Well, our trip to Japan didn’t exactly start off smoothly. We missed our plane and it was totally my fault. I couldn’t believe it when the gate agent calmly pointed out the mistake. “But, miss… ten twenty is your arrival time. The plane left at eight AM.” I pretty much went into shock. Luckily Mitch is good on his feet and immediately took control of the situation. We were able to get on another flight just a few hours later. So no harm, no foul. Right? Not quite. I don’t think I’m ever going to live it down with Mitch. I’m glad I traveled with him though- he has a good sense of humor and doesn’t get too upset even though I do. At first we were a little worried about traveling just the two of us. I was almost certain one of us would get angry at the other by the end of the trip and that would be that… friendship over. But it turned out alright. We didn’t fight and we saw some amazing places we might not otherwise have seen.
Our itinerary for Japan was fast and aggressive. One night in Osaka, two nights in Kyoto, and two nights in Tokyo then back to California from there. In retrospect I probably could have skipped Osaka and gone straight to Kyoto, but that’s ok.
So when we arrived in Osaka it was much later than we had planned so we got a yummy bento box for dinner and then hit the hay so we would be ready for our first full day of touring in Japan. We awoke the next morning refreshed and ready for a day of adventure. We spent most of the day wandering the streets looking at various monuments and museums. My first impression of Japan was how clean it was. Though there were a lot of people everyone was well mannered and polite. Osaka is a port town known for it’s large marina and aquarium. Though we visited both, the highlight of the city was definitely the Osaka Jo (castle). Though it’s technically a reproduction of a castle built originally in 1583 the castle and its grounds are breathtakingly beautiful. Winter hadn’t quite set in yet so all the fall leaves were still on the trees. The view from the top was miraculous. Afterwards, we wandered the adjacent museum looking at samurai armor and kabuki masks. Overall Osaka wasn’t the world’s most interesting tourist city, but it certainly offered some excellent people watching. I felt after spending time in Osaka that I had a better understanding of the Japanese people and their culture. The next day we did some more touring and then took a short, uneventful train ride to Kyoto.
Kyoto has been by far my favorite city. If I wasn’t studying abroad in Shanghai I would want to live in Kyoto. It’s a medium sized city primarily sustained by tourism, though it is the headquarters for some large corporations such as Nintendo. We visited Gion, home of the geishas, numerous temples and shrines, and several outdoor markets. It was cold but totally worth it. Just check out the beautiful pictures below and you’ll understand. And if you’re headed back to Kyoto in the near future. Call me up. I’ll be there in a second.
Our last and final stop was Tokyo. I expected Tokyo to be loud, crazy, and busy. With lights and people everywhere twenty for hours per day. I expected the New York of Asia. In reality Tokyo is much tamer. For starters things shut down early… I mean early. Due to an ancient law last call at all drinking establishments is midnight. You wouldn’t expect that would alter the culture of a city all that much, but it does. As a result of this rule, the streets are pretty much empty by 11:30. Between 12 and 1 the drunks stumble home and after that, silence. The city we expected to be buzzing with electricity was relatively tame and quiet. Though during the day there were certainly plenty of people and a lot of things to see.
On day one we went to check out the Studio Ghibili Museum. I will admit that before visiting the museum I had never seen a studio Ghibili Film. I was pretty much oblivious to the cultural phenomena. The museum was interesting. It featured original art works, reproductions of the animators office, and life sized sculptures of some of the more famous characters. The highlight of the tour was the exclusive short film that was screened at the end. I suppose for true fans visiting the museum was somewhat of a pilgrimage. For me though it was just an interesting place to visit. I did feel that I gained some more insight in to Japanese culture, though. Anime, while popular in the United States, really defines a generation of Japanese artists. In that regard, I really enjoyed the museum. The rest of the day was devoted to visiting various other cultural sights in the city.
The one thing that I absolutely hated about Tokyo was its irrational and confusing subway system. While the trains were efficient, they were nearly impossible to navigate. For starters, multiple subway companies run lines within the city and they don’t all hook up. Sometimes they aren’t even featured on the same map. Often you will have to leave one subway station and walk a few blocks to another subway station belonging to a different company in order to reach your destination. Hooking up to these subway lines are various long distance Japanese rail trains. They have varying classifications based on how fast and far they travel. To add the final layer of confusion none of the maps are in English, or even pin yin (Romanized phonetic spellings of the characters) and few of the subway attendants speak English. In China if we were faced with all these barriers it is likely we would just hop in a cab. Unfortunately though Japanese cabs are notoriously expensive. The one evening we found ourselves stranded when the subway closed we took a cab to get back to the hostel. It was exorbitantly expensive and we vowed never to do it again. Our second day in Tokyo we raced around the city trying to catch all the final tourist attractions. We checked out the menji shrine and went to the observation deck of national office buildings. Mostly touristy things. I wanted to see the national palace, but it was closed. We decided to walk around the outside of the massive complex just to see what there was to see. We stumbled upon one of the most beautiful views of the Tokyo skyline just as the sun was setting. It was a truly amazing experience. We finished up our day with a visit to the Tokyo tower, a slightly smaller version of the Eiffel tower. It was all lit up for the holidays. Though it looked nearly identical to the French twin I was not as impressed by the Tokyo tower as I was by the Eiffel tower. All the same it was a successful day of touring.
The morning of our return to the states we awoke early at 4 AM to catch one last little bit of sightseeing. The Tokyo fish market was never meant to be a touring attraction, but all the same it draws millions of visitors each year. The wholesale market caters to the numerous seafood restaurants around the city. Buyers peer over thousands of pounds of colorful seafood in one enormous warehouse. The fishermen gut and clean the fish on boards, which drain on to the floor. There is hardly any refrigeration. For the most part the meat sits in still fresh barrels of freezing salt water. The whole place smells terrible and operates with a general air of chaos. Men on forklifts whiz up and down the aisles unperturbed by the open mouthed tourists. I have never seen so many different creatures in one place. They were so beautiful and colorful. It was almost a pity that they would be eaten. It was an excellent ending to our trip. The fish market showed off another side, the working side, of Tokyo. I’m glad we checked it out.
Finally it was time to go home. As we sat at the airport waiting for our plane I reflected on the first leg of our winter break trip. I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful experience. Though there were definitely some struggles, it was a wonderful experience and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
