Honshu

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It seems that when most people travel to Japan, or even just think of Japan, it is the sights on Honshu that appeal the most: Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Hakone, etc. One of my aims of this little Japanese blog series is to get people to look beyond Honshu as the other islands of Japan are fantastic. However, after writing this blog and looking again at my photos, I’ve re-remembered why Honshu is rightly very popular and you could travel for months without stepping off it.



Cities

Tokyo is like nowhere else. It is massive and busy but it works. Where we lived at the other end of the country in Fukuoka has a population of 1.5 million, thus it isn’t small by any means, but Tokyo seems like another world in comparison. I lived in Tokyo back in 2010 for 3 months and knew I had to return because there is so much to see and do. I only got the chance to visit once during this 13-month stay, just before Christmas 2019, and didn’t return because covid meant we tried to avoid big cities. During that single Tokyo weekend I still managed to revisit lots of my favourite places, such as the top floor of the Metropolitan Building in Shinjuku for the best night-time views, the peaceful escape that is Meiji Shrine, Shin-Okubo for great Korean food, the funky fashions of Harajuku, the classy shopping streets of Ginza, the Christmas lights of Midtown, and the busy streets of Shibuya. I need to go back!

Osaka is known for being a gritty port city with little for tourists. We liked it. The castle is worth a wander around, there’s Kuromon market selling all kinds of delicious sea creatures, there is a new UNESCO site of massive tombs that are best appreciated from the top of a nearby building rather than face to face, we found great yakitori by the river with the big neon running man, and the huge aquarium was a good place to shelter from a passing typhoon – it has whale sharks!

Kobe was a brief stop in order for Magdalena to visit the Polish embassy to vote. We were there during the 2019 rugby world cup on the night Japan as host nation played Scotland. We found a great little bar up a back street, were adopted by the locals, ended up with Japanese flags on our faces, and blossoms (the symbol of the Japanese rugby team) on our shirts. And Japan won a great game! A pal in Fukuoka used to live in Kobe and he wasn’t surprised by our Kobe experience and said that was a normal night out there.

Nagoya, not much to say about it really. Fourth biggest city in Japan, famous for… erm. Train museum is ok but not as good as York.

Gifu: because of what I stated above about Nagoya, next time we were in the area we stayed at Gifu. A pleasant little city where you can (apparently during non-covid times) watch fisherman catch fish using cormorants and fire. There’s a great hike up to the little castle and a lovely parkrun along the river.

Hiroshima is, as you would expect, a very moving place. We arrived at night and thus strolled around the ruins of the Atomic Bomb Dome when it was dark and silent with nobody around. It was such a familiar structure from so many pictures and videos from 1945 that I couldn’t believe it was right in front of me. I found it quite overwhelming. The Atomic Bomb Museum is terribly sad but a must-visit. Two happier locations in Hiroshima I would thoroughly recommend are Shukkei-en Garden – a particularly nice traditional Japanese garden of “shrunken scenery” of miniature mountains, lakes and forests – and Okonomimura, which is a palace of four floors of Okonomiyaki restaurants (one of my favourite of all Japanese foods).



Ancient places

Himeji is a very worthwhile few hours stop on the Shinkansen line between the more commonly hit sights of Kyoto and Hiroshima – or in our case between Osaka and Fukuoka. Himeji Castle is immense. Unlike most Japanese castles that have been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times due to battles, earthquakes, fires and World War II bombs, Himeji Castle has miraculously survived since the 1300s. I found the insides of many Japanese castles quite samey but if you are going to go in one then make it Himeji.

Nara is definitely one of my favourite places in Japan. It is commonly just a day trip from Kyoto – and that is enough time to wander around the main sights. The temples are in and amongst deer-filled forest and wandering between is as pleasant as the sights themselves. I revisited Todai-ji Temple, home of a massive Buddha but most astonishing to me from an engineering perspective, even on second visit, for being the world’s biggest wooden building. On this visit we also had an additional day at the temples to the south of Nara. These are an entirely different UNESCO World Heritage Site and see far fewer visitors despite being equally ancient and fascinating.

Kyoto doesn’t really need any additional promotion because everyone who visits Japan generally does, and should, visit. We saved it right until the end of our 13 months in Japan in the futilely optimistic hope that should covid lessen and visitors be allowed into Japan then Kyoto is where we would take family or friends. Alas, we ended up going on our own and it was a wonderful choice for our final Japanese weekend. The lack of foreign tourists who weren’t allowed into Japan from March 2020 onwards meant Kyoto was much quieter than when I had visited in 2010, though there were still plenty of Japanese tourists. It was just as beautiful as I remembered and in three full days we managed to go to a lot of sights that I hadn’t previously visited (the 2010 trip was also for three days). And there are a lot more sights I could visit for the first-time next time. Though I don’t think I’d recommend coming for a week or more and trying to cover everything because you would likely get “templed out”. Mount Inari was new for me with its endless tunnels of bright orange torii gates weaving up the mountain. It’s actually a fairly strenuous hike to the top though you stop so often for photos that you hardly notice. Nearby are many other zen temples and shrines with beautiful gardens that I imagine would be particularly stunning during cherry blossom season or when the maples turn fiery red in the autumn (we were a week or so too early).



Hills

Kumano Kodo are a UNESCO-recognised network of ancient pilgrimage trails on the Kii Peninsula south of Osaka and Kyoto. Hiking here makes you appreciate the Japanese stress-relieving pastime of “forest-bathing”, especially if you hike under the autumn leaves as we did. We took a train from the middle of Osaka to Kudoyama Station then hiked about 25 km along the Koyasan Choishi Michi trail. The route initially climbs through persimmon and mandarin orchards – with bags of fruit beside the path and honesty boxes for payment – before plunging through forest. The well-trodden path is marked every hundred or so metres by an ancient stone signpost telling you how far it is; if you can read kanji. The hike ends at the mighty Daimon Gate leading to the wonderful Koyasan Temple complex.

Japanese Alps: I didn’t make it back there this time, though see some of the photos on my blog of 2010 to appreciate that it is really worth a visit: Teaching English in Japan. I had a trip planned there for a trail race but, of course, covid meant it was cancelled.

Mt Fuji: Even though the other blogs in this series aim to encourage people to consider the other of Japan’s main islands, next time I visit this country I know that I’ll be visiting Honshu first. That’s primarily because in a bit over a year in the country we never made it up Mt Fuji. It was closed all year due to covid. It is the busiest national park and most climbed mountain in the world thus the risk of virus transmission is high. Therefore, Honshu is the only one of Japan’s five biggest islands that we never stood on top of.



Islands

Miyajima is one of my favourite of Japan’s 6852 islands. Many people may inadvertently know it as it is the location of the seemingly floating torii gate that appears on a lot of Japanese imagery along with views of Mt Fuji through cherry blossoms. The torii gate is huge but unfortunately when we arrived it was completely wrapped in scaffolding and the tide was out so it was perched in mud rather than floating. Miyajima is close to Hiroshima sitting in the always pretty Seto Inland Sea that fills the gap between Honshu and Shikoku. I would thoroughly recommend hiking Mt Misen, the island’s high point at 535 m. Though don’t be fooled by the fairly low height because the path goes straight up and on the baking hot day that we were there it was a short but strenuous and sweaty climb. When the forest clears at the top the views of the azure Seto Inland Sea dotted with countless little islands is stunning. Or you can take a cable car but then you would miss out on the ancient forest and little shrines on the climb. More shrines and temples can be explored at the bottom where the ferry drops you off and the resident deer mingle with tourists. As always, the street food and drink options are spectacular – I recommend the oyster pasties and yuzu sours.



Summary

There are so many more parts of Honshu that we didn’t get to. There are apparently some great hikes along the west coast, there is the skiing and snow monkeys in the mountains in the middle, the national parks of the north, and many more islands of the Seto Inland Sea to explore. I’ll definitely be back.

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Photos

Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima
An eerie and moving place to visit.

Seto Inland Sea from the top of Miyajima
A much steeper and tougher hike than we expected.

Horyu-ji Temple, Nara
In the less visited but still spectacular cluster of UNESCO recognised temples some way south of Nara.

Keage Incline, Kyoto
It used to be how boats were transported between two levels of a canal; now it is photoshoot central.