Japan is a truly magical place - a class of traditional, ancient culture with the most modern creations known to man.
On arrival, we attempted to trade in our Japan Rail voucher for a rail pass. An insane line awaited, and we missed our train while standing there. The trip from the airport was not cheap, costing us about $70 for the family to get to our neighborhood. We wandered around, gazing at the amazing sights, from BBQ'ed meat (octopus, chicken, and maybe some other animals), to bean-flavored ice cream, and a TON of people, everywhere. We felt obligated to hit up the Delirium Cafe, Japan's partnering of the famous Belgium bar. While the beer was the same, we felt slighted. There was a cover charge to come in (at 1:30pm, with no music). The food was incredibly expensive - we paid $15 for a cheese platter with 3 pieces, none bigger than a quarter. It was just a taste of things to come.
We hoped a Shinkansen (bullet) train north to Nagano. It was awesome to ride the rails. Trains are super efficient; the leave on time. Literally, on the second. The make apologies and post when a train is 3 min late, which happened to only one train we saw the whole week. The trains are clean and quiet, even when ripping along the countryside at 100 mph. No one can talk loudly on their phones or have music playing - your are politely asked to stop. Reservations can be made in advance for free (with the rail pass) and you can get anywhere quickly.
In Nagano, we were picked up by this crazy guy named Heday who took us to our hotel. He was a huge Rolling Stones fan with memorabilia from decades ago. He quickly took us up the mountain to the start of the monkey park. We marched up a long, muddy trail, into the woods, flanked by peaks and waterfalls. The snow was thick but the temps reasonable. After about a mile, we hit the hot springs and saw the famous monkeys bathing in the water. They were playful and friendly. We had a snowball fight and saw a man descend naked into a pool. Back at the hotel, we had our own hot springs room - a pool pipped with naturally hot water, which was a welcome relief from the cold. The room was also very cool. We had no beds, but just mats that were placed on the floor. The walls had that paper grating, and we wore kimonos and slippers.
Our next train ride took us to Kyoto, the city of temples. Here there are too many amazing places to even recount. Each temple, park, and zen garden has its own mystical appeal. While being here in the fall and seeing the colors of the leaves changing would be second to none, being here in the spring is a trade off. The temps are cool and rain is a certainty, but in the right window you can catch the cherry blossoms in full effect. Unfortunately, we were about a week too early and although we say glimpses of what it could be, we missed out on the prime time. Kyoto does have an emerging beer scene and we were not disappointed to sample a few of them. The kids tried sushi and we had some saki to complete the effect. Some walks through the bamboo forest, more temples, and an emerging beer scene completed our time.
Not to be missed is a side trip to Nara. Just a short train ride from Kyoto or Osaka, it is worth the time. Here in Nara the deer have been made national treasures and are protected. Therefore, they pretty much have free reign of the city. However, they opt to stay mostly in a park because tourists feed them and they stay away from cars. There are about 1200 deer in the park and will come over to eat the crackers you hand feed them. The deer know how to bow before taking the food and can be pet while laying on the ground. They can also get aggressive if they want food you don't have. They will go from milling around to a brazen stampede if they want to move or get threatened. It was quite an experience.
Without planning we jumped a train to Osaka, thinking we would surprise the girls with a trip to Universal Studios. As we got closer, more and more people go on the train, and by the time we departed, it was clear where they were going. We raced through the entrance to the ticket counter to discover everyone in Japan was there that day. Apparently, it was a school holiday for them as well and we had no chance of getting in. After an hour in line, all of the fast track passes were gone, and within another 30 min they were estimating that if you bought tickets at that moment, you would get into Harry Potter World by 2pm (it was 930am). We hadn't moved in line. We realized our mistake and took the kids to Hard Rock Cafe for food. They were disappointed but a trip to the children's interactive museum bounced them back.
Japan is expensive, efficient, and beautiful. It needs to be seen again.
On arrival, we attempted to trade in our Japan Rail voucher for a rail pass. An insane line awaited, and we missed our train while standing there. The trip from the airport was not cheap, costing us about $70 for the family to get to our neighborhood. We wandered around, gazing at the amazing sights, from BBQ'ed meat (octopus, chicken, and maybe some other animals), to bean-flavored ice cream, and a TON of people, everywhere. We felt obligated to hit up the Delirium Cafe, Japan's partnering of the famous Belgium bar. While the beer was the same, we felt slighted. There was a cover charge to come in (at 1:30pm, with no music). The food was incredibly expensive - we paid $15 for a cheese platter with 3 pieces, none bigger than a quarter. It was just a taste of things to come.
We hoped a Shinkansen (bullet) train north to Nagano. It was awesome to ride the rails. Trains are super efficient; the leave on time. Literally, on the second. The make apologies and post when a train is 3 min late, which happened to only one train we saw the whole week. The trains are clean and quiet, even when ripping along the countryside at 100 mph. No one can talk loudly on their phones or have music playing - your are politely asked to stop. Reservations can be made in advance for free (with the rail pass) and you can get anywhere quickly.
In Nagano, we were picked up by this crazy guy named Heday who took us to our hotel. He was a huge Rolling Stones fan with memorabilia from decades ago. He quickly took us up the mountain to the start of the monkey park. We marched up a long, muddy trail, into the woods, flanked by peaks and waterfalls. The snow was thick but the temps reasonable. After about a mile, we hit the hot springs and saw the famous monkeys bathing in the water. They were playful and friendly. We had a snowball fight and saw a man descend naked into a pool. Back at the hotel, we had our own hot springs room - a pool pipped with naturally hot water, which was a welcome relief from the cold. The room was also very cool. We had no beds, but just mats that were placed on the floor. The walls had that paper grating, and we wore kimonos and slippers.
Our next train ride took us to Kyoto, the city of temples. Here there are too many amazing places to even recount. Each temple, park, and zen garden has its own mystical appeal. While being here in the fall and seeing the colors of the leaves changing would be second to none, being here in the spring is a trade off. The temps are cool and rain is a certainty, but in the right window you can catch the cherry blossoms in full effect. Unfortunately, we were about a week too early and although we say glimpses of what it could be, we missed out on the prime time. Kyoto does have an emerging beer scene and we were not disappointed to sample a few of them. The kids tried sushi and we had some saki to complete the effect. Some walks through the bamboo forest, more temples, and an emerging beer scene completed our time.
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Not to be missed is a side trip to Nara. Just a short train ride from Kyoto or Osaka, it is worth the time. Here in Nara the deer have been made national treasures and are protected. Therefore, they pretty much have free reign of the city. However, they opt to stay mostly in a park because tourists feed them and they stay away from cars. There are about 1200 deer in the park and will come over to eat the crackers you hand feed them. The deer know how to bow before taking the food and can be pet while laying on the ground. They can also get aggressive if they want food you don't have. They will go from milling around to a brazen stampede if they want to move or get threatened. It was quite an experience.
Without planning we jumped a train to Osaka, thinking we would surprise the girls with a trip to Universal Studios. As we got closer, more and more people go on the train, and by the time we departed, it was clear where they were going. We raced through the entrance to the ticket counter to discover everyone in Japan was there that day. Apparently, it was a school holiday for them as well and we had no chance of getting in. After an hour in line, all of the fast track passes were gone, and within another 30 min they were estimating that if you bought tickets at that moment, you would get into Harry Potter World by 2pm (it was 930am). We hadn't moved in line. We realized our mistake and took the kids to Hard Rock Cafe for food. They were disappointed but a trip to the children's interactive museum bounced them back.
Japan is expensive, efficient, and beautiful. It needs to be seen again.
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