Japan - Trip Report

My First Trip to Asia

In April, I was lucky enough to take my first ever trip to Asia - spending 2 weeks exploring Japan, and grabbing 24 hours in Beijing on the way back. Me and my school friends had been talking about taking this trip for, no joke, 8 years by this point so it definitely felt a little surreal actually being there with (almost - sorry Kishan) all of them.

This trip was also a departure from my usual travelling habits - for the last couple of years I've endeavoured to avoid flying whenever I go abroad, mainly due to the massive carbon emissions flying creates (as you can see above). Layovers made it worse, as takeoff and climb are the stages of the flight with the least fuel efficiency. I feel though I have come around on the idea of flying. I'll still advocate for a carbon tax and avoid flying wherever possible, but ultimately I'm just one man and I know the general population won't just willingly give up flying when it's cheap and convenient. Change has to come from the top (and I'll continue to try and make it so)!

Anyway, moral dilemmas aside, let's get into how the trip went!

Tokyo (Days 1-7)

The trip started off with me and Syed arriving a full 36 hours before the rest of the gang and we promptly made our way to the hotel, situated in between Shinjuku and Shin-Osaka. The order of business was settling in (I was already experiencing a fair bit of culture shock at how different everything was) and then going to find a bite to eat for dinner in Shibuya. By this point we both hadn't slept in around 30 hours in an effort to avoid jet lag so by 9pm we thought it fair to call it a night.

For our first full day in Tokyo we had two goals - go up Tokyo Tower and visit TeamLabs Borderless. Borderless is a digital art museum/experience and the first time I've ever felt like I've been to an art gallery of the future, it was lots of fun. I'm sure there must be similar events over here in the UK that I've just never been in tourist brain enough to visit, but it definitely felt like a very solid choice to start the trip with.

Day 3 saw the arrival of the rest of our friends, all varying levels of jet lagged and tired from travelling themselves. We moved over to our new hotel, around the corner from our old one, and spent the majority of our time simply exploring Shinjuku. It was here we developed our claw machine addiction, which carried on for the rest of the trip. (What am I actually meant to do with all these anime figurines???) I took some time to explore the very pretty Shinjuku Gyoen Park, before we headed off to see Shibuya Crossing at night. The crossing is definitely something it would feel wrong to miss off from a Tokyo itinerary, but equally it is just a road crossing so don't get too excited to see it.

Meiji Jingu shrine was the big cultural attraction of the next day, where I learned a lot about Shintoism. We then moved onto the Imperial Palace, which was very confusing to try and navigate. After having already walked 20,000 steps and struggling to find any sort of entrance, we chose to head back and meet up with some of the others in Nakano Broadway - a very famous shopping mall for anime merch and watches. This wasn't exactly a great hit with me, someone who doesn't really watch anime and doesn't care about watches, but not to worry as our first izakaya later that evening picked my mood right up again. Here we went for our first (and only) night clubbing of the trip, in a club that was very obviously there to appeal to Westerners.

The next morning the gang was incredibly hungover and wanting to sleep in. I however find it impossible to sleep after a drink so decided to make the most of the morning and go check out Senso-ji temple. An interesting fact about this temple is it's located in Asakusa, and the name Senso is simply an alternative way of reading the kanji for Asakusa, with ji meaning temple. I then went on a certified Josh Bosman mega-walk across Tokyo whilst waiting for the others to come back to life. After walking for a couple of hours through Ueno Park to Akhibara I met up with Syed for some more time on the claw machines as well as checking out some of the shops there.

For Day 6, Syed had treated us to a pre-booked tour to see the famed Mount Fuji from all the classic tourist viewpoints. Of course in typical fashion it was grey and cloudy the entire day and we didn't see it even once. The day was still good fun though, and I've got to say the Eight Seas of Hoshino were very pretty, although overrun with tourists. I'm part of that problem though so who can complain.

TeamLabs Planets was the order of business for the next day, and in truth it was much the same as TeamLabs Borderless. I'm not sure if it was worse, or just I enjoyed it less having been to Borderless so soon before, but either way I think anyone planning their Tokyo trip should just head to one of the two. The day ended with a trip to Shibuya Sky, where we got all of our Instagram-worthy photos over the skyline of Tokyo, before we headed to an izakaya for one last ride in Tokyo. I won't say much about this night but let's just say I discovered the dangers of all-you-can-drink sho-chu. Never again.

Hiroshima (Days 8-10)

Whoever's wise idea it was to go out drinking before a day of travel, got it horribly wrong. But after several hours on the Shinkansen we arrived in the south of Japan, in Hiroshima. After arriving at the hotel in the mid-afternoon, a few of us took an improptu walk around the city and stumbled upon the very pretty Hijiyama Park, with great views over the city. We then made our way into town to try out the local specialty here - okonomoyaki. Very nice, very tasty, very filling and I'd very much recommend.

Wasting no time the next morning we were up bright and early to take a boat ride over to Miyajima Island. Here we climbed Mount Mosen, giving great views of the various Japanese Islands and checked out Itsukushima shrine - a very special shrine which sees the base of the Torii gate submerged when the tide comes in, and requires the shrine itself to be on stilts! That evening, we then checked out the local Pokemon Centre - themed around Magikarp to celebrate Hiroshima's baseball team: the Carps, which was very cool, before heading to the local Irish pub to watch the Man Utd game. (Do I even need to mention we lost? Sigh...)

Our final day in the city saw us focus on the main thing that comes to mind when you hear Hiroshima - the atomic bombs. We visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum which takes you into an in depth look at the suffering the civilians went through when that bomb was dropped, and it really is moving. I'm of the firm belief all leaders of nuclear-armed states should have to visit this museum, just so they can fully comprehend the magnitude of suffering these weapons bring. We then wandered over to the Atomic Dome - the remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which was the only structure left standing after the atomic bomb detonated. To lighten up after this we went to a cat cafe afterwards, where all the cats proceeded to ignore us in favour of the locals. We then ended the night with a visit to an izakaya where we sat on a large table with some local government workers and despite the language barrier proceeded to have a whale of a time.

Osaka (Days 11-15)

After another short trip on the Shinkansen we found ourselves in my final stop in Japan - Osaka. There was a striking similarity to Manchester here I felt, with much of the appeal being the various eateries and shops around rather than any one specific tourist attraction. As a slower paced day, we mostly just relaxed before we headed off on an evening tour around the backstreets of Osaka. Here we learnt all about the dodgy dealings of the Yakuza and wandered through Osaka's own red light district, where you could see various Yakuza members stood on the street corners. It's hard to describe the atmosphere here but I think our tour guide summed it up best as 'The safest most-unsafe place in the world'.

Osaka's other broad appeal is it's strong positioning as a base for day trips. Nara was first on the list for us, famed for it's deer park where the deer will bow when they greet you in the hopes you give them food. In truth this is where their politeness ends, as they'll quickly resorting to biting at your clothes and bags to get you to hand over the goods. Leaving promptly after this shakedown, we took a visit to the Todai-ji temple, which is well worth checking out for it's Great Buddha statues.

We had a big day the following day, with my personal highlight of the trip - Universal Studios Japan. As a very big Nintendo fan, this was a real bucket list moment for me and something I'd dreamt of as a child. Having done our research online and learning that the park generally opens an hour and a bit before the official opening, we got in around 07:30 and bee-lined it straight to Super Nintendo World. It's more of a Mario World, but still such a treat as theme parks go. We successfully managed to get on all the Nintendo rides (DK Minecart Madness was a particular highlight) and check out the rest of the park. A very successful trip.

It was then time for my final day-trip of the trip - a visit to Himeji Castle. Japanese castles differ to the western world in that they are often primarily built using wood rather than stone, owing to the fact that cannons weren't feasible to build over there. Himeji Castle is thought of as a prime example of this structure, a rarity in Japan after many were destroyed in the Meiji restoration, being seen as examples of the feudal system before it. After Himeji Castle, we briefly stopped off in Kobe, before heading back towards Osaka to catch a baseball game with the Hanshin Tigers. (We won!)

Beijing (Days 16-17)

Here I branched off from the rest of the group and started my long journey home. A shinkansen up to Tokyo, followed by the monorail to the airport and I was off to Beijing. I'd decided to make use of China's relaxed transit visa system and spend a full day in Beijing. Quickly I learned that China is a different beast for us westerners. I'd of course done some research prior and found I needed AliPay and WeChat to get buy in China, for payments, transport and most daily things. However, what I hadn't researched was what apps within these apps to get, especially which ones were English-friendly.

Google is banned in China, which of course has the knock on effect of removing the use of Google Maps. You can look at the map, and even your position on it, but directions no longer exist. Luckily, the Beijing metro system is quite forgiving, the benefits of being built under the Communist Party quite evident as it lines up with the grid/ring structure of Beijing's road system.

The differences between China and Japan were quite large. In Japan, I'd grown quite accustomed to everyone sticking to rules religiously, for example refusing to cross the street until there was a green man. In China, things differ here - with there being more laws but it being a lot more normal to ignore the rules, meaning if the traffic light is on red and showing a green man, you've still got to be aware for drivers swerving in and out. The language barrier was also much larger in China, with little English spoken at all even in major tourist areas. When I do go back, I definitely need to make sure I have at least a base level of Mandarin proficiency!

After resting up in the hotel, my mission for the following day was to visit Tianamaen Square. Now as it turns out, the Chinese are quite big on security there and you can't just waltz in if you haven't bought a ticket - which quickly put a stop to that plan as I was turned around by the guards. I then went for a visit to the Forbidden City, where I was able to enter the main courtyard, but again the main palace itself needs a ticket booked well in advance. The other thing quite evident is there are a lot of people in China.

After my plans got changed again, I decided to take a walk down to Zhengyangmen, a large archery tower in Beijing's old (now-removed) city walls. Just behind it is the pedestrianised market street of Qianmen Street, which I took a wander down before deciding I'd been on my feet long enough and heading to the airport, where I could reflect on the trip with a beautiful, lovely pizza.