used maps was for avoiding “busy areas” and tourist attractions, since this was peak season and all places were packed. We left these “touristy” places for a future trip :)
We did go to Shibuya Sky though, not for the famous sunset though, no tickets were available.
One interesting realisation was that Mount Fuji actually looks like how it is in anime. I thought it was exaggerated in the animations but it is actually very mystical.
These pics were taken on way to a station called “Shin-Fuji”, I don’t think it is touristy but it looked close to Mt. Fuji on Google maps, so we thought why not. This was a beautiful day, words can’t explain how perfect the sunlight was on that day.
Our next Destination was Osaka. With the same approach of random walks and letting the country soak in and eating from street vendors and small restaurants.
This was another fantastic part of the journey. We randomly walked into the famous Nishi Market in Kyoto, went to a Izakaya where no one expected non-Japanese people yet everyone in the staff was immensely helpful in helping us choose what do eat. Mainly by pointing fingers and using “one word” communication style.
Our Japan trip was already coming to an end and we realised that we had planned too little a time for Japan (like 5-ish days) and we have to visit again.
Other nugget was how far reaching are the vending machines in Japan. This one is from a very remote are with almost no public transport up to 1h walk. This particular vending machine symbolises what I mean.
December 2023, January 2024
Luckily, we had a chance to visit Japan in the same year. December 2023. This time we were slightly more prepared and more importantly this trip was longer.
Again, with a simple opening chess move, we started the trip in Tokyo. With the same strategy of random walks, following your passion (searching Blue Lock, Tsubasa on maps and seeing what gives, it gives memories)
I was also the first Indian to visit this Tsubasa shop.
On one of these random walks, we discovered Meiji Jingu shrine. Which is large shrine + garden/park in Tokyo. The vibrations of this place were so soothing, that we visited this place (almost) everyday when we were in Tokyo for this trip. We woke up everyday at 6am and paid a visit to the shrine in a 1 hour walk before starting the day.
Pictures don’t do justice to its beauty. It was like a place from Ghost of Tsushima. Just much much smaller in size.
After the random walks in Tokyo. Okinawa was next adventure on the list, if you look it up on a map, it is both tiny and far away from the Japan mainland.
Okinawa was great, saw a bunch of interesting things, including this alcohol bottle with snake in it (didn’t try).
But I did try the black ramen.
Besides, Okinawa had the usual “perfect sunlight” that I have experienced so often in Japan (I am pretty sure it is just luck).
Next stop was, stay in Kyoto and day trips to Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Kiso Valley.
In Nara, which was one of our best days in Japan. We learned Japanese tea making at Sangoya shop.
And met the famous deers
All in all, Nara was beautiful and very peaceful.
Back in Kyoto, I found Ginjo Ramen Kubota (it was recommendation from the Nara tea ceremony place) and my god, the taste of this Tsukemen was unreal. We ate here almost every day.
And even learned to cook Tsukmen at home by trying to copy the Ginjo Ramen Kubota recipe from memory (and their YouTube advert).
Yes, we did go to “Fushimi Inari”.
In search of Milky Way, we went to very remote Japan, a place away from lights called Kiso Valley (after some Googling). It was a very clear day until 8pm when clouds showed up from nowhere. So, it wasn’t our day after all. Though, Kiso Valley was the remotest place we have been in Japan to and was thrilling in its own way. The last train connection had an announcement in Japanese that we missed and then the train didn’t show up. Luckily, it was only 20 minutes late. Yes, trains in Japan are sometimes late (very very rare though).
With a day trip to Hiroshima our time in Kyoto part of the trip was over. Next destination was back to Tokyo for a week before flying back to Seoul (and then Berlin).
In this leg of Tokyo, we visited the arcade at Tokyo tower, did a Tokyo cruise tour, saw the new year fire crackers at the rainbow bridge and I visited Kojima production’s office to get a photo with the famous “Ludens”.
On most days in Japan, we made the most of our JR rail pass and did day trips. This stay in Tokyo wasn’t any different. We want in search of stars again at the famous Lake Kawaguchiko (at night though). We had better luck this time, though we didn’t capture the milky way but I saw these many stars after a long time.
In all of this, I also got to do a solo day trip to Fujinomya. There I saw Mt. Fuji again and had nice Yakisoba.
We celebrated the new year’s eve like the Japanese do. By visiting a shrine and having snacks. This was very peaceful/unique and prompted us to think if we should try to celebrate new year in Japan next year too.
December 2024
The idea of celebrating new year in Japan is materialising. The trip plan is still brewing. This time we plan to find merch of Ippo (the boxing manga/anime). Enjoy some of our favourite foods and experience Japan again.