There we were in Tokyo – a vibrant city of massive scale, millions of people, bright lights, narrow streets and small spaces. What a difference to Australia! We had already been to Tokyo before and done a lot of sightseeing. So we decided to only stay for a day to get acclimatised and spent the day walking around the area of Ueno and Asakusa where we were staying. In the evening we caught up with a former Austrian work colleague of James who is now living in Tokyo and had a nice dinner in Shibuya. That’s where that famous four way crossing is that features in so many movies and music videos. It was great to be back in Tokyo and we wish we could have stayed longer but we were quite limited with time in Japan. We had bought ourselves a 14 day Japan Rail Pass which gives you unlimited travel on most trains which we’d totally recommend to anyone who plans on visiting Japan. If you don’t have that pass, transport can get really expensive.

The next day we took our first Shinkansen (bullet train) to Shin-Fuji from where you can see Mount Fuji on a clear day. At Shin- Fuji we hired some bikes for a few hours and cycled through town and even managed to get a glimpse of Mount Fuji when the clouds cleared up a bit. June is the month of Japan’s rainy season and it was pretty hazy that day. Cycling is surprisingly one of the best ways to get around cities in Japan. There is people cycling in all directions on the streets, pavements, wherever possible really and we’ve never before seen that many bikes parked around or rather ‘neatly staked’. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were proportionally more bikes in Japan than in the Netherlands.

Back it was on the Shinkansen to Nagoya from where we headed to Takayama, a small, picturesque town with a beautiful old town, lots of temples and traditional houses. The train ride to Takayama was pretty spectacular with lots of gorges with clear blue water and lush green hills and mountains. We had gotten so used to the dry landscape in Australia that we couldn’t believe our eyes. Weirdly enough, the ride reminded me a lot of the train journey through Tyrol and Vorarlberg in Austria and it felt like going back to where I grew up. Only the traditional buildings were a giveaway 🙂

At Takayama we managed to get a room in a Buddhist temple which really added to the experience. We spent an entire day exploring the town and the countryside and at the end of the day we fell completely exhausted on our traditional tatami-mats which are pretty hard but comfy. We really had entered a completely different world in comparison to bustling Tokyo. Japan is all about contrasts. On the hand you’ve the modern architecture and high speed trains, neon lights and blade runner moments. And on the other hand you find beautifully preserved temples and shrines and there is still a lot of traditional elements to the culture that influence everyday life. It also seems that great effort went into restoring important buildings that were damaged during WWII.

Out next stop was Hiroshima which will unfortunately always be remembered for only one thing – the 6th of August 1945 when the city was destroyed by the first ever atomic bombing. Fittingly it was a grey and rainy day when we were there to visit the A-Bomb Dome (one of the very few buildings that was left standing in the centre) the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. The museum shows live footage from the attack and survivor testimonials. But it also gives an account of the developments that led to the attack and displays copies of the original correspondence between the various parties involved in the development of the bomb and the planning of the attack. It was a moving but very interesting day and it was definitely worth a visit.

Before heading to Nagasaki in the very west of Japan, we stopped for a few hours at the small island of Miyajima, a major Japanese tourist attraction because of its shrine gate. The gate is apparently one of the most photographed sites in Japan and made a great side trip. There were also lots of tame deer running around the streets trying to eat whatever they could find. A very unusual sight. Nagasaki is a nice city that is surrounded by little islands and green, lush hills but again it’s overshadowed by it’s past. It was the second city that was the target of an atomic bomb three days after Hiroshima. And again to fit the occasion it was raining but this time like crazy. We couldn’t visit a lot of the sites but we did go to the Peace Memorial Hall built to commemorate the victims of the events.

After visiting these two important historic cities we were ready for a change and decided to head to the Aso-san area where you find the largest active volcano caldera in the world. We were lucky with the weather and the wind because the summit is often closed due to toxic gases. There was a lot of steam coming out of the crater but we managed to see it and also did a pretty challenging trek around the area.

From Aso-San we moved on for the night to Fukuoka which is apparently known for its fantastic food and great night life in Japan. Well, we did have some good food at a food stall and we had an even better time watching the Netherlands vs Brazil match and drinking a fair bit… Maybe we shouldn’t have taken up on the offer of free shots with every drink but we had to celebrate the Netherlands winning. The next day the train ride to Kyoto was an absolute torture for me while James did pretty well. Not fair at all. We stopped on the way at Himeji, a famous castle town, which actually cleared my head a bit. Or maybe I felt better because the castle was really quite something.

We left Kyoto for the end of our trip because we knew it would be one of the highlights and we weren’t disappointed. If you ever go to Japan, Kyoto is a must. There are so many mind-blowingly beautiful things to see in Kyoto that we could fill pages with elaborate descriptions and details. Just check out the pictures, they speak for themselves. We also did a day trip to Nara to see the largest indoor buddha and again heaps of tame deer roaming around the area. After Kyoto we spent a night in Osaka which is not a particular pretty city. Osaka is apparently good for its nightlife but we gave it a miss this time 🙂 Our final stop was Kobe where the ferry to Tianjing, China, was waiting for us.

We expected to be ‘templed-out’ at the end of our stay in Japan but that wasn’t the case at all. Japan has so much to offer. Beautiful varied landscape and fantastic food (some weird stuff, too, but we managed to stay away from that). Incredibly nice and helpful people who stop to help whenever you look puzzled at maps or look lost. And the most efficient infrastructure we’ve every experienced which makes traveling around super-easy. It’s incredible what distances you can cover on a Shinkansen in only a few hours. Don’t go in July or August if you can’t take hot weather. The humidity in the summer beats everything we have experienced anywhere we’ve ever been and in can get quite unpleasant (and stinky!). Japan is not as expensive as everyone believes. In fact food is cheaper than in many European countries (same as Sydney food court prices) and accommodation isn’t that bad either (cheaper than any Australian youth hostel we ever stayed in).