General Observations - Japan

Japan is full of interesting and culturally unique daily practices that we had a lot fun figuring out and practicing ourselves. Here are some highlights:

Heating - use it only if you have to
Electricity in Japan is really expensive so luxuries like central heating are very costly. How do Japanese homes keep their occupants warm? Well...they don't. Ok ok that's an exaggeration!  There are actually really creative and cost efficient ways to stay warm. First, put on a sweater, and socks, and slippers. Once you've done that, you can turn on the room heater, sit on the heated floor rug, snuggle under a heated table with attached blanket, and enjoy the heated toilet seat!

Kotatsu - heated table

Toilets - all in 1 bathroom appliance
Ack! Ever feel that when you put your warm tush on the cold, hard, plastic toilet seat? No fear! Heated Toilet seats are here (in Japan)! Programmable to "warm" or "hot" you can plunk yourself down without the cold-cringe!

There's also a sink built into the tank for washing your hands (not drinking)!

Remote control toilet flush, bidet, temp, etc.

Onsens - naked and showered

Onsens are Japanese hot spring spas but they're much more than that. There's a whole procedure and etiquette to it all. Most onsens are separated male & female (some aren't!). You must enter the onsen naked (small face towel allowed). But before dipping into the hot springs, you are to shower in the communal, seated, open shower stalls.

Yup...
(just so you know cameras are not allowed, we found this on the internet)

Once you're nice and clean, dip away in the pools! Depending on the onsen facility, there can be cold, warm, hot, indoor, outdoor pools, and sauna rooms. Friends and family often go to onsens together and can be a bonding experience....! When you're done, towel dry yourself with your tiny towel, walk out, and dry yourself some more in the locker room area.
As for our own first experiences...awkward...but after a few more times it became quite enjoyable and relaxing! It is a real treat after spending a day in cold homes.

If an onsen is too far, you can have your own home bath...onsen style!

Common bathroom setup. Wash seated. Dip in hot tub to enjoy.
Hot tub water is shared so keep it clean!

Ordering food from machines

Commonly found outside many diner/cafe/casual restaurants are "order machines." You put money into the machine and push the button(s) corresponding to your desired dishes. But unlike a vending machine, instead of food you get tickets. Take said tickets into the restaurant and the chef will prep your meal per the tickets!

I'll have this one...and that one...and that one...plus this one...

Dine-out culture is massive and a primary way people eat. Restaurants are a bit cheaper and groceries are a bit more expensive, making the price gap much smaller than in Canada. Also, homes are often only equipped with single burner stoves + microwave! Dining out is so common and convenient that restaurants incorporate many single-seat tables or even communal tables so single customers can fill their bellies without having an empty seat at a 2 person table.

Noodle slurping
Noodles galore! Love them! But what's with the slurping!? It's not bad manners, rather it shows you're enjoying the noodles! However...lip smacking, burping, and blowing your nose are no-nose (see what I did there?). So...make noise but don't make noise!!

Salaryman
In urban Japan, the Salaryman is everywhere. Dark suits, white shirt, tie, briefcase, copy and paste.
They form a large portion of the working culture in Japan and have strong influences on various functions and norms. There are many unique things commonly associated with the Salaryman such as sleeping off a hangover on the ground in a subway station, extreme loyalty to the company they're with, a regimented work schedule and work social life.

Overall Japanese culture is extremely polite, very clean, quiet, orderly, and well structured. We really enjoyed our travels in this country because of the ease and inherent integrity/honesty of its people. We never had to concern ourselves with the "latest tourist scam," theft, or even worry about getting the proper change back!

Kumano Kodo - 1000 year old pilgrimage

While making plans for our trip to Japan we really wanted to do some hiking. We came across some random blogs about the Kumano Kodo trails located in the southern Kansai region (south of Osaka city) and put that on our must-do list.  

Later we discovered it was 1 of 2 UNESCO World Heritage Pilgrimage Routes which got us even more stoked!! Information on the trails required some deciphering but in time we figured out and settled on trying a 3 day then a 5 day hike.  Accommodation along the trail were in “minshukus” (Japanese B&Bs) located in small rural towns.  The challenge for us was we wanted to keep a flexible schedule and didn’t want to book the B&B’s to set ourselves on a strict schedule. So we decided to wing it!!  

Starting gate!

We figured we were travelling during “shoulder season” so it shouldn’t be busy and how hard could it really be?  With a few broken English phone calls to the Kumano Kodo information line we were directed to the official travel agency in the small town where we would start our journey.  So we packed up and headed out, a little anxious but also excited.  The first thing we learned is that our options for accommodations were limited as we hit the beginning of the busy season (March 15) and also a lot of the minshukus did not officially open until April 1 (our travel dates were March 19-26).  Lucky for us we encountered a very patient travel agent with excellent English and she spent an hour helping us plan our route, calling places, and sourcing beds.  YAY!!  That same afternoon we started our revised scheduled for a 4 day hike.

The adventure begins!

The mountainous scenery was serene, peaceful and beautiful and the hiking paths ranged from easy, flat and sloped, to slippery, rooted, rocky, and steep. There were more people on the trails then we had hoped but they were considerate of each other and would give space so you could enjoy the experience and hike.  

 

Mystical

We encountered all types of weather from a slight drizzle, rain, misty, sunny and hot.  We woke up on our third day to a crazy, unrelenting wind and rain storm and decided to make that our one day of rest (which we ironically scheduled in).

Random drinking "fountain" beside a shrine

Tea houses in the middle of nowhere

Even though we were limited in our pick of the minshukus - it was still one of our favourite memories. Staying in someone’s home and eating home cooked local cuisine was one of the most memorable experiences we had.  The hosts often spoke minimal to no English but were lovely people, eager to assist.  In each home we had our own room with two futon bedrolls on top of tatami mats (woven straw), hot tea, Japanese style bathrobes, and there was always an onsen to bathe in after a day’s hike.  

Rural village

In our comfy robes

The food was fantastic but you need to be flexible and eat whatever is put in front of you.  It’s considered impolite to not finish your dishes! There was a lot of fish (raw, smoked, cooked, hot and cold, served for breakfast and dinner).  This was a real mental challenge for Rhonda but she tried and ate everything and was amazingly surprised that things often tasted better than how they looked. She has definitely expanded her food range on this trip.

The food just kept coming out!

As we made our way along the trail to the final stretch for the main shrine, we felt a sense of lightness mixed with sadness at closing this chapter. While the Kumano Kodo would only make up a part of our trip, it proved to be the most diverse and full of cultural richness.

Location of a world heritage onsen

Beautiful Cherry Blossoms dotted the mountain sides

Cleansing fountain prior to entering shrine

Staircase up to shrine

Japan's largest torii gate @ 34 metres tall

Kyoto - imperial capital of Japan

Our 2nd week in Japan had us venturing to the old imperial capital of Japan, Kyoto! A city that ruled the country for over 1,000 years, Kyoto (1.5 million pop.) is regarded as the historic and cultural centre of the country.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, one of the things we immediately noticed were the kimonos. Every street we walked down we consistently saw women wearing kimonos and the traditional slippers. We quickly realized that kimono rentals are a popular tourist attraction in town.

Mostly women but men also dressed up too!

A few days into our stay we had the fortunate opportunity to get a glimpse of a real, practicing geisha! I have to admit, before coming to Japan and having read a bit about them, I really didn't understand what the fuss was about. It was difficult to find a Western cultural equivalent. In a nutshell, what I read was "female artists paid to entertain rich men." What comes to your mind?  Of course there's a lot more to geishas than what I can comprehend and to my surprise, on our first glimpse, there was really something magical about them. Hard to describe but a combination of the composure, elegance, and very ornate outfit, made them seem...majestic. Like witnessing royalty.

Another part of historic culture we experienced were the olden day city streets (which is where we saw the geisha as well). These were interspersed through different neighbourhoods with certain historic areas maintaining and restoring these heritage buildings.

We spent 3 days cycling around town. Renting 2 bikes we explored the riverside boulevard and quiet back alleys of the city, getting a chance to see local life. Parents taking kids to school, suited salarymen going to work, old grandmas shuffling around. 

Riverside boulevard running right through the city

All the way into the countryside

A few of the tourist attractions we visited were the Fushimi Inari shrine, dedicated to the Shinto god of rice. You've probably seen pictures of the 1000+ red torii gates lining the path all the way up the mountain.

Next was the Arashiyama bamboo grove, picturesque walls of dense bamboo growth giving you the feeling of being completely enveloped in a uniform bamboo forest.

Wrapping up Kyoto we then headed back into the countryside to hike the Kumano Kodo UNESCO World Heritage trail.

Shikoku Island - welcome to Iya Valley

Iya Valley. Never heard of it? Neither had we.  Here are some details:

-One of the 3 "Hidden Valleys" of Japan

-Home to those exiled from fallen feudal lords/empires (historically, not currently!)

-Extremely TIGHT valleys and river gorges

-Crazy winding roads with sheer cliffs on either side (1 car wide but...2 way traffic!)

-Land of dramatic scenery and nature (the hills are alive!)

-Old way of life

With these and a few more tidbits we set off on a 5 hour train ride South through Japan. Upon arriving on the island, we began to really see the gap in language barrier. In the major cities of Japan, English is still manageable enough to get by with 3-4 word sentences. On Shikoku...we might as well have put on our mime costumes and played Charades with the locals! If we were lucky we'd get in a word or 2 of English but thankfully I still remembered some Japanese from my university days, bonus!!

Welcome to the West Iya Valley Mountain Village!
Home to approx. 100 people

During our week stay on Shikoku/Iya we experienced the raw beauty of rural Japan. Mountain side villages, glacier green rivers, hillside trees exhaling mist, riverside onsens (Japanese hot springs), traditional cuisine, and dramatic weather changes!

Mountain side villages

Rural cuisine in Japan often included a variety of side dishes, a fish, bowl of miso soup, and rice. Often times whenever we ordered from restaurants, it'd be a surprise as to what ended up on our tables. Other than being able to interpret/Google Translate a word or two, the rest was anyone's guest! Salty? Sour? BBQ? Soup? Who knows! But what we did find out...95% of the time, our surprise meal was EXCELLENT!!

Fresh caught right from the river...just the fish not the tofu! ;)

Ordered surprise Set Menu A + Set Menu B = fish + pork katsu (i.e. Japanese schnitzel)

Dramatic weather pattern changes flooded the valley with soil run off,
green river turning brown, clouds shifting in and out of the mtns

You could feel the power of the river beside you
at this riverside onsen

We explored Iya by car and foot. The winding roads and nearly forgotten mountain trails made for great adventure and exploration. Hiking trails would be dotted with ancient stone markers, weathered smooth from the passage of time, all while leading up to local shrines on the mountain tops.

Sometimes a bus would jump out from the corners!

Totto, our trusty Honda Fit!

Our friends Erina and Alrik at Yoki Guesthouse & Cafe!

Going into this holiday we saw Japan as a highly urbanized country, our week long stay was a wonderful and unique experience to see the "hidden" side of this nation.  Next stop...Kyoto!