As I said in my previous blog we went to Japan for the Rugby World Cup in October 2019, it was an 11 night tour. Four days were dedicated to the rugby matches, two quarter finals and two semi finals, which I have already spoken about , but that meant we had some time to tour and visit some part of Japan although it was way to short but did give us a glimpse of what Japan is like.
In total we had eight nights in Tokyo with a sightseeing trip for 3 nights to Kanazawa, Takayama and Nagoya. Unfortunately we never got to see Kyoto, which I would definitely visit on a return trip, I had heard so much about it.
The people.
Firstly, like any country, it's the people that make the biggest impression on you. I found them to be extremely, friendly, helpful, orderly/mannerly and honest. They also appear to have a great sense of humour. Our guide, a quiet spoken, well mannered and helpful lady, had a very disarming sense of humour that caught you off guard. I also previously spoke about the stranger that we met in the street on our first night and showed us where we would find a bar and then joined us for a few drinks. Here is a brief video of us entering the bar.
The population of the Japan is over 126 million with over 90% living in cities and it is aging faster than any other nation, having the highest proportion of elderly citizens of any nation, and more than a quarter of the population over 65 years of age. This is quite evident as you notice many elderly people still working (or volunteering) in shops and stored, restaurants etc and marshalling queues or cycle paths, with their high-vis jackets and lit batons.
Tokyo.
The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolis with 38 million people, and is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. What might be called the centre of Tokyo (formerly Tokyo City) is made up of 23 wards and a population of about 9 million. In reality Tokyo is made up of many cities, even central Tokyo has a number of different cites and the few we saw all had different feels to them. Tokyo is a very busy capital as you would expect and mixes the ultramodern with the traditional, from neon-lit skyscrapers to historic temples. Given its high density it is surprising to see the Imperial Palace that sits amid a large public park and gardens.
For our fist 4 nights we stayed in Shinjuku which is a major commercial and administrative centre. It holds the busiest railway station in the world with over 3 million people travelling through it everyday. In fact we found the rail and metro system to be extremely easy to use. Each line is clearly identifiable, each line assigned a letter and every station a number. As you enter each station its line and number is clearly identified and what the next station is.
There are skyscrapers everywhere and in places what we thought was a railway line over head was in fact another motorway! In the city centre there are neon lights and huge billboards everywhere. During the day we visited the Samurai Museum which was interesting and at night we wandered the streets in amazement. Some parts were quite seedy. However, we found one part that was very traditional, a narrow street with tiny little eateries that we crowded at night.
On our sight seeing tour we visited some of the highlights like the Imperial Palace Double Bridge and the Sensoji Temple. The Sensoji Temple was the first place we visited with had a much more traditional Japanese feel to it. A Buddhist temple, beautifully maintained with super paintings on the ceiling, fronted by traditional shopping streets selling snacks, crafts, printed cotton kimonos and a few Japanese restaurants. You enter through the large bright-red "thunder gate" called the Kaminarimon. Then you walk through swirls of incense smoke where believers light their incense and "wash" themselves in the smoke as they make their offerings. I was lucky that as I was wandering around a typical Japanese parade led by a marching dragon and small children passed through and I caught it all on video. Though as you will see I nearly got mowed down by the caravan carrying the musicians.
Another day , in an effort to see more traditional Japanese culture we headed to the Tsukiji Outer Market. It was a short 30 minute metro ride. This used to be where it held its tuna auctions which became very famous and a tourist attraction in of itself. However, it was moved to a more modern market in Toyosu. None-the-less we enjoyed a morning wandering along the narrow streets, amongst the many stalls selling fresh and processed seafood and other food related goods. There are many little restaurants serving fresh sushi, and seafood.
After our little tour we returned to another part of Tokyo, Minato City, Akasaka. we found this to be a quieter city with not so much neon lights but more hotels, restaurants, bars and little grocery shops. By the way very surprised to see Seven-eleven so popular in Japan. We had our first Sushi food here and it was truly excellent, it will be hard to beat any where else.
Yanaka
I had been told about a small town or area called Yanaka, it is Tokyo's most traditional district as it was one of the few areas of Tokyo spared from bombing in WWII. It was a lovely morning, we took the metro and walked around this most quaint and aged parts of Tokyo. We visited a number of cemeteries, temples and tombs, Yanaka Cemetry is one of the largest and most famous graveyards in the city. The streets have more of a village feel with nice coffee shops, cafes, and shops. We found a lovely store where we bought beautifully made hand bags for our respective partners. There are a huge number of temples and shrines and the houses are more traditional looking with no skyscrapers. We walked up to Yanaka Ginza shopping street, which is renowned as one of the best shopping streets in Tokyo. A narrow streets with stalls selling snacks, souvenirs and knick-knacks, where we boughts some lunch. It was a lovely morning and one of my favourite places in Tokyo, he headaed off to Yokohama for the evening match which took us 4 trains and metros. If I was to return to Tokyo I would look at trying to get an AirBnB here and stay in this area.
Next blog will cover our short tour to Kanazawa, Takayama and Nagoya.