Trip End Survey: Best and Worst Japan 2012

On our trip to Europe, Greg and I decided that we should rank various things best and worst. We saw some really great sites, stayed in some great hotels, and ate at a couple of great restaurants. But we also saw the worst of all of those things. We decided to do the same for our trip to Japan. The list below is a revised version of the one we used for our Europe trip 3 years ago. So here it is, the Best and Worst List 2012:

Illustrated Best and Worst of Japan 2012

Best historical thing: Hikone Castle

Hikone Castle

Best View: from vista point overlooking old village Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go

Best Hotel View: Grand Arc Hanzoman Hotel, Tokyo

Worst Hotel View:  Business Inn Tsuchiya, Nagoya

Best Hotel: Grand Arc Hanzoman Hotel, Tokyo
Worst Hotel: Business Inn Tsuchiya
*Note that since this was a much shorter trip, we only stayed in 5 different hotels.

Best Toilet: Villa Fontaine Roppongi, Tokyo. I liked the warm seats.
Worst Toilet: Business Inn Tsuchiya, Nagoya (only Eastern hole-in-the-ground style toilets available). Note that the men's bathroom in particular was both unbearably disgusting and smelly.

Best Animal Encounter: feeding the deer in Nara

Greg feeding the deer

Best French-Inspired Pastry: pastry with fruit and cream (yums)
Worst French-Inspired Pastry: Mayonnaise and corn pastry

Most Brilliant Food Invention: Pancake sandwich (with margarine and jellied syrup filling)
Best Dessert: E - cheesecake from 7-11

Best Food Item: G - sushi and miso ramen / E - triangular rice thingies with spinach

Best Drink: C.C. Lemon Soda
Best Local Liquor: G - warm sake / E - shochu

Best Castle: Hikone Castle, Hikone
Worst Castle: Himeji Caslte, Himeji (but only because it is currently under construction and covered with a tarp)

Best Temple: Nishihonganji Temple, Kyoto

Best City: Tokyo
Worst City: Yokohama (not a bad city, just lowest ranked)

Best Restaurant: the izakaya we visited in Nagoya

Best Nightlife: Karaoke

Best Subterranean Experience: crazy huge underground cities in Tokyo attached to subway and train stations

Best-Preserved Old City: Shirakawa-go
Best Backdoor Destination: Shirakawa-go

Best Weather: Tokyo
Worst Weather: Kanazawa (freezing cold rain all day)

Most Interestingly Dressed Locals: Harajuku, Tokyo

Clothing shop in Harajuku

Most Relaxing Place: Grand Arc Hanzoman Hotel, Tokyo
Least Relaxing Place: E - Business Inn Tsuchiya, Nagoya / Kyoto Imperial Palace park trying to eat food on a bench in freezing cold wind.

Scariest Moment: E - at Business Inn Tsuchiya when I realized there were no western toilets / G - none
Biggest Culture Shock: G - at Bunraku performance the women in the audience were dressed in fancy kimonos.
Cheesiest Tourist Trap: G - the cup of noodles museum in Yokohama / E - Guy wearing a castle suit, Osaka.

Guy wearing a castle suit in Osaka

Longest Distance Walked: New Year's Eve in Tokyo
Longest Travel Day: G - Traveling from San Francisco to Tokyo (21 hours) / E - Traveling from Austin to Tokyo (26 hours)

Best Inside Joke: "5 seconds"

Worst Hawker Experience: Chinatown, Yokohama (people kept trying to get us to come inside their restaurants and hand us fliers)
Biggest Revelation: E - the musical note button on the toilets makes a fake flushing sound meant to cover up other "toilet sounds" / G - "there are a lot of people in Japan"

Kanazawa to Nagoya with a Stop in Hikone

This morning we woke up and checked out of the hotel early with the intention of stopping for a few hours in a city on the way to Nagoya.  We asked a woman in the train ticket office how to get to Nagoya.  She told us to take a limited express train from Kanazawa to Maibara and then the shinkansen from Maibara to Nagoya.

We didn't have any plans for where we would spend the day, so while Greg slept on the train, I pulled out the Lonely Planet Japan and scoured the maps and information to find an appropriate city to spend a few hours in.

I finally decided that we would go to Hikone.  Hikone was only one stop away from Maibara, where we were required to change trains anyway.  The guidebook suggested Hikone Castle as an alternate to Himeji Castle, which was, as we discovered, under construction and not visible.

Hikone Castle is one of the most preserved castles in Japan.  Some castles were ruined by fire, many were dismantled during the Meiji era, and others were destroyed during World War II.  Few castles have survived.

Hikone-jo Castle.

Because much of the castle is original, Hikone-jo is our favorite castle.  Castles rebuilt as museums (like the Osaka Castle) are less interesting.

Hikone Castle

We explored the stable first, where we fed some hay to a pretend horse.  We then walked over the moat and  proceeded to walk up the hill towards the castle.

Me feeding the "horse" in the stable.

The view next to the castle from the top of the hill was amazing!  We could see Lake Biwa and in the distance some snow-covered mountains.

Lake Biwa with mountains in the distance.

We entered the castle.  The stairs were the most memorable part of the castle itself.  The stairs were very steep and a little scary to climb, even with a handrail.

Steep castle steps.  

This castle was not used as a museum.  In fact, the castle was mostly empty.  The construction and architecture of the castle were more on display than any other feature.

Greg reading about the castle.

After we finished seeing the inside of the castle, we consulted the map.  From the castle, we walked to the old town where we went into a couple of little shops.

Old town Hikone.

Old town Hikone.

It was about 2pm, so I called Yuri, a friend I met several years ago in Belgium, and we agreed to meet later in the evening for dinner.

Greg and I walked back to the train station where we took a train back to Maibara, and then the shinkansen to Nagoya.

We finally arrived at Tsuchiya Hotel to check in.  The hotel seemed nice, but we weren't actually staying at the hotel.  We were staying next door at Business Inn Tsuchiya (owned by Tsuchiya Hotel).  I had spent an awful lot of time trying to find a hotel in Nagoya, but for whatever reason, nothing nice was available.  I literally combed all of the hotel and travel websites and found availability at only 3 establishments, two of which were far from the train station.

So we ended up staying at Business Inn Tsuchiya in a smoky smelling room with cigarette burns in the carpet. Worse than the smell was the bathroom situation.  All the toilets were Japanese style (AKA hole in the ground) and the only women's restroom was upstairs on the 4th floor.  This "inn" was definitely meant for late businessmen who missed their last train.  Nobody else would want to stay there!

We met up with my friend Yuri around 7 at our "hotel" and walked with her to a more traditional Japanese restaurant establishment.  Even I was able to eat the food!  Greg and I both tried several dishes we would not have had the opportunity to try otherwise.

Amazingly, Yuri already had everything planned for tomorrow.  Even more amazingly, she had planned to go to a place that I had really wanted to visit!

As we go to sleep in this hole of a "hotel," at least we know that tomorrow we are going to see some really awesome sites.

Kanazawa

The weather today in Kanazawa was worse than it was in Kyoto.  At least in Kyoto it snowed.  In Kanazawa, it only rained, and rained, and rained.  I'm not sure what temperature it was, but I'm sure it was in the low 30s.  Since we only had one full day to see Kanazawa, we couldn't afford to wait until the weather was better to explore.

Like in Kyoto, we bought day-passes for the bus.  There is a circle route meant for tourists.  The circle route bus stops at all points of interest including the geisha district, castle and garden area, and samurai district.

Since our ryokan was near the train/bus station, we purchased our bus tickets at the station and hopped on the tourist bus which was, strangely enough, filled with locals.

Our first stop was Gion (geisha district).  The bus dropped us off near the district, but we decided to explore the area surrounding first. 

River near geisha district.

As we wandered the streets, light rain fell off and on.  We attempted to play my traveling game, "Most Interesting," in which the participant(s) walk only along the most interesting streets without consulting a map.  My theory is that if you wander around choosing the most interesting street at each intersection, you will naturally end up seeing what it is you want to see.    


After wandering for awhile, Greg broke down and pulled out the map.  My traveler's intuition said we were going the right way, but he said he had to consult the map to be sure.  

Geisha district.

We did find Gion.  (I still don't think we needed the map.)  After passing by a tea shop or two featuring saleswomen dressed as geikos (another word for geisha used primarily in Kyoto districts), we hopped back on the tourist bus.  The castle was our next point of interest.

Kanazawa Castle.

Although the sun was out, the sprinkling continued while we visited the castle.  By this time, my jeans were soaked about halfway up the calf.  We wished that the rain would turn into snow - it felt cold enough - but it never did.

We toured the castle grounds, then walked to the nearby garden, Kenroku-en.

Kenroku-en Garden.

Kenroku-en Garden is one of the most famous gardens in Japan.  The garden was pretty, but because it is winter, most of the trees had no leaves. It had snowed recently in Kanazawa, but the rain and slightly-too-warm temperature meant that the snow was melting and only bits remained.

Kenroku-en Garden.

The sprinkling had been a minor annoyance in Gion and the castle, but became unbearable while visiting the garden.  Greg's rain jacket failed him and my umbrella was no match for diagonal rain, which meant we were unable to explore the whole garden and we were more or less soaked by the time we exited the garden and sat down inside a tourist shop/ramen house bordering the garden.

Samurai District.

Miserably wet, but not finished sightseeing, we hopped back on the tourist bus and headed towards the samurai district.  Fortunately, the weather wasn't quite so horrible anymore.  Unfortunately, most of the houses are not authentic samurai houses, but recreations.  Nevertheless, visiting the samurai district was interesting and gave us some historical insight.

After walking through the samurai district, we wandered around Kanazawa a bit more, then took the bus back to the station and walked back to the ryokan.

Kyoto and onto Kanazawa

Greg was ready to continue on to Kanazawa this morning, but I didn't feel like we were finished seeing Kyoto.  Because of the poor weather on our Kyoto day yesterday and the early closing of the Nijo castle, we weren't able to see as much as I had wanted to.

Entering Nijo Castle complex.

The weather was much better today.  The sun was out, and it it wasn't raining. We took advantage of the weather and spent the morning and early afternoon sightseeing in Kyoto before we got on the Thunderbird Limited Express to Kanazawa.

So today, we bought another day pass for the bus and hopped on the bus that said "Nijo-jo." The castle was open during normal hours today for the first time since the New Year.  Unlike the Imperial Palace, we were actually allowed to go inside one of the palaces, Ninomaru.

Ninomaru Palace.

As we entered, the shoe/slipper attendant directed us to remove our shoes. She asked if we wanted slippers.  We did and she brought us each a pair of blue slippers.  Apparently, the palace provides two sizes of slippers: normal (brown) and big (blue).  Almost everyone (men included) wore brown slippers.  I felt very self-conscious wearing the big slippers.

Anyway, after we took off our shoes and put on the provided slippers, we began the self-guided tour of the palace.  Mannequins in traditional dress were set up in several of the chambers, so we were able to better envision how the rooms would have been used.  We were especially impressed with the paintings on the screen walls and doors.

Ninomaru Palace was an elaborately decorated structure intended to impress visitors with the power and riches of the shoguns.  There were even two or three visitor waiting rooms, all with exquisitely painted wall and door panels.

We finished our tour of Ninomaru Palace, put on our shoes, and left to explore the Castle grounds and to find Honmaru Palace.

Greg and I on castle grounds.

Honmaru Palace. We were unable to enter this building.

Unfortunately, we were unable to enter Honmaru Palace.  Originally, Honmaru was similar to Ninomaru.  The building used to be a part of a palace called Katsura Palace before it was relocated to its current location.

We decided that the sign probably meant, "No climbing."

While exploring castle grounds, we twice ran into this "No scribbling" sign.  We could only guess that the sign referred to climbing, "No climbing here," or possibly trespassing, "No trespassing."  Graffiti doesn't seem to be an issue here in Japan; we've only seen graffiti once on this trip.

We exited castle grounds and took the bus to our final Kyoto destination: the golden Kinkaku-ji Temple.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji Temple, or Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a zen Buddhist temple  in northwestern Kyoto. The Golden Palace's history began in 1397 when a shogun purchased a villa and transformed it into Kinkaku Palace.  The palace is "golden" because the structure is coated with gold-leaf.  The golden building was converted into a Zen Buddhist temple after the shogun died as he wished.

Like much of Japan's early period architecture, Kikaku-ju was destroyed and rebuilt.  The Golden Palace survived several centuries and World War II, but was burned down in 1950 by a novice monk.  Five years later, the pavilion was rebuilt as close as possible to original specifications.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Garden at Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Good luck coin toss at Kinkaku-ji Temple

Greg spent some time and yen trying to throw a coin into the bowl for good luck. He didn't make it, but another girl did a couple minutes after Greg ran out of small change.

After visiting Kinkaku-ji Temple, we decided it was time to travel to Kanazawa.  The sun sets so early in Japan!  We left Kyoto in the early afternoon, but by the time we arrived at the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kanazawa, it was already dark.  Although it was still early, we weren't able to visit anything.

Our ryokan room in Kanazawa.

We had decided to stay at a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan, at least once during our trip.   So for our two nights in Kanazawa, we booked a six tatami mat room.  Greg was really excited to arrive and get settled in.  As excited as we were to be staying at a traditional inn, the room was freezing, and therefore miserable.  There were controls on the wall for the machine we suspected was the heater (but could have been an air conditioner), so Greg went down to reception to ask how the heater (if it was one) worked.


The ryokan owners did not speak English, but somehow Greg was able to communicate that we were freezing and needed heat.  Greg had a strange experience.  He followed the husband downstairs to the basement and into a storage area.  After some time and creepiness, Greg was finally provided with a small, old  space heater.  Greg brought the heater upstairs to our room.  I had been waiting in the room, freezing.  We plugged in the space heater and I sat in front of it while Greg recounted the story of acquiring the heater and played with the controls on the wall.

After mashing some buttons with kanji symbols on them, Greg finally figured out how to turn on the heater in the room.  The owner must not have understood Greg when he was asking about the heater controls.  He must have thought we were asking for an additional heater.  If only there had been directions in English in the first place!

 

Our ryokan room in Kanazawa.

Finally warm enough to move, we unfolded our beds and got ready to go to sleep.  

Planned Itinerary

We fly into Tokyo and plan to spend New Year's Eve in the capital.  On January 1st, we'll take the train to Kyoto.  From our Kyoto base, we will visit Nara, Osaka and Himeji.  From Kyoto, we'll take the train to Kanazawa, and then continue on to Nagoya.  After spending a couple of days in Nagoya, we will return to Tokyo.  We will finish sightseeing and daytrip to Hakone to check out the views of Mt. Fuji.  And from Tokyo, we fly back home to San Francisco (area) January 11th.  And that's our whirlwind Japan trip!