Some pictures and notes from a 10-day trip to Japan, Oct 27-Nov 7.
Day 1-4
Direct flight from Seattle to Tokyo Haneda Airport. Staid at a small boutique hotel in a quiet street in the Shimbashi district. Spent a day with a friend from Seattle who happened to be visiting family at the same time. Went to see the Meiji Jingu shrine, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No.1 (great views of the city from the top floor), the Kichijōji neighborhood (home to Studio Ghibli), and spent an evening in the Ginza shopping district.
Day 4-7
High-speed train from Tokyo Station to Kyoto. Staid at a hot spring resort near the railway station. Went to see the Imperial Palace, the Higashi Hongan-ji and Kiyomizu-dera temples, hiked Mount Higashiyama (pleasant, well-maintained trail), and spent an evening in the Gion district.
Day 7-8
Train from Kyoto to Kanazawa, standing-room-only due to a holiday (Culture Day). Staid with a Zen master who was renting out part of his home through Airbnb. Visited the Kenroku-en garden, and participated in a tea ceremony (luckily for my ankles, just the short, half-hour version).
Day 8-10
Bus from Kanazawa to Takayama, with a few hours in Shirakawago (the famous thatched-roof village). In Takayama, we staid at a Western-style hotel (with real pillows). Visited the outdoor Folk Village Museum, and hiked up to the ruins of Matsukura Castle (ignoring all the warnings about bears). Sampled the local “Hida” beef in various forms (though not sushi-style).
Day 10-11
Train back to Tokyo. For our final night, we staid at a hotel in a large office tower in the Shiodome district. Visited the Tokyo National Museum, stocked up on KitKats, and relaxed at Hamarikyu Gardens.
Notes
Language: I created a small set of ANKI cards to learn some basic phrases, and to be able to recognize basic characters for directions (“exit”, “north” etc) and on menus (“chicken”, “pork” etc). Japanese is easy enough to speak (no tones, simple syllables), but the writing system is a cobbled together mess. Outside of larger hotels, it was rare to encounter English-speakers. Google Translate worked reasonably well for conversations, but didn’t do so well with writing (and very bad with handwritten menus).
Railway tickets: We had intended to get a rail pass, but were glad we didn’t, because we would have spent a lot time queueing (starting at the airport, for picking up the pass). Without a pass, we were able to book most train tickets online.
Cleanliness: Perhaps the cleanest country I’ve been to, even though everything is sold with excessive amounts of packaging and wrapping, and trash cans are few and far between…
Food: We ate at a wide variety of places, including izakayas, traditional restaurants, cafeterias, hole-in-the-wall shops, tourist stops, family restaurants, bakeries, and airport restaurants. Every single meal we had was excellent, and standards are very high (a restaurant with a 3-star online rating would have a 5-star rating in most other countries).