Holiday in Japan (13): reflections
April 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
How to summarise such an exciting and varied holiday?
We all agreed that the highlight of our trip had been the day viewing the majestic Mount Fuji. Often the sight of the volcano is hazy or poor or simply impossible. We could not have had better weather and clearer views. For me, the other highlight was the time at the two magnificent temples in Kyoto.
Overall, we had seen Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and ancient castles, gardens and bamboo forest, huge railway stations and amazing shopping malls. We had visited a peace museum, a railway museum and a folk village, and we had experienced a miso factory, a tea ceremony and a sake brewery.
Travelling by bullet train was a wonderful experience and trying Japanese food was fun.
Four long flights, seven hotels, a different language, a different script, a different culture, different food – Japan can be a disorientating experience, but such a thrilling one.
Quite simply, Japan is another world. Everything is neat and orderly and works. There is no litter and no graffiti. There are vending machines everywhere selling everything. There is WiFi everywhere.
The Shinkansen (bullet train) system is a marvel of engineering – very fast, very punctual and very comfortable (although with no catering facilities).
For all its embracing of technology, Japan used to be be a cash-based society, but clearly the Covid pandemic has changed that because I was able to use my debit card almost everywhere and never obtained any local currency throughout my holiday.
Japan is a conformist society. Nobody crosses a road unless they have a green light even if there is no traffic. Everything is automated with screens everywhere. Japanese timekeeping is ultra precise. Service is excellent, people are polite, there is no tipping in Japan.
Japan is an easy country for English speakers to visit because – at least in the major cities and transportation centres – so much signage is in English and instructions for things like coffee machines have an English option. There are public toilets everywhere and they are always clean, sometimes even with fresh flowers. All the toilets in the hotels have heated seats and bidet functions.
If I was the Emperor of Japan, the one thing I would change is the toilet paper and the tissue paper – it is ridiculously thin.
How to characterise Japanese society?
Japan has a fascinating history, stunning terrain and thrilling cities, but it is a seriously odd nation for foreigners to understand. The language is inaccessible and the people reserved, so that it is hard to make a connection. Everything is so ordered that it begins to feel regimented.
There is a sense of being in a theme park: everything is so clean, everyone is so polite, the advertisements are frequently so garish. There is a feel of infantilism: young women often dress like girls, women of all ages like to don a kimono, and women especially seem to giggle and smile excessively.
It is a land of obsessions: an obsession with samurai and shoguns (with no reference to the murderous 20th century), an obsession with bizarre foods (such as bits of meat and various seafoods), an obsession with certain forms of entertainment (anime comics and films, electronic games, figurines of fighting characters), and an obsession with cats (think of the brand Hello Kitty).
And always there is that sense of conformity: at school, at work and at leisure, people do not like to stand out and bully or intimidate those that do, foreigners are tolerated but not really accepted, and so few Japanese have ever left the country or even own a passport.
For the 265 years of the Edo period, Japan was cut off from the world. It is an open country now – but on its own terms, determined to stay different and even aloof and with minimal immigration and work permits.
I thoroughly enjoyed my second visit to Japan, but I could never live there: my height, my extroversion and my love of desserts mean than I would stand out too much.
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Holiday in Japan (12): return
April 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Thursday was a day of departures with different members of the Great Rail Journeys group flying off to different destinations. Those flying to London had the day free in Osaka. Four of us joined together as a Northern Brigade: Dave & Jen from Grimsby, Jenny originally from Huddersfield, and me originally from Manchester. The weather was excellent: 23C.
After a late breakfast, we walked all the way to the towering Osaka Castle and had a good look around the grounds, but we did not go inside because the queue for entry was so long. Next, we stopped at a boulangerie for coffee and cake and it was warm enough to sit outside.
We failed to find a bus tour of the city, so we took a taxi to the Dotonbori district which we visited yesterday. We explored different streets and paused for a cold drink and a snack. Again we were able to sit outside.
Another taxi had us back at our hotel about 3.30 pm. We had had to vacate our rooms, so the next three and a half hours were spent in and around the hotel, with the Northern Brigade venturing out to a nearby mall for what was either a late lunch or early dinner. The group left the hotel at 7 pm to spend four hours at the airport before take-off.
Again we flew with Emirates: Osaka to Dubai (five hours behind) in an Airbus A380 for ten and a half hours and Dubai to London (eight hours behind) in another Airbus for an additional seven and a quarter hours.
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Holiday in Japan (11): Arashiyama & Osaka
April 16th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
It was the last day of the official part of our tour (Wednesday).
Leaving Kyoto after three nights, we first journeyed to the nearby town of Arashiyama. We were there to see a bamboo forest.
The company’s description of the location suggested: “Listen out for the soothing sounds of trunks creaking and knocking together and leaves rustling in the captivating canopy above.” We couldn’t hear a thing above the noise of a throng of tourists.
It was another hour or so before we reached Osaka so our local guide Kazoo took the opportunity to explain the education system, the health system and the tax system in Japan. I’ll spare you the details.
Osaka has a population of 2.7 million, making it the third most populace city in Japan (after Tokyo and Yokohama). It has a raw, gritty feel quite unlike the rest of the country.
As soon as we reached the city, we went to the Umeda Sky Building which consists of two 40-storey towers linked by a Floating Garden Observatory almost 570 feet (174 metres) high. Actually the observation deck does not have a garden and could hardly be said to be floating, but there are grand views of the metropolis.
It was lunchtime and we were dropped at a district called Dotonbori which is the entertainment section of the city with a multitude of eating establishments. All the advertisements and crowds were more reminiscent of Hong Kong than other parts of Japan.
One of the features of this trip has been the strict timekeeping of the itinerary. Dontonbori was yet another example of us having a set time to be back on the coach with the threat that, if one missed that time, the bus would have gone because there are so many tourist coaches that officials rigidly enforce tight restrictions on drop off and pick up times.
In the evening, the group had a farewell dinner at our hotel, the Sheraton Miyako. We were served a set menu of four courses, each small but exquisitely presented. Our Tour Manager Bill and local guide Kazoo each made short speeches and I responded on behalf of the group.
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Holiday in Japan (10): Nara
April 15th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
On the penultimate day of the official part of our tour (Tuesday), the pace slackened, when we did not leave our hotel in Kyoto until 9.30 am and we were back at 3.20 pm. We were out of the city all day.
At a place called Fushimi, we visited a sake brewery called Kizakira. This proved to be much more entertaining than one might have expected as a result of the manager talking to us being an atypical Japanese, loud and exuberant. And, yes, there was a tasting session.
As we drove on to Nara, our local guide Kazoo attempted to explain a few of the complexities of the Japanese writing system.
Japanese utilises three primary writing scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. These scripts are used in combination to represent respectively native Japanese words, foreign loanwords, and ideographic concepts.
Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic scripts, each representing a syllable. Kanji, on the other hand, are ideographic characters borrowed from Chinese, representing entire words or concepts.
Nara was the capital of Japan during most of the Nara period from 710 to 784 as the seat of the Emperor Shomu. We visited the grand Todai-ji Temple which is surrounded by a park full of tame deer.
Though it was originally founded in the year 738, Todai-ji was not opened until the year 752. The temple has undergone several reconstructions since then, with the most significant reconstruction, that of the Great Buddha Hall, taking place in 1709. Today temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Great Buddha Hall houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese as Daibutsu.
As our look around the Hall was concluding, the weather suddenly turned cold and dark and then it started to rain heavily with thunder and lightning. Fortunately, Jenny and I managed to find a French restaurant where we had a tasty galette pancake.
Back in Kyoto, in the evening Jenny & I decided to revisit the futuristic station. Now that we knew what to expect, it was not quite so awe-inspiring, but it was good to have a slower and more thorough look around, followed by dinner nearby.
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Holiday in Japan (9): Kyoto
April 14th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
We spent the whole of Monday in Kyoto. The city is most famous for its fabulous temples and, in the morning, we visited two of them.
On my visit to Kyoto in 1998, I saw four temples: Kiyomizu Temple, Sanjusangendo Temple, Nijo Castle and Nanzen-ji Temple. Today we went to a new location for me, the Kinkaku-ji Temple, and then a return location for me, the Kiyomizu Temple.
The Kinkaku-ji Temple is essentially one building – but what a building. The place is commonly known as the ‘Temple of the Golden Pavilion’ and is set by a lake surrounded by beautiful vegetation. The temple is nicknamed after the shrine whose top two floors are coated in 0.5 μm gold leaf.
The current pavilion was rebuilt in 1955 after being destroyed in an arson attack. It is a replica of a 15th century building and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Kiyomizu Temple covers a much larger area with many more buildings and I was thrilled to see it again. It takes its name from the waterfall within the complex which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means ‘pure water’.
The temple was founded in 788, so that it predates Kyoto, Many of the temple’s present buildings were constructed in 1633 on the orders of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structure. It is another World Heritage Site.
In the afternoon, we visited two very different venues, different from this morning’s locations and different from each other.
First was the site of a giant seated Buddha where we attended a Zen tea ceremony. It has to be said that matcha green tea is an acquired taste which I doubt I would ever acquire.
Then we went to the Kyoto Railway Museum which was opened in 2016, covers three floors, and has a total of 54 retired trains. Not my thing but each to his own.
The official tour was over for the day, but our guides offered to show us Kyoto Station located close to our hotel. This turned out to be a head-spinning, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring experience.
The current station was designed by architect Hiroshi Hara and it opened in 1997 which commemorated Kyoto’s 1,200th anniversary. Architecturally, it exhibits many characteristics of futurism and the main hall,with an exposed steel-beamed roof, is called The Matrix.
The place is gargantuan, with a dazzling displays of lights and advertisements and a huge number of retail outlets and eating establishments. Jenny & I had dinner here – Chinese for a change.
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Holiday in Japan (8): Hiroshima & Kyoto
April 13th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Sunday morning was at the Peace Memorial Museum which I visited in 1998.
The museum consists of two wings with an overhead passageway between them. Since the Covid pandemic, the displays have been changed totally.
The first wing is dark and shows exhibits illustrating the terrible effects of the atomic bomb, especially the long-term illnesses and deaths of children. There are horrific pictures of some victims.
The second wing is brightly-lit and sets out the nature of atomic weapons including how they were developed and who now has them. It highlights post-Cold War reductions in numbers and the more recent collapse of disarmament efforts.
The problem with the museum in 1998 and the problem in 2025 is the absence of proper context: why the Americans used the bomb and what happened between then and the unconditional surrender (which took another atomic bombing and an announcement by the Emperor).
In 1998, there was a narrative leading up to the end of the war, but it was a flawed story, particularly as regards descriptions of the Nanjing Massacre of December 1936 & January 1937 and the attack on Pearl Harbor in December.
In 2025, there was no pre-war narrative but at least some acknowledgement that not all the victims were Japanese (10% were Korean). However, it is stated that the major reason for the use of the bomb was American concern at Soviet plans to invade Japanese territory.
While this was a factor, the main reason was not even mentioned: the appalling casualties suffered by the Americans in taking Pacific islands from the Japanese and the intention of the Japanese to resist invasion of the mainline which would have caused horrendous casualties on both sides.
Both in 1998 and 2025, the strong emphasis was on the Japanese as innocent victims rather than ruthless aggressors.
At lunchtime, we were on the move again with another experience of the Shinkansen bullet train, this time from Hiroshima to Kyoto, a journey of just under two hours. Ever since leaving Tokyo, we have been travelling broadly south, but now we went up northwards.
Kyoto is the former capital of Japan and Emperors ruled from here from 794-1869. Today it has a population of 1.5 million. The prefecture has an astonishing1600 temples with no less than 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites.
We had just an hour in our Rihga Royal Hotel in Kyoto before we were off again: this time for a walking tour of the Gion district of the city. This is the oldest part of Kyoto and where one can sometimes see a geisha and always catch traditional Japanese theatre.
Unfortunately, it was raining heavily and those who didn’t already have umbrellas had to borrow one from the library.
Remaining in the city centre for the evening, we made our way to Ponto-cho Alley, a lantern-lit street filled with authentic restaurants and shops. At a restaurant called “Pontocho Suishin”,we had our most traditional Japanese food yet which included tofu, raw meat, raw fish, miso soup and tempura.
I confess that this is not my favourite kind of food, but fortunately I had a packet of fruit & nuts to eat on the coach back to the hotel.
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Holiday in Japan (7): Hiroshima
April 12th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
A week ago, we were flying out to Japan. A week ahead, we will be arriving back in London Today (Saturday), we were in Hiroshima.
Actually we spent almost five hours on an island, officially called Itsukushima (Island of the Gods), but popularly known as the Island of Shrines.
Our ferry approached at high tide so that the imposing red O-torii Gate appeared to be floating because the base was under water. The present gate is the ninth version and dates back to 1875.
The island is home to a Shinto shrine and – much more extensive and impressive – a Buddhist temple. The Daishoin Temple has multiple levels, statues and structures including a great bell.
On the hill housing the temple, Jenny and I stopped for a coffee and cake. Then, down among the shops, we had lunch of fried oysters which are a local delicacy.
We were back at our hotel at 3.45 pm and had the rest of the day to ourselves. Jenny and I decided to walk tothe nearby Peace Memorial Park in advance of our ‘official’ visit tomorrow.
The atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima at 8.15 am on 6 August 1945 and killed some 200,000. The Peace Memorial Park contains the Peace Museum and many tributes to the dead
I was at the Peace Memorial Park in November 1998 and today renewed my memories of the various commemorative structures, notably the dome, the flame, and monuments to the children and Korean victims.
In the evening, Jenny and I had another authentic Japanese meal. It is called ‘okonomi yaki’ – ‘okonomi’ means literally ‘to one’s liking’ while ‘yaki’ means ‘fried’. The dish is a kind of pancake with basic ingredients of cabbage and bean sprouts and then all sorts of additions (I had cheese and pork).
There are two styles: Hiroshima which is layered and Osaka which is mixed. Obviously we had the former and it was delicious – and filling.
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Holiday in Japan (6): Takayama & Hiroshima
April 11th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Friday in Takayama started with thick mist but the mist soon burned off to provided a bright morning for our city tour. Meanwhile our luggage went off to Kyoto and we had to content ourselves with an overnight bag for the next two days.
We began the city tour with a visit the Miyagawa morning market by the river, part outside and part inside. The market was predominately food and drink options and lots of souvenir shops but it was a relaxed atmosphere.
Our main visit, though, was to Takayama Jinya. During the Edo period (1692-1868), this was the home and administration of the local governor. Every local area had such a centre of power, but this is the only one of its kind to survive.
It is an extensive complex of rooms with wooden frames, tatami-matted floors and thin sliding walls – in its time, a place of maximum intrigue and minimal privacy.
Afterwards there was a little free time which Jenny and I used to visit a cafe for coffee and cheesecake.
The rest of the day was travelling by train: a limited express from Matsumoto to Nagoya, travelling about 100 miles south and taking two and a half hours, and then a bullet train from Nagoya to Hiroshima, travelling about 300 miles west and taking just over two hours.
The Japanese bullet train system is known locally as the Shinkansen and was first instituted in 1964. Trains travel at up to 186 miles (300 kilometres) an hour.
To most of the world, Hiroshima is simply the city where the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. To its citizens, however, it is a city with a long history (it was established in 1589 as a castle town) and a bustling modern metropolis of some 1.2 million.
Once we were checked in at the very large and somewhat impersonal ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel, we were accompanied to the nearby Hondon Shopping Arcade – which is enormous – and then left to our own devices for dinner.
Jenny and I found a tiny restaurant which served us with a set menu of 10 skewers of various foods, many of which we were quite unable to identify. There were no other foreigners in the place and nobody spoke English, so we felt that it was an authentic Japanese experience.
Sadly one couple in our group had a much less enjoyable experience when they became totally lost and took two hours to return to our hotel.
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Holiday in Japan (5): Matsumoto & Takayama
April 10th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Apparently, during our night in Matsumoto, about 1.15 am there was an earthquake of 2.6 on the Richter scale. For some of the group, the earth moved. I simply slept through it.
At 7.30 am, I had a call from Jenny wondering where I was. To be honest, I wondered where I was as well because I’d been fast asleep. It turned out that the alarm that I thought I’d set for 6.30 am was in fact on 6.30 pm.
I had to move fast to carry out my ablutions, pack my suitcase, and have some breakfast, before the coach left our hotel on the dot of 8.30 am. The sunshine and blue skies of yesterday had given away to a chillier and greyer day with, a bit later, even some rain.
We started out Thursday with a visit to a miso factory called Ishii Miso which was founded in 1868. Miso paste, which is so important to Japanese cooking, is a mixture of fermented soya beans with salt and other umami-based ingredients.
An employee explained the three- year process by which they made their special type of miso and claimed that the stuff had all sorts of proven health benefits, including reduction of the incidence of various cancers. After we had all sampled miso soup, we found that the factory shop sold miso pizza, miso candy, miso tea, miso ice cream – you get the idea.
Then, following the visit in the dark by some of us last evening, we all went to the famed Matsumoto Castle. This five-storey pagoda-style fortress is known as ‘Crow Castle’ due to its unusual black exterior. Built in the 1500s, this is the oldest remaining castle of its kind in Japan and has an impressive moat.
Climbing to the top of the castle was a little tricky. We had to put our shoes in a plastic bag, which we carried around with us, as we climbed in stocking feet up six floors involving seven sets of stairs, all of which were polished wood and both steep and sharply angled.
It was time to leave Matsumoto and travel to Takayama. We took the Mitsuboshi Kaidou Road through high forests with rivers, dams, sulphur fields, remains of snow, and lots of tunnels.
Our route traversed up to 4,600 feet (1400 metres). At this point, we stopped for lunch at a location called Hirayu where there was a bus station and a supermarket in an area of forest and snow. This is a region of Japan where there are very heavy snowfalls in winter.
On the outskirts of Takayama, we visited the open-air Hida Folk Village which has some 30 rustic farm dwellings from the Edo period of Japanese history (1600-1868). Life was tough in those days.
Takayama is the largest city in Japan by geography – even greater than metropolitan Tokyo – but 80% of the city is forest.
Our hotel for the night, the Hotel Associa, was on the outskirts of town and chosen for its facilities. These include what the Japanese call ‘onsen’. This is a hot spring in which everyone is totally naked. This hotel has both indoor and outdoor baths. I thought about it, but decided not to bother – too many rules (eight of them) and segregation.
In the evening, Jenny and I took the hotel’s courtesy bus into downtown Takayama to have an authentic Japanese meal of Hida beef. This beef is a renowned brand of Japanese wagyu, a luxury beef from black-haired Japanese cattle raised in Gifu Prefecture, known for its tender, finely marbled texture and rich flavour.
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Holiday in Japan (4): Mount Fuji
April 9th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Wednesday was all about Mount Fuji.
This is an active volcano – it last erupted in 1707/8 – that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its size, symmetry and prominence have given it almost a spiritual status in Japan. Standing 12,389 feet (3,776 metres) tall and surrounded by picturesque lakes, it is a fabulous site – if the weather is kind.
The bad news was that we could not make the intended visit to Mount Fuji Fifth Station because there was so much snow that the station was closed. The good news – far outweighing the bad news- was that the weather was glorious with clear skies and warm sunshine.
Our first set of views was immediately outside our hotel at Hakone overlooking Lake Ashinoko. In the quiet of the first thing in the morning, with not a cloud in the blue sky and with the cone of the volcano sheathed in heavy snow, we had the perfect picture in front of our very eyes.
The second set of views came when we drove from Hakone to Lake Yamanakako. Mid-morning, the weather was still totally clear and the beautiful location provided some new vistas for us.
After quick calls into the Fujisan World Heritage Center (where we saw an excellent film about the volcano) and a splendid supermarket (where we individually bought sone lunch), our third set of views was at Oishi Park overlooking Kawaguchiko where we sat outside eating our lunch.
White clouds now crowned the top of Mount Fuji for out last observation, but we were excited to have some different photographs.
This evening was spent in the alpine town of Matsumoto. A group of five of us – an Indian couple from Nottingham, an Australian woman from Melbourne, plus Jenny and I – trooped out to Matsumoto Castle, illuminated by night, before finding a local restaurant for local food.
It was one of those places where you have to removeyour shoes and store them in a locker and, since Jenny was not wearing socks, she had to go barefoot. Then the meal was served at a table just a little higher than the floor where we located our legs in a well underneath the table.
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