visiting japan : packing

Intro about our visit to Japan

We traveled to Japan in the middle of November and the majority of research said it'd be in the 50's for most of the trip - which was exactly right. We lucked out and only had one rainy day the whole time! The first few days were definitely cooler - I was glad I had brought a hat and mittens. We also had a few days that were gorgeous and sunny where we didn't even bring a coat.

We were newbies to backpacking but knew we didn't want to haul suitcases around. I borrowed a backpack similar to this from a friend, it was about a 40 in terms of backpack sizes. It was definitely a small bag but I was able to pack lightly and we made sure to stay somewhere with access to laundry halfway through our trip (couldn't have done it without that!)

Before we left I tried all over the place to find actual packing lists for what to bring. I found the phrase 'just bring lots of layers' about 164567 times. I'm a girl. I want specifics. So I present to you, my packing list:

First, I know. My illustration skills are astounding. It's remarkable how life-like these garments appear. You probably didn't even realize they were illustrations - but no! that's not a photo! unreal.

Bottoms
skinny black pants. Jeans are bulky, take a long time to dry (wasn't sure of the dryer status in these laundry places) and aren't necessarily comfortable for travel. I brought the Globetrotters from Athleta. They were heavenly for the 15 hour flight without looking stretched out and/or wrinkly at the end.

boot cut black pants. I brought the low rise Dipper Pant from Athleta. I hate the photo on their website - they look very wide leg or something but they are definitely more of a fitted bootcut pant. They were perfect for our one rainy day because they dry so quickly and I loved how I could squish them into my backpack and they never looked wrinkled.

basic black cotton skirt and tights.(skirt was from H&M a few years ago) These were not a necessity. But in general I had packed for walking-all-day-comfort and wanted to be able to put on something a little nicer at night for dinner. I think I also wore the skirt one day for sightseeing when I was pants-out.

Tops
long sleeved tshirts. I probably didnt need to bring four. Excessive and could have saved a little room in the bag. Mine are all the basic tall t's from the Gap (like this).

henleys. Again, two was more than I needed when I already had four long sleeved ts. Mine were from the Gap (I swear this post wasn't sponsored). I bought them specifically for the trip and it turns out they stretch out like crrrrazy and ended up being terrible for travel (they aren't available anymore on the website, probably because they suck).

random vintage button down. This is one of my favorite shirts, similar to the skirt it was probably not a necessity - but was fun to throw in the mix every few days to change things up. My only mistake was that this vintage shirt has shoulder pads which do not travel well smooshed in a backpack.

For warmth
sweater. This is a really basic cotton sweater I got from Target a while ago. It's a little too big which is nice for layering on top of other shirts.

jacket. Mine is a mid-weight North Face jacket (similar) a little waterproof is a good thing.

Shoes
You might have read in the Harajuku post, but I brought two pairs of shoes - first a tall pair of boots (similar) that I love love. Second, a pair of mary-jane like shoes (similar) that I bought a few years ago for another walking-heavy vacation. They're not attractive but they're comfortable for looong days walking on concrete.

Accessories
I brought a knitted hat, a cirlce scarf (I can't believe you couldn't tell what that was in the illustration!) and a pair of mittens. I brought one purse that I used 24/7 - a favorite cross body bag big enough to fit my camera.

And that friends, is my rambling packing list.

visiting japan : kyoto 1

Intro about our trip to Japan
From Tokyo we took the Shinkansen train to Kyoto. On the way we passed Mt. Fuji and I managed to snap a quick photo out one of the train windows.

We decided to stay in a hostel while in Kyoto to save some pennies - we stayed at the Backpackers Hostel K's House and had a good experience. Rooms were clean and it was in a pretty central locations. I think if we went back we'd stay somewhere else to change it up - but we had a fine experience.

Anyway, dropped our bags at the hostel and hopped on a bus to our first destination, one of the most iconic Japanese places to visit, Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion). We could not have picked a better time in fall (mid/late November) to visit as the trees around Kyoto were amazing shades of red and orange. If you visit Kyoto you can't miss the Golden Pavilion, the grounds around it are amazingly beautiful and while it was crowded with tourists (the fall leaves bring some of the highest crowds after the cherry blossoms in the Spring) it was still an amazing sight to see.

The next morning we took a train to the Fushimi Inari Shrine (also known as the 'torii gates'). Torii gates can be seen all over Japan at Shinto shrines but this specific location has thousands of the gates lining a path up a mountain and into the forest. I can't describe how beautiful and peaceful it was walking up the path. Each of the gates is carved with symbols that can only be seen when you turn around and look back down the path.

This was one of our highlights on the entire trip to Japan, it was absolutely gorgeous.

To speed this along, we spent that afternoon walking around Kyoto seeing a fraction of the stunning shrines and temples there.

Kyoto has a famous selection of candy - I loved watching them be made, watching the locals shop for them in the crowded stores and admiring the packaging.

We took a quiet walk through the Gion district.

We didn't spot any geisha I'm afraid. But we did see...faux geisha. For a price in some local shops you can have the complete geisha treatment with makeup, wigs and the traditional garments. You can then go walk the streets of Gion and fool the tourists. This tourist was not fooled I'm afraid. The girls were tripping in the traditional sandals and carrying cameras - not to mention walking around openly in large crowds. Faux geisha!

In my life I have never seen power lines like those in Kyoto. Is that a weird thing to notice (and take multiple photos of?) Seriously, they're crazy!

Next up, day two in (and around) Kyoto...

visiting japan : getting around

I'll continue with the recap of Kyoto next week but wanted to take a break and talk about general travel stuff.

Getting to Japan
We started the journey flying from Kansas City to Chicago. In Chicago we boarded our 15-hour flight on ANA (a Japanese airline). We had just booked through expedia and picked the best deals and weren't sure what to expect on this airline. As we lined up to board in Chicago we were definitely some of the only non-Japanese people getting onto the flight. That flight ended up being one of the best I have ever been on. The flight attendants were amazingly sweet. Part way through the flight they asked if this was our first trip to Japan. We said it was and then watched as all of the attendants gathered in one of the common areas and talked for a while - one of them occassionally looking up at us and smiling. A little while later they came over with postcards they had filled with all of their favorite places to go in Japan and things we couldn't miss.

The food was wonderful. Airline food. Wonderful. Our seats each had a tv that not only had movies and TV shows (both Japanese and American) but video games to learn Japanese! I don't know how anyone was hungry after the meals but if you were there was a snack bar set up in the common space.

On the way home our flight was a jarring, crowded mess on United. The staff was unfortunately some of the least friendly I've ever seen, the food was typical airline food etc. Completely unpleasant compared to our ride to Japan.

If you can fly ANA, I absolutely recommend it.

Getting around Tokyo
As I mentioned in my first Tokyo post, we took the Narita Express from the airport into Tokyo. While we were in Tokyo we walked alot - but the city is huge and we used the train to get from one major area to another.

Tokyo subway map

At first glance, theTokyo subway was by far the most confusing I've ever seen. At the same time it is also the cleanest, most promt and organized I've ever seen. Once you get a hang of the map it's fairly easy to get around - just be patient and leave yourself a lot of time to get where you're going. Especially if you go through stations like Shinjuku (where we would go in the station and by the time we got on our train we had walked -underground- to an entirely different station)

Getting around Japan
After reading quite a bit about the national trains and taking into account all of the trips we'd be making in between cities, it definitely made sense for us to purchase a JR (Japanese Rail) Pass. These are only available to people that live outside Japan and you MUST purchase them ahead of time, outside the country. Once inside Japan you exchange a voucher for your pass (we did this at the airport) and then activate your pass on the day you want to start using it. We were in the country nine days and had bought a seven day pass that we didn't want to start using until the third day if that makes sense. At one point we tried to figure out how much we saved using this pass and it was definitely at least half of what individual tickets would have cost - if not less.

The JR Pass website is extremely easy to use and made it clear how to use the pass, it's limitations etc. Hand in hand with that website is Hyperdia, a timetable/trip planning website that allows you to put in your current location and destination and it will give you the trains, times etc. This is a great video on how to use Hyperdia with your JR Rail Pass. I downloaded the Hyperdia app on my iphone and it was really useful as we made our way around.

We used the Shinkansen (bullet train) between a few of our major locations and smaller trains between others. We had an excellent experience with the trains and would absolutely do the same thing if we go back to Japan.

I will say that packing lightly (we backpacked) was nice on the trains. Some, like the Shinkansen, were spread out with assigned seats and plenty of room for bags. Others ended up being fairly crowded and I was grateful we didn't have large wheel suitcases to drag along.

my travel tool (iphone) and my husband's (obsessively precise maps)

iphone in Japan
Speaking of apps, I did bring my iphone with us. We didnt plan on using the phone for calls or texts but absolutely thought it'd be valuable to have along for google maps etc. We purchased an international data plan from our carrier (AT&T) that had a limited amount of data - we went with 125 mb. They showed us how to monitor the usage to be sure we didn't go over (it'd be a very pricey mistake!) When we arrived in Japan I turned my phone on and it took a few minutes but finally found the network and was all set. For the first few days we were careful to use it as little as possible but once we realized we weren't using that much data, we used it as a map (holla gps, I love you) and to email some photos back to our families every few days. We also used it to look up the occassional Japanese word we wanted to learn. And maybe I checked facebook a couple of times. Maybe.

Granted we stuck to pretty major areas and cities, but we always had a great signal and no problem using the gps.

Other apps we used -
JPhrases Free I used this language app before we left to lean some key words and phrases. There are alot of similar apps out there but I liked the way this was set up.

trains.jp We only used this a few times in Tokyo if we were unsure about the subway map. We could put in our current station and where we wanted to end up and it tells you the most direct way. It doesn't have timetables, which would be helpful.

Currency Ok, this one is frustrating. We downloaded this ahead of time - a quick calculator to change yen to dollars. When we arrived in Japan we attempted to use it and it never worked (despite saying it did not need any internet connection etc - which we had if it did need it!) Basically a waste, if you can find a better one I'd recommend whatever that is:)

maps
Before we left my husband went a little nutty on google maps. Worried that the iphone wouldn't work, he printed out maps for all of the major sites we were going to. He highlighted the paths we should walk and used the satellite street view to create landmarks for himself. Most of the maps would have English spellings for the major streets but not the smaller ones (and some places had very few street signs) so the landmarks helped. It was almost bizarre walking around with him because despite never setting foot in the country he'd say things like 'we're going to need to turn right up at that orange sign and then there will be a wood building around the corner'. Personally, I would have hated doing what he did because it's like a preview of everything you're going to see! But I won't lie, it was handy to have those navigation tools around. 

The Japanese people were so, so friendly and absolutely helpful. In more than one train station we had people approach us and ask if there was anything they could help us find (apparently the blonde and the 6'-1" guy stood out?) When we were a little turned around we never hesitated to gently ask a passing local if they could help. Even when the language barrier was a problem, they were always very polite.

It's intimidating to try and get around a whole new country but I definitely say don't worry, do your research and you'll have a great experience.

visiting japan : tokyo 2, meiji jingu shrine

Intro about our visit to Japan
Tokyo 1, Tsukiji Market
Tokyo 2, Ginza + Ueno Park

Bright and early on day two we stopped by the observation deck in the Metropolitan tower. It was a beautiful way to see Tokyo from above and really be overwhelmed (in a good way) by how huge the city is. When we were researching Tokyo we read that the city is essentially three Manhattan, NY's squished together. So kind of big. It was a little cloudy so we were not able to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji - but still a fantastic view.
In the photo you can see Yoyoji Park that we headed to next. We took the train to Harajuku station and went directly into the park to head to the Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Under the immense wood torii gate at the entrance to the park.

Offerings in the park.
We arrived at the Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine inside the park and encountered so many beautiful traditions and details. After the emperor and empress died in 1912 and 1914, people honored them by donating 100,000 trees from all over the world to create the forest. The Shrine was established in 1920.

Seeing the shrines and temples in Japan was one of my favorite parts of our trip. I grew up in a Christian home. Visiting Europe you see church after church and they're all beautiful - but also familiar in the sense that you know the traditions, the stories, the symbols etc. Visiting the shrines and temples was the opposite - I had some knowledge of Buddhism but very little understanding of Shinto. It was fascinating to watch and learn. We had read that many of the traditions at shrines are signs of respect that everyone should do regardless of your religion.

As you approach a shrine there is a temizuya - water with small bamboo ladle-esque dippers that you use to rinse your hands and mouth. We watched many, many people do this at the first shrine before trying it ourselves to make sure we had it right. At the main shrine we watched as people would step up the the shrine, put some coins in the box, step back and bow, then clap their hands twice and bow again. It was very quiet and peaceful.

There were lots of families at the shrine with children dressed up in traditional Japanese attire being photographed. So basically the cutest thing ever.

We were lucky enough to arrive just as a wedding procession walked through.
We left the beautiful park to go to Harajuku, stay tuned...

visiting japan : tokyo 1, ginza + ueno park

Intro to our trip to Japan
Tokyo 1, Tsukiji Market

After leaving the fish market, we walked up to the Ginza shopping district. I'm glad we paired these two together because they're so close - but it is a little strange to go from the fish-smelling, hope-I-didn't-step-in-fish-blood mentality to one of the most high-end, glamorous shopping areas in the city.

We backpacked in Japan (more on our packing in another post) and room in the ol' pack was tight. Meaning shopping was not really an option. Not that we'd be dropping any dough in most of the Ginza stores anyway (Dior is slightly out of my range, you know) but given the packing constraints, most of our time spent in any of the Japanese shopping districts was strictly window shopping and drooling over the gorgeous buildings themselves.

I'm lucky that my travel companion is an architect and enjoys the design-dork architecture/interiors sight-seeing as much as I do. We went in a few of the high end stores to see the gorgeous finishes and displays. We were both impressed at the store's exteriors more than anything - an entire neighborhood of gorgeous, incredible, unique buildings.

While walking through Ginza we noticed a big crowd of people in a dessert store. We figured 'when in Rome' and joined them - purchasing a gorgeous mochi ball (I'll be honest, we didn't love it but fun all the same).

Hoping for a little green space, we next hopped on a train up to the area around Ueno Park. We walked through the shopping area above on the way to the park, looking for a late lunch. Enter: the ramen vending machine restaurants. After watching a few locals go through the process (attempting to be discreet), we hopped into one of the small restaurants and stepped up the vending machine. The machine had a series of photos of each of the dishes offered with a price next to it (no English but the photos are all you need!) and we each picked one, paid and then handed our printed tickets to the hostess. We were seated and within a few minutes two glorious bowls of ramen were delivered. It was delicious and inexpensive - about $7 per person. My husband had pork while my ramen had seaweed, bean paste and lots of green onion.

We had read this ahead of time, but it definitely proved true - when the Japanese eat noodles they slurp them loudly. It's a sign of 'this is very tasty' respect and we tried our best to slurp with the best of them. I admired their art of slurping without ending up with broth all over themselves (luckily I wore a lot of black).

After lunch we walked up to Ueno Park. The park was beautiful and it was great change in pace to be among the quiet and trees - however given our short time in Tokyo I'm not sure we'd recommend it (there's so much to see I'm not sure this should be on a quick itinerary like ours). We did decide to pop into the zoo and visit with the elephants and pandas.

Walking through Ueno Park.

We walked by a shrine inside Ueno park. At many of the shrines we noticed long bars with hundreds of strips of papers tied to them. We found out (and if this isn't correct please let me know!) that you can get a fortune at the shrine. If it's a good fortune, you take it home with you. If it is bad you leave it at the shrine where the spirit can get rid of it.

While inside the zoo we stepped up beside a group of school children watching the gorillas. A little girl looked at me and then whispered to her friends. She turned to me and said "Hello!" I said "hello! ... konichiwa!" (Japanese for hello) she smiled and turned back to her friends and they all giggled. It was so sweet!

On our way back to the hotel we went through the 'electronics district' this was another sensory overload of neon signs, arcades, casinos and electronics stores. Another spot we'd probably skip if we ever to go back to Tokyo but it was fun to see the crowd of young people that hang out there.


Coming up, day two in Tokyo...

visiting japan : tokyo 1, tsukiji market

Intro on our trip to Japan

We flew into Tokyo's Narita airport (I'm planning another post about travel to/from/within) and took the Narita Express train into Tokyo. We had researched ahead and planned to take this - finding the ticket counters was pretty easy and we also exchanged our JR Rail passes in the same place (again, more info in the travel post). We arrived in Shinjuku about an hour later. Shinjuku station is one of the busiest train stations in the world. I'd be lying if I said we didn't get lost once or twice a few times, however it's clean and safe (blanket statement for everywhere in Japan from our experience!) and we used it everyday to get around the city.

In Tokyo we stayed at the Shinjuku Prince Hotel. One of the best parts of this hotel was that we walked out of the train station and could see it within a minute. After 24+ hours of travel this was the most joyous site we could imagine. We'd highly recommend the hotel, the rooms were small (expected) but very well done, very clean - and with an amazing view of the city to boot. We had learned a few key phrases before we left (the basics-hello, my name is, thank you, it's delicious, excuse me) and the staff was so friendly, I think they appreciated our 'hello' in Japanese but spoke English to give us details of the hotel etc.

Our view as we stepped out of the train station - sensory overload!

Dinner the first night in Shinjuku. I'll be honest, this was my only bad food experience in Japan -  but since it was the first I immediately panicked that we were in trouble. I'm a pescatarian (vegetarian who eats fish, planning a post on eating veggie in Japan) and admittedly I'm a pick eater. Layer that on a menu of symbols and unfamiliar foods (we were surprised at how many places had English menus or a friendly server to help us navigate though) and I worried. This dish is a "bowl of vegetables with noodles". It's hard to really understand from the photo - but the vegetables were an extremely slimy, sticky texture. And there was the raw egg on top. And that the whole dish was served cold. Like I said, my only bad experience!

Our first morning in Tokyo we woke up very early (which wasn't a problem - I never adjusted to the time change and was awake at 4am every morning!) and took the subway to the Tsukiji Fish Market. If you go to Tokyo, you cannot miss this. The fish market is the biggest in the world (from what we were told) and where the majority of the restaurants in the city get their fresh fish everyday. It is definitely a working marketplace - NOT a touristy destination. They are kind enough to allow tourists to wander around after 9am, you're able to walk through aisle after aisle of fish stands - trying to avoid getting run over by forklifts filled with giant frozen tuna and dodging big puddles of fishy water. It's not necessarily a glamorous experience - but it is amazing to see.

Before you are able to go inside, you can walk around a little marketplace just outside the market that is filled with tiny little sushi stands and stores selling cooking supplies. We had a traditional sushi breakfast in one of the little stands and this is where our Japanese food experience shifted from yikes to good-lord-this-is-amazing. By far the freshest, most delicious sushi I have ever had (or probably will ever have) in my life. It was served with miso soup (mmm) and hot tea, perfect for early November morning.

I ordered the tuna and cooked crab bowl. I will think about that crab for the rest of my life, so. unbelievably. amazing.

My husband ordered more of a 'mixed plate' with a variety of raw fish and rolls.
Next up, the rest of our first day in Tokyo - Ginza, Ueno Park and our first real ramen experience (aka where I fell off of my chair from delicious overload).