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Published: April 16th 2008
Arriving in Japan was a total contrast to anything we experienced in China... most people either spoke some english or actually tried understanding and made themselves be understood. We quite easily managed to get money, rent a phone, change our flight out of Japan and exchange our Japan Rail Pass all within about 1 hour of arriving... a task that would have taken us a whole day in Beijing. There was nobody trying to get us into every taxi in the city or to get us to stay in their hotel... and nobody was trying to rip us off. China and Japan are total worlds apart... while in China there seems to be such a social and economic gap between people, in Japan everyone seems to be at the same level. The cost of things is also massively different... so our budget has been significantly knocked back after the week in Japan, but hopefully we can make up for it in other places.
We managed to meet up with Sergio (our friend from Mozambique who is studying here) at a train station and come with him to his flat where we have been staying. We were still quite tired from all
the travelling and getting up early, but we managed to go out into the Shibuya area at night to have some Sushi in a little hidden away place and see some crazy amount of people and street lights.
KYOTO & NARA The next day we got up early to go to Kyoto to see all the beautiful temples and the Sakura (cherry blossom). We got the Hikari Shinkansen (bullet train) and were there in about three hours. The problem we had was getting cheap accommodation, and we ended up staying in a much more expensive hotel than what we hoped to pay... but we thought we would just spoil ourselves, and make use of the free tea, traditional japanese baths, and the comfort of an en-suite bathroom which we did not have in Beijing (it felt like a 5 star hotel to us).
Kyoto is a large city with modern buildings and streets, but with many beautiful gardens and temples hidden away behind all the concrete and glass.
On the first day we just went for a walk around the Gion area, which is the Gheisha district... we walked along some narrow little alleys with old tea houses
and cherry blossom lined streets with water canals, and managed to get some free sake and beer being handed out by girls dressed in kimonos. We also managed to get a quick look at some Gheishas walking quickly with their funny wood shoes from one house to another.
The next day in Kyoto we had a packed itinerary from one temple to the other... there are more than 30 or 50 different temples in Kyoto, and we didn't even know which ones to see or in which order. We first went to Nijo Castle which was the old palace of the Shoguns, and later the emperor's residence. It was a massive complex with great stone walls and beautiful gardens and old traditional palace buildings inside (all timber structures with those rice paper sliding panels).
Then we went to the Kinkakuji (golden) Temple, which was set in some amazing Japanese gardens, and the temple itself was almost totally covered in gold leaf. But the most amazing thing was that these temples are just outside the urban perimeter of Kyoto, and just behind a busy avenue and big modern buildings... suddenly you turn the corner and you are in a peaceful
quiet area surrounded by nature.
The Ginkakuji (Silver) Temple was also surrounded by beautiful gardens but it was unfortunately covered for refurbishment (or more like reconstruction... the hole thing was ripped to its bare bones, so I guess they will actually rebuild it rather than maintain it). Getting around in Kyoto was not quick, and the distances were long... so there was a lot of walking and waiting for buses. We then made it to the Nanzenji temple, in search for a classic Zen garden, but it was closed when we got there. We finally went to the Kodaiji temple to see the night illumination which they only have during the Sakura season in April. That was pretty much enough temples for that day, and we were completely exhausted... which was just perfect for our hot japanese bath at the hotel (five star as far as we were concerned).
On Thursday we went to Nara and the weather was not too good. Nara is much smaller than Kyoto and has a great park next to the centre full of deer that go chasing tourists around for some biscuits (one of them bit my arse, and I didn't even
have any biscuits on me). The temples were also beautiful, but by this time all the Buddhist temples look kind of the same. One of them had a great big bronze buddha about 18 metres high which was quite amazing. There was one quite interesting shintu temple full of hundreds of lanterns. But by around 1 pm we were quite tired... and considering all the days of walking and little sleep we had behind, were quite happy to go back to Kyoto for a bit of a rest. On top of that, it started pouring down with rain, which got us to the train station even quicker. We got back to our (five star) hotel and had another relaxing japanese traditional bath... and went to bed after something to eat in the room.
The last day in Kyoto was a bit of a rush since we had to get the Shinkansen back to Tokyo at 1:30, but we managed to get in a really beautiful garden, and the temple of 1001 buddhas, Sanjusangendo, which was quite impressive inside (no pics). Then we went through a really nice food market, and got a box food for the train to Tokyo.
TOKYO In Tokyo we arrived pretty tired for a change, but we had some plans to go to Karaoke with the guys from the house - Sergio, Rafael & Manuel - and we could not miss out on a Karaoke night in Tokyo. I have never been the person to go around singing, not even in the shower, but I had try a bit this time. It was really weird though... the place was like going to an international phonecall booth. There was a small reception where you booked the pod, and then you went into a tiny little room with a large TV and disco lights. Anyway... we packed six of us into the cubicle (Vincenzo managed to join us here too), and went off singing songs from ABBA to Kaizer Chiefs, Shakira, and traditional Japanese songs, which Rafael was really into... actually, Rafael was a big Karaoke fan... he was really going for it.
After the Karaoke we went for a stroll around Shinjuku to get in more of the crazy athmosphere, lights, loads of people, and some delicious Ramen noodles ordered via a ticket machine. Needless to say we went to bed exhausted, and
did not really want to wake up the next morning. The plan was to check out some Sumo wrestlers at their training session, but we got there a bit late, and they told us they were finished and did not let us in... we then saw the guys (big fat ones) getting some air and shower outside by the street, which was good enough for me since they were still wearing their Sumo gear.
We then went for a walk around Asakusa to check out a temple and a tourist market, and then went to meet up with Vincenzo in Harajuku... this is where we saw some crazy girls dressed up as porcelain dolls, really weird! In fact... most people around there seemed to dress up in a strange way. It was a place full of young people, and their fashion sense is pretty much between catwalk and cartoon comics... totally crazy, not even Cambden fashion gets near this weirdness. Here we had some amazing Okonomiyake, which was really cheap and interesting, since we got to make it ourselves at our table... thanks to Vincenzo of course who told us how it worked. We also walked along a beautiful
shintu temple within a large park, and we got the chance to see a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony.
We carried on walking along the find of Bond street area of Tokyo, where all the designer fashion shops and expensive clothes are... we also had a bit of an architecture tour and saw some Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito and Herzog & De'Meuron buildings. By the way... the Japanese obsession with fashion is quite incredible, and it seems like little school girls will to any length in order to get a 'present' of an expensive hand bag or shoes from some old rich pervert who is after their 'friendship'. Actually, there are so many strange things about Japanese culture, and one little trip is not enough even to start to discover the tip of it.
The last day in Japan was quite a relaxing one... and it was a good thing, considering that suddenly it got so cold and rainy. We stayed at home in the morning catching up with sleep and email then met up with Vincenzo at Ueno to check out the market, have some Soba, and walk around a small park and see the only
Le'Corbusier building in Japan... The National Museum of Western Art. The building opposite by his disciple Kunio Maekawa was actually more interesting.
This was it for Japan... the next day we had to get up at 5am, and the fact that I went to bed at 3am (two hours sleep) trying to upload some photos for you guys to enjoy did not help towards my energy levels for the next day in Seoul, so you better enjoy the pictures!!!
And thanks so much to Sergio and Vincenzo for making our trip to Japan so great... we had an excellent time!
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Marta
non-member comment
oigan, DUERMAN!!! están de paseo!!