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Take a stroll through parts of Japan with me
Hello!
[Warning! This is a long post!]
Recently I took a little vacation and went to Japan with my sister and brother to attend our friend's wedding. However, I have a few fantastic friends here (from Aetolia) that followed me through the places I visited (on discord) and were incredibly insightful and altogether hilarious to talk to. One of them, @Alexsandor, suggested I share the pictures here.
Before I do that though, I need to thank one particularly special friend and his esteemed statue that will (hopefully) forever watch over the Duiran bridge (I -just- had to make a new statue and left it at the bridge, will decorate it later!). I don't think he will be offended when I call him an epic Japanese nerd. Aside from the itinerary my sister and I made he gave me a spreadsheet that covered so many tourist attractions all over the country, and it was even organized by subway station stops! I hope one day you get to go on your trip
Whenever I do new cultural explorations like this, I love to take pictures and make a scrapbook when I get home. So that's what I'm sharing.
We first landed in Tokyo, went to a small town close to Mt. Fuji so we can spend the night there and get nice morning pictures of it, and freeze our butts off! Then we went to Kyoto and spent the rest of the vacation there until it was wedding time.
As soon as you enter the airport, you're greeted with a few blocks that introduce you to the trade skills at the heart of the country and example blocks of them. You might need to zoom in to read that! I only took pictures of these two.
Since my siblings and I were flying in from different places, we landed at different times. So I went to grab food on the way to the hostel. I quickly learned that a lot of shop doors have these push buttons. It's polite to wait for the door to slide all the way open before entering and exiting too.
The idea of having sugar in your tea is not really offensive or even insulting but just frowned upon. You're changing the flavor and not appreciating the natural taste and benefits of it so you'll seldomly find it in places unless you ask for it specifically.
I have to say that the first really big surprise was getting at the currency exchange and getting the first bill to pay. It takes a while to settle with that amount of cash and its value.
Everywhere there is a sidewalk or a place for pedestrians to walk there is a divider that delineates the flow of traffic, people usually walk on either side of the divider. It took me a moment to get with the system because I'm the type of person who still enjoys walking on stuff like crushing autumn leaves, sidewalk dividers, etc.
Same thing on the escelators. You are expected to stand to one side so that people who want to climb/walk up faster can use the other side. Same with stairs too, you walk up one side of the stairs and the otherside is for people going the opposite direction. This is just understood everywhere and practiced!
In some places you see little symbols like this that tell you what direction the water will flow if/when it rains so you know where to walk and bike. I initially thought this was a compass and went to pick it up, then I thought it was pointing directions because I first spotted it at a bus stop but I saw more that were just little tiles in the ground so I asked someone randomly and got a nice full explanation!
(Sorry about the quality, you'll have to zoom in! I just downloaded all this off my phone and posted, no energy to crop anything.)
Most of the shops put up signs depending on the neighborhood. They're usually signs reminding you not to eat and walk. This is another cultural law because you will most likely either drop your food or bump into someone but more importantly, you're not respecting your food!
Some shops offer different "sets" of food, which are just different combos or arranged meals. This shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did considering everything else but, in a way, it's considerate.
Signing your name on contracts or important documents isn't good enough, you still need to use your seal/stamp. So people can get their very own customized seals and ink pads and there's such a large variet of bags to carry your seal in, for both men and women!
I think this is good enough for the first post!
I have a few more pictures to share in a second post.
[Warning! This is a long post!]
Recently I took a little vacation and went to Japan with my sister and brother to attend our friend's wedding. However, I have a few fantastic friends here (from Aetolia) that followed me through the places I visited (on discord) and were incredibly insightful and altogether hilarious to talk to. One of them, @Alexsandor, suggested I share the pictures here.
Before I do that though, I need to thank one particularly special friend and his esteemed statue that will (hopefully) forever watch over the Duiran bridge (I -just- had to make a new statue and left it at the bridge, will decorate it later!). I don't think he will be offended when I call him an epic Japanese nerd. Aside from the itinerary my sister and I made he gave me a spreadsheet that covered so many tourist attractions all over the country, and it was even organized by subway station stops! I hope one day you get to go on your trip
Whenever I do new cultural explorations like this, I love to take pictures and make a scrapbook when I get home. So that's what I'm sharing.
We first landed in Tokyo, went to a small town close to Mt. Fuji so we can spend the night there and get nice morning pictures of it, and freeze our butts off! Then we went to Kyoto and spent the rest of the vacation there until it was wedding time.
As soon as you enter the airport, you're greeted with a few blocks that introduce you to the trade skills at the heart of the country and example blocks of them. You might need to zoom in to read that! I only took pictures of these two.
Since my siblings and I were flying in from different places, we landed at different times. So I went to grab food on the way to the hostel. I quickly learned that a lot of shop doors have these push buttons. It's polite to wait for the door to slide all the way open before entering and exiting too.
The idea of having sugar in your tea is not really offensive or even insulting but just frowned upon. You're changing the flavor and not appreciating the natural taste and benefits of it so you'll seldomly find it in places unless you ask for it specifically.
I have to say that the first really big surprise was getting at the currency exchange and getting the first bill to pay. It takes a while to settle with that amount of cash and its value.
Everywhere there is a sidewalk or a place for pedestrians to walk there is a divider that delineates the flow of traffic, people usually walk on either side of the divider. It took me a moment to get with the system because I'm the type of person who still enjoys walking on stuff like crushing autumn leaves, sidewalk dividers, etc.
Same thing on the escelators. You are expected to stand to one side so that people who want to climb/walk up faster can use the other side. Same with stairs too, you walk up one side of the stairs and the otherside is for people going the opposite direction. This is just understood everywhere and practiced!
In some places you see little symbols like this that tell you what direction the water will flow if/when it rains so you know where to walk and bike. I initially thought this was a compass and went to pick it up, then I thought it was pointing directions because I first spotted it at a bus stop but I saw more that were just little tiles in the ground so I asked someone randomly and got a nice full explanation!
(Sorry about the quality, you'll have to zoom in! I just downloaded all this off my phone and posted, no energy to crop anything.)
Most of the shops put up signs depending on the neighborhood. They're usually signs reminding you not to eat and walk. This is another cultural law because you will most likely either drop your food or bump into someone but more importantly, you're not respecting your food!
Some shops offer different "sets" of food, which are just different combos or arranged meals. This shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did considering everything else but, in a way, it's considerate.
Signing your name on contracts or important documents isn't good enough, you still need to use your seal/stamp. So people can get their very own customized seals and ink pads and there's such a large variet of bags to carry your seal in, for both men and women!
I think this is good enough for the first post!
I have a few more pictures to share in a second post.
Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. - Khalil Gibran
7
Comments
Here's a random one before we went to an actual shrine. This one was in Fuji.
This temple was in Kyoto. I know I'm not giving all the full names, I have those on my map which will go into my scrapbook but for now, I'm a little tired, sorry!
It was sometimes really hard to get nice empty shots like this because of all the people walking so we made a list of places we wanted to go to before the world woke up, which is pretty late - usually, around 9 am is when the day starts.
This indoor zen garden is considered a little spare, compared to a few of the others we saw but its simplicity is beautiful too. You're not meant to enter it, only to observe it from the outside and meditate. Your meditation begins when you can imagine yourself sitting on the welcome bench then you can mentally explore the rest of the garden. It was an interesting exercise but the host was very nice to explain this! They also explained that these are very personal interpretations and the garden is supposed to inspire different things for everyone.
(Taking ideas for the Sentaari!)
I've learned that when you're entering a shrine or there are a few that offer ritualistic cleansing first. You dip the cup in the water, wash yourh ands, then drink from it. Then you can go on to pray at the shrines and ring their bells. This next set of pictures are from one shrine in Kyoto, inside the Nishiki market.
I like how they use pictures to explain things where English isn't available.
You would stand before the shrine, clap your hands together then pray and bow a few times -after- throwing a few coins down into the grate. It's not really visible from this angle buti t's under the box.
This is a pretty famous multi-crosswalk intersection in Tokyo. I don't remember the name of the streets, though!
This was on our way to the Arashiyama bamboo forest and the Monkey park in Kyoto. We just walked across this bridge and everyone was posing. I didn't realize what a beaituful view or that it was an attraction until then. Still, do you see that damned duck I tried so hard to keep in the picture? That was hard because I had to wait for it to move closer into view.
This is the view of Kyoto from the Arashiyama Monkey Park, on this side of the Oi river.
This was a very cool shot on our way down from the monkey park, we did get to feed the monkey's and play with them, they're not caged. _We_ had to get in a caged room to feed them then step back outside.
It took a while to get this shot because I wanted it without so many people on the path, it's nice and a little more eerie this way! (no filters)
In Tokyo we went to the Golden Temple. This place was so busy but it wasn't hard to get good pictures.
There's so much history to the Golden Temple and the three floors inside, worth googling and reading about.
There's these wishing shrines all over the temple.
The temple also had its own teahouse. The way the tour guide explained it was that it was built to face the temple so the Shogun can watch the sunset and sunrise reflect off the Golden temple while he takes his tea.
It was built this way, with the two barn-doors (I'm sure they have a better name...) so when the teahouse is open, the top doors are closed and anyone entering is forced to bow deeply as they walk in. Even the Emperor would have to on his visits.
The only reason I'm sharing this is because I was so impressed with how they treat the refugees and asylum seekers.
After leaving Tokyo we headed to Mt. Fuji, because it's a nice destination between there and Kyoto. The view of Mt. Fuji outside our hostel in Fujikawaguchiko (That's the name of the town I forgot!)
Since it was kind of hard to get a nice picture we took a bus to get closer and got this awesome shot. Totally framing this one! You guys are welcome to keep these pictures too, if you like.
For the holidays! This was outside the Kyoto subway station...
Oh! Squishy soap is amazing!!
Okay, last thing. This is the JR line. The Japan Rail line. It's a train that travels so fast, it's pretty expensive to get on and you'd need a ticket/pass to get on for one ride or get one for a whole week. The 7 day pass would have been about $250 USD but we only needed it once so it cost about $80~ USD one way.
It looks somewhat like an airplane inside. It also departs the station so quickly so you have to be ready to get off before it pulls into the station. It's usually stopping for 45 seconds or so unless there's reason to be longer.
Of course I had to visit a monastery!
This is the kind of uniform @Kalinaar and @Stathan will be wearing next time! This or pink ones.
More importantly, outside there were a couple of posters hanging that I thought were just perfect! I will, eventually, make posters like these and hang them outside Bloodloch!
and
This one reads: Now, Life is living you.
I loved this trip and everyone I met there. So much insight and introspection at the temples, it really does help give you clarity. I didn't want to leave Japan!
Hope you guys enjoyed.
2. This is -uh may zing-
3. JELLY SOAP!
It was really nice to get to see these as she was over there. She kept stopping in on discord and we'd have to chase her off to go have fun. It was nice though, given my work schedule and odd sleeping hours, don't usually have someone up at all hours to talk to.
The sushi and sashimi were by far much better than in the US. Actually, all the food was better. I'm normally lactose intolerant in the US but in Japan, I was fine! Makes you wonder what they weren't stuffing their cows with...
Very cool post, thank you for sharing! I visit Japan a bunch for work and it was fun to see another person's perspective of their visit to the country.
The first time I tried to take $200 out at the ATM I was actually trying to take $2k out and my bank was like "highly suspicious activity detected, account locked". It was fun.
These are not dividers, they are guides for those who have trouble seeing or are blind. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactile_paving for more details.
This is in Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji)
JR actually runs a huge number of trains, not just the bullet trains (shinkansen). If you get a pass it gives you unlimited rides on all of their trains. You can also get region restricted ones for cheaper.
Thanks again for sharing your journey! I think Japan is an amazing place to visit and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Thanks for explaining some of these things! You're left guessing unless you do a lot of research or ask a lot of questions or ...you find out the hard way!
ATM fun...I share the sentiment and I am grateful that the country allows for so many languages. Other countries I've been to (in the Middle East) don't really do the same thing at all.
The tactile paving wiki was a very interesting read. It's really a thoughtful thing to do. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah the Golden Temple isn't in Tokyo, why did I write that ...
Thanks for writing!