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Published: August 11th 2008
Osaka Castle
Built by the Hideyoshi, the dude who unified Japan during the 16th century. If there is ever a rich country you consider to waste your money in, Japan should be your first choice. It is a country you can travel easily by yourself, everything is within a few hours reach with the bullet train. Almost everything is automatic, buying drinks, food, train ticket. rent a movie, wash your clothes, clean your ass etc.
There are of course cheaper ways to travel, one of them meaning travelling with local trains with dussins of transfers. It's way cheaper than bullet trains but takes alot of time, I managed to finish the book 'Memoir of a Geisha' during all that travelling time.
In Kyoto I've seen so many beautiful temples and shrines that my brain started to overheat trying to remenber the names. In fact, if you randomly get off any bustop within Kyoto, you would find yourself standing in front a temple or shrine, that is how amazingly well-preserved they are in Kyoto.
In Tokyo I tested alternative ways to spend the night. The well-known capsule hotels are better than I thought, it is a fine show of efficiency in Japan - all beds stacked together; common shower; common lockers and you get
Capsule Hotel
Once you climb into one of these beds, it is actually not so bad, pretty comfy, with a TV even. But not for people with clautrophobia. your own robe in blue to walk around. Just like a prison, but you squeeze the soap out from a bottle instead.
Another way to spend the night is at a 'manga cafe'. Manga is a mindblowing phenomonon in Japan. Everybody here reads manga and it is used sometimes in instructions for easier understanding, there are also teenagers dressing up like manga characters during weekends. Manga is so popular there are cafes in which you can spend the night reading them. These cafes are so cheap that some umemployed people rather live there than renting a apartment.
I also tried Couchsurfing, meaning that you spend the night at some good samaritan's couch/floor/bed. I met a lot of people that way in Japan. Some of us climbed mount. Fuji together, which is harder than I thought. There were no stonesteps like those in China, the ground is pretty loose to get hold. During the night time it is so bloody cold that the only way to stay warm, besides paying 50 euros for a few hours in a shack, is to lock yourself in the toilet. I found myself on top of Fuji and saw the sunrise, and swore
manga store
Everyone reads manga in Japan and there is a manga book for everyone. not to complain about the Japanese heat ever again.
The japanese people is probably a sightseeing by itself. Young people dressed up top-to-toe in fashion, dying their hair and sometimes with a fake sun-tan. Adult workoholics getting off work by 10pm and falling half-asleep standing in the subway. The japanese are generally so polite that some people say it's a ridid politeness coming from a repressive society. True or not I found it refreshing after a very loud China.
The one thing I would miss the most is the hotsprings. It is so relaxing to bath outside in the bubbling water and then pour a bucket of cold water over my head, and all the troubles would just vanish away.
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non-member comment
very nice pictures... very cool country