Where To Next?

I’ve been lucky to travel to some amazing places in my short life, but Tokyo is special to me.

It was the first place I traveled to without my parents.  It has every convenience and activity you could want in a metropolis but the safety of a small town.  I never feel like I’m in danger, and that’s priceless for a female solo traveler.

If I could change anything it would be the cost of using the subway.

I spent my three days in Tokyo in the nearby city of Kawasaki, Tokyo Disney, Asakusa, and Kagurazaka.

I didn’t take many pictures…

I just wanted to pretend that I was a Tokyo resident for a short time.

Who knows, maybe I’ll move there next?

Don’t worry, I’ll get to the naked guys story before the end of the post.

Shirakawa-go is a stunningly beautiful village in Gifu prefecture.  I’ve had a fascination with the thatched roofs on the houses in the village for some time and now I can cross seeing them off my bucket list.  The area gets a whole lot of snow, which the skiers love but the tour guides don’t, and the roofs are supposed to last against the snow for several winters.

The roofs get changed every 20 or 30 years and the cost for changing one roof is a whopping 200,000 dollars!  Some of the houses are more than 250 years old.  Many of them have been turned into guest houses, restaurants, and souvenir shops.

on the way to the village

I went on a bus tour that the hostel owners recommended, mainly because I got a discount as a hostel guest.

The village itself is smaller than I thought it would be.  We spent about two hours there, and had plenty of time for great pictures.

Later that day, I took a train to Gero, a famous hot spring town.  There are plenty of spas ranging from the high end in pricey hotels to free ones in the middle of town by the river.

we found a nice park with a waterfall

I went to Gero with a friend because he heard about a free bathhouse where you could wear swimsuits.  We didn’t realize it would be out in the open next to a bridge.  I didn’t have a swimsuit but I figured I could still check it out.  But as we got closer, we realized a few of the men in the hot spring were completely naked.

Yes you read that correctly, 3 of the men were just hanging out in the middle of town with no clothes on.

This is the hot spring, I didn’t get a close up picture once I realized they were naked XD

According to my friend, the water was hotter than a hot tub and the men were in and out of the pool.  I’m not sure if anyone goes out to clean it since it is open all the time.  It would probably be really fun in the winter with the snow falling around town.

We went to the town on a Monday, which probably explained why many of the restaurants were closed.  We found one yakitori (grilled chicken on skewers) place that was open and did our best to order since neither of us could read Japanese.  We just pointed at descriptions and hoped for the best.  We got two different types of chicken and what we believed was pork.  All of it was delicious and you could get three skewers for about four dollars.

I would highly recommend Shirakawa-go to anyone who loves being out in nature, anyone who loves Japanese architecture, and anyone who loves the potential to see naked strangers in the middle of town.

Takayama would be an easy town to live in.  It’s surrounded by mountains, it’s clean, it has a historic downtown area, and it’s close to the UNESCO world heritage village of Shirakawa-go.

You can stumble upon temples while taking a stroll around town and everyone living there seemed to be in a constant good mood.  They probably love the fact that it is several degrees cooler than the rest of Japan in the summer.

The mascot is “sarubobo”.  Apparently, it is supposed to look like a baby monkey.  Personally, I don’t see a resemblance but I was close to buying a sarubobo doll, it just wouldn’t fit in my backpack.

sarubobo cookies

I was surprised to see how long the train would take from Nagoya to Takayama in Gifu prefecture.  It wasn’t a great distance, unlike Tokyo to Osaka.  But as we started to pull away from Nagoya station and got closer to a hill, I could see why a train should probably go slow.

The tracks wind through small towns carved into the sides of the mountains.  This is not a place for bullet trains.  The trains teeter along and make few stops.  The ride is slow enough to allow passengers time to enjoy the gorgeous views.

The area is less developed compared to metropolises like Tokyo and Osaka.  I didn’t see any construction cranes or giant shopping malls.  I did see people fishing in the river and walking to the gas station.

It must be quite a trek to get to the nearest large city for the people who live here.  But I would imagine the views are well worth the inconvenience.

Crowded, fun, loud, all of these words fit Osaka.  It has all the hustle and bustle of Tokyo with a little more spunk.  Osaka even has its own dialect, but I couldn’t tell you what makes the dialect different from standard Japanese.

I only stayed in Osaka for a day and a half and the heat was getting to me so I only went out at night.

The most well-known street is Dotonbori.  You can find Osaka specialties like takoyaki (fried octopus cooked in balls of dough), okonomiyaki (savory pancake with any ingredient you can think of), and a billion people taking selfies.

The next night, I was lucky enough to be invited to a hostel worker’s house to watch fireworks.  We, the random assortment of hostel guests, sat out on the roof and feasted on snacks from the grocery store as we watched the fireworks.  It was a lovely end to my Osaka stay.

we ate everything

I had the brilliant idea of going to Miyajima during the hottest time of the day.  The main attraction is outside with very little shade, but I came prepared with lots of water and sunscreen.

Miyajima is an island located a short ferry ride away from Hiroshima.  The official name for the island is Itsukushima, but its Japanese nickname is Miyajima.  It’s famous for the giant red torii in front of the island, Itsukushima shrine, and deer that roam freely around the island.

I didn’t know there were deer on the island.  They lazed around while people tried to feed and pet them.  Being from Missouri, the only time I’ve seen deer was when they pranced across the road to a safe forest in the middle of the night.

Getting to the island is pretty straightforward.  If you start from Hiroshima station, just take a line to Miyajima-guchi station and walk across the street to the ferry.

an elaborate underground tunnel to the ferry station

fancy

all day in the shade

There are countless shops on the way to the shrine.  There were common themes: grilled oysters, deer phone charms, cookies, ice cream, fans, and anything you can print a picture of the shrine on.

The island was crowded with groups of kids on field trips, elderly couples on a day trip, and plenty of European and North American tourists lugging heavy backpacks.  Even with the crowds and the heat, the shrine and torii gate definitely deserves its UNESCO World heritage Site title.

When you are on the ferry, try to get a picture of the torii gate while you can.  Once you are on the island, everyone and their mom is trying to get a picture of the gate.

strawberry flavored cookie

I hope you are not reading this post on an empty stomach.

Japanese food might be my favorite food of all time, if pizza didn’t already exist.  I’ve only been to Japan twice but I’ve never tried anything I didn’t like.

I could happily eat sushi, ramen, udon, or Japanese curry three times a day.  I didn’t go for any elaborate meals on this trip, and I really didn’t need to.  Simple and inexpensive Japanese food can’t be beat in my humble opinion.

Even convenience store sushi is good

thank you 7/11 for late night sushi

Onomichi Ramen

this was one of the greasier meals

Udon in Hiroshima

Beef and rice bowl and miso soup at Yoshinoya.  Yoshinoya is a Japanese chain serving simple rice bowls and curry.  These places are great if you don’t know Japanese because you just put money in a vending machine and press a button with the picture of the food you want.

Curry Yakisoba in Osaka.  Yakisoba is fried noodles with cabbage and pork and this restaurant had a specialty where you pour curry on top of the noodles.

Beef curry in Takayama, Gifu prefecture.  It’s not the most traditional Japanese food you can get, but everyone eats it and this was the best Japanese curry I’ve ever eaten.

I would go back to Japan just for this curry

free peach juice from the wonderful owner at the curry restaurant

I’ve never seen a fried shrimp sandwich at an American McDonald’s, so I figured I would allow myself to eat fast food since it’s another “unique” experience.

classic McDonald’s

I had these lunch boxes a few times on long bullet train rides.  They had sandwiches, eel with fried rice, dumplings, and grilled fish all in cutely packaged boxes at kiosks by the train platforms.

this one came with fried shrimp

I went to a Japanese bar and grill where there was no English menu to be found so we had to just point at things on the menu and hope we ended up with something delicious.

grilled pork and onions

we were told this was teriyaki chicken

More ramen please

great ramen in Tokyo

greatest ramen in Tokyo, the noodles were perfect and it comes with seaweed!

I had perfect sushi on my last day in Japan, a fitting end to a culinary wonderland.

I’m not sure what this was but I didn’t care

when old Japanese guys work and frequent the restaurant, it’s a sure sign it’s a good decision to stop in

I miss this

And now I’m hungry

It’s famous for all things lemon flavored, cycling, and temples by the sea and it’s ridiculously charming.

Onomichi is a town in Hiroshima prefecture.  When I tried to find a hostel in Hiroshima city, they were all booked.  A quick google search of the surrounding towns pointed out that Onomichi was close by and had great views of the ocean.

There is a path that runs through the city that follows temples propped up on the side of the hill.  People ride their bikes and cars onto the ferry to get to the island across from the train station.  There are a dozen little Italian restaurants on one long shopping street.  People whistle as they ride their bikes through town.  They walk their dogs and eat snacks with their friends while looking out at the ocean.  They don’t seem to be in any hurry.

You can ride a bike across the ocean to Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s main islands.  If you are a biking enthusiast, this is the place to be.  I’ve seen several people decked out in cycling gear, looking like they are ready to hit the Tour de France.

I walked up in the hills to look in the temples once it got darker.  It was about 88 degrees instead of 95 once the sun went down.

I like his hat

lemon flavored cookie

You can take a train to Onomichi station from Hiroshima or Fukuyama, those stations have bullet trains running through them.  As soon as you leave Onomichi station, you are met by the port.  There are plenty of benches so you can sit and watch the boats go by.  I was trying to not play on my phone so much while I was there.  I felt no need to get out my phone while enjoying the sea breeze, and everyone else around me seemed content with not being glued to their devices.

It’s been five years since my first trip to Japan.  The last time I came I was 16 and I lived with a Japanese family for a month.  That trip was more life solidifying than life changing.  I had always wanted to travel, and going to Japan proved to me the dream was possible.  I wasn’t worried about being on my own in a foreign country, I was worried that my expectations of travel would prove to be too high.

But fortunately, I was on cloud nine the entire time I was in Japan, except for the one time I got stuck in the rain without an umbrella and missed my train.

This trip was only for 11 days, but there are plenty of differences from Korea that I noticed.  These are two completely different countries with unique cultures, but on the surface they look similar: largely racially homogenous, low crime rate, high test scores, lots of rice, and both countries made huge economic leaps after devastating wars.

A major difference was how people get on and off of the subway.  Japanese train passengers clear a path and let people off and file onto the train in an orderly manner.  In Korea it’s every man for himself and people start pushing as soon as the doors open.  Come on Korea, have a little patience so there’s less shoving.

Japanese women seemed liked they dressed more on the cute side with bows, frills, and lace.  Fashion is an individual choice, but there are trends.  Korean women tend to dress in a slightly more preppy way, at least that’s how I would describe the fashion.

Politeness is associated probably more with Japan than anywhere else, along with with quirky game shows.  People say “sumimasen” constantly.  It is similar to “excuse me”.  I bought two things at a souvenir shop and the cashier lady thanked me four different times while I was checking out.  Not every person in Japan is polite, but there seems to be a lot of emphasis on trying to be extra polite in the language to make sure no one is offended.

Japan also has a really nice smell.  I don’t know how to describe it, but you are met with a unique smell as soon as you step outside of a train station in Tokyo.

go Japan Airlines, the food was actually good, and we got all that food on a short 2 hour flight

little room at the Oak hostel in Tokyo

on the bullet train

leaving Tokyo…

…on the way to Onomichi