Amazing Japan

October 8th-20th, 2013

By Heather Horgen

welcome to japan

We arrived at Narita airport late in the evening and took the N’EX train into Tokyo. When we exited the train station and wound our way down Takeshita street and through Harajuku, I felt like a kid in Disney World. Bright lights and neon signs, trendy clothing stores and candy shops, girls dressed like anime characters, fresh crepes filled with colorful fruit and fluffy whipped cream, all clean and shining. Pure wonderment and joy.

We stayed at an Airbnb in a quiet residential area of the Harajuku neighborhood. The streets were narrow and seemingly turn every which way, with no street signs or markers. We never would have found our way anywhere without Google maps on our phones.

exploring tokyo

We visited Asakusa and Sensoji temple on our first day. There was a long row of vendors in front of the main temple area, where I got to try out my Japanese language skills for the first time, er… the universal language of pointing and gesturing. Which works well! Especially when there are nice Japanese ladies selling delicious fried snacks.

Since it was “unseasonably warm” (why must the weather always be “unseasonable” when traveling?) we stopped at an ice cream shop. As we started to walk away while eating our cold treat, the shop lady yelled after us making big gestures “Gaijin stay here! No walking while eating!” I imagine that was the translation, but that was the point.

That first day we also discovered the wonderful world of vending machines in Japan. Just down the street from our apartment was a Boss Coffee vending machine. I chose one that looked good and when I reached down to grab it, to my surprise it was hot! I was in love.

Near Sensoji is Imado Shrine, which is believed to be the birthplace of the maneki-neko, the lucky cat. I had to go! The shrine was filled with messages of peace and joy, and many ema - wooden plaques where worshippers write their prayers or wishes and hang them at the temple.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Even though the weather was hot, it was sunny and dry and lent itself to walking and wandering around, like to Yoyogi park. We passed under the large wooden torii gate, gazed in wonder at the wall of painted sake barrels, and entered the peaceful grounds of Meiji Shrine. We were lucky enough to see a bride and groom in traditional dress walking through the shrine.

Visiting a cat cafe was high on my list, and I was not disappointed when we went to Cat Cafe Nekorobi in Ikebukuro. We lounged for an hour with the kitties, watching them play and hoping to get a pet here and there.

When in need of provisions - snacks, sake, sunscreen, cash money - we quickly learned to look for our beacon in the night… 7ELEVEN. They’re bright and clean and have amazing food like pastries, onigri (filled rice balls), coffee, liquor, ice cream, and sweet and savory snacks. And most importantly they have ATMs where you can withdraw cash from foreign banks. Japan is still very much cash-based, so we always had plenty of Yen on hand.

food/soul

One of the reasons I/people love to travel, and love Japan in particular, is the food. Food is culture, and through eating and drinking you begin to feel a sense of connection to the land, to the people, to the history. Meals can bring people together and break down barriers.

We found a small izakaya near our apartment called Shinkichi. Sitting at the sushi counter, we ordered from the English menu and said things like “sake?” The chef, a young guy willing to try his English with us, had visited New York City, and cooked his specialty for us. I still don’t know what it was, but it was some kind of fried fish/vegetable cake and perfect for eating with cold beer. He asked if we liked wasabi. We nodded enthusiastically. He delivered a small sushi roll - the most intense wasabi I’ve ever eaten! I was getting nervous that we wouldn’t have enough yen to cover our bill. So we got our check , and it was $40!

We went back the next night. They were so happy to see us! We couldn’t understand more than 5 words between us, but that was no worry! With more yen in our pockets and our new friends, we were treated to an incredible meal. Shredded cabbage salad, tiny fried shrimp, amazing sushi - and whole fried fish. The chefs brought out a whole raw fish and insisted we must try this.

I did not recognize the fish, it was black with big scales and spiny fins. Of course we didn’t refuse.

We enthusiastically agreed. They brought the special fish back to the kitchen and grilled it whole - we ate it all, and it was really, really, good. After we finished it (maybe that was the first test?) they brought out the grilled spiny fins, and we ate those too.

Other favorites we discovered were fresh handmade gyoza and fresh udon. Plain udon with grated radish and green onion - simple and uncomplicated, subtle, satisfying - that’s Japanese cuisine.

temples, shrines, and more food stories in kyoto

We left Tokyo for our shukubo in Kyoto. Buddhist temples began offering accommodation to traveling monks, and some now welcome overnight stay to tourists. One of the only temples in Kyoto to offer shukubo to tourists, Daishin-in, is probably the most peaceful place on Earth. It’s a small wooden temple, surrounded by other temples within the large Myoshinji complex. Our room consisted of a low table and a small side table. When we arrived we had tea and cookies in our room. At night, daring not speak above a whisper in the silence, we laid out our futon mattresses and lay our heads on the buckwheat filled pillows. I’ve never slept so well.

In Kyoto we went to temples, shrines, and Starbucks. One morning we went to another coffee place and I ordered some kind of latte, but there was no coffee in it… so back to Starbucks! During our temple expedition we had a friendly taxi driver who showed us money he’d collected from tourists he‘s met from over 30 countries. He‘s never met tourists from only 2 US states: Alabama and Alaska.

deep kyoto

I wanted to try a certain yakitori restaurant, but we were having a hard time finding it even though it was supposed to be really close to our hotel. We walked by this one place, couldn’t see what it was like inside (typical, with the noren flags across the door), and thought maybe this could be it. It was raining and were impatient and hungry, so we ducked inside, shrugged off the rain - and silence fell. Tiny but surprisingly brightly lit, with a horseshoe bar that filled most of the room, the locals stared and smoked their cigarettes. Gaijin don’t go here.

We had wandered off the path. As Van said, were in deep Kyoto.

We obviously couldn’t turn around and leave. We squeezed into a space at the bar and managed to communicate “menu?” and were pointed to the hand written kanji signs hanging above the kitchen. Shit. “Sake?” we tried. “Sushi?” This was not going well. The bartender was a middle-aged woman, not unfriendly, but didn’t know what to do with us. A few seats down, one of the patrons noticed us, and came to our rescue. The travel gods were on our side! He spoke little English, but enough to order sake for us (score!) and all the food the locals eat - oysters, eel, tuna, and this huge plate of raw squid. I admit I was scared, but I ate it and it was really, really good. The bartender looked inquiringly at me (and all of the other patrons out of the corner of their eyes). I gave a big smile and said “oishii!” (delicious!) which made everyone very, very happy.

Was it all a dream?

Takoyaki and the glico man

We did a short day trip to Osaka, the vibrant city filled with even more neon signs and colorful buildings. Different from Tokyo, it’s a working-class city that’s just a bit more gritty and intense. Osaka is known for takoyaki - octopus pancake balls - which turned out to be another delicious snack! Glico Man is a famous landmark in Osaka - it’s a giant neon billboard for Glico candy, depicting a running athlete.

an oasis in the city

We ended our trip at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. It was the perfect way to wind down our Japan experience.

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you.”