Sights in Japan: 5 fantastic experiences for your trip in Japan is written by Winnie Sorensen.
Attractions on your trip to Japan
Japan, Nippon, Kingdom of the Sun – dear country has many names. And the country is not only rich in names, but also in the most fantastic experiences you can imagine.
Regardless of whether you have to Tokyo to experience Meiji Temple, to Kyoto to go in bamboo forests or to Hiroshima to see the island temple of Miyajima, Japan has plenty of sights to see. We give you 5 of the best here.
Food is one of the biggest attractions in Japan
We are foodies, so we were fortunately not disappointed. We have eaten an incredible amount of things in Japan, we don't quite know what it was, but very few things we didn't like.
Japanese have a fondness for slime. 'Tororo' was probably the worst. In sharp competition with 'natto'. Tororo is yam roots that have been processed in a way so that it becomes something white and very sticky.
It is absolutely impossible to swallow. It doesn't taste bad so far, but the texture is just crazy. Natto is fermented soybeans. Need I say more?
But other than that we ate everything. Tiny dried and salted fish. Raw fish for breakfast. All kinds of fermented vegetables – they love fermentation in Japan – miso soups, tempura, baked meatballs with sauerkraut as a side dish, giant rice cakes, strawberries with cream inside, ramen and soba noodles in all shades.
And tofu. Yes, we even ate tofu skins.
From fancy restaurants to street food
On our trip to Japan we ate in fancy restaurants, in simple lunch places, in streets, markets and food courts filled with street food, and we even bought packed lunches at the local 7/11.
We went into restaurants without menus outside and we pointed to what we wanted. We tried Google Translate and sometimes got something we didn't quite know what it was. We ate it anyway.
It also brings me to item number two on the list of amazing sights in Japan.
The country where everything works
The trains run on time and the public toilets are always both clean and tidy. There is always soap and often also toilet seat alcohol. The toilets also have a million buttons, one of which is of course for making an artificial guilt-out sound, so you can push in peace.
On the trip we found out that apparently Japanese ladies also fart - you just don't want to hear it.
There is no litter in the streets and parks. There are also no waste bins, so everyone walks around with a small bag for waste, which you throw out at home. The parks probably also close at five o'clock every day, so an evening picnic or a cool drink in the park at sunset is out of the question.
But it must be mentioned that the parks are clean and neat and definitely one of them sights in Japan you must experience.
Everywhere there is a very well defined queuing system so no one cheats in front. Boarding and disembarking of both trains and buses is highly optimized and works without any problems.
In the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarkets, even the tomatoes are sorted by size. So much so that once – no, maybe twice – I moved a large tomato next to the small ones while no one saw it and felt very rebellious.
In restaurants you always get a wet wipe for your hands, and in many places you can look directly into the kitchen and see for yourself that the hygiene is top notch. Everything is so well organized and well organized that the idea of poorly prepared food or questionable hygiene simply did not occur to us.
It's a really cool feeling when you visit a new country. The one thing that is not quite optimal is the lack of English. So only a few speak English.
But somehow it doesn't matter that much. Because people are crazy good. And it is therefore the third fantastic experience from our trip to Japan.
The Japanese people is a sight in itself
So they do not speak much English. Then it is probably also said. Oddly enough, it was especially older ladies who wanted to chat in their evening school English. In a train, I fell into conversation with Mariko.
Her one daughter lived in Ireland, and Mariko had therefore taken English courses so that she could visit her. At the railway station, we struck up a conversation with an elderly lady in her eighties who had to go Canada to visit her daughter.
In the shops, the young clerks tried to ask where I came from, all the while giggling as if it was the most vile thing in the world they had asked.
But also the men in the ticket booths at the train stations did what they could. They could not speak English. But with many gestures, Google and an old-fashioned map, they willingly helped buy tickets at the vending machines. Here, of course, everything is also in Japanese.
Many restaurants have English menus, but are translated with Google Translate, which makes no sense at all. If you ask the waiter, you do not get much wiser, but they tried to find someone who could help.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out, and several times we had to give up, but fortunately it wasn't the will to help that was missing. It was actually quite cool, when we are not exactly that familiar with Japanese ourselves.
A land full of contrasts
The contrasts in Japan are incredible and the contrasting community is also a sight in Japan. On one side of the road is a temple area with a beautiful zen garden, where the gravel is arranged in neat patterns and not a plant is left to chance.
On the other side of the street is a group of teenagers with blue and pink hair. One of the girls is wearing something that looks like a school uniform, but at the same time is just not a school uniform at all.
In the supermarkets, the vegetables are, as I said, divided by size, and around the corner was a gigantic arcade with such infernal noise that even the Japanese wear earplugs when they bravely move in.
Here, grandmothers sit side by side with businessmen in suits and freak out on a slot machine.
You can go from a department store, where the clerk bows deeply as a thank you for the transaction, and directly into a karaoke hall, where you can become a gold member and get all the drinks you want in an hour and a half.
Here you can simultaneously scream along to 'Suspicious Minds' or 'Stop the little kangaroo' - depending on what you're most in the mood for.
Whether you are fascinated by the most beautiful mountains with snow on top or fascinated by the biggest pedestrian crossings you can imagine, well, Japan has it all.
Beautiful temples in Kyoto - sights you can not get around
In addition to the food, the nature, the people, the orderliness and the contrasts, there are of course also a large number of quite ordinary tourist things that are worth experiencing. We were even very excited about the city Kyoto. It's all shown.
We went on a guided bike tour to the more unknown parts of Kyoto and enjoyed it very much.
The Gold Pavilion is incredibly beautiful, but unfortunately very touristy. The Silver Pavilion is hardly as popular, but in our opinion at least as much worth a visit. However, it was the completely quiet temples without other tourists that really left their mark on us.
Tokyo and Kyoto are definitely both worth visiting, and it is obvious to combine the two cities on the same trip to Japan.
However, we would say that Tokyo is and will be a crazy city in every conceivable way: the food, the people and all the many impressions. There's plenty of it all, and more.
I am also very glad we stayed in Takayama. It is a popular city for day tourists, but by 17pm in the afternoon, tranquility is everywhere.
The old town of Takamaya is very visited, but was for us at least as interesting as Gion in Kyoto. In addition, the train ride to Takayama was beautiful with mountains with snow on top and evergreen rivers.
Good trip to Japan!
What to see in Japan? Sights and attractions
- The tower Tokyo Tower
- The Golden Pavilion Kinkaku-ji
- Miyajima Island Temple
- Tōdai-ji Temple
- Fuji Volcano
- Jigokudani Monkey Park
- Himeji Castle
- The Imperial Palace in Tokyo
- Tokyo Disneyland, Universal Studios Japan, Hello Kitty Land, Legoland Park and Fuji-Q Highland
- Onsen - hot springs
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