The Azure Devil

我らの女神のご加護をあらんこと

[kohanayuki]

オリジナル看板娘の「きさら」

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 6 (Okunoshima) Part 3

Continued from Part 2. Part 1 is here.

Part of the reason I wanted to stay on Okunoshima is because Kyuukamura Hotel has a very nice buffet dinner and breakfast bundled into its stay. The food is half the reason I stayed there, honestly. The buffet dinner was excellent.

The restaurant itself was quite large but I believe it can't sit the entire hotel at once anyway, and when I got there they told me it was free seating, but some guests after me were shown to their seats instead, and I was confused as to why they would do that. Maybe I'd been marked as a gaijin, herp.

My first serving. I made the mistake of going for rice, which I realized only after I had sat down and started eating. The pasta was cold but still good, while the rest of the dishes were very fresh and excellent. There were a number of kinds of raw fish available.

A second serving with vegetables because I forgot to take any the first time round. Again, they were all excellent, but my beef with the clams in the clam soup were that all of them had dirt or sand in them.

My third and last serving. I missed out on the smoked meat the first time round, and decided the pasta was well worth a second swing. The miso soup rounded out the meal very appropriately.

For dessert that yogurt-like thing is called fruche? I don't really remember. I had that and some slices of fruit. All in all it was a very satisfying meal, and I could have taken more if I had planned my food choices more properly I suppose, but I didn't eat to the point of fullness like I did back at Yugashima Tatsuta.

I got back to my room in time to let the staff in to prepare my futon for the night, which I obviously can't do on my own since I have no experience with them. I also updated my journal before heading out at 7 PM to feed the rabbits, hoping for fewer people to be out and about.

The picture above was taken earlier in the day.

There were certainly fewer people out, but I made the mistake of not going at 6 PM right after the meal because the sun already started setting around 6:30 PM, so it was actually rather dark when I went out.

The rabbits can certainly be too eager, this is where I got scratched by a few while they were looking for more food after finishing a batch or stuff like that. It was a nice time to feed but it was really cold by this time, with it being an island and all. I did take two videos of me feeding the rabbits in the dark, so excuse the low quality of the videos. You can view them here and here.

I braved the cold feeding the rabbits for about half an hour before I called it quits, and returned to my room to continue updating my journal. At this time I had already decided I wouldn't use the public bath. I then went down at 8 PM to pay for my stay, as their system only allowed people to pay from 8-9 PM on the day or 9-10 AM in the morning. It's a little strange but I believe it might be due to the lack of staff, as they also had to work at the restaurant serving guests there until the end of dinnertime at 8 PM.

I returned after paying to the horrifying revelation that I had no shower in my room. I don't know how I missed this fact in my initial tour. That meant I had to go to the public bath to get cleansed. I settled on going very late to avoid the crowds, and did whatever I could in the meantime to relax and check online stuff.

I made my way to the communal bath wearing the yukata they provided as you see above, and sadly there were still people there. I tried my best not to disgrace myself. At least the shower and soak felt good, though I did somehow leave my mask behind and had to go back to grab it.

I returned to my room refreshed, and had to plan for the timing to leave the next day in order to catch the train timing I had already reserved, while still being able to clear the two remaining bags of rabbit feed. The plan was to head to the local shrine as well, so I turned in for the night to prepare for an earlier breakfast.

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 6 (Okunojima) Part 2

Continued from Part 1

The view from my hotel room above. I decided to exploring after putting my stuff down and unpacking a little, at least up to the observation deck I had learned about in the video I watched. Here's a video of the sea that I took while I was standing at the edge of the sea in the photo above.

Moving about, I immediately learned something about the rabbits. They definitely know you have the shiz, especially if you shake your food bag, and most will dash up to you, stop right in front, and start accosting you like a salesman eager to make a pitch. They'd stand on their hind legs if you were still standing, and if you happen to be sitting or crouching, boy you better be ready with gloves because their claws will scratch you. I didn't get hurt to the point of bleeding though but it was sometimes a real pain. They definitely want your food.

I fed a number along the way to the stairs going upwards to the observation deck. Here are some pictures I took of the rabbits I saw or fed along the way.

I'd already learned from the video but the smaller rabbits really did get bullied or chased off by bigger ones. You can't really see it but the two shots right above were of a dwarf rabbit that didn't get much food due to the competition around it and its size.

I managed to find a way that said it would lead up to the observation deck and once again begun a fairly steep ascent, which was at some parts a little treacherous even, to the place. It wasn't as dangerous as Mt. Inari, but some parts were so narrow and slippery and the entire way had no hand rails, so it was still a little harrowing.

Some of the photos that fllow and the one above are when I stopped to take pictures during the climb, or when I stopped to rest, which I did a few times. There's also a video of the view in which you can hear me breathing hard in, since I was trekking at quite the speed while being unaccustomed to this climbing. The view was definitely great, with nice fresh air being brought with the almost-constant winds and the cool temperature doing wonders for the scenery and the soul.

Part of the path I took. I don't know why they put those logs there when it wasn't even a part you had to climb, but just move in an upward direction.

I reached the top after a long trek upwards. Damn, this was a lot of climbing since I had come to Nippon, I thought to myself. The Nippon Yama Experience indeed.

I had encountered no rabbits along the way to the top, so imagine my surprise when I reached the deck and found these three rabbits munching happily on some vegetables that were given to them by two guys who had arrived before me. I had a much longer rest up here and wandered around a little as well taking in the sights. The breeze and the cool air combined with the fantastic view made the climb worth it. Here's a video of the view taken at the observation deck.

I decided I had to go back down the way I came, since I needed to get back to the hotel in time for dinner and I wasn't sure I would have time to go elsewhere. I slipped and fell at one point during a sandy and very narrow part of the pathway, landing on my hand holding the pack of rabbit food. It tore open and almost all of its contents were spilled, so I could only save what I had left to feed any rabbit I could before returning to the hotel. What a waste. I stuffed the remainder into my bag's side pocket and moved more carefully down the rest of the way with both hands free.

Rabbits are truly everywhere on the island, you won't have to go far to find one to feed honestly.

Here's a video I took of some rabbits on the way back to the hotel, while here's one of the view near the hotel. Finally, you can see in this video there are lots of these burrows right outside the hotel.

Continued in Part 3

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 6 (Okunojima) Part 1

After the adventures of the previous day, I was in no hurry to get up from my bed even with the alarm, so I simply laid in it a bit further. The breakfast crowd was a surefire turn-off anyway. I did my usual morning routine and went down at a leisurely pace, but there were still quite a number of people at breakfast, though not as many as the day before, thankfully.

I had an average meal quite similar to the previous day, as shown above. I'm not very interested in Western-style breakfasts I suppose, but both the bread pieces were quite good, as was the soup. I returned to my room to prepare to check out and relaxed till about half an hour before my train ride, at which point I slowly made my way to the train platform to wait for it.

It was a relatively short train ride to Shin-Kobe for my transfer, and a couple on the opposite row of seats slightly in front of me were watching the first and later second episodes of Kimetsu no Yaiba openly on their phone, and I don't think they were wearing earphones either though I could be wrong. Damn, I was warned not to do watch anime in Japan too by friends, just in case. Still, they were watching it raw, so I guess they were streaming it or something. I got spoiled slightly by the start of episode 2 but since I couldn't hear anyway I didn't mind.

Alighting at Shin-Kobe, I went to look for an ekiben so that I could eat a regularly timed lunch, and it's shown above as I actually remembered to take this before eating, and no one else was seated with me. This is quite the offering at ￥1200 and it was pretty delicious throughout, even for the foods I'm not usually accustomed to eating. At least I wasn't rushed to finish this.

A good reason for no one sitting beside me was because I had been advised to take an unreserved seat instead by the counter staff previously, as this train would stop at every stop it passed through and had very few cars for reserved seats. I went early to my platform to prepare for the understandable rush for the seats, thinking back to the usual scenario of people wanting to get a seat on local trains back home. Imagine my surprise when the train rolled into the station with a pink head and it stopped beside me to show me it was the Hello Kitty train.

I'm no fan of Hello Kitty but still I suppose it was just luck that made me sit in it. I had a long ride to Mihara Station, so the ekiben was necessary. I did get a seat easily despite my unease, and placed my luggage at a luggage space at the front of my car, which solved the problem of having to put it overhead and risk it being too big.

The biggest reason fewer people take the Hello Kitty train despite the gimmick is probably because it stops at every stop. Not being an express train, the ride takes a very long time to get anywhere, and at every stop it would wait for a few minutes too like a local train. There was a place at the front of my car for people to take pictures with some giant Hello Kitty statue, and I took one just for kicks (below). I also took a video of the passing scenery, because while it might seem mundane to many, it's something that I know I won't get to see much, if at all, for the rest of my life.

We finally reached Mihara and I went looking for the local train that would take me to the ferry terminal to board a boat bound for Okunojima, otherwise known as Rabbit Island, my destination for the day. It was yet another 30-minute wait before the train set off, but the scenery from the train was very worthwhile as it was a lovely ride past the sea (video). It should be the Setouchi Inland Sea if I'm not wrong.

As we approached Tadanoumi Station, the automatic announcement did mention that people headed for Rabbit Island should get off here, so I doubt it'd be a problem for anyone actually headed to Rabbit Island as to which station they'll be alighting at. Signs pointing to the ferry terminal were available after I got off the train, though on the way into the station I already saw the ferry terminal as we did pass it right before we entered the station.

I had already known about this place where you can buy rabbit food and tickets for the ferry, the shop known as the Gateway to Rabbit Island. I had a look at the merchandise after I bought my round trip tickets, but nothing really caught my eye, so I just bought 3 packs of rabbit food and waited for the ferry outside the shop. You can see the bench where I sat at in the photo on the right, where there's a woman too waiting.

The bright pink ferry I was about to take was very small, and had been visible ever since the port came into view. It couldn't have been able to fit more than 30-40 people, though the video I watched about Rabbit Island said it could fit a hundred. That's really hard to believe, it was quite the squeeze within. Here's a video I took of the port when I first arrived at the ferry terminal showing the view.

The ride to the island was largely uneventful, just rather noisy due to all the stuff in a small boat, like engine noise and all. There were also a lot of ojiichan and obaachan on the same ride as me. I took 2 videos during the ride of the passing sea view.

Video 1 / Video 2

The view after I got off the boat, and here's a video showing the view as well.

Getting off the boat you immediately see rabbits, and the cute pair above were right beside a pavilion just as you get off the boat. Most of the rabbits are not shy but they can be easily frightened, and people are warned not to chase after them and all.

There's a regular free shuttle bus from the port to the hotel. It's a distance I can easily walk within 10-15 minutes but I was dragging around a large piece of luggage so I didn't want all that noise as I moved with it, so I waited for the bus. It did arrive but took a while after to set off, so I had to sit on it for quite a bit. In the meantime the aunties at the back of the bus were merciless in their savage dismembering of why one of the wives of someone related to one of them "is Japanese but can't speak Japanese." Good old classic Japanese pure-ism.

The bus ride to the hotel took maybe 5 minutes, there's a digital announcer talking about the sights and the island for a bit so it's all very regular, the bus was also moving at a slow enough pace for it to do that. I checked in at the hotel and the receptionist was obviously relieved to learn I could understand Japanese, at which point she rapid-fired the entire explanation about the hotel. I couldn't catch all of it but I did get the important parts, namely the one about the place having a public bath, which would come back to bite me at night real hard.

I got to my room on the second floor, it's a nice old traditional style ryokan with modern amenities. Here's the room tour. It was already 1550 by the time I took this video. The building itself is really old though and can't compare at all to Yugashima Tatsuta, but it very much serves its main purpose as a place of quiet stay.

Continued in Part 2

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 5 (Togetsukyou Bridge) Part 3

Continued from Part 2; Part 1 is here.

Finishing lunch, I had to go buy the shinkansen tickets for the next 2 days. Knowing there'll be a queue, I resolved in resignation to wait. Trips to Japan need to really account for the time to queue if you're reserving seats on the sks via the counter staff's help.

I was interested in the Togetsukyou Bridge and found out it was relatively nearby, as in a 20-minute train ride away, so instead of returning to the hotel to shower and rest, I decided to head there. This would be my 5th big mistake of the day.

I got on the local train to the place, about 7-8 stops away, it's akin to SG's MRT system, and at the time I got on, was a little bit crowded but didn't seem unusual being a major city and all. I dozed off twice on my way to my stop, exhausted from the unexpected mountain climbing. At least I didn't miss it.

I had seen it on Google Maps but damn was it a long walk to the bridge itself. The walk was straightforward at least. I passed a lot of shops on the streets to the place, it's a full-on tourist trap. There was another famous temple near the bridge, and I passed endless waves of people making to and from the two famous spots.

Reaching the bridge itself, the trip was definitely worth it. It was a great sight to feast upon with my own eyes, alongside the nice scenery, and would definitely have been way better if not for the throngs of people that gesticulated and articulated their excitement in ways that could only be described as the symphony of the painful ancients.

I started crossing the bridge, and here's the video when I first did that from the side I arrived at. I believe the bridge is roughly 100 meters long but I could be wrong, it didn't take that long to cross, but it was almost a hassle to have to move past others who were crossing in the opposite direction as there were way too many people for my liking.

The other side of the river from where I arrived at was filled with a sand-like gravel. I took a video as I arrived at the other side to show what might as well be a park and a beach combined into one by the riverside. There were benches, stalls and more on this side of the bridge, and would definitely have been a fine place to relax for a picnic. I then sat down on one of the benches to have a proper rest for a while and to enjoy the scenery, and here's the video while I was seated of the tranquil view. Despite the sun, the weather was like a cool SG day in terms of temperature, so it didn't bother me at all. Finally, here's the video I took of the view from the other side of the bridge as I returned from this side of the bridge back towards the station.

I didn't stay there long, and the walk back to the station was interrupted by a purchase of 2 bottles of sake, one a yuzu (that I would later also find at the 7-11 in Kyoto goddammit) and the other a commemorative (read: overpriced tourist shit) bottle of some sake on the sweeter side (I haven't opened it yet at the time of this writing and will likely not do so for a long time). The yuzu sake ended up too sour for my taste and luckily I shared it with relatives. At least the one I bought was packaged nicely and could be placed inside my luggage - the 7-11 one was open-and-drink.

And here's where everything started going wrong for the 5th time today. There were already a huge number of people waiting to get on the train by the time I got there at just after 4 I believe. It was an overcrowded train when we boarded and we had 7-8 stops to go. One can already guess where this is going.

At the next stop, the door on the side I was super close to opened, and everyone outside the train just squeezed on with nary a thought. Tis what it is in Japan. The last 2 to get on were who I assumed to be two local high school girls (otherwise known as JK, short for 女子高生 joshikousei), and they were leaning against the door when we set off. It was almost sardine hour by this time, and the next stop ensured it.

I had heard of the sardine squeeze policy, but this was the first time I actually felt it for myself. The pressure was immense on me, nobody cared if your body rubbed or pressed against others. I did my best as the crowds flooded in at the next stop not to press against the JK in front of me, but the squeeze was very real. At one point I was forced to be practically fully against the JK herself who was pressed against the door, though I tried my best throughout the entire ride to give her some room and to fight back against the pressure behind me. I could clearly feel two people were squeezed against me at my back too, and I regretted not putting down my bag at the time or at least having it in front of me.

There was also a time when she slipped backwards due to the train's sudden movement. My left hand was holding the railing beside the door so I thrust my left arm out to balance her and stop her from falling backwards, and of course they made comments about it, in a low enough voice level that I didn't catch what they were saying properly. Probably nothing good, I thought to myself, despite the good intentions.

When we finally reached and the squeeze eased, it was honestly the true indicator of just how crowded Kyoto had become. During the ride, one of the JK remarked something along the lines of "Since when did Kyoto have so many people?" or "Why does Kyoto have so many people now?" I could feel the frustration in her remark. Heck, I thought the same thing myself when I arrived at Kyoto. This is why Kyoto natives are pissed - the train I was on wasn't even the real peak hour at 4+ PM, and it was already this packed thanks to tourists.

I went back to the hotel drained of all energy, and decided to quickly wash the day's clothes as well (there was a 3kg limit but my clothes weren't that many after yesterday's wash) thanks to the sweat and all from the climbing, and luckily had both the required number of ￥100 coins and an open slot for the job.

I took a full shower after that and had a nap. Upon waking up, I was completely disoriented for a bit, likely due to a nightmare or bad dream that I had already forgotten the contents of. It was about time to collect the laundry after 2 hours of washing and drying, and by this time it was also later than the time I would usually eat at. Being so exhausted, I gave up my plans to head to Nishiki Market, and besides, I wasn't keen on fighting yet another tourist crowd just to have some food.

Dinner was taken nearby at some 中華 (Chinese-style food) restaurant, I didn't even know it was chuuka until I finished my food and walked out. It was a mix of half-chahan (fried rice) and some soba, and was pretty decent, just that I wasn't in the mood to relish all of it.

I headed to 7-11 to buy some pudding and milk tea, but it wasn't the same one I got the hot tea from so I had to settle for cold tea. When I returned to my room, I continued updating my journal and decided to take a good hot soak in the bathtub, and, among other things, called my mom to update her for the first time during my solo trip.

A goodbye shot of Kyoto Station at night. I decided to take it since I've made up my mind not to return willingly to this city.

At least such a supper was great to have at the end of the day every time I did it in Japan. The blue colored royal milk tea was really good too, the milk was mixed very well with the tea and I seriously miss this shit and wished that SG had it. I'm still not sure if they're sold in the Japanese supermarkets here.

Updating my journal actually took a very long time today due to how overwhelmed I was by the day's events, over a very long time of 4 separate sessions. I also had a busy day of travel tomorrow to rabbit island but my traveling from here on out would few and far between compared to the hectic rush of the first 4-5 days, and I was glad for that.

I seriously vowed never to come back to Kyoto willingly, for both the people's sake and mine. Kyoto does have its own less known spots and you're more than welcome to come for them - Harpist in Japan has a video on such spots if you're interested, and I'm sure Youtube can give more suggestions. To me though, it definitely isn't worth a second trip. I'm glad I experienced it for myself, but once is more than enough. I achieved my main aim of going to Fushimi Inari Taisha to pray anyway, and that's seriously just dandy. I get dense crowds enough in SG already.

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 5 (Fushimi Inari Taisha) Part 2

Continued from Part 1. Pictures of the torii gates while descending, and some smaller shrines. There are literally tons of these small shrines scattered throughout the mountain.

I came upon a woman holding a cat in her lap, and immediately struck up a conversation with her about the cats in the area. This one was so friendly, and allowed me to pet it with no problems. It was such a dear. I asked for permission to take the picture above.

I also queried her about the way down and she pointed me in the right direction, so I thanked her and went on my merry way. I soon came upon a fork in the road, and here is where I made my 3rd big mistake of the day. Once again, the fork diverged into a path that seemed to be leading upwards or at least was flat enough to not be seen as a downward path, while a path with no torii gates leading into the mountain wilderness was headed down. Naturally, with my lack of experience climbing mountains, I decided heading down would be correct.

Once again, it was a path filled with no people. I passed a Japanese couple early on and the husband said "こんにちわ" to me but I was spacing out, and only when he said it a second time did I realize he was greeting me, and I hurriedly greeted him back while apologizing. It would be some time later before I realized why he had greeted me.

The path was once again steep and devoid of human activity for the most part. The two pictures above were of the stairs that I took part of the way. They were steep and dangerous once more, but at least they were stairs. Here's a video of the path and the surroundings I walked through, taken at 11:28 AM.

The path reminded me of the way I felt when I was walking along Tashirojima's deserted pathways, except that this time I knew there were tons of others on the same mountain as me. If something did happen to me here I could at least count on help arriving in time.

There were a few abandoned buildings and stuff like that along the path I walked too. I didn't think much of them, but I suppose they would be a sad sight to take in.

I came to a fork in the road which would prove to be my 4th big mistake of the day. I actually took a video of this fork, this was around 11:32 AM. The sign in the video clearly said to follow that particular way to a shrine, which would also likely lead me back to the main path, but I continued on in my mistaken belief that down was right and went downwards.

I must admit though, the path this time round was an actual road, so it wasn't so bad going down it, the steep stairs were early on and I was descending anyway. It was clear however somewhere I had gone wrong once again, but I didn't really mind since it was still the morning and I had planned to make Mt. Inari the main highlight of my time in Kyoto. I had estimated I would take no longer than 2 hours for the round trip up and down, and I ended up being way wrong thanks to all the mistakes I made. I wasn't in a rush to go anywhere else afterwards at least. Here's a video I took of part of the path after I left the fork.

Imagine my surprise when I exited into this residential area. I knew for sure that I had taken the wrong path somewhere. Still, my friends had mentioned that they also exited into a residential area before, so while I was a little shocked, I wasn't too worried.

I did walk for a while and couldn't find a proper way out, so I decided to look for someone who could help me instead. I found an ojiichan tending to some plants outside his home with a dog, so I asked him for directions. He kindly informed me that getting out of the district would be an almost fruitless endeavor taking quite some time, and that I was on the opposite side of Mt. Inari from where I had entered via the main entrance of the shrine. That was quite something to take in.

A little more discussion and querying ensued before he told me it would indeed be best to return the way I came, so I thanked him profusely and retraced my steps. At the place where I entered the residential area, I met two white guys who had also taken the wrong path that I had. We had a short chat where I advised them about not entering the residential area. One of them had a phone out and said that Google was telling him to walk along the base of the mountain to go back to the main part, an 18-minute walk. They did invite me to join them but I said I wanted to find out where we went wrong, so we parted ways as I climbed Mt. Inari for the 2nd time that day.

I reached the fork without incident, and went up the way to the shrine so clearly indicated by the fork's sign this time. I soon met a Japanese guy coming downwards, and immediately asked him about the way up. His response was that I was on the right path but "この階段はまだしばらく続く" to which I could only react to with an expression of laughter and pain. We both knew what that meant for me - another extremely tough climb. I thanked him for his info and help and began the second steep climb of the day, thinking to myself I didn't come to Japan for this and yet here I am.

These were part of the steep staircase and other climbing hazards I faced while re-climbing. At least, they had railings here. It wasn't as tough as the first time up but I still had to take one or two rests here and there huffing as I went. The picture was taken, once again, halfway up this particular flight of stairs as I paused to rest, so it's an upward and downward view. It was exhausting to have to do this twice in a day, to say the least, as I definitely wasn't used to it.

I exited at what I've been told is the halfway vantage point, where there were lots of people taking a rest, at about 12:05 PM. Finally, I could heave a sigh of relief, as I was back to the main path at last and there was (almost) no danger of getting lost once again or taking the wrong path. Here's a video to commemorate my reaching the proper halfway point. I also took a short break here.

I made my way down slowly despite the somewhat late hour for lunch, and came across this friendly cat above. There are indeed quite a number of cats scattered throughout the mountain, which was what was also told to me by the lady with the cat. It's nice to also see them here.

As I descended I came across a number of shops. I bought a shirt I thought looked nice and fitted me well at one of the shops, which I'll feature in the loot post after blogging about the entire trip. I also bought a small charm before all these shenanigans, when I first reached the place.

One of the things I've always wanted to try after seeing it in anime was amazake, and I was glad to finally have the chance to sit down for a cup. This cup was ￥500 at the shop I had it, with a very friendly obaasan informing me they only had warm amazake left, which was exactly what I wanted anyway since I don't take cold drinks. It was lovingly sweet but not overly so, and quite the refreshing drink to have after the ordeal.

I had a small chat with her as well and we were both in agreement that Kansai people were friendlier than Tokyo's. Her exact words were "知らんふりをする" when people asked them for help, damn.

After that I made my way back to the start point, where I finally did the coin toss and prayer. I waited for a small group of students approaching with their teacher, who explained what to do and I listened in so I wouldn't make a mistake. I followed his instructions of tossing the ￥100 coin (which I obtained as change from one of my purchases), 2 bows and 2 claps with a final bow while making the wish. Scratch that off the bucket list.

I returned to Kyoto Station from Mt. Inari and went looking for a rather late lunch (about 1 PM). I wasn't too bothered by now on what to eat so long as it was filling, so I went inside some 定食 restaurant and ordered a soba + tatenoko (bamboo shoot) rice set for around ￥1200-1300, it was quite fine and more importantly, filling.

Continued in Part 3

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 5 (Fushimi Inari Taisha) Part 1

I ended up not sleeping well throughout the night and got up with my alarm feeling tired, partially because of the hotel environment. I didn't really like how many gaijin were there making noise throughout the night. I went down at slightly before 8 for breakfast as the sign said that the congestion times were most likely 7-8 AM.

That ended up being the first big mistake of the day. There was a large crowd, though I suppose being able to find a seat did mean it wasn't fully congested. It was a Western-style buffet breakfast and didn't really taste that good either, except for the milk and minestrone soup. I didn't bother with pictures, and rushed to finish as soon as possible so I could get out of there to rest a bit before heading out at about 9:15 AM.

I reached Fushimi Inari Taisha (hereafter referred to Mt. Inari for reasons that will become apparent) by about 9:40 AM latest, and began to see where to go and what to do. One of the main highlights would be tossing the coin into the prayer box before making a prayer, but by the time I found it there were not only a lot of people there, but once again I had run out of ￥100 coins, so I decided to return later once I had bought stuff off the tourist traps uphill and obtained some change.

There were huge crowds my gawd, both of the international kind and the school trip kind. I suppose the timing was just bad since it was still spring and the time when schools around Japan made their trips to Kyoto. If I had come during the sakura season (it was almost over when I got there) or Golden Week (it was the week after I left Japan) it'd be unimaginably worse. I started climbing amidst the sea of humans, trying not to bump into people and hoping for a way out of the masses. I actually took 3 short videos of the squeeze but decided to just save 1, and you can view it here.

Now here was where I made my 2nd big mistake of the day. I saw the torii gates heading downward at one point and got confused. I thought they were supposed to keep going up to a fork in the road where I could then take another path upwards to the mountain peak. There was, however, a very small side path of gravel that seemed to go upward branching off from the main route, and a gaijin made his way up the path, with a sign that said there was some shrine there too, so I decided, why not? Maybe this was the correct way, since it looked to me at the time that it was the only way up. The picture on the right above is a picture of the small shrine that was further down the path when you follow it.

Climbing on the path at first seemed like a really good decision. The number of people immediately dropped drastically to almost none, and here's a video I took of the initial part of the path showing its lack of popularity. There were no torii gates here, only small shrines, and I suppose that should have been a red flag in and of itself. I liked the scenery though as well as the lack of people, and I don't think I've climbed a mountain (or anything that could even be remotely called a proper hill) for decades, so I was enjoying the trek honestly.

The above pictures show part of the path after I left the small shrine, the number of people eventually dwindled to nothing, leaving me alone on what I could only call a mountain trail, though it wasn't anything dangerous or difficult. Here's a short video of some part I passed showing what I guessed to be bamboo at around 10 AM.

It was truly like a mountain trail though, with slippery muddy slopes and steep stairs, which accounted for the lack of people around. That did however make it better for me, the serenity of it all was calming after the huge crowds, but by now I knew it was truly not the main path.

I reached a midway point of sorts I suppose, where I actually saw cats! There were some buildings that people obviously lived in, and some cars. There was an old man and I asked him politely about the way up to the mountain top, and he pointed me in the right direction, saying it was about another 20 more minutes of climbing.

I persisted onward despite the revelation that I was not on the main path and came onto a rather steep and dangerous flight of stairs, where one wrong step would definitely end up in an injury in a part of the mountain no one was in, so I was very careful here. Even so, I made good progress in terms of time, but I had to rest a few times because it was such a steep climb and I was truly huffing hard by the end of it.

These two pictures are of the same flight of stairs that I had to climb while panting really hard in the process. I paused in the middle to take a picture of the way I had come and the way I still had to climb. The pictures don't show the winding steep stairs that I had already taken up to this point, and the continuing climb upwards.

The guy had said 20 minutes, but when I finally reached what I could only guess was the side entry to one of the main paths going up to the top, I was like, "No man, 20 minutes is for you folks accustomed to the climb, damn that was really tough for me." I believe I took about 25 minutes but I couldn't be sure at the time.

The main path of course took me to the top, but wow what a climb. It was definitely quite the experience for sure, and I was messaging my friends throughout wondering where it had all gone wrong, but hey I got to experience a different side of Mt. Inari, and quite frankly it wasn't half as bad as I would have people imagine it was at the time. At least I skipped the crowds. Here's a video I took around 10:39 AM after exiting the side path. I reached the peak not long after this video.

A map drawn on the whiteboard at the peak showing the actual main routes, two of them, forming a loop you were supposed to go counter-clockwise or clockwise in. I didn't follow either route on the way up or down.

I rested for a while at the top and had a look around. There was a shrine up there but I ended up not praying at it. I did pay respects with a bow at a lot of mini shrines on the way up, there were tons of them off the beaten path. I didn't take pictures as it would be disrespectful, and most of them were of the same types of statues anyway.

I believe this was where I exited the side path onto the main path at last. It was a treacherous trek indeed, but I did take it as a good experience for the future. I was careful throughout not to make a slip since it did mean I would have no one coming to assist me should something happen.

I started descending and 10 minutes later came upon a shop that was selling some matcha ice-cream wafer. It was nice to have a cold snack after the harsh climb I undertook, and once again I sat here a short while enjoying the wafer and taking a break. Here's a video I took as I started my descent around 10:50 AM.

It was also here that I asked the shopkeeper about the routes, and he brought out a map showing that there were only 2, meaning I had truly taken a side path. I believe the side path was only for mountain hikers or locals, and therefore was unused most of the time. That meant I had strayed off the main path, which was already obvious anyway, GFDI. I thanked him for the info and continued my descent.

Continued in Part 2

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 4 (From Izu to Kyoto) Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Yeah giving me two beds is a bad idea I'm not the kind of person to want to sleep on either or both, though I did make temporary use sometimes of the second bed.

I got off at Kyoto and the very first thing that hit me was "my god the number of foreigners". I had booked a hotel very near the south of the station and found it almost immediately, a mere stone's throw away. I checked in with some computerized system that was new to me and pretty advanced, though the staff were on hand to help just in case. I got to my room, which you can see partially as well in Part 1, and it was pretty modern and a nice place of stay, or so I thought at first. This was when I could finally sit down and update my journal.

I chilled for a while in my room exploring the amenities. The biggest surprise was that the TV could connect to Youtube, and also had the nice function of checking both the hotel's restaurant and laundry congestion status. I later found out a lot of hotels have these functions now (excluding Youtube apparently). I was planning on doing my laundry at the hotel for the first time since coming to Japan, so that was pretty convenient.

I decided to head out to Kyoto Tower after finding out it was nearby, somewhere north of Kyoto Station. I found the place with a bit of trouble due to the route Maps gave me, and the entrance was itself a little out of the way. It was ￥900 just to go up the tower wow, that was a little too pricey for simply going up to see a bird's eye view of the entire city, which ended up being nothing much for me anyway.

The admission ticket for the tower. They were having a collaboration with Hibike! Euphonium so the girls from that series were all over the tower.

Here are 4 videos I took of the view from the tower, each of a cardinal direction. Excuse the shitty video-taking skills please.

Video 1 / Video 2 / Video 3 / Video 4

I spotted this Buddha statue from far away and decided to try to maximize my zoom to try and take a shot of it. Using a phone proved to be a futile attempt for such an endeavor.

I had been given recommendations to go to a famous ramen chain known as 天下一品 (Tenka Ippin) by Japanese acquaintances so I found one near where I was at dinnertime. I took a look at the menu while outside and decided to go for the ￥1200 set of chahan (fried rice) and ramen.

It was great stuff, the chahan might not be as good as what I might be able to find back in SG, but the cheapness of this entire set combined certainly made that a moot point. The ramen and dashi were both excellent. It was in a form called にっとり, which apparently means thick and full of broth according to an explanation I was given by my JP acquaintance. I highly recommend trying this set from 天下一品, it's worth the price.

Right after that I immediately scouted out the route to Fushimi Inari Taisha, another highlight of my trip and the whole reason I came to Kyoto for. Seeing as it was just 2 local train stations away, I decided to simply recon the place and took the train there.

Getting off, anyone would be immediately be hit by "This is Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine" vibes. The pathway to its entrance you see above was practically right outside the station. They knew what they were doing building the station here.

It was obviously a little late when I went in, but I was simply here to look around and scout the place a bit before my formal entry and climb tomorrow. I also took pictures of the map of the area that I ended up not using because I disliked having to zoom to see the map clearly. It was also of little help in what would be my toughest day throughout the 12-day trip for reasons that are a little unexpected.

Even with the rather late hour at evening time, there were still a lot of people milling about, mostly tourists of course, coming out of Fushimi Inari. There were some school kids as well, like those you would see going for their school trips to Kyoto. At this time, I could only imagine what a crowd it would be the next day for me.

The picture of the map. Looks rather simple to follow right? Well, it ended up being useless for me.

I returned to Kyoto Station and looked for a 7-11, and finally found hot milk tea for sale there. Bless the hot drinks section of 7-11, it was rare as hell to find honestly, and vending machines that vended hot drinks too. Hot drinks are so much easier to find back here in SG. I also decided on buying a slightly more expensive tiramisu dessert instead of pudding just to give it a try.

I had both back at my room and damn their milk tea is something else! So nicely blended together, and it being warm certainly helped in the cold weather. By this time I no longer complained about the cold since it was something I got used to and enjoyed compared to the blazing oppressive heat of SG. The tiramisu was very nice as well, and I made it a point to buy more of it through the trip when I could.

Then it was the grueling wait of 2 hours and 5 total attempts to try and get a turn at the washing machines to do my laundry. My god, this was the entire reason I blacklisted the hotel - too many foreigners here and everyone trying to use the same things together. When I finally got my turn, I discovered I had run out of 100-yen coins to operate the machine with because I didn't know they only accepted 100-yen coins, and was saved only by a random guy who came in looking to use the machines. I changed my 50-yen coins with him and started the washing before going back to my room where I could finally have a shower.

Once the laundry was done, I didn't even dry them since I was using the machine without a dryer, as the combined weight of my clothes would have been too much for the ones with a dryer. I resolved to save up 100-yen coins for this sort of situation from here on. I had to hang the laundry all over the room in all sorts of weird places and positions, but part of the reason I was fine with that was because I had another night at the hotel.

During one of the attempts I had a chat with a woman who mentioned they were checking out Japan because her daughter might head on over to the place to study. There was also a time when I saw what I assumed to be a school trip group of high school students, and one JK thanked me when I signaled to her that the lift behind her, which she hadn't noticed opening, had arrived, lmao.

Upon my final return to my room for the day, I relaxed and updated my journal before sleeping, finally ready for the climb tomorrow.

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 4 (From Izu to Kyoto) Part 1

Shot above of the morning view from my room. A fine おはよ to the surroundings too.

For my first time sleeping in a futon, it was pretty nice, though the room and the futon was a bit too big for me. I also woke up thanks to the overwhelming heat the futon provided me, wow the blanket covers were seriously no joke. Maybe I should've opened the window throughout the night to let the cool air in, they had a mesh window separating the room and the outdoors so I could definitely have done that.

I did fall asleep again after that, but the covers were too strong for my taste and I finally got up slightly before my 7 AM alarm. I prepared and cleared my stuff as I could throughout my morning routine before going down for breakfast a little earlier than the time I had previously informed them.

I was afraid of the huge course once again but I needn't have worried. Part of the reason I woke early was to ensure I would make in time for the train to Kyoto at Mishima, and another reason was breakfast. If it were something like yesterday's dinner I knew I would take a while to finish. Luckily, it wasn't as much. Here's a video of the kawadoko view from the restaurant at breakfast.

Nice array of stuff and I reached before they were ready to introduce it all to me. The soup has mostly vegetables in it and was very fresh on top of its clarity in taste.

The fish and stuff were for grilling, while the box had mainly seasoning you would add to your rice. I didn't take much of them. The stew or whatever it was in the upper right corner of the part with rice was absolutely fantastic, it was mild, tender and extremely easy to eat with a taste that seemed out of this world for something like that.

While eating, I asked if they had a service to send me to the station. I knew that they had one from the bus stop to their ryokan, so I wasn't surprised when they said they had none to the station (half an hour's bus ride would mean at least 15-20 minutes of car ride), but they did agree to send me to a nearby bus stop, which would already save me some walking, so I gladly accepted their offer.

After finishing breakfast, I was a bit more used to going back now to clear my things and check everything before checking out, so that I wouldn't leave anything behind by accident. I waited a short while in the lobby at the appointed time since they didn't want to send me to the bus stop too early. Buses and trains arriving and departing exactly as timed is something that other places could definitely learn from, you could plan entire trips around them.

I had a small chat with the person who sent me to the bus stop and got "日本語上手" for the first time since coming to Japan, lol. It was a rather formal sendoff at the bus stop too with lots of "ありがとう" and bowing on both our parts.

First view of the hotel I stayed at in Kyoto. This is the view I would have when I entered the room.

The bus stop was some distance away from the ryokan and not the same one I had alighted at the previous day. The view of the mountains was a little breathtaking from there, so I took a video of the mountain tops while waiting for the bus.

I took the bus back to Shuzenji Station and went straight to ask about the tickets back to Mishima, it turned out that the tourist information couldn't even give me accurate info compared to what I already knew and did from yesterday. I bought my ticket and got on the train after allowing the train staff to clip it, and got to Mishima without incident. The tourist info staff did talk to me in English though, but we mostly conversed in Japanese anyway.

On the way back to Mishima, I saw Mt. Fuji in clear view and not from a plane for the first time since coming to Japan. It was, the least to say, a huge surprise since I didn't even plan on looking at Mt. Fuji. I was unfortunately not in a position to take pictures or videos of it since I was on a local train.

The bathroom, quite like the one back in Sendai, was relatively rather small and knocking the wall while showering was a frequent thing as evidenced both by my own knocks and the sound of others knocking on their walls as they showered.

Reaching Mishima, I decided to eat around the station since I didn't want to have to look for ekiben, not that the place had any that seemed to sell ekiben anyway. I saw a ramen shop almost immediately after exiting the station and immediately went to it to have a look, since there was little time to waste. It was the kind with a ticket vending machine, and it took me a short while to figure out and prepare the coins, but I got tonkatsu ramen for just ￥550 and a further ￥220 for oolong tea.

After going in I tried to sit at a table but the staff immediately stopped me, saying I was alone and should sit at the counter. At least they told me where to put my luggage. The reason why I wanted to sit at a table was to avoid putting the luggage in anyone's way. The luggage did topple some signboard off some canisters or something, but that was on the staff, not me. The dashi was great as usual, and it was of course rather cheap. I forgot to take a picture of it by the way.

Another morning view of the surroundings from my room in Yugashima Tatsuta.

I then went to the JR office to reserve a seat on the sks to Kyoto, and discussed my options a while with the staff who attended to me. He told me to check my luggage size which fitted the dimensions stipulated by the sks companies and that I had no need to reserve a seat for oversized baggage since I could simply put it on top. I did it anyway out of worry, but couldn't get a window seat. I got on the train just in time, but my aisle seat was right beside two white folks with a ton of baggage.

It was a damn long journey of 2 hours and 40 minutes from Mishima to Kyoto, the longest train ride till this point I've been on yet. I was pretty tired by the end. I also tried putting my luggage on the top rack at one point and the staff was right, I could. Weird that I couldn't do it when I first came to Japan but I bet it's because of the different trains; maybe the train I was on when I first came just happened to be an outlier.

Throughout the journey the 2-man seats in the same row were empty so I eventually took one. The conductor of course questioned me but this time I was ready since I'd experienced that shit once, and he let me go after I gestured to my actual seat.

And luckily for me, the train passed by in clear view of Mt. Fuji, so much so that I could take 2 videos of the dormant volcano. My Japanese friends were telling me when I told I was looking at Fuji-san that even locals said it was difficult to get clear views of Mt. Fuji due to weather conditions on most days.

Video 1 / Video 2

I didn't really want to take more than that as Mt. Fuji wasn't one of the reasons for my trip, but I was glad I could get to see it with my own eyes. It just isn't the same looking at it via videos. Here are two more videos though of the mountains that we passed by during the journey that I felt were nice enough to shine a spotlight on.

Video 1 / Video 2 / Video 3

Notice how the clouds overtook the peak of the mountain in the third video. I saw that and thought, "This is definitely nice enough to want a video of."

Continued in Part 2

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 3 (Yugashima Tatsuta) Part 2

Continued from Part 1

I took a chill pill till dinner, which I had also booked at the ryokan itself alongside breakfast. Here's a video of the view from my room.

I had heard good things about meals at a ryokan and wasn't about to miss out on the experience. Yugashima Tatsuta also boasts of a concept of "kawadoko", which is sitting by the river while eating to enjoy the tranquility as you eat, apparently the only ryokan in Izu to do so.

At dinner time, I went to the basement restaurant and was directed to my seat by the same attendant who had helped me with checking in. My seat had a kotatsu built in, damn that was nice. The atmosphere of sitting right beside the river too brought with it a certain type of natural charm that can be difficult to find nowadays. Here's a short video of the view from my seat depicting the concept of "kawadoko", which is eating beside a river. Fantastic experience.

The attendant introduced all of the dishes to me and most of them flew over my head since it was all in Japanese, though I did recognize some of the dishes he described. The menu is the top picture so feel free to have a look at it enlarged. Appetizers were good, just not fully to my liking. Grilling things myself was a little different than the usual, and it actually felt nice to have to cook part of the meal yourself, albeit very little cooking of course. The grilled food was sizzling hot and that definitely added to the enjoyment factor in the cold weather.

What I had the most respect for though was the kinkanzake (金柑酒 or kumquat sake). It was sweet to the point of it being like a fruit juice, yet mixed so well with the alcohol that it tasted like a very well done cocktail. Such goodness could only be homemade. I asked the Japanese attendant about it and it seemed like the itachou (chef) there made it personally, and of course it couldn't be found outside, so I was right on the money. She told me they would have to tag additional costs on if I ordered another and that it would come in a 600ml size, which I knew I wouldn't be able to finish at all, so I had to give up on the idea. I should've asked if it was in a bottle though, then I could have brought that home and wouldn't mind paying for it.

Next up was the nabe or hotpot as we call it. Locally sourced vegetables and chicken were boiled in front of you to make one of the best hotpots I've ever tasted in my life. It was all very fresh and the dashi (soup) was really excellent. I drank too much of it though.

When the attendant who brought me the nabe explained the dishes, he also mentioned that rice would be coming and could be soaked in the soup, so if I wanted to have that, I should leave some soup. I forgot in all the sumptuous thrill about that little piece of advice, though it hurt me in a way I didn't imagine at the time.

Next up was a tempura dish of local vegetables rather than shrimp. It was also very good though I would have preferred soaking some in that soup. Then came the rice and the attendant also refilled the soup, which I was relieved about until I realized that by drinking so much of the soup earlier, I would be too full to finish the rice as well as the soup that had just come. It was a harrowing journey to finish all of it.

During the appetizer part I was messaging friends and contemplating on how delicious the meal was, then one of them said, "No it's a full course", and this was definitely not the way I wanted to find out. Even though I hadn't actually eaten any snacks since lunch, I would still have loved to be mentally prepared to come and enjoy a full course meal.

I was serviced by the Japanese attendant throughout the last part of my meal. There was an English speaker behind me and the first attendant was attending to him in English. I also met with the Indonesian who had brought me there and greeted him enthusiastically. I didn't get a chance to thank him again though for the day.

I came dangerously close to being filled to the brim and almost finished all of the rice. They then asked if I would be fine with dessert and I was like "bring it on". Dessert was very good too, two pieces of different citrus fruits and that creamy stuff with the strawberry on it. The onigiri you see could be taken back to my room for supper, and I did just that since I knew I wouldn't be able to finish them. A 1.5-hour meal in total, I definitely wasn't expecting that, but it was time and money well spent.

I went back to my room to watch videos, update my journal and chill in general. The idea was to wait for enough time to pass so I could go for a night bath undisturbed. Here's a video I took of the night-time view of the river. It wasn't super dark but I doubt the scenery could be seen on the camera of my phone.

It was also here that I used a Japanese toilet system for the first time and boy, now I see what all the rave is about. I would want one too if they weren't so expensive to install.

I was finally able to go take another shower and a soak at Gekkabijin late at night and jeez, that felt really good. Here's a video I took of Gekkabijin by night.

Back at my room, I decided to retire earlier since I was apprehensive about getting to the station on time for my train ride to Kyoto, which was next on my itinerary, but that's a problem for the next day.

In closing, I highly recommend Yugashima Tatsuta as a place to stay for at least one night, maybe two if you're up for it. I booked it for about SGD250 in total or so for one person, which is a reasonable price for a 1 night stay complete with both meals that are so luxurious and 4 private onsen (I only used one because I was only aiming for Gekkabijin) that you can use at any time so long as they were unoccupied by others. I highly suggest coming here in spring and autumn, as winter might be a bit too cold for some, though that could be amazing for others.

People have been asking me if I felt like going back to Japan now that I've gone once. I can't answer definitively about most of the places I've been to in my trip, but for Yugashima Tatsuta? Definitely worth a return, to try out the other onsen baths and for the food once more. Reservations are available online via Expedia and Booking.com I do believe, and getting there is a bit of a hassle, but follow the instructions from the video I linked in part 1 about the whole place and you should be just fine. There's a direct train from Tokyo to where you would take a bus as explained in the video, so anyone planning to stick around Tokyo might want to consider taking 2 days and 1 night out for this ryokan.

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 3 (Yugashima Tatsuta) Part 1

I woke up feeling less rushed this morning as I knew I would not have to leave so early to catch my ride back down to Tokyo Station. It was a similar breakfast to the previous day, but I could eat more and it definitely was more filling. After that I went back to my room to finish preparations for leaving and checking out, and some chilling.

Once again, I walked from the hotel to Sendai Station instead of taking the subway. Leaving at 8:45 AM was an early choice compared to the train's departure timing, which I've already forgotten but perhaps around 9:30 AM or later. The distance was about 800m worth of walking but honestly it didn't even feel that far and I didn't really walk at a fast pace either, though that was largely because of my oversized and old luggage. The wheels could only go one way and it was of an old design. Considering it was passed to me free though, I can't complain, I can only live with it.

A last shot of Sendai Station to commemorate my stay here because I may never come back again.

Reaching the train station early also allowed me to find the platform I was supposed to go to more easily, but I then goofed up when I was waiting for the train because I didn't know at the time how to look for the carriage number (or car number) I was supposed to get on, and ended up far from my seat. I had to rush and get on just in time and left my luggage at the rear of the car.

Getting to my seat some idiot already was there with another guy, and I say idiot because this dick took my seat instead of sitting in his in the middle. Since it was a 3-seat row, I had the unfortunate booking of the aisle seat, but the ass took it instead. I didn't insist seeing as he was obviously Japanese and probably mistook the alphabets or didn't look at them clearly, and not that it made any difference to me where I sat if it wasn't the window seat. At least the ride back itself was uneventful, the window guy closed the shutter to sleep and I napped a bit as well.

Arriving at Tokyo Station, I went straight for something to eat in the station itself. I purposely timed my next ride to be at least an hour after I arrive, so that I could find time to eat something warm and not have to rely on ekiben. I settled on some ramen stall inside a GRANSTA department, which I believe is one of their larger departmental store chains that somehow also serves food, though I could be wrong. It was a decision based largely on how quick I could finish the food since I had to make the train for sure.

The torisoba ramen (basically chicken ramen) ended up being nice for what it was, and that was quite the surprise. At ￥950 it was a bit on the expensive side but still cheaper than the same thing in SG, and what's more it was pretty decent. The soup got better as I ate. No regrets.

After polishing off the ramen, I went to my train platform and waited after checking my car number properly this time. I wasn't about to repeat that mistake. Here's a video of the Kodama 725 (I think it is a video of it anyway, I don't remember) coming into the train station. This is the train I took and it was the most spacious yet of the few sks trains I took so far. My seat was right in front of the oversized luggage space at the back. There was no one else in the same row, so I moved to the window seat after we set off to enjoy the scenery and take a video of that.

The amount of leg space I had was staggering.

After the next stop I got startled by the train conductor who asked me why I was in that seat when no one was supposed to be there, like he came out of nowhere almost. He did warn me to move back at the next stop since there would or might be people coming on and I simply nodded. An oops moment but understandable request. In the end though, no one came on to take the seat at all till I alighted at Mishima with its great scenery.

Mishima isn't a major station compared to Tokyo but because it has sks running through, I suppose it could still be called one. It has no dedicated parts to shopping or whatever though, being what one would surmise as "more remote" though it wasn't actually the countryside or anything. I asked for the JR office and went there to confirm my way to the inn. I had to buy a separate ticket, and it was a little confusing for me at the time, the staff that I talked to didn't seem happy at talking with a gaijin either, which was of course a little off-putting but not incomprehensible. At least I was talking to him in Japanese. He did assist me fully with the ticket and stuff, so I was grateful for that.

I waited outside the supposed train that was to depart until I was sure it actually was the train I needed to get on, and you could see the age and the condition. This truly was an old train more reminiscent of the ones likely to be seen in the countryside.

It was a long ride to Shuzenji, the last stop for the train. A funny moment occurred during the ride when I tried to put my luggage on the upper racks and decided it was too risky, and had to bring it down because it wouldn't fit fully and there was the danger of it sliding and falling. An old man told me to adjust it while I was looking at it but I simply decided to take it down and put it in front of me holding it since, as I told him, "it's heavy". It was a lighthearted atmosphere and I knew he was trying to help.

Every room in Yugashima Tatsuta has a name and I was obviously unable to read mine. Maybe I should have asked.

Alighting from the train wasn't the end of the trip. I still had to take a bus, and I knew all this because I had previously watched a video of Yugashima Tatsuta, which had all the details. I immediately asked for the way to the buses and got directed there by the ticket staff. The bus was departing soon when I got there and swiping Suica worked, so I was thankful for that because I wouldn't know how to calculate the fare otherwise.

It was a long ride of about 30 minutes. I was actually afraid of missing my stop but it turned out that there would always be announcements of the name of each bus stop, and they weren't just in Japanese but in English too. I was like, damn, even though this is a semi-rural place, they even got announcements in English. As someone else later pointed out, tourists must come here often enough for them to need it, because the whole town looked like it was half-rural. Even the aunties gossiping and talking were pretty much what I expected, just that hearing them IRL made it so much more refreshing.

I had a little bump off the bus as I tapped my Suica where I had tapped it in like we would do back here in SG, but it turned out they had a different tap point for departure. Weird but fine. When I got off, some other guy who got off too and obviously wasn't Japanese asked me, in Japanese, where I was headed and I told him. He was surprised and said he works at Yugashima Tatsuta, so he brought me there through a shortcut.

A view from my room window of the river down below which the inn takes its concept from.

We chatted throughout the way there in Japanese, and I found out he's an Indonesian working there for 3 months now. It was a nice conversation and he was really friendly. We reached faster than I thought we would thanks to the shortcut and I really should have thanked him more profusely. I reached the inn and checked in, with all the explanations in Japanese given by someone whom I also assumed to be Indonesian as well.

It looks like foreign talent are being hired in large numbers now in the hospitality industry here, but they really can't help it if the locals don't want to do the job and if they also need actual English speakers to deal with the foreign crowd that would inevitably cross their borders and surge into their hospitality industry.

I reached my room, which was the same floor as the lounge and entry point. It's listed as the 5th floor of the inn, but you wouldn't know it since you would think it's the ground floor when you came in. The lowest level is the basement where we would have our food at the restaurant of the ryokan, and rooms are available through 6 floors. Here's a badly taken video tour of my room.

Amenities provided by the ryokan which I didn't use except for the towel. That on the right is the whole key they give you, that thing the key was attached to was heavy. Maybe it's because they don't want you to forget it. The view outside the room was quite lovely indeed though.

I settled in real quick and unpacked things that I knew I would need, getting more used to this by now. I checked the site provided with a QR code to see if Gekkabijin, one of the 4 private onsen available at this ryokan, would be unoccupied, but it was taken at the time. Waiting for a bit, I grew bored and decided to simply head down to another onsen beside Gekkabijin on the same floor. This was the main highlight of coming here and I wasn't about to let the opportunity slip to enjoy my baths.

Holy shit, the moment I got there, the elderly couple that had been using Gekkabijin got out, and it turned to unoccupied. What luck! I went in and immediately took it for myself. Here's a video of Gekkabijin I took.

Entrance to 月下美人 Gekkabijin, or "The beauty under the moon".

Man it was a good cleanse and shower with a most excellent soak after, what with the whole place to myself I only had to ensure that I didn't enter the bath all dirty. The entire stone bath had enough space for something like 3-4 people for sure, so monopolizing it felt like a guilty pleasure. I stayed in there just long enough to enjoy the reprieve from the cold weather, and thought to myself, "遇えてよかった".

After that, I went back to my room to update my journal. I also took the chance to open the section of the window that I could fully and sat there on the ledge enjoying the fresh air, nice breeze, river sounds and cool weather, which I was already getting accustomed to after the trial by fire (or ice) of Tashirojima. It was calming and soothing, with no sounds of cars or other modern thingamajigs to pollute my ears. Being able to sit by a window simply staring out into space and enjoying the breeze like that was something I've always wanted to do, and doing it here made it all the more enjoyable in such natural surroundings.

Continued in Part 2

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 2 (Tashirojima) Part 2

Serenity is sitting on top of a stone looking absolutely stoned and not caring about the world at large.

Day 2 Part 1 Link

There were a mother and daughter back at Shima no Eki that weren't there before, and I had actually heard them not long after getting off the ferry. An obvious gaijin (foreigner) woman was also there with a Japanese woman, and the mother asked the woman about them both. It turned out that the woman had just made friends with the gaijin, and informed the mother the other woman was on a solo trip. So am I, I thought, but I didn't say anything. The mother then went on to say "すごい" because of course, what else would she say?

I do think the mother was so stereotypical in the way she spoke, completely like any Japanese obaasan you would expect of her age. Her daughter couldn't have been more than 15 or so too, so she must be quite a number of years older than me. It was interesting to hear her speak and say things to the cats, so to speak. Nothing out of the ordinary, it was just refreshing for me to hear her style of talking in person.

I left after a while of enjoying the kitties and the antics they were up to with the few others at the cafe in order to ensure I would make the last boat at Nitoda at 1:55 PM. Most of us who had gotten on the first boat were also there at the same port. Though we could have got on it at Odomari at 2+, it would be a little silly as Odomari's area had no cats and everyone was largely here for them. Here's another short video of the view from Nitoda Port, and here's one of See Cat arriving for its last departure from Nitoda Port for the day.

The seas were much rougher on the way back, but this time I was in the warmer lower deck where there were better seats, and the waves splashed against the windows instead. The rocking didn't bother me as much, though I did doze off and then get woken up by it at some point.

When we arrived back at our initial ferry terminal, everyone rushed off the boat for the next train back at Ishinomaki Station, which I already checked before we arrived and found out it would be leaving in some 16 minutes at the time of our arrival. I was like, "What's the rush? We'd definitely make it." Still, I did quicken my pace just in case. We all made the train with much time to spare, and the ride back was uneventful. I dozed off again on the ride back.

Upon arrival I once again had to head to the JR office to book my tickets for tomorrow back to Tokyo Station, and also past Tokyo Station to Mishima Station for my next part of the trip. The queue, as always, remained long, and this should be something tourists should keep in mind. There's a way to book them online but I never tried it, and it's unknown just how convenient that is or if it even works properly compared to queuing up and reserving tickets. I'm sure if you have oversized baggage that can't fit in the upper racks, going straight to queue up for help at the counter would be a lot more helpful.

I went looking for dinner after that, and it was still early so I could finally decide to eat at one of the few places that were in the restaurant section of Sendai Station. I realized that every major station in Japan had these a bit later on.

I stopped in at Grill Minoru, and wanted to order gyutan (beef's tongue) as a side since it was Sendai's specialty, but alas, they were sold out. The gyutan alley selling that specialty had way too many people so I was quite turned off from eating there. I went for the next best thing on Grill Minoru's menu, a hamburg steak set, as shown above, and after eating the hamburg I can now see why this is so highly regarded as a great dish. The meat was so tender and lovely. The fried stuff are oysters, and I believe everything cost me a bit under ￥2000, and this also marked the first time I paid for everything in coins exactly in Japan as the coins were piling up by this time.

As is the custom while I was there, I went to 7-11 for some pudding and got a cold milk tea from the hotel's vending machine for supper. I had a shower around 6+ but waited till 8+ before I went for the public bath. Unfortunately two others were already in there, and I had no choice but to demonstrate the pathetic lack of bath etiquette I had. I hope I didn't offend them. It was harder to soak this time round with eyes watching, but the bath definitely still felt good. I was definitely looking forward to the private bath time I would have tomorrow at a planned stay in Yugashima Tatsuta.

And that's the second day, stay tuned for the third! It will likely be split up into two posts again, thanks to Tumblr's 30-images/links limitation.

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 2 (Tashirojima) Part 1

Day 2's highlight was also one of the main highlights of my trip - a long journey to an island off the coast of Sendai, one of the designated Cat Islands of Japan, Tashirojima (田代島).

In what would be an early start to a long day, I woke up to prepare at 6, then went for breakfast at 6:30 AM. Due to how rushed I was, I couldn't even enjoy it. There was a handout at check-in that made me believe wrongly it might be ramen, despite having booked what I knew to be a breakfast buffet. It turns out the ramen was for some night-time snack for free instead, if one chose to order it. The buffet itself was just decent, nothing special, I didn't eat as much as I could because of the fear that I might not make it in time for the first ferry to Tashirojima. It was filling enough. I departed at 7 AM or so, and almost missed my train as I was unfamiliar with train stations and the area. It turned out that I got on the same manga train as the video in which I first saw for Tashirojima and the one which would eventually make me decide to choose Tashirojima as my Cat Island of choice.

It took an hour by local train to reach the area where the ferry terminal was, so it was quite some distance away from Sendai Station. There were lots of shaking but nothing different from SG's MRTs, but the train was forced to emergency brake at one point, adding some 10 minutes of delay or so. I was fretting over whether I could make it for the first ferry.

There was also a Japanese couple who ended up talking throughout the journey till they alighted, as well as a group of school boys who made quite the racket when they got on. People saying that Japanese trains are quiet clearly mean the majority of people are quiet, because in the end, there will always be people who do things out of the average.

When I got off the train, I was immediately smacked hard in the face by the wall of cold. The temperature showed 8 degrees Celsius, a temperature I was entirely unaccustomed to. Adding to that my natural weakness against the cold, a jacket alone definitely didn't cut it. I walked speedily to the ferry terminal, a 10-minute brisk walk away. The tickets were easily bought as the machine also had English instructions, though a staff member also stood by in case and helped me with some stuff, passing me a sheet with last boat timings and a map. I noted the early hour of the last boat's departure from Tashirojima. It was then a short wait before boarding the See Cat, which is in the picture above. You can also see a short video of me walking to the See Cat here.

I went up straight to the top deck in this freezing weather, what a genius idea that was. I knew the risks and I still took them. It was very loud though, due to the air-conditioning compressors and what-not machinery. The winds were constant up there, and it was just cold as hell. Nice views though, but the bitter cold.

The boat picked up people first from the ferry terminal I got on at, then went to another nearby ferry terminal to pick up more passengers, and a bunch of what I assumed to be male workers came to the top deck as well, shattering the noisy peace I had. They were there mainly to be able to smoke and chit-chat, though from time to time one or two tourists would also come on deck to take pictures of the surrounding sea view.

It was a generally gentle ride to the island, and I took what photos and videos I could in the cold weather. Here's an extremely ill-advised video I took under almost freezing conditions. I suspected that the wind chill temperature was close to 0 Celsius. Freezing my ass off was an understatement.

The ferry first stopped at Odomari, a less used port on Tashirojima. This port is more popular with anglers, and this could be seen from the number of people holding fishing gear and the like that got off. We then moved on to Nitoda, the port with more cats and the one generally meant for tourists to the island. By the time I got off the boat, my fingers were mostly numb thanks to the unrelenting cold.

The island itself isn't super big, but it also depends on what one would want to see. For cats, there's actually only a region of the island where they're more likely to be found, and the signs pointed to "More Cats" on the left and "Less Cats" on the right (towards Odomari). Naturally, I took the left path. Here's a video of the view of the sea from the island at one point, showing how quiet the island actually is.

I saw quite a number of cats almost immediately, and others were also going up to them and all. Much to my dismay, my fingers were so cold that most cats would simply move off at so much as a touch, but there were a few that eventually allowed me to stroke and pet them. These communally owned cats are definitely not like the abandoned strays back home I'm used to, and most didn't really enjoy the petting. Feeding is not allowed by tourists as the islanders do feed the cats and any extra might hurt the cats' health.

I walked a whole ton on the island throughout the morning till the time I had to leave. There were also long pathways with no cats, so one should keep that in mind if one wants to visit the island. I looked for a toilet not too long after I arrived, only to find that I had to walk all the way back to Nitoda Port for one, so going before you get on the ferry, or right after you land at Nitoda would be a good idea. Toilets are few and far between on the island.

If I remember rightly, this kitty in the shot right above allowed me to pet it for a bit. All the cats on the island have names and the islanders can clearly tell them apart, especially ones nearer the cafe which I'll talk about shortly.

Cats at a fork in the road with one path going uphill. In the early part of the residential area right after leaving Nitoda Port, you can often find a few or several like these spread out across the landscape, minding their own business.

These were some lovely kitties I saw, though there were definitely quite a number who also needed medication regularly, due to fights that occur between the cats. They're communally owned and allowed to run free on the island, so they would, in a sense, be no different than strays that have to defend their own territory fiercely to avoid being bullied by other cats.

More kitties that I saw while exploring. Truth be told, I was aiming to reach the island's cafe, Shima no Eki, by lunchtime as I had seen from the video I linked early in the post that lunchtime also meant feeding time for the cats at the cafe, which would be quite the sight in person.

This lovely cutesy allowed me to pet it for quite a bit and enjoyed the petting. Ah, to feel the warmth of a cat...if I could feel anything through my numb fingers that is. I was grateful it allowed me to pet it at all, that was how cold my hands were.

I reached Shima no Eki at about just after 11 AM. There were already people there gushing over the cats, and I took a while to also enjoy the sight of cats milling about the outside seats, or generally enjoying and relaxing themselves outside the cafe waiting for lunch. I then went in and ordered a kitsune udon for ￥770, which turned out to be hot and good, just nice to warm me up for a bit. I sat inside for a while since I didn't want to leave the cafe's warmer atmosphere, and I was also a little tired from walking and had to take a rest.

It was after 11:30 AM when I went outside after asking the owner about their meal-time, to which he looked at the clock and replied "Soon". While outside waiting, I took a short video of the cats on the tables.

One of the cats kept trying to get into the cafe, and it actually succeeded once while I was eating. The cat in question was named Subaru, and I knew this because when it got inside, it was discovered by the cafe shopkeeper/owner who then picked it up saying "だめだよすばる", to which it meowed and he replied "いいわけじゃない". Amusing, to say the least. Here's a short video of Subaru making one of his many attempts.

There were quite the number of people coming for both lunch as well as the cats' mealtime. Anticipation was definitely high in the air. The owner was finally ready and brought out a large pot of food that he had cooked for the cats, after laying out the split bamboo poles you see in the picture above that are used to hold the cats' food. Here's a short video I took of the number of cats eagerly awaiting their lunch as the owner prepared their bowls and stuff.

Needless to say, feeding time was a frenzied affair. The cats all rushed the poor owner for their food, and there were some small fights here and there. Injured cats were more readily seen here, and the owner also came out to put medication on some of them before and after feeding.

At one point there were cries of "かわいい" all around and the owner went "You're all going this is kawaii but to me it's actually scary" and everyone laughed. It was true though, the way the gang of cats just simply rushed to his spoon as he tried to scoop out the food onto the poles was a little harrowing. I wouldn't want to be in his position, and he has to do this daily. It was a lovely atmosphere overall though, and some of the cats were also eating on top of the tables and being petted by others.

Well fed cats sitting around enjoying their post-meal relaxation time. There were easily 40-50 cats in the area.

More relaxed cats sitting directly in front of the cafe. You can see them through the windows from inside.

I sat right in front of this lovely kitty and took pictures of it, sadly by the time I remembered to take photos it was clearly interested in something else in the distance and wouldn't look directly at my camera. The fur is so lovely though for a communally owned cat.

After staying there for some time, I decided to keep walking on in search of the cat shrine I had seen in the video, and not too far from Shima no Eki, I came upon it. Of course, I simply asked for permission to the spirits that might be in the area for a photo, which is shown below. It would be rude otherwise.

I then continued on to Odomari Port, and all along the way there were no cats to be seen after leaving Shima no Eki. There were times where I would simply stand there alone on the path after walking a distance, listening to just the howling wind and the rustling of the trees, and realize just how quiet and far away I was from civilization for the first time I could remember. This was the kind of tranquility that I had wanted to escape to, even for a short bit, and it definitely seemed almost mystical to me in the way it all seemed to come together. A most serene and almost other-worldy experience, I would say.

The view of Odomari Port as shown in the picture above. I had already realized quite long ago there were no cats to be had, and by this time also understood that I had seen all the island had to offer me in terms of cats, so I made my way back to Shima no Eki to enjoy the remaining time I had left with a place I knew that at least had cats.

Continued in Day 2 Part 2

[pantherazuredevil]

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 1

My flight to Narita airport, Tokyo, Japan, was scheduled at 12:50 AM on Sunday the 16th, meaning I had to be there on the night of the 15th. That Saturday, I ate with relatives at the airport, and then later met up with 2 friends who've been to Japan regularly to get some final advice and some chats.

It was the first time I would be on a plane in 27 years, and my memories of flying through turbulence were not very encouraging. The wait was certainly tough, after my friends had gone home and I was inside the transit area. I found out at a late time that I was missing a SIM card opener for my phone, in order to use the SIM card I had bought for use in Japan. Luckily, I managed to get a paper clip for free at some bank branch inside the transit area. That did the trick.

The plane I boarded had one too many kids, honestly. In the waiting area it seemed as though I might be bombarded within the plane with crying kids, a prospect that is always upsetting. Thankfully, that didn't happen, probably because it was so late at night.

We boarded the flight almost on time, and for the first time in 27 years I once again felt the rush of takeoff and an ascent through vertical space. Needless to say, I don't really like the feeling, but it was perhaps nice to finally experience it again after so long despite the unease that I was practically putting my lives in the hands of the pilot moving this thing.

Unfortunately for me, there was coughing throughout the entire flight nearby. Some guy must have had some illness that he contracted right before he was scheduled to fly, and decided not to waste his money and instead expose people to the dangers of a possible infection. Can't say I like that.

I was also stunned when food was asked to be served at 2 AM. My row of seats had no one due to the late hour of the flight so at least that was something good. Their inflexibility of meal times kind of annoyed me since I didn't know it would be like that, but I was already onboard anyway. The meal itself was pretty good though - butter chicken curry. It was actually nice to eat food like that and it didn't taste like shit like I thought it might. Microwaved for sure, but that didn't take away from the joy of having a late-night meal, something I haven't done due to concerns over cholesterol for a very long time now. It warmed me up.

There was irregular turbulence throughout the flight, but nothing too bad compared to what I had experienced in my young years and I was somewhat mentally prepared, though still stressed. It was also hard to sleep, what with the tight space and the difficult sleeping positions. The meal certainly didn't help. I managed to get some sleep at least, and woke to a lightening sky. It's been years since I last saw the sky from above at sunrise, and it was certainly a beautiful sight. No photos however, because the ones I took were blurry and deemed unfit for use.

A welcome surprise did await me - Mt. Fuji could be spotted from the plane. I took some photos but due to its distance they didn't come out too good, though this shot certainly looks like a painting of some sort. It was visible for quite a while too so I took a few more.

While flying near Narita, the low cloud cover over land surprised me to no end, it was certainly much lower than what I was used to in Singapore. Landing was smooth, and there wasn't much to be said about it.

Getting through immigration did take a long time due to the queue, but thanks to getting procedures done ahead of time on the site Visit Japan Web I was able to get through smoothly. My luggage had already been taken off the conveyor belt and was waiting for me, which would have been unthinkable in SG.

I came out of the arrival gates and sat down to change my SIM card, and had a bit of a problem though I got it working in the end. Then came the rush of having to move around getting things while fearing I might lose my way as a first-timer. I got my JR pass from the JR office (and learned they were called 緑の窓口 that way) and reserved some seats on the shinkansen and Narita Express (NEX) for the first time. NEX reservation would come to bite me in the ass later.

The ride on the NEX to Tokyo Station was pretty much uneventful, though I confirmed so many things that were common in anime were in fact accurate representations of Japan, though, I mean, duh. I was too tired to fully enjoy the scenery though, lack of sleep and all.

I reached Tokyo Station and what a massive number of people. Even if it was expected, it still overwhelmed me a little. I moved quickly to simply find an ekiben for the shinkansen ride, it was just for the experience. I did find tons of shops in the basement or something selling them, so I bought one that I thought looked good for ￥1200 (12 SGD) and rushed for the train to try and make it on time, which ended up being a good idea as I wasn't familiar with the train timings and how uncannily punctual they are.

At my seat I thought no one would sit beside me, but I ended up having some uncle take it up, just casually taking out newspapers and reading them with nary a thought for my side or feelings. Oh well, I was too hungry to care in the end even if it killed my mood. I still ate heartily as it had been some 10+ hours since my last meal at 2 AM. I was also thirsty, but I had been in too much of a rush to buy a drink.

The view on the way to Sendai was pretty good. I dozed off here and there though. My baggage also ended up too big for the upper rack, which was a real bummer as it was definitely within the dimensions stipulated by JR. I had to stack it with others' luggage and was quite embarrassed having to trouble them about it.

I reached Sendai after about 2 hours on the shinkansen (hereafter referred to as sks). Getting out of the gantry I tried looking for a drink and a way out, the stations in Japan are vastly different from the ones I'm used to. I did get stuck in the JR queue again getting a Suica card though, because I couldn't get one from the machine despite having watched a video. No idea why but the option to buy a new one didn't come up at all, but perhaps I didn't press all the buttons possible.

I ended up walking to the hotel I was staying at, which was 1 local train stop away. It was nice to finally be able to settle down in a room and write about my experiences and unwind a bit. I unpacked a little, had a drink and relaxed.

A small room but that was to be expected.

I rested a bit before dinner, and went out to look for a store nearby to eat at, according to Google Maps. It turned out that the store was no longer there, a seemingly common problem with Maps. I saw a McDonald's and 7-11 nearby and figured I didn't want to take the trouble of having to find food for the first day, what with a throbbing headache and all, so I just went straight to McD and ordered a double cheeseburger meal. It was about the same price as in SG but the size was bigger, so I'd say it was perhaps a better deal? Comparatively anyway. It tasted roughly the same.

I went to 7-11 as it had been noted as the best konbini (convenience store in Japanese) in Japan. Lawson may be more famous but that's all the anime tie-ins. Things were so cheap there. I bought a packet of wet tissue (that I'm still using) for ￥100 and a pudding and some apple juice. I also starting my farming for coins as I'd already heard they would be used a lot here.

I was able to relax again after dinner and also took a real shower for the first time in 2 days. There was a public bath just for men so I went and soaked as well, wow that was 気持ちー. I'd never soaked in a hot bath or hot spring before so it definitely was a pore-opener. I was in there for almost 10 minutes, and there came another guy so I decided not to stay too long. I purposely chose a time when I thought there would not be many people as I was afraid of breaking etiquette or doing something rude.

Back in my room, I had the pudding that I always saw in anime and now I see why it's praised - a great jelly-like texture with some firmness and a sweet flavor that doesn't overpower the taste buds. Imagine a premium pudding. The apple juice was just average.

After this, I decided to go to bed early to prepare for the next day, which I had to wake up early for. Day 2's main event would be Tashirojima, otherwise known as one of the main Cat Islands.

[pantherazuredevil]

Preface to my Japan Trip 2023 Posts

I'll be prefacing my posts about my trip to Japan in mid to late April 2023 with a small introduction about the circumstances I went there in and the stuff leading up to it.

First off, I had been to Japan but I was only 4 years old at the time, so this might as well be my first ever trip, since it's been a whopping 36 years since I last went. Things have obviously changed a ton, and I won't deny that they've not been, for the most part, for the better either, both in Japan and here in Singapore.

In 2018, I was supposed to make a trip to Kyuushuu, the southernmost island (and one of the 4 main islands of Japan) for EVO Japan 2018 (a fighting game competition), but I basically chickened out at the last minute since I was just disinterested in heading there for a competition. I even got sick on the day I was supposed to fly. My aunt lent me a luggage that I would eventually use for this 2023 trip.

Since 2003 or so I've been interested in anime and Japanese culture, though it was after some 8 years or more of watching anime and learning slowly by picking it up via subtitles and matching them to the sentences and sounds in scenes that comprised the bulk of my learning. I learned Hiragana and Katakana and practiced them a little in actual writing as per Nama-sensei's Youtube series on Japanese, and quite frankly I would recommend this route as a free and probably better method to learn at least the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets.

In 2015 I managed to barely pass JLPT N2 and also practiced it in typing and conversational skills with Japanese players in Final Fantasy XIV over a number of years from 2014 till 2023. There are still Japanese people with whom I randomly became friends with and still remain online friends till today. Unfortunately, I could not get to meet them this trip due to real-life concerns on their part.

This does mean I'm at least able to hold a conversation in Japanese for the most part, I just didn't practice speaking at all as it's not required for JLPT, so my intonation is, as you might guess, quite off. I had no problems understanding people for the most part in Japan, however.

This solo trip was more motivated in part with an attitude of "if you don't do it now, then when?" I'm not getting any younger in years - I'm hitting 40 this year. Since I've been interested in Japan for so long, I figured it was high time to just throw caution to the wind (or at least where going there was concerned) and simply plan a solo journey to the places that I've seen online (rather recently I might add) or places of interest I've heard from friends who have gone. And that's what led to this solo trip to Japan in April.

I kept a journal of the things that happened there because I know memory is a fickle thing, and thus by writing down what happened each day and the thoughts that I had in a journal, it would make it easier for me to recall what I was thinking of or doing at the time, and on each day as well. This also allowed me to be able to not have to post about every day at the end of each day as I was there, alleviating some of the stress that would otherwise be accumulated by having to update social media about the day's happenings before I forget.

There might still be some lost information due to memory loss here and there, but the gist of most of it should not be lost in translation, if you get what I mean. I must thank TheFuzzy for assisting me greatly in planning my entire trip, especially with regards to booking accommodation and making sure I had time for whatever I wanted to prioritize the most, and other friends who have chimed in with advice.

This has ended up being a long introductory post, but I hope it has given you the information you require before I begin posting about each day as it happened. Be reminded that I've already read a lot and learned a lot about Japan and its culture before I went, and was thus very aware of the acute problems I might face in some way, which will tie into some of the thoughts that you will see in the posts, some of which will not be very savory, as you might guess.

I hope you will enjoy reading about the trip and my comments as I take you through the journey. This is also my first blogging in a large number of years. I'm hoping to get back some semblance of the spirit of writing as I've been out of touch in terms of writing and blogging for years now. May you enjoy in some small way what I have to offer. My posts will come daily or sometimes twice a day, depending on the volume of things I have to write for the day(s). Cheers.