Mick West

We had heard that you have to take your shoes off a lot in Japan. I even got some slip-on shoes (Clarks Privo, very nice). But actually, excepting the Ryokan, there were not that many places on the stay where we did. Here’s the list:

1) A Japanese restaurant in Kyoto, on the street up to Kiyomizudera, we had to sit on cushions. Delicious food.
2) Nijo castle in Kyoto, where you get to walk on the “nightingale floor” in your socks.

That’s it! Or course in the Ryokan you have to change slippers ever five feet, but if you are not staying at a Ryokan (or someone’s house), then I’d really not worry too much about it. Brad advised us to favor comfort over ease of removing, and I totally agree. Luckily my shoes were both comfortable, and removable, just make sure you break them in. You walk a lot in Japan - even if you taxi everywhere, the temple-type sites are big, so good shoes are a must.

I wrote about buying the ticket, but what’s the actual experience of taking the train like?

First up, look at the ticket:

Not a lot of concessions there for the non-reader of Japanese. This is actually the ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo, although pretty much the only way I could remember was to look at the date. But really the ticket is quite straightforward. The first two lines are not important, the bulk of the information is in the middle four lines. Which say:

Kyoto->Tokyo
(date) 3/30 (time) (12:06) (arriving)(14:26)
(train number) 304 (car) 8, (row) 6, (seat) C, nosmoking
18,160 yen, 7980 for the ticket, 5,030 for reserved seat, 5,150 for green class. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in the airport right now, with about three hours to go before the plane leaves. On the way here I was thinking of some of the odd things that I might simply forget if I left it a few days.

The Japanese seem very organized. At Starbucks in Shibuya there were people working the line, handing out menus in advance, the taking them off you, as they were also on the countertop, then when they took your order, another little line formed, and someone managed the whole line, looking at your reciept, and getting your drink when it was ready and shuffling you off.

Traffic organziation is highly manpower intensive. Every little building or site entrance has at least one person with a red illuminated baton who will stop pedestrians to let out cars or trucks. Sometimes there are several of these, and they rotate to form little corridors to alternately let pedestrains or cars through. Sometimes you see life sized screens with an animated figure of a flag waving man. On the way to the airport I saw an animated wooded figure that was waving a familar red baton back and forth.

ISO 9001 seems a source of pride. Companies hand banners outside their offices or factories, proclaiming “ISO 9001!”

As you depart on a bus, they bow to you.

I forget the rest.

So a few days ago, we passed by the famous Shibuya crossing, where there is this famous statue of a dog called Hachiko.  This statue appeared in the Amazing Race, so we were keen to see it ourselves.  It’s quite easy to find, here it is behind us.

Then this morning, we were were reading the morning paper, and were horrified to discover Hachiko had been stolen! 

It took us quite some time to figure it out. But then I remembered the date: April 1st

I’m very tall in Japan. The only people taller than me are other gaijin. But nobody ever looks at me oddly. I feel like the tallest person in Tokyo, but I’m only 6′2″.

Taxis seem very expensive. It’s 660 Yen for the the first 2Km, but all our trips seemed around 2000 Yen. The drivers seemed fond of taking obscure back streets.

During the day it seemed hard to get a drink. I’d just want a beer. The best bets would be hotel bars.

Food is generally quite reasonably priced. You can get a very nice lunch for 1000 Yen.

It helps to think to 100 Yen = 1 dollar, even though it’s more like 115. It just makes it easier to visualize how much things cost.

The weather was very variable. It was hot and cold, sunny and rain, all within the last nine days. Today was really hot. Yesterday was freezing.

Cherry blossoms are cool. People take tarpaulins to the park and sit under them. The blossoms start falling almost as soon as they arrive, so you are in a little snowstorm of pink.

The Shinkansen was not very crowded. Nearly empty on the way to Kyoto, and less than half full on the way back.

We should have got a JR pass.

It would have been better if we stayed another two days in Kyoto, and used that as a base to visit other places.

Walking is a good way to get around, but really it’s a bit a waste of time and energy to walk anything over a half mile unless there is something on the way. Get a taxi. Your time is valuable here, and we got too tired too often.

The trip on the bus from Narita Airport to the Hotel is no fun. A taxi would be very expensive, but would at least leave immediately, and not have to go to other hotels first. The train might well be a lot quicker, but I’ve no idea how much fun it would be.

Museums were hot. Like very hot, like they had the heating turned up to 80. This is no fun when you come in from the nice cool outdoors wearing a coat.

The Shibuya area is a lot more fun than the palace/Ginza area. If you want a brief intense Tokyo experience, stay in Shibuya or Shinjuku.

Ginza is boring during the day, much more fun at night. The same can be said for many areas.

Take lots of photos! You will forget half of what happened if you don’t write it down or take photos. Take a photo of everything! We took 1,200 photos, about 1000 of which are not particularly good, but they still help document the day, so when you come to attempt to recall what you did, you have these useful points of reference.