Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Trip Report, Japan Spring 2008

First of all, thanks to all the expert members of this board whose wise advice helped me prepare for this wonderful experience. In order to pay my debt, I am submitting this overlong report. A blow by blow of 3 weeks seems a bit much, so I will try to condense things as much as possible. If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to email me and I will answer as best I can.

As a frame of reference, my husband (David) and I are active people in our 50�s, have traveled to many European and Caribbean destinations, but had never been to Asia. The purpose of our trip was to travel during the last 2 weeks of March and first week of April with our 28 year old daughter (Jessi) and her boyfriend (Max) who have been living and studying in Sapporo for the past 18 months. Our itinerary was: overnight in Tokyo after landing at Narita and on to Kyoto the next day for 6 days, one of which was spent in Nara and the other in Osaka for a sumo tournament. Then we spent one night in Miyajima and 3 in Okayama, seeing Hiroshima on the way. From Okayama we visited Kurashiki. We spent the next 5 days in Tokyo with a day trip to Kamakura and then flew to Sapporo for the last few days.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
The Japanese people are every bit as kind and friendly as everyone has said. Not once when we asked directions or advice were we met with anything but absolutely cheerful assistance. Jessi speaks quite good travel Japanese, but when she did not understand people were very patient and determined to make themselves understood. I hate to generalize, but I will � the Japanese people are wonderful.

It would have been much more difficult, although not impossible, to navigate through this trip without someone who spoke some Japanese.

Finding specific addresses is difficult, but not impossible. A good English map is essential as well as lots of patience. I still don�t understand the numbering system. In Tokyo a lot of the addresses name the specific building in which the store or restaurant can be found. The hotel at which we stayed in Shinjuku luckily provided a topographical map in English of the general area that named most of the buildings. We were therefore able to find the restaurant Misono, located on the 51st floor of the Sumitomo Building, for example.

I will never travel without a laptop again. Max had his with him and it proved invaluable for everything from checking train schedules and weather reports to downloading and sending photos to using skype to call home on Easter. All the research I had to carry with me in printed form easily weighed more than the laptop.

The luggage transfer system is worth its weight in gold, especially if traveling by train. We had 2 carry-ons and one large suitcase and the only day we had to maneuver them all was the last, and it was a challenge trying to get up and down the many stairs. We sent the large case right from Narita to Kyoto, from Kyoto to Okayama (mostly to do our laundry) and from Okayama to Sapporo for an average of $20 per trip, an absolute bargain.

Japan is still a cash based society. We felt very safe everywhere we traveled, at all hours of the day and night even when carrying large amounts of cash, up to $1000. That being said, a good general rule is to always be careful as a very determined, however inexpert young lady tried twice to take my husband�s wallet on the crowded subway in Tokyo and stopped only when her hand was firmly slapped away.

We do not have the opportunity to enjoy much Japanese food at home except for sushi and tempura so everything from the chains to the Mom and Pops to the more elegant restaurants (we went to many fewer of these than is usual for us on vacation) were new and fun for us. The craziest thing we ate? Chicken sashimi. Yes, we survived and yes it tasted like chicken!

I did not prepare enough for this trip and did waste some valuable time trying to sort out what to do next. Part of the problem was my lack of familiarity with the place names. Lesson learned.

I found Japan, or at least the parts we visited, to be much more urban than I had somehow expected. The only real countryside we saw, even from the trains, was in Miyajima, and only a few of the places we visited could be characterized as small towns.

Japan is the cleanest country I have ever been in. The subway stations looked like hospitals and the dirtiest restroom I was in was at a McDonald�s and it was average by US standards. No litter anywhere.

Traveling by train was convenient, efficient and fun. The high speed bullet trains are expensive, but the local ones are very reasonable. We didn�t get the full convenience of using the JR passes because Max and Jess had to buy their tickets individually since they live in Japan and were therefore not eligible for the passes. We did get good value for them by buying a roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to Hiroshima and back that allowed as many stops you wanted within 12 days. They still had to pay the Hikari supplement for each leg. Also, we learned pretty quickly that reserved seats on the longer legs were well worth the $5 as several times the trains were sold out.

Don�t underestimate the power of jet lag. I am a pretty good traveler, but I was absolutely wrecked for 4 or 5 days, simply crashing toward the end of the afternoon. Plan accordingly.

Vending machines are literally everywhere and stock everything from water to sake to sandwiches.

We bought food from the basement of department stores for dinner in our hotel room several times and enjoyed it. One word of caution, however. These places are vast and overwhelming in their scope, filled with hundreds of people and tons of strange looking food, and other than sampling as you go, there is no way to tell from the written description (in Japanese, of course) what exactly it is you are buying. When it gets around one hour before closing, many things are half price.

Please try to attend a sumo match if at all possible. Jessi was very excited to see one, so she did all the work from Japan, getting us great tickets and planning the day. The tournaments are held 4 times a year, each in a different geographical location, and last 2 weeks. The day begins with the least expert at 9:00am and finishes around 6:00pm with the final ceremony. We were there for the entire day, and it really helped us appreciate the final matches as we had learned so much from the earlier bouts. These men are amazing athletes despite their size. Also, �The Big Book of Sumo� which I read on the airplane was invaluable in explaining all the ritual. Another highlight of the trip.

SPECIFIC IMPRESSIONS
Our first morning in Japan was spent at the Tsujiki fish market in Tokyo. As advised by one poster, we were wide awake at 4:00am anyway and it was an ideal way to spend a few jet lagged hours. This was one of the many highlights of our trip. We are from a coastal town in Massachusetts and are avid fishermen so that may have heightened our enthusiasm, but I doubt anyone would not be impressed by the massive size, frantic pace and colorful characters in that market. Fish after fish, room after room, building after building, day after day. We ended the morning with the most expensive and best breakfast of my life: sushi at Daiwa Sushi. They told us the line was 40 minutes long, and at exactly 40 minutes from that time, we were sitting at the counter.

KYOTO
Never enough time for Kyoto. We had 4 days devoted to this pretty place and still only scratched the surface. We love to walk and can easily do 15 to 20 miles a day, but things are so spread out in Kyoto (although often in groups) we used taxies much more frequently, just to save time.

My first bit of advice is that touristy areas are touristy for a reason. Especially if time is limited, focus on the big draws first. We started our visit with a few of the more minor temples and never had time to see a few of the major ones, Ginkaku-ji the Silver Pavilion in particular. Our favorites were Ninjo-jo the Kyoto castle, Kinkaku-ji the Golden Pavilion, bamboo forest area, Gion, Kiyomizu-dera, Sanjusangen-do with the 1000 Kannon and Chion-in. Ryoan-ji with its famous Zen garden was a bit of a let down for me. I think it would be much better to view this tranquil space first thing in the morning, because the large crowds we found there were not conducive to contemplation.

We stayed at the Hotel Brighton which was a bit out of the way (near the Imperial Palace), but had wonderful rooms and even better service for about $180 a night. There was someone in the lobby whose only job was (or so it seemed) to greet you with a cheery hello when you walked through the door. We found enough restaurants within walking distance to satisfy our needs although the concierge was reluctant to recommend a few because they were �casual� according to her. That simply meant that they were not elegant and not the least bit touristy. We nevertheless enjoyed them thoroughly.

NARA
Unfortunately this was the one day of our trip that we really got soaking wet despite raingear and umbrellas, so my memory is probably not as pleasant as it would be if I had been warm and dry. The deer running wild, searching our pockets for food was fun, the Todai-ji was impressive, and it was good to get inside and try to warm up a bit. The Daibutsu-den Hall has an enormous bronze Buddha but the lighting is poor and it was difficult to really appreciate it. One interesting thing was a hole in one of the pillars which supposedly confers eternal wisdom to anyone who can crawl through it. Well, of course, little children were going back and forth through the hole at will, but skinny Max did rise to the challenge and squeezed all 6 plus feet of himself through. In an attempt to cut our losses we opted for a mini-kaseiki lunch just to get out of the cold rain, but the first two places I had on my list were closed. The third, Tempura Asuka, did a nice job. All in all, I expected Nara to be less urban and more exotic than it seemed to me, but again, the weather was a big factor.

MIYAJIMA
Our original plan was to stop at Himeji castle on the way to Miyajima, but since we only had one day in this beautiful place, we decided to travel directly there and arrived around noon, via train to Hiroshima, train to Miyajima-guchi and ferry to Miyajima. Do not miss this exquisite island. We live very near Nantucket, Martha�s Vineyard and Block Island and are accustomed to lovely island vistas, but Miyajima is absolutely
phenomenal.

We stayed at the Iwaso ryokan, our one big spurge at $420 per room, which included a multi course kaseiki dinner and breakfast. Iwaso had great reviews and the setting and rooms were lovely, but the service, especially at dinner, was much less than we anticipated. The service at the Brighton was much more impressive.

Seeing the top of Mount Misen is a must. David and I took the cable car up and walked back down, but if you are in better shape than we are, you can run to the top as Jess and Max did. The views were amazing and the forest trail cool and inviting. No monkeys, though. They just weren�t home that day.

The Itsukushima Jinja shrine was different than all the rest we visited on our trip as it was built out over water so as to not defile the sacred island. We were able to see the Torii both at high tide when it seemed to float and at low tide when you could walk under it and watch the local people digging for clams.

Again, the deer everywhere. These messengers of the gods have very good lives.

Great oysters for lunch, raw, baked, fried, etc.

Miyajima was a real highlight of our trip. Don�t miss it.

HIROSHIMA
We stopped in Hiroshima on the way to Okayama and had great difficulty finding storage for our luggage, making our Himejjji decision seem all that much more correct. All the lockers, and there were plenty of them all over the station, were full. We finally found a storage room, but not until we had wasted over an hour of precious time.

The Peace Park was one of those places everyone should see once in their lives. The memorials, one remaining burnt out building and the very moving museum were palpable reminders of the senseless destruction we all heap upon each other. I was particularly impressed with the exhibit of the protest letters written by the mayors of Hiroshima each time a government does nuclear testing. The majority, of course, were written to the USA.

OKAYAMA
I had planned a stay in Okayama as a base to visit Kurashiki and Matsue but scrapped the Matsue idea in the end. It was a long expensive train ride for only a few hours of visiting time, so we opted to see Okayama instead and did enjoy the castle (Okayama-jo) and the lovely garden/park along the river (Koraku Garden).

Okayama in general was a very nice small city (by Tokyo standards) with friendly people. We stayed at the Comfort Hotel ($95) which had its own coin laundry, a great feature for us. We also had a wonderful multicourse dinner at a nearby restaurant in a basement that I wish I could tell you the name, but there was no English translation. If it is of any use, the telephone number (all I could read) was 086-224-0020. Yes, it was the home of the chicken sashimi, but you don�t have to try it! The 4 of us had 8 or 9 courses each and 2 drinks for $119 � an amazing steal.

KURASHIKI
Another rainy day, but not pouring. This is another small city with a touristy/artsy kind of area along a canal that is very pleasant to meander along and do some shopping. A great shop right at the beginning of the area was called Kurashiki (www.kurashikiya.com) and had lots of nice clothing and souveniers.

TOKYO
I really failed in my planning for Tokyo. The city is enormous and I never really got a handle on it all, so our sightseeing over 5 days was not very well organized. We did accomplish our major goal in seeing the Red Sox play at the Tokyo Dome, a fascinating experience. At Fenway Park, one must go under the stands to buy beer, and are only allowed 2 at a time. In the Tokyo Dome, young ladies with beer kegs on their backs walk around filling as many cups as required. We were doubly astounded to see other young ladies selling nips of whiskey in the stands. Boston would never survive!

We used the subways a lot in Tokyo, but some were easier than others in that there are at least 3 different systems and some have better English info than others.

Our favorite place in Tokyo was Asukasa (we were lucky to be in Tokyo the first weekend of the height of the cherry blossom season and the many trees were just beautiful) which we arrived at via boat from the
Hama Riku Tei-en gardens, an oasis of green amid the skyscrapers on the waterfront. We shopped and visited the temple on the hill. There is also an excellent tourist info office there with English speaking volunteers.

We also visited Shibuya, Harajuka, and Akihabara (wild electronics district), Kappabashi Dori (everything you need to set up your own restaurant from tables and chairs to menus to plastic food. David joked that the next storefront would feature waitresses for sale), and Ginza (flashy shopping district).

We stayed at the Hotel Sunroute Shinjuku, a wonderful affordable hotel with a helpful staff. It was a 5 minute walk to the train station and the subway entrance was literally next door.

We had several good meals in Tokyo but 2 stood out. On the suggestion of one of the posters we took the subway 2 stops north to Shin-Obuko for Korean food. Ate at Soen (B1 Mezon, 03-3209-5242) next to the Don Quixote store (a goldmine of Engrish) and had delicious BBQ cooked at our table.

Our other memorable meal was a splurge on Kobe beef at Misono (51F Sumitomo Bldg, Shinjuku). We chose the cheapest option of steak, grilled veges, and fruit for dessert at about $120 a plate. I am known as a bit of a skinflint (value for the money, don�t you know) but it was truly worth every penny. The best beef I have ever tasted, cooked in front of me on a piping hot grill with a view of the lights of Tokyo stretching out before me from the 51st floor. Outstanding experience.

KAMAKURA
This was an unexpected highlight of the trip in that we almost did not go. Several posters had said that if one was going to Kyoto or Nara, Kamakura would just be another place with a bunch of temples that were not as impressive as the former. I could not disagree more. Yes, there were more temples and shrines, but these were in the small town, even rural setting I had imagined when planning this trip.

We exited the train at Kita-Kamakura, one stop before Kamakura, and walked into town. I highly recommend doing this, especially in the early morning when the temple gardens are so beautiful.
We particularly enjoyed Tokeiji which had a superb garden set in among the green hills. Kencho-ji was also memorable, but we actually missed seeing the main shrine Tsurugaoka Hachimangu as we then stopped for lunch and of course never made it back.

Kamakura has a nice little shopping area called, believe it or not, �Shopping Town� in English that is pedestrian only. Ate at a wonderful soba place (big line outside but moved quickly) called Nakamura-an in this area.

Took the #1bus from the train station to Hase. The bus dropped us right at the Daibutsu or big Buddha. This one was not quite as big as the one in Nara, but to my eye, much more impressive because it is outdoors in a beautiful setting. Also in Hase was the Hasedera temple, high on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Particularly moving was the numerous statues of Jizo dedicated to babies who for one reason or another, did not survive. Took a 10 minute train ride back to Kamakura and then back to Tokyo.

We really loved Kamakura and would return in an instant.

SAPPORO
We traveled to Sapporo primarily to see where Jessi and Max had been living and working and meet their friends, so our experience there was somewhat different. We did have some very good food, however and would highly recommend:

Kaniya, Toaijyo West 2-11 (www.kani-ya.co.jp) a wonderful restaurant that served 9 or 10 courses, all crab based.

Izakyaiya Minoya, North1 West 3, B1 Sapporo North Plaza. This was the best meal of the trip. We were expecting stand up bar munchies and ended up luxuriating over 12 courses of incredibly fine food including a sushi birthday �cake� for David. From an entire fish cooked in a 2 inch salt crust, to lamb chops, to sushi and sashimi, to crab soup to everything else you can think of, all with 6 different kinds of sake � this dinner hosted by one of Jessi�s English students was a birthday my husband will never forget.

We flew to Sapporo from Haneda airport in Tokyo, took the train into Sapporo which is easily caught in the basement of the terminal, and a cab to the Hotel Mets which was near the campus of Hokkaido University and had a washer/dryer in the room!

Well, that�s about it. Again, if I can answer any question, especially while the experience is still fresh, I would be very happy to do so.