Travelling Around Japan on a High-Speed Train

With her partner, she visited Japan, the land of beautiful gardens, high-speed trains and preserved temples. They climbed Mount Norikura with its 3,026m above sea level on foot; took a dip in an onsen, a type of Japanese hot springs, where most people go to bathe while dipping in the hot water; ran into a real geisha while strolling about on the narrow streets of the Gion district; and took a look at soy sauce production on the Kii Peninsula as well as visited one of the most beautiful beaches in Japan.

Urša tells about her holidays in Japan

Upon arriving in Tokio, we visited the Tsukiji fish market where frozen tuna auction takes place at 6 o’clock each morning, led by a group of 120 people. You can visit the auction for free, though the “first come first serve” rule applies. The fish market holds the most expensive fish as well as frozen tuna auctions, and the tuna is then transported to the best restaurants around the world. Taking a high-speed train that can reach a speed of about 300kmph, we continued our journey towards Nagano where we visited the Japanese macaques in the Jigokudani Park. This part of Japan is famous for buckwheat noodles, known as soba, which are dipped cold in a type of soy sauce. This was followed by a ride to Takayama, nearby which is the village consisting of traditional houses and listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site – Shirakawa-go, which we visited on a half-day tour. The village houses are large, made of wood and have thatched roofs, and the village is surrounded by rice fields.

After that, we moved on to Kyoto where we explored many temples and their picturesque gardens by bicycle. These gardens vary a lot and the most interesting are the stone gardens where the Buddhist master rakes the sand around larger rocks each morning, while some of them are very green and full of various plants and running water. One of the most beautiful temples we visited was a Buddhist zen temple listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site – Ryoan-ji, though we also visited the most popular and the most photo worthy temple in Kyoto – Kinkaku-ji or the Golden Pavilion. The third notable temple was Ginkaku-ji or the Silver Pavilion, which represents one of the most important ideas of the Japanese culture, that is wabi-sabi. It means searching for perfection and beauty in the “imperfect world” surrounding you. The Japanese also have their own religion, Shinto, and they worship sacred spirits, which take forms of things and ideas that are important for life, such as wind, mountains, trees etc.

We also visited the city of Nara near Kyoto, where deer freely roam in parks and people kindly bow to you if you give them a biscuit. Nara is also home to a wooden Buddhist temple listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, Todai-ji, which had also been the world’s largest wooden structure until 1998.

Himeji was just a short stopover on our way to Hiroshima, where we visited the Itsukushima Shinto temple on the nearby Miyajima Island. The temple is known for its enormous orange door called tori, which look like they’re floating above water during high tide. Hiroshima became famous after the atomic bombing with the bomb known as Little Boy in 1945, and we visited the Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome to commemorate that day. The Atomic Bomb Dome is a leftover from the explosion. The city of Beppu is home to seven different types hot springs. Some of them are mud baths, while in others the water contains various minerals, colouring the springs vivid blue or orange-red, and we could barely believe our eyes. One of the springs even pushes the hot water high up in the air every thirty minutes.

The main attraction of the southern Kii Peninsula was Kumano Kodo, a pilgrimage route that runs through the forest of one-hundred-year-old cedar trees and finishes at the picturesque Nachi Taisha Buddhist-Shinto temple, behind which one of the country’s largest waterfalls rushes into the deep. The route that runs through forests is nicely maintained, quiet and relaxed. In Osaka, we experienced nightlife where shopping never stops and the streets are still crowded with people long after midnight. We cycled the foothills of Mount Fuji to reach one of the lakes nearby – Kawaguchi, from where a view of the volcano opened up from behind the blooming lavender fields just for a moment.

Did you try any Japanese delicacies? Which one and did you like it?

We mostly ate the local Japanese food, that is the soba and udon noodles, various tempuras, ramen in various shapes and lengths, takoyaki, which are salty balls with pieces of octopus, okonomiyaki, which is a savoury version of Japanese pancake typical for the Hiroshima region and made using noodles, vegetables, eggs and various types of sea food. We also tried the local traditional dinner that consisted of various small and main dishes, which you then grill yourself folded in a leaf. We enjoyed great street food in Piss Alley and had the best ramen at Tokyo’s main train station. I have to admit that Japanese cuisine made an impression on me and it’s one of the best I’ve discovered while exploring the world. And it’s a fact that Japanese food isn’t just sushi and sashimi, but so much more than that.

What is Japanese culture like? Are the locals friendly, how did they welcome you?

The culture in Japan seems like the complete opposite of ours. Despite the awful crowds when everyone’s rushing to work, people don’t touch you or rub shoulders. Everyone’s got their own personal space. People respect the queuing order, they stick to various rules, clean after themselves, pick up their garbage and take it home, they’re not late, and they’re very respectful. This respect is also noticeable when it comes to food, money, the elderly... And they always hand you food using their both arms. They will also always say thank you.

It’s forbidden to speak loudly or using mobile phones on high-speed trains and everyone adheres to that, so you can really enjoy the complete silence. Train stations in Japan are known as being the centres of shopping and cuisine, and they’re also famous for their perfect architecture.

Whenever we had any trouble communicating due to our lack of language skills, there was always someone who came to our aid. People there like talking to strangers. They’re also very kind, though quite stern. Rules come foremost there and people abide by that, which is something we’re not really used to.

How did you handle the costs during travelling?

In Japan, using public transport for long-distance travelling, especially using high-speed trains, is very expensive. That’s why we purchased the Japan Rail Pass before our departure. Anyone not living in Japan can purchase it and it includes the use of high-speed as well as ordinary trains, some buses, and ferries for a period of 14 days (there are also passes for shorter and longer periods). We paid 350 euros for a single pass, saving more than twice that number by our calculations. We slept in various types of accommodation along the way; we tried out the capsule hotels, hostels, traditional ryokans and hotels. On average, we spent 50 euros per night for the both of us. The prices of food ranged from about five euros for udon noodles with tempura to ten euros for ramen. Since Japan is known to be an expensive country, we were surprised to find out that was not the case, as travelling around the country is much cheaper for foreign tourists than it is for the locals.

Did you have any silly experiences along the way?

We all know how famous the Japanese high-speed trains are for their punctuality. And that is true, they arrive at the platform and depart in to the second. Interestingly, all Shinkansen trains had only 36 seconds of delay in the whole year of 2017. So, there we were one day, thinking how interesting it would be to experience a train delay in Japan. And our wish came true in a couple of days. We were waiting for a local train and took a taxi to the train station, so we wouldn’t miss it. After arriving at the station, we noticed the train was delayed. FOR 120 MINUTES. Lesson learned.