First impressions of Japan
Japan had been top of my (and my husband’s) want-to-visit list for years, and I’m so glad that we were finally able to make it happen. We just got back from 10 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and we’re already thinking about how we can finagle a trip back!
I will admit that I didn’t do the best planning for this trip: although we bought our plane tickets early, but then I procrastinated on booking accommodation, activities and restaurants. And with our recent house purchase (and a long list of improvements we want to make!), we were a little less inclined to splash out than we initially thought we would be when we booked the trip. Even without breaking the bank, we still had a fantastic time and really fell in love with Japanese culture–one thing that was really helpful to flip through before our trip was this great little book on culture shock that my mom gave us. Lots of posts coming soon with more specifics about what we did, but wanted to plop down here basically what I’m telling my family and friends now that we’re back.
The most incredible toilets in the world
I know it’s weird for me to talk about bathrooms this much (I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned here my dedication to our Squatty Potty), but it truly made an impression on me. First of all, every single public bathroom I went in was absolutely pristine. All of the public toilets had bidets, and many had a little button you could push to make a flush noise (can this be standard in office stall bathrooms?!). All of our hotel bathrooms had seat warmers (what a joy) in addition to even fancier bidets and deodorizers built into the bowl. One that really blew me away was in our Tokyo Airbnb: there was a faucet over the back of the toilet, and when you flushed, water came out of the faucet and over a deodorizer. You could use that water to wash your hands before it went down to fill the toilet basin! And it made the room smell nice! It was a win-win-win and very eco-friendly. Coming back to the old, gross bathrooms at LAX was truly disappointing. And also…I’m gunning to add fancy toilets to our list of house improvements, ha!
Easy and efficient public transportation
Taxis are super expensive in Japan, and the only Uber options are the fancy black cars. So! We took the bullet train between cities, and also used the subway and bus plenty. I’m a big fan of taking public transportation when traveling in general since it’s usually cheap AND gives you good insight into a culture. People queue very respectfully to enter the train, and every train car is so nice and quiet. Even though I feel pretty confident in my navigation abilities, I found the subway systems especially easy to navigate: all of the station names are listed in English, and often they make announcements in English as well. I especially loved the signage in Osaka: they have station numbers along with the name, which makes it so much easier to track progress and remember your stop. Similarly in Tokyo, the little digital screens show you how many minutes there are until the following stations on the route. The one thing I didn’t love about Tokyo was that there are actually two independent subway systems, which can be a) confusing and b) expensive if you need to transfer between them because you have to buy two tickets.
The food was great (even though I don’t want to eat ramen for at least another month)
Sometimes I get overwhelmed into inaction, and making restaurant reservations was one of those cases. There were just so many options and all of the websites were in Japanese and I just couldn’t pull the trigger on anything. Even so, we still ate so much good food: lots of sushi and ramen and rice balls! When we go back to Tokyo again someday, having one fancy blow-out meal is definitely on the list.
…and I recognized more restaurants than I expected
One of the most surprising things to me was how many restaurant names I recognized. I have an especially hard time with fish or noodles for breakfast, so we did seek out Western options in the morning: we went to Tokyo outposts of our New York standards Sarabeth’s and City Bakery, and I was thrilled to spot bills, my favorite Sydney brunch spot. I was most surprised to see a Buttermilk Channel opening soon: this brunch spot was just a few blocks from my office in Brooklyn, and this is just their second location! It led to so much speculation on my part on why this happens: Tokyo doesn’t seem like a natural next step in restaurant expansion, but maybe there are things I don’t know!
They are keeping tangible items alive
There are so many beautiful and well-stocked book and record stores: I was blown away by all of the glossy Japanese-language magazines and CDs and books. For a country that also seems on the edge of technology, it seemed like they loved physical goods and to support arts and culture.
People are so nice and respectful
Even though there is definitely a language barrier, we were blown away by how nice everyone was to us. We spoke basically zero Japanese (hello! thank you! cheers!) but everyone we interacted with, from waitresses to train conductors to people on the street, did their best to help us when we needed it.
I need to go back for cherry blossom season!
I felt like every guide book was taunting me every time they mentioned Sakura matsuri: “this is a great park for cherry blossoms,” and this a “beautiful avenue in the spring,” etc etc. My flower-loving heart dies over the fact that there is a whole season dedicated to all of these cherry blossoms! I must go!
Is there anything you want to learn about traveling in Japan? Leave questions below and I’ll answer them in a future post!
