Sorry for yet another big gap since our last blog. Our time in Japan has been jam packed and time seems to be running away with us.
Arriving in Tokyo from a very laid back Sri Lanka was a complete assault on the senses - there are thousands of people everywhere, its bright, loud and completely disorientating. It’s really difficult to put into words what’s its really like. Everything is so ordered and neat and tidy with so much attention to detail. We spent a lot of time just standing and staring at our surroundings - rows and rows of buildings with illuminated advertising signs, electronics, manga comics, music; arcades full of old men chain smoking and playing a computer game where an octopus eats little metal balls! There are vending machines everywhere selling an array of drinks, snacks and ones with miniature toys and trinkets called Gatchapon. The things you can get in them are hilarious - cats doing gymnastics, hats for cats, anime figures, trains, sushi pieces. The options are endless. Tokyo is like nowhere else we’ve ever been.
All of the arcade playing
Alex getting involved
The bright lights of Tokyo
Gatchapon vending machines
Choices, choices for Gatchapon
We did the usual touristy things like watching the hundreds of people crossing the road in Shibuya, walked through Harajuku and Takeshita Street, went to a cat cafe, spent hours on the stationary floor in Tokyu Hands, shopped at the 12 story Uniqlo, walked around Akihabara also known as electric town. We visited our first shrine (Meiji shrine) where there is a special ritual to wash your hands before saying a prayer - wash left hand, then wash right hand, then rinse out your mouth with your left hand, then rinse your left hand again. Then when you go to pray you bow, pray, clap twice then bow again. Sometimes there is a big bell to ring or jangle. We’ve also visited an origami museum and joined in a workshop to make origami cat, mouse and cheese as the area was celebrating a cat festival. Japan LOVES cats!
Shibuya crossing
Visiting a cat cafe - there are hedgehog and owl cafes too!
Shrine in Akihabara - shrine dedicated to geeks and electronics
Our attempt at origami
People generally keep themselves to themselves and don’t make eye contact. Lots or people wear protective face masks to try protect themselves from bugs (although not sure how effective they actually are). Someone told us some women wear them if they haven’t put make up and need to go out but don’t want to show their face or as barrier to stop people talking to them! Although not everyone is like this, one Japanese man stopped us on the street to have a chat and when we said we were from England he said in the best London accent “wa gwan!!” and “bad man ting!!” So very random.
The food has been an absolute highlight. After a month of curries for every meal, though delicious, it has been great to eat some different things. Ramen, gyoza, sushi, onigiri rice balls (we are living off these from the 7 eleven), katsu curry, yakitori, tempura. In lots of places you chose what you want from a vending machine. In one ramen place you eat your meal in individual separate booths! Food is heavy on carbs, meat and not much veg. It’s quite hard to be a vegetarian coeliac here.
Ramen vending machine
Alex living his best ramen life
Chicken katsu
All of the sushi
Onigiri rice balls/triangles - we are living off these to save some money
From Tokyo we made our way to Odawara about 30 minutes going towards Mount Fuji. We are too early for cherry blossom but come here to see their plum blossom festival at a plum grove with over 35,000 trees. It looks stunning and smells beautiful. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Mount Fuji in the distance.
From here we did a day trip to Hakone which is famous for a loop where you take different forms of transport - bus, pirate ship!, cable car, ropeway, train. We managed to see a beautiful view of Mount Fuji over the lake as we came round a hill on the bus but then the clouds descended and couldn’t get a picture on time. Did it actually happen if there is no photographic evidence?? You’ll just have to trust us that it looked absolutely majestic and we were super happy that we managed to catch a glimpse. Hakone is a volcanic area and we saw some hot steam rising from the rocks around the volcano that smelt very eggy. The open air contemporary art museum was a welcome change of pace.
View of the lake from Hakone shrine
The pirate ship to get across the lake. Mount Fuji in the clouds behind
Smoking sulphur smelling steam
Breaking the rules - for under 6 years only!
We then went onto Kanazawa in the west to try some snow crab that is currently in season. It’s also a town which is famous for lots of Japanese crafts like laquering, silk dying, embroidery, ceramics and most famous for producing 98% of Japan’s gold leaf which they like to adorn their castles and shrines with. From a 10p sized piece of gold its flattened to the size of a king sized bed and as thin as a strand of hair. We did a gold leaf printing workshop, our works of art are in the pics below. There is even gold leaf ice cream!
Kanazawa wasn’t bombed during the war so a lot of it still stands as it did over 400 years ago. We walked around the geisha district where there are still working geisha houses and also around the gorgeous houses in the old samurai district. We took part in a traditional tea ceremony where powdered green matcha tea is prepared in specific way then drunk in a specific way with special Japanese sweets in between. We sat on the floor in a circle facing the lady making the tea. When you are served the tea you have to ask the person to your left permission to drink tea before them, then ask the lady who gave you the tea permission to drink it, the tea cup is given to you facing forward but you cant drink from that side so have to turn the tea cup in your left hand clockwise while thinking about the tea culture, then drink all the tea in three sips, rotate it back to the way you received it and give the tea back. You are served individually so everyone watches you so felt a little stressful to get the ritual correct!
The Japanese gardens have been a delight to visit too. They are absolutely immaculate. In Kanazawa we visited Kenroku-en gardens which is rated the third best in Japan. They have bamboo constructions around the trees and shrubs to protect from snow damage. We needed this for our acer in our back garden last year, it died from the the heavy snow on its branches. We were lucky to see a kingfisher dive into the water and catch a fish. The poor photographer who had been there watching this bird for hours was so excited to show us his pictures he missed a great photo op! While walking around here we got stopped and interviewed for a local TV show and they found it hilarious that the reason we came all the way to Kanazawa was to eat the crab.
Phew, that’s enough for now. Next blog will be about Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Naoshima Art Island and cycling along the Shimanami Kaido trial. We’re going to need another holiday to recover from this trip :)
Rach and Alex x
