Well, I’m officially waiting to board a bullet train back from Hiroshima to Tokyo Haneda airport as I type here, so I guess the trip is now officially drawing to an end at this point. It’s been everything I hoped for and more (bar cheap – ouch!) and I’ve had an absolute blast as I’ve travelled across Tokyo, Kyoto, Koyasan, Nara and Hiroshima over the last 3 weeks. I originally thought this would be absolutely loads of time to see and do everything, but in fact I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this in equal parts beautiful, fascinating and quite frankly often completely and utterly bonkers country… Either way, I will need to come back at some point soon again – if only for the ramen alone!

In the meantime, it has come to my attention in recent days that there are some of you out there who haven’t been following this blog as avidly as you should have been doing over the course of the last month, or had not – in fact – clocked until now that there was even a blog to follow. If you are one of these people, truly epic fail on your part… 😉

I’d definitely recommend reading from the beginning, as this blog genuinely constitutes a true work of creative genius (my Mum said so and everything…). But failing that (and presuming busy lives, pushed for time, CBA, etc…), here’s a handy rundown of my personal Japan top 20 – it’s been such a truly great trip, I genuinely couldn’t get it down any lower that that!! And for those of you who have been diligently reading and commenting from the outset, thanks a million – and please do feel free to share in the below retrospective across an epic last 3 weeks…

So, in no particular order – here is the highly abridged, drastically abbreviated, and completely non-exhaustive version of my Japan top 20…

1. Cat Café

One of my early highlights of Japan was hitting up the Cat Café Mocha Lounge in Shinjuku, where a much needed matcha tea and a bit of cat love from the various residents lifted my flagging spirits on day 1 in Tokyo on an initial rainy and sleep-deprived afternoon.

2. Toilets

This would not be a complete top 20 of Japan without toilets featuring on here in some way shape or form. Toilets in Japan are both futuristic (love love love that hot seat function) and omni-present – a relief for us poor tiny-bladdered types at the best of times, not to mention a quite literal god-send when the infamous ‘Osaka incident’ struck….

This being said, there’s also a clear obsession here with using them correctly, whether Western bowl shape or Eastern hole-in-the-ground (I’ve used both – it’s really not that hard…). Just don’t forget the toi-re slippers!

3. Capsule hotel

My trip to Japan was actually first inspired by watching John Leslie (long before later fall from grace) visit a Tokyo capsule hotel on a Blue Peter special. Suffice to say, my tiny little mind was blown – and it just had to be done while I was here.

I’d feared it would be like sleeping in a coffin or MRI scanner, with lots of noise from adjacent neighbours, etc. – but actually at 10+ hours, I had one of the best night’s sleep of my trip here. I know this latter point for a fact, as my sleep quality in the pod was (really rather obtrusively, when you think about it…) tracked and monitored throughout the night here, and I even got a little sleep report to this effect after the fact too:

You can read more about my stay in said capsule hotel here.

4. The Japanese transport network

Putting it bluntly, the Tokyo transport system makes the London Underground look like it’s built for absolute squealing wussies. Think endless flowing hordes of determined commuters, about a thousand and one different transportation lines, a veritable maze of multi-floor entrances and exits, various jaunty musical interludes and repeat announcements ringing out from the tannoys in that very typically Japanese high-pitched teenage-girl type staccato, all to the power of about a million.

Here’s a map of Tokyo’s transport network for sense of scale:

I feel vaguely sick even looking at it.

That said, there is all the fun of traveling via bullet train / shinkansen! Is it me, or does it look a bit like a duck billed platypus here…? I think so at any rate.

5. Sakura Sakura

(I like to sing this in my head Wycliffe style…) Sakura means cherry blossom in Japanese, and the season is a major deal here, with countless young girls and couples taking the opportunity to get their kimono / traditional togs on and have their photographs professionally taken against various scenic backdrops.

As it happened, the season came early this year, and I was really incredibly lucky to catch it at all – albeit by the skin of my teeth, and with some mad dashes around both Tokyo and Kyoto’s various hanami (viewing spots) in the process. Still, ‘my sakura is not sufficiently in bloom!’ is truly the ultimate in first world problems (I can hear the tiny violins playing as I type…) and I do genuinely count myself as extremely fortunate to have been in a position to even travel here and see them at all.

You can read more about my various sakura chases round Tokyo and Kyoto here and here.

6. Kyoto

It really is impossible to adequately sum up Kyoto in a few lines here, and I’d definitely recommend having a look at my adventures in the city here, here and here.

The summary of the summary of the summary is that Kyoto (as you’d expect) was duly stunning, and more than lived up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful cities of the East. I won’t wax lyrical on this – suffice to say the place was pretty amazeballs, and I’ll otherwise let the pics (a very, very tiny fraction of the whole…) do the talking here.

7. The Tokyo Poop Museum

I’d expected ‘bonkers’ here, and the Poop Museum (PooMoo? – I seriously think that moniker could catch on) certainly did not disappoint on this front. The PooMoo turned out to be a true embodiment of psychedelic insanity, constituting a veritable assault on the senses (bar – ironically enough – smell…) from the moment you walked through the door here. If you read any of my blog posts in full at all, best make sure it’s this one!

8. Tokyo night life

One of my most fun evenings in Japan was parking myself at one of the many teeny tiny little ‘hole-in-the-wall’ bars and restaurants that collectively make up Tokyo’s Golden Gai district. With room for only about 8 people along the counter, I soon got chatting to fellow guests, and even took turns singing a bit of karaoke with them too….

Tragically, there was no Eminem on the song list (only about 30 songs worth) this time round – so had to make do with Yesterday by The Beatles. Which is likely why I look just about as pained here singing it as others must have been listening!).

9. Tokyo cityscapes

When in Tokyo, one has to seek out the famous Shibuya Crossing – that iconic cityscape scene of multiple pedestrian crossings all in play at once.

I ended up getting hopelessly lost on the way there though – Google was completely confused at the sheer multitude of floors, muddle of entrances and maze of exits at Shibuya station – and quite frankly I don’t bloody blame it! Finally though, I made it there (if more by accident than design in the end), to some great views from on high:

10. Learning about Japanese tradition

While in Kyoto, I visited the Gion-kōbu Kaburenjo Theater in Kyoto to see some geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha) up close, attend a (highly abridged) formal tea ceremony and watch the Miyako Odori theatrical / musical performance.

Of the performance itself, I suppose all I can say on this front is that geisha performance represents something of an acquired taste…? But hey, at least I’ve done something vaguely cultural / artistic while I’m here (unless you count the Poo Museum, which quite frankly I absolutely do, by the way…).

If anyone tells you I dressed up as geisha in the process, they’re lying. However, you can read more about my various experiences learning about ancient Japanese traditions here.

11. Akihabara

Akihabara is Tokyo’s famous manga, anime, gaming and electronics area – as well as purported red light district of the city. None of the above are in any way really my bag, but several million Japanese, not to mention legions of devoted fans worldwide, can’t all be wrong – and the place (chockful of various arcades, pachinko, manga stores, adult shops and somewhat dubitable ‘maid cafés’) was certainly popular at any rate!!

You can read more about my madcap experiences in Akihabara here. 

12. Harajuku

I ummed and ahhed as to whether or not to put Harajuku on the list here, but I don’t think you can come to Tokyo and not at least mention the place. I’d always understood Harajuku to be a kind of underground, counter culture type neighbourhood, with a something of an edgy / alternative vibe. What I instead found was a true orgasm of rainbows, kawaii and cotton candy (with barely any Harajuku girls in sight either…). Honestly, it was like a unicorn had projectile vomited pink and glitter all down the street… I have to say, I can’t really see where Gwen Stefani was coming from on this one, but one thing’s for sure: my 4-year old niece would absolutely bloody love the place!

You can read my full entry on Harajuku and other Tokyo neighbourhoods here. 

13. Getting spiritual in Koyasan

A definite highlight for me was staying in a shukubo in spiritual Koyasan, a secluded mountain town of 117 monasteries and birthplace of Shingon Buddhism. A shukobo basically constitutes simple temple lodgings, where you have the option to eat the same vegetarian meals (known as shojin-ryori) as the resident monks here, and also to join in on meditation / morning prayers etc. with them as well. I’ve no pics from the latter obviously, given this was a site of active worship, but here are some examples I found on t’interweb to give you a bit of a sense of it all. Really something special to observe quite this up close and personal, it has to be said.

You can read more about my stay in Koyasan here.

14. Ryokan Rollin’

A definite highlight for me (albeit somewhat of a highly idiosyncratic one) was staying in a traditional Japanese ryokan in Kyoto, which is a traditional Japanese inn (think tatami mat / sliding door / futon bed style, plus communal bathrooms). In my case, this felt very much like going to stay with your (theoretical) little old eccentric Japanese grandparents, who are very much looking forward to your visit, but at the same time seem vaguely surprised by the fact you’ve actually turned up at all and aren’t exactly sure what to do with you now you’re here… Just don’t get me started on the raging slipper obsession at play here!

You can read more about my stay at Kyoto’s most endearingly bonkers ryokan going here…

15. Hiroshima

Of course, there was also visiting the haunting Peace Memorial Park and harrowing Peace Museum in rainy Hiroshima (which you can read more about in detail here).

Without wanting to be flippant here, is it me, or does the place also kinda put you in mind of Milton Keynes…? I’m not suggesting for a second that Milton Keynes resembles a bombsite (perish the thought…), but there are some definite parallels here in terms of the liberal use of concrete, incorporation of wide open space and overall new town / urban planning feel, not to mention all the underpasses (albeit less so the roundabouts) too…

16. Markets (Tsujiki and Nishiki)

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely bloody love me a food market at the best of times – but Japanese food markets on top of that…?!? My cup well and truly runneth over.

As such, the below represents only a teeny tiny fraction of the several hundred pics I took in the process of visitation (when I said I liked markets, I seriously meant it…).

Fellow market aficionados can read my accounts of market visits here and here.

17. Ramen

I bloody love ramen – usually purchased at various little hole-in-the wall type places, similar to as pictured below. It’s quick, affordable (as far as Japan goes!) and is one of my all-time favourite meals at the best of times, so has been a default ‘go to’ most evenings for me. The ones I’ve had to date have varied from the mediocre to the sublime, with some so bloody good they almost count as near transcendental – truly like achieving noodly inspired nirvana at times. Eat your heart out Wagamama.

You can read more about my culinary adventures in Japan here (incidentally by far my most popular post of all time from the blog, by the way – people just love food…).

18. Food! (Other than ramen…)

While most of the trip I’ve been living off ramen, I’ve also gone off piste and pushed the boat out too, on the odd occasion. This includes a kaiseki (multi-course) dinner in Kyoto:

Various sushi and seafood market dinners:

One time having Japanese tapas in a sake bar:

Various ebiken (train lunch boxes – which come lovingly gift wrapped for that extra special sense of locomotive occasion):

And of course, much much more! As above, fellow foodies can read more about my culinary adventures in Japan here.

19. Matcha tea

Drinks-wise, the overarching theme of trip has not been sake or asahi (I’ve actually been incredibly sparing all trip), but matcha tea – my new potable equivalent of crack cocaine.

I’ve had the ‘real deal’ in matcha a couple of times at traditional tea houses or even at a (much abbreviated) tea ceremony, but the one I’m really obsessed with is from Doutor, which is basically the Japanese equivalent to Costa or Starbucks – i.e. the completely bastardised version! No one day in Japan has yet passed without a Doutor visit – often two, once even three. Clearly I’m going to have to find myself a good connect once back in the UK – that or found the first official Matcha Anonymous here…

20. The Weird and the Wonderful

And of course there’s all the weird and wonderful shizz that simply makes Japan Japan.

There are bonkers statues and monuments, often seemingly plonked down in the middle of anonymous suburbia somewhere:

Plus, there’s the plastic models of food outside practically every restaurant here (which invariably looks disgusting, btw):

There’s a souvenir market that quite frankly consists of kawaii on steroids:

There is the insanely wonderful (or wonderfully insane?) Gotokuji cat temple, which for reasons unknown features multiple cat statues at the gates of an otherwise non-descript cemetery in a totally random residential district of Tokyo (side note: please please please please bury me here).

There is a street in Kyoto dedicated to monsters in paper-maché form:

There are also these horrific effed-up bibbed dudes from Okunoin Cemetery in Koyasan, Japan’s largest graveyard (and, yes, I’m officially freaked out too on this one).

And let’s not forget the joys of manga photo booths! I’m not on drugs here by the way – the photo machine just manga’d up my eyes. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Plus there’s all the other random stuff that I encountered over my 3 week stay, from smoking pods, to vending machines everywhere you look, to alarmist public information posters on the Tokyo underground, to Totoru (yeah, I didn’t know who he was either…) and just everything else… And, yes, your guess is as good as mine on some of these too!

21. This blog

And a bonus one here is this blog. It’s been truly great to get in touch with my long dormant travel writing side once again – and to get your comments and feedback about how much you enjoyed reading. I read and appreciated every one!

Anyway, that’s officially it for now – sayonara and arigatō till the next time!