Tokyo & Tohoku, Autumn 2010
 

What follows is a trip report for my recent 2 week + stay in Japan. Before I start, a bit of background...

I'm a solo female traveler. I travel quite a bit for work but also enjoy leisure travel. Some of my travel is with my family (husband, two teenage/young adult children), some of it with friends, but mostly it's by myself. I often meet friends at my destinations.

I do essentially all of my trip planning on line, and take advantage of web sites like Fodor's, TripAdvisor, Flyer Talk, etc. as well as Japan-specific sites like japan_guide and Hyperdia.

I travel light: usually a 19" tall rolling bag and a purse, or a day pack if I think I may need a smaller bag somewhere along the line. I rarely check my bag.

I don't use a laptop while traveling, instead using my iPhone for just about anything I need to do (especially when traveling for leisure).

Note that the first draft of this report was composed on the fly, using the "notes" app on my iPhone. So sometimes it's pretty detailed, and sometimes just short notes if I'm either too tired or too busy to write very much. In some instances I go back and add more detail, but not always. A lot of the writing occurred while traveling, either on a train or on the subway.

Stream of consciousness for the most part.

Sunday, November 21:

Arrive Narita (via DL281, departing ATL at 1100 on Nov 20, arriving 1555; easy flight in emergency exit row seat, slept much of the way), get ¥30000 from Citibank, buy 3 day flexible JR East pass (¥10000) and reserve all three tickets. Also buy Suica (¥2000).

Get Keisei Skyliner ticket (¥2400) at Keisei counter. Depart Narita 1639, arrive Ueno at 1724.

Transfer to Ginza subway line for Asakusa, take exit 7, walk several blocks north on Umamichi Dori.

Blue Wave Inn Asakusa quite nice, especially considering only ¥4800 per night (booked at Japanican): decent size bath with nice deep tub, instant hot water, toto WC, semidouble bed, fridge, trouser press, TV, phone, free LAN internet, etc. Blue wallpaper on one wall is a relief from the typical "all beige, all the time" approach to decor in Japanese business hotels. PJs provided, as usual, but with a curious note to not wear them outside of my room. Not the norm for Japanese hotels---is there something different about this property?

Hmm, we'll see.

Corner of Senso-ji's roof visible from room window.

I've no idea whatsoever what I ate that evening. I do recall walking around the area of Senso-ji at night, but that's about it.

Monday, November 22:

Awake early, finally bathe and go down for breakfast (¥1050). Very good buffet (known as "viking" in Japan) including fish and stewed daikon and pre-made omelets and juice and pickles and natto, etc. Enough dairy and wheat products to keep the other guests happy, as other guests are mostly German. Everybody says "Morgen" to me in the elevator.

Maybe this explains the "no pajamas in the hallways" rule.

Walk to Kappabashi, then to Tomato in Nippori Fabric Town, then Yanaka Cemetary tour (a la Frommer's; I cut and paste the text into the "notes" app on my iPhone, so I don't need web access while I'm out and about) and Yanaka and Nezu Shrine and Ueno Park (where museums are closed because it's Monday) and Ameyoko. Ginza line home to Asakusa when I am just walked out.

Natto/shiso roll for dinner followed by stewed konnyaku and root vegetables, all from Matsuya depato's basement food hall (easy access from the subway station).

Evening walk in drizzle to pick up goma senbei and cookies and Suntory Highball from a combini for evening. Sleep well, but wake at 0300.

So, any of you reading along at this point are likely thinking, "Wow, this doesn't sound all that interesting, frankly. Not much detail about the places she saw or what she did."

True, and that's largely because the places I visited on my first full day in Tokyo were all places I'd been before. I'd specifically planned to re-visit them while staying in Asakusa as I knew that they were walking distance, and that walking a lot would help me get over my jet lag.

All of the places that I list above are quite interesting in their own ways, though, so if you'd like a more detailed impression you have only to ask for it. Something along the lines of "Tomato? What is this Tomato place of which you speak? Should I go there myself?"

Of course we are following along. We were just in Tomato last Thursday to pick up a few yards of fabric that will make up a couple of eru eru size yukatas for me when if make it to BKK next year. Mrs. HT loves the place with all the new fabrics and just so much stuff(this is the guy in me talking lol).

Lots of walking that first day. Konnyaku and lotus root is comforting at night, I can taste that broth right now,mmmm.
Waiting for more.

Aloha!

I'm with you as well....I've done that walk around Yanaka plus I stayed there my first visit to Tokyo.
How did you get such a great price at the hotel? I just checked Japanican and it was ¥7000 - did you have to pay up front? The hotel's site was even more expensive - even on what I could read of the Japanese page....
Ready for more. :)

natto and shiso, i'm impressed. i thought only ht and i indulged in such gourmet fare.

ht, wear the yukata when next we dine.lol

Natto is an interesting, possibly acquired, taste, is it not.

Natto: I like it, and find it very much like some cheeses in terms of the intensity and quality of the flavor. The sliminess is another issue, and the chief problem with eating it for breakfast (when I do routinely eat it---I've got little frozen single serving packs in my freezer at home as I write this) is the tendency of wayward strands of, umm, well, slime to decorate your face. And since Japanese restaurants either provide no napkins or very, very flimsy paper versions one is well-advised to come equipped.

Shiso is just a great flavor all around. Ume and shiso another favorite.

I didn't end up seeing anything at Tomato (which is a gigantic fabric store in any area that specializes in same)that I absolutely needed to have, ht, but it's still interesting. I also didn't find anything compelling on Kappabashi (which specializes in kitchen and restaurant supply items), so maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

I have this theory about shopping karma. Sometimes the stars line up and you buy, and sometimes they don't. And you don't.

Mara, my very good deal at Blue Wave Inn Asakusa is a good example of the sort of pay-off you can get by looking at different booking sites. I'd noticed the property previously and when I saw this very good rate at Japanican I went ahead and booked it. I did look at the hotel's own web site, and also at other booking engines (Rakuten, Expedia, Agoda) and found Japanican to be the best for this particular property on this particular date. Note that it's not a question of Japanican always offering the best rate---sometimes another site has a better deal.

I'm pretty sure this price reflected a discount for booking so early (most of the planning for this trip occurred in June, as I was laid up at home for two weeks after some orthopedic surgery---I did it all on my iPhone). I did not have to pre-pay, and I will admit to a bit of trepidation when it came time: was this some sort of particularly tiny room with no window? Had I somehow overlooked the Blue Wave Inn's having opened a wing of capsule rooms?

But it was a perfectly lovely semi-double and a window with a tiny bit of Senso-ji visible from the window.

Maybe they just needed to book up the two rooms remaining after the Germans had checked in.

Tuesday, November 23:

Breakfast has more Germans. The western woman sitting next to me (who'd greeted me with "Good morning" when I first sat down) put natto on her rice (after adding soy and mustard and stirring it vigorously as is usual), and I commented to her that I didn't see many westerners eating natto, and she explained that she'd lived in Japan for years and had become more or less Japanese in that respect. So she was also German (originally, anyway) and was the tour guide for my fellow guests. A great big bus pulled up and she went outside to talk to the driver. Imagine how happy I was to not be on this bus.

Check out, Ginza line to Ueno, Shinkansen to Tazawako (using my 3 day JR East pass---I'd reserved my seat on arrival at Narita). Good koyo starts at Omiya. Pretty mountains to the west. Tiny bit of sun, mostly gray, some rain, but chilly and mixed cloud and tiny bit of sun at Tsurunoyu (though koyo now all gone).

Transfer from train (11:58) to bus (12:10) at Tazawako seamless, as usual: just enough time to buy the ticket (though I gather you can just pay the driver, ¥600, and you have to take the little slip of paper in any case) and walk over to the bus. Bus driver manages to mush me a little bit in the door, and the mostly elderly passengers all look slightly panicked at the idea of a gaijin among them.

The bus passes Tazawako Lake en route: depressing post tourist season lakefront resort up close, but quite nice at a distance as we climb the mountain. Lake beautiful.

We arrive at Arupa Komokusa on the dot (12:44) and I make a point of smiling nicely and thanking him in Japanese and he gets happier and makes a point of indicating the waiting shuttle van for Tsurunoyu. Drive to Tsurunoyu stops at Yamanoyado sister property (which looks not nearly so wonderfully rustic) to drop an elderly couple (whom I later see using the onsen at Tsurunoyu. Once at the inn the shuttle driver and another passenger direct me to the check in area, a tiny office which is pretty darn busy. Just enough English to tell me that my room's being cleaned and to please wait in the waiting rooms 6 and 7. And since the numbers are written in kanji she very helpfully writes them down for me so that I'll be able to identify the rooms. They are tatami, with irori and low tables and ocha in thermoses. Way old school.

The others who are waiting for their rooms are mostly middle-aged couples. Outside there are lots of day trippers, all ages, including teens and young adults. Everybody looking damp and dazed. Less affluent looking than overnight crowd.

Room ready about 14:45. Sweet young woman shows me around, gets a laugh when I take off my indoor sandals halfway up the stairs. Lovely 6 tatami room with large window, hot water in thermos, tea pot/loose green tea, bean paste cake.

Should I change into my yukata now? Hmm...

Yes, it's yukata time. Yukata + over kimono + long underwear + socks to be precise. There's a nice little illustrated guide in English to help you with the correct method for donning a yukata/kimono and using an onsen and so forth just in case you've never done it before. Once downstairs you exchange your indoor slippers (if you've managed to make it down the slippery wooden stairs in them without breaking your neck) for outdoor shoes: plastic pool sandals, basically. Geta would be lovely, of course, but walking between buildings here is already complicated by rocky paths and uneven stone stairways, so just as well.

I choose the women's rotenburo (mixed will have to wait) and am chatted up hy two different women. They are clearly stunned to find a westerner in their midst, and are incredulous at my not speaking Japanese (or just a very little bit---"chotto"): how did I find this place? Are there onsen in America? How old am I? Valiant second language efforts all around.

Dinner is in the rooms that served as "waiting rooms" earlier today. Scheduled at 6:00, I show up at 6:02 and am the third person. Tray and cushion (without a back support) already set up as usual. Cushion close enough to wall that I can rest my back a bit.

Dinner is enormous, and features a lot of local items. Imagine you've gone to the woods and just picked up whatever came to hand: fern brackens, mushrooms, leaves, roots. Now cook them and that's dinner.

Mushrooms especially prominent: mushrooms in slime (a very popular dish everywhere I went), enoki mushrooms in foil with sweet potato, mushrooms with the rice dumpling soup, mushrooms in soup (cooked at irori) with mountain potato (nice potato, actually, with negi and fresh flat parsley on top). Skewered whole fish in rock salt, grilled at the irori, pickled and/or smoked this and that: obscure roots, stems, berries pickled with shiso. All fine, but boy, do I
feel healthy. Though there was that litle bit of apple with lemon at the very end. And the gi-normous beer.

Chatty old guy tries to talk me up at dinner. Unsuccessfully. Visit the rotenburo before turning in at 8:30.

Must figure out where one brushes ones teeth...never mind, I'll figure it out in the AM. Futon's been laid out while I dined, and it's lovely and warm and puffy (if perhaps a bit firm, as it's only two of them on the bottom, but at least they're on top of tatami).

Wednesday, November 24:

Awake very early again, but no worries, the hot springs never close. I try my luck at the mixed one, and have it all to myself for a while. Eventually a young couple show up: she's wrapped in a towel, expressly forbidden. Oh well. A few more people as well, and the sky starts to lighten to milky gray. The water is also milky, an opalescent pale green through which I can just barely see my pale peach skin. Birdsong
means it's time to go find the shower room.

The shower room is not exactly luxe: a stone ofuro, around which are two shower stations. Basic liquid toiletries (katakana came in very, very handy here), wall-mounted hand showers, not even stools. One wall-mounted hair dryer, so it's a curly hair day for me. Still, a pleasant enough experience. I end up chatting with a young-ish Korean woman
who's got great English. She seems surprised that I've got kids in college--this happens a lot with AsIan women who assume that I'm younger than I am.

Breakfast is the usual: natto (with negi and some sort if tiny gray seed or something---mustard?), miso, tofu, pickles, ume, semi-dried BBQ fish (eat the bones for calcium), rice, tea, mushrooms in slime. The guy serving stops at a certain point and looks at my half-eatern natto with rice and wonders if perhaps I don't like it. I tell him I do (in Japanese) and later when he sees that I've eaten every last bit of my
meal, including the head of the fish, he gives me an approving laugh and a comment that's presumably something along the lines of "Wow, you do like natto, don't you?"

After breakfast take 3 km walk up and down hill (very glad to have brought chemical toe warmers) under occasional snow flakes. In better weather (or with much sturdier hiking boots) there'd be lots of hiking opportunities, and there are trail maps and clearly blazed trails to other onsen in the area.

Return home to find futon still out, so head to reading room to chill. Literally, as kerosene heater's off. A passing maid turns it on for me.

Hm...lunch? No, but do get a beer (yes, a big one---the young woman who initially showed me around is the one who gives it to me, and she seems stunned at this decadent request) and go back to my nice little reading lounge with mountainside view and cozy kerosene heater. There's a bit of reading material there, and I spend my time looking at a book of recipes for mountain plants. Nicely illustrated, and most of the names written in kana so I can figure them out (as opposed to when they're written in kanji and I mostly have no clue).

Beer nearly finished, time to go get naked.

Ladies' rotenburo followed by brief rest in room followed by dinner. Menu different from first night's (which others receive, so clearly the staff make a point of varying your meal if you stay more than one night): fish with miso (instead of salt), something like bulgogi with salad, soup with cylindrical dumplings things, mushrooms in slime. I drink sake instead of beer. No fruit tonight.

Chat with other diners (many of whom are solo travelers tonight) by virtue of a youngish guy (ANA) pilot having decent English. Again, the other guests are stunned by my presence, my willingness to travel around Japan alone, my consumption of sake.

Finally, to bed.

A side bar here...

When I got ready to start this report I considered calling it "The Back of Beyond", as I spent enough time in fairly remote areas of Japan on this trip that it colored my experience overall (even though I ended up spending most of my time in Tokyo). Locals finding it amazing that I'd managed to hear about certain places, or find my way there unassisted (by anything other than the internet and an occasional cryptic conversation in a tourist information office) was a recurring theme, and anybody who could scrape together a sentence in English posed this question. There was similar amazement at a westerner's doing things that don't seem even a little bit adventurous (like consume sake---where I live it's common to find lists of "sake-tinis" on restaurants that don't even serve Asian food) and no amazement whatsoever at things that were perhaps a bit more remarkable, like my ease with chopsticks.

In the end it's all to do with what we think we know about other people coming up against what we find to be the case when we actually meet them.

Another side bar...

This one's to do with the bus driver on the shuttle from Tazawako to Nyuto Onsen who mushed me a little bit in the door when I was boarding. Why did he mush me?

Well, I was the last to board, plus I didn't quite grasp why I needed to take the little slip of paper that tells which station I've boarded at in order to calculate my fare since I'd already purchased the ticket (and that was after he'd just explained it to the guy in front of me, but in Japanese---I realized eventually that it's for settling accounts at the end of the day), plus I clearly represented a possible problem. What if I didn't get off at the right stop? What if I hadn't arranged to be met? What if I suddenly collapsed and he was left with a helpless gaijin to look after? The whole thing just made him peevish and worried, and people aren't at their best when they're peevish and worried.

I'd asked whether it was the bus for Tsurunoyu Onsen when I'd boarded, though, so he knew where I was headed, and when it became clear that I did in fact know where to get off and how to say thank you in Japanese he was able to relax and make a point of smiling and making absolutely sure that I knew to board the ryokan's shuttle and so forth. He could even enjoy the sense that he'd been particularly helpful to a visitor, and likely carried the nice helpful feeling around with him for a while.

I'm enjoying your report! Lots of fun details and insights on people's reactions, and your own, to the normal, the odd, and the unusual. A few years ago my husband and I were in Tsumago and Magome for a couple of nights and got the same expressions of amazement--why/how had we made it there? How did we know about these little towns? I guess I might ask a Japanese visitor the same if he or she showed up in my town about an hour south of NYC!

We have a 5-week trip to Japan coming up in May/June (on our own) and intend to go off the beaten Westerner path, too, for much of it. I'm going to have lots of questions come January, when we really start to plan it, but for now your report is getting me into the spirit. I look forward to more.

Thanks, aprillilacs. You're right, I think we'd have similar reactions to finding Japanese (or other) tourists in remote national parks that aren't easily accessed by public transportation. And that's really one of the key differences between Japan and the U.S.: you can get to a lot more places in Japan using public transportation.

Hi Therese, thanks for your info on booking the hotel. I guess I pretty much have been sticking with Toyoko Inns and small ryokan/minshuku rather than using booking sites, but I might reconsider now knowing that there are such bargains to be had....
I agree with you and aprillilacs - many Japanese being shocked to see a single female traveler out of the main large cities. I even have this reaction here in NYC from Japanese people I've met in my calligraphy classes - I've been to a lot of places they haven't. ;-)
I hope you'll be continuing with your report soon....