In love with Japan

Japan was incredible and I hope to return one day. This is a sentence that those who know me will understand shows how much I fell in love with this fascinating country. I very rarely go back to a country I have visited previously so a desire to return from me is high praise indeed.

Whilst I will post further about the places we visited later, below are just a few things that really sum up my impression of the country as we saw it.

1. The Food!

You guessed it, one of my favourite things was the food. Such wonderful flavours and choices that played beautifully to my tastes. Delicious ramen, wagyu and kobe beef steaks, incredible sushi, yakitori (grilled meat or fish on a skewer), yakisoba (grilled noodles), fantastic bakeries and that’s all before I’ve started on the local teppanyaki, okonmanyaki and other delicacies. It is simply food heaven. If you are a foodie, then head to Osaka and Kyoto, both of which have amazing food, but its Kyoto I really want to return to and have an opportunity to further enjoy its reasonable haute cuisine and traditional restaurants. This is the only thing we found more difficult to do with two small children, although we gave it a good go and felt we had a great experience. I just want more!

2. Culture

Japan oozes culture. Temples everywhere, a mix of old and new intertwined into the modern Japan it is today but that does not forget its heritage. Kyoto is the epitome of this.

3. Efficiency

Japan is very efficient and polite. The transport system runs like clockwork, trains timed down to the seconds, not just minutes, but it can do this because of the adherence to rules and politeness of its users. Trains show you exactly where you need to stand to get on and off trains, so everyone is ready when they arrive. The Japanese love to queue even more than the British and there are orderly queues for people getting on and off the train, which avoids the delaying scrum that we are used to in London during rush hour. The shinkansen “bullet train” in particular relies on this and is incredible.

4. Hi Tech

The Japanese love technology and space saving gadgets. Our air bnb apartment was tiny, as to be expected in this busy city, but was perfectly designed to save space with a shower that doubled as a drying room and beds that folded away. However, the thing that illustrates my point the most is Japanese toilets… wow you need an instruction manual to use them.

The standard design can be found even in public toilets. I think we saw one toilet the entire trip that didn’t have a control panel. You press a button to lower the seat, another to flush, the seat is warmed for you and it will wash you if you want… as I inadvertently had a shocking discovery about on one occasion trying to reach for the loo paper! I’ve never before seen such a hi tech loo!

5. Ease

So I’ve always been under the illusion that travel in Japan would be quite difficult with the language barrier etc. I have decided that this is a myth created by travel agents in order to convince travellers to part with their hard earned cash. It is not difficult, certainly no more difficult than anywhere else we have travelled, particularly if you are sticking to the main cities and tourist destinations. All of the train signs, subway signs etc are in English so with a bit of planning and google translate, its really not difficult to get around. The only thing we struggled with a little was deciphering menus in restaurants that were off the beaten track. In busy, more touristy areas, all the restaurants had an English menu and, if stuck, a lot of Japanese restaurants display their dishes in the window outside or on pictures so universal sign language can get you through.

Go now, before more people discover this!