Japan

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Nippon (the Japanese name for Japan) is unique, as the Japanese are very fond of telling people. And they are right.

Japan is a unique blend of old and new, traditional and modern, ancient beliefs and hi-tech gadgets, Zen Buddhist monks and fad-obsessed teenagers, peaceful shrines and noisy pachinko gaming halls, lovers of nature and destroyers of endangered species, beautiful temples and concrete skyscrapers. The Japanese are intensely polite and overwhelmingly helpful and friendly, and yet are remembered by the older generation for their extreme wartime cruelty. Japan has built one the strongest economies in the world in a very short time and also suffered one the greatest tragedies in human history.

And with all this in mind, I set of to see Japan…

My first taste of Japan is the Tokyo district of Shinjuku. This is modern Japan, with skyscrapers, shopping malls, millions of people and the largest railway station in Tokyo. Despite their size and busyness, Japanese train and subway systems are very simple to navigate and easy to use. Restaurant menus, however, are not. I don’t understand the kanji, can’t work out what the plastic representations of meals are supposed to be, and I’m vegetarian in a country that doesn’t understand the concept. On my first day in Japan I definitely struggle with the food! Sightseeing, however, I can manage. I start with a view of the city from the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Office, and I can see as far as Mount Fuji, and over the whole of Tokyo, the world’s largest city. Back on the streets, I can feel the bustle of its 20 million strong population, all doing their Christmas shopping. Despite being a Buddhist / Shinto country, Japan loves the commercialism of Christmas and it is a way bigger event here than it seemed to be back in Australia.

From Shinjuku, I walk through Yoyogi Park and see a traditional wedding at the Meiji Shrine. Then at Harajuku I see the cos-play teenage girls, dressed in their punk / maid / bo-peep outfits, pushing the limits of acceptability. Further south still, the Shibuya district is slightly more civilised than the craziness of Shinjuku, but still just as busy.

Good or bad, Facebook has become a big part of my life this year, not just for keeping in touch with friends back home but also for re-discovering old friends along the way. I found Neil in New Zealand and Sharon & Sally in Australia. And now I’ve found Dan in Japan. Dan is an old friend from university days, who I lost touch with when I moved to London. And he’s been living in Tokyo for the last 7 years. So as I’m here, we arrange to meet up. We go for dinner and get along great, like we saw each other yesterday. Except now I speak Czech and he speaks Japanese, developments we wouldn’t have guessed at! But despite speaking fluent Japanese, he hasn’t lost his Yorkshire accent. How come I lost my Manc accent? Dan orders some great food and we sink numerous beers as we catch up on gossip and our lives over the last 7 years. Then we go for karaoke, hiring a booth and drunkenly singing our hearts out till the early hours. When in Japan…

The next day, Dan and his wife, Etsuko, meet me at my hostel and we go for lunch at Ueno. For lunch I have tofu and udon, miso soup, sashimi (with soy sauce and wasabi) and tempura. Delicious, or as the Japanese say, Oishii! After lunch we look round Ginza, the posh shopping district, then Akihabara, known as ‘Electric City’, with hundreds of shops full of laptops and iPods and gadgets. Dan seems pretty happy here and I’m not surprised. Etsuko is lovely and Tokyo is a great city. But I must leave them now, there’s more Japan to see…

My next stop is Kyoto. I take the shinkansen (bullet train) and it’s amazing! They are the world’s fastest trains and are clean, modern, spacious and extremely punctual. And even better, as a foreigner, I can use a Japan Rail Pass, which gives me a week’s unlimited travel for about the price of a single 3-hour journey. In Kyoto, I stay in a more traditional place than in Tokyo, sleeping on a futon mattress on tatami mats on the floor. It’s a small guesthouse, and soon after I arrive I make friends with the other guests. Next morning, 7 of us (3 Japanese, 2 Brits, 1 French, 1 Singaporean) are up at 6am and we take taxis to the edge of town to a district called Arashiyama. As the sun comes up, we follow the bamboo road to the Nonomiya Shinto Shrine and it is magical. I spend the rest of the day sightseeing around Kyoto by bicycle, seeing the impressive Zen Buddhist garden at Ryoanji, the beautiful golden temple of Kinkuji and hoping to see a Geisha (or at least an apprentice Maiko) in the old Gion district. I don’t see any (they are rare these days) but many women are dressed in traditional kimonos up at the Kiyomizu Temple, and I feel like I’m in an old Japanese movie. That evening, I join the others for dinner and the Japanese of the group, Yoshi and Magumi, order us lots of food, including some great veggie dishes. The namafu (like tofu but made from flour) and chawanmuchi (a kind of thick soup) are yummy, as is the final dish, ochatsuke, a kind of rice soup soup with green tea and plums. And with the meal we drink hot sake and Kirin beers. Oishiiii !!!

From Kyoto I visit Inari, with its wonderful Shinto to the rice gods, Fushimi-Inari; long, meandering tunnels of bright orange torii (arches). I also visit Nara, the original capital (before it was moved to Kyoto and later to Edo, which was renamed as Tokyo). Nara Park is enchanting and I enjoy an afternoon cycling around the park, visiting the Todaji Temple and Kasugu Taisha shrine and watching school kids feed over-friendly deer on biscuits.

I set off west again towards Hiroshima, stopping on the way at Japan’s oldest surviving castle, Himeiji. The castle, known as the white heron, stands over the city and is a beautiful structure, and is lucky to have survived till now.

Then I reach the city of Hiroshima. I already know about the Manhattan Project and the events of the 6th August 1945, but it doesn’t make the Peace Memorial Park or the museum any less shocking to visit. The Japanese I spoke to about this seemed to accept that a shocking event was needed to halt the Japanese wartime army, and this certainly was one effective way of doing it. What they didn’t understand, though, was the lack of warning and choice of cities to conflict maximum civilian causalities and the use a second bomb just 3 days later. But whatever the rights or wrongs of the decision to bomb, the impact of the bomb was undeniably devastating. I stay in a hostel near the park, the hypocentre of the blast the killed 140000, and I find the hill of ashes of victims particularly upsetting. Little Boy (the name of the bomb dropped here) did unspeakable damage. The remains of the A-dome building still stand, surrounded by a thriving rebuilt city, a reminder of what once was. Nowadays, Hiroshima leads a campaign to prevent a 3rd use of a nuclear bomb. But despite years of pleads to the governments of the USA, UK, France, Russia, India, and Pakistan, these countries still hold and test nuclear weapons. And other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, will likely soon join these ranks. Have we learned nothing?

I need a relief from these thoughts, and I find it in the beauty of the island of Miyama. Its main attraction, the Itsukushima shrine, a torii standing out to sea, is stunning. I finish the day with another bowl of hot, steaming udon and head back to my hostel.

My final destination in Japan (and of my whole 9 month trip) is the village of Yufuin on the island of Kyushu, a place famed for its hot springs. Kyushu is also the home of another friend, and the last I will meet on this trip. The friend is a former colleague from London, Keiko, now a Professor of Psychiatry at Kyushu University. Unfortunately she has to attend a seminar on the Saturday that I arrive in Fukuoka, but her sister and mother meet me at the station and take me out to the village. Keiko’s sister, Akiko, also worked at the IOP in London, so speaks good English and we have plenty in common to talk about. We go for an Italian lunch (Japanese style), sharing pizza, noodles and salad and watching others eat their Italian food with chopsticks. Then we head for the house, picking up some tofu and kimchi on the way. The house is gorgeous, traditionally Japanese except for a few English eccentricities in the kitchen. We sit on cushions around a low table and drink green tea and a try a sweet called daifuku. Then I get to try a hot spring bath. The house has a hot spring bath running continuously, and it’s a great experience washing with all the wooden bowls and ladles and stuff and soaking in the natural mineral waters. In the evening, we go out to a local restaurant and Akiko orders for us. Every meal in Japan is a delight, with bowls carefully chosen to match each dish, dishes arriving individually in the most surprising order and everything having weird but often wonderful subtle tastes. I have for dinner: chrysanthemum salad, spinach soup from a teapot in a teacup, sesame tofu, veg tempura, a grilled wild mushroom, mixed salad, and ochatsuke, as always, to finish. Oishii. Akiko and her mother tell me stories of Japan, their lives, how it has changed since the war and their extensive travels overseas, while I trade my stories of my travels this year and life in the UK and Czech. We sleep in a traditional Japanese guestroom, again on futon on tatami mats, and I get a really good night’s sleep.

Next morning we have a Japanese breakfast of miso soup, rice, pickles, fish eggs, seaweed and green tea. Oishii. It’s a lovely sunny day, with clear blue skies as we walk down into the village and I’m shown by Akiko how to pray properly at a shinto shrine. Mount Yufu stands proudly over the village, it peak capped in snow. This village is quite popular with tourists from the cities and today is quite busy. We look round the craft shops and then meet Keiko at her favourite antique shop. It’s great see Keiko again after so many years, and we immediately start exchanging gossip. The 4 of us go for lunch and I get soba (cold noodles and dipping sauce), then return to the house. Akiko leaves in the afternoon back to Okayama, and I have another hot bath as Keiko cooks dinner for us. We have local hand-made tofu for dinner, with pickles and veg and rice, and the tofu is really tasty, nothing like the supermarket stuff I’m used to. Keiko and I spend the evening drinking wine then whisky and catching up on our lives.

And then next morning we return to the city. Keiko goes off to work, and I head back to Tokyo.

And my travels are over. Nine months, and twelve countries later, I’m returning to the UK. I’m excited to see my family and friends and again, but sad to end this phase of my life.

On Wednesday I arrived back in Manchester and it’s really cold and frosty here but nice to be somewhere so familiar. I’ll write a bit more in a few days, but for now I'd like to wish all of you a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

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