Big in Japan

Recently, J and I took a 10 day holiday in Japan. Ever since I studied japanese in high school it has been a dream of mine to visit that pearl of the east. I do, however, have a slight tendency to descend into panic attacks in large city crowds so was always rather nervous about the prospect of tackling Tokyo on my own. This year, a good friend happened to be living and working in Tokyo so I figured this was the perfect excuse to make the trip happen. This was helped by the fact that earlier this year I won $10,000 as part of a prize for excellence in research. For those of you who don't already know, Japan is famous for being extraordinarily expensive to visit so the injection of unexpected cash really helped me realise the dream. Part of my dream was also to try and experience an older more traditional side of Japan, the rural Japan you read about in stories rather than just the uber modern Japan you see on TV. Also, ever since I began snowboarding, the lure of lush Japanese powder has also become part of the appeal. Luckily for me, the 10 days we spent managed to contain a little of everything I wanted and was therefore absolutely perfect. What a fascinating, gorgeous, intriguing, beautiful, friendly, wonderful country! If you have ever thought you might like to visit Japan, my only advice would be do it, do it now, but start saving yesterday!

Our trip began by spending a quick night in Tokyo with our mate and then together all flying out at 5am the next morning to the north island of Hokkaido for 4 days of snowboarding adventures. While it was too early in the season for the conditions to be perfect and all the lifts open. There was snow, there were open runs and we therefore managed to have a tonne load of fun :)

While we were there, our mate invited another Aussie friend of his to join us for the weekend and luckily for us, he spoke fluent Japanese. This became super important when we entered a tiny local drinking hole and were confronted with a pack of rowdy drunken locals! J was great with them as usual, communicating in some way or another and impressing them with his tattoos, but having someone with us who could speak the language helped us be quickly embraced as friends rather than ignored as undesired foreigners.
After our fun in snow, we returned to Tokyo for another quick night before taking the bullet train out to Nagano, from where we took another small train out into the countryside. Here we stayed in a traditional ryokan hotel in a tiny hot spring village. Wow, what an experience! Great hot spring spas all through the hotel and the streets that we could soak in at will. We loved that we were expected to wear our cotton kimonos at all times and were given toe separated socks and wooden thongs if we wanted to walk outside on the local streets.
And the food! OMG! While the food all throughout Japan was generally amazing, the meals we were served as part of our stay in the ryokan were simply unbelievable. A 14 course dinner and an 11 course breakfast were standard, and we never got exactly the same dish twice in all 3 days of our stay. Truly amazing! Even though we could not identify half of what we were served, the flavours were absolutely incredible. Believe me when I say that you have not had japanese food until you have been to Japan, not a stick of sushi in sight! I miss japanese food already actually...
While staying in the village, one day we walked up into the mountains to see the snow monkeys that survive the freezing winters by hanging out in the hot springs there. That was an amazing experience - both walking up through the forests and past steaming holes in the ground and being surrounded by monkeys who couldn't care less that you were there invading their home.
We also had a great time walking around the mountains at the back of the village and discovering all the old abandoned temples and buddhist statues scattered amongst the rambling bamboo.
We absolutely cacked ourselves though when we found a 'tobacco diety' where we were instructed to leave a burning cigarette as an offering to help ensure our good health. Of course both of us could not pass up that opportunity!
After our great stay out in the countryside we headed back to Tokyo to spend our last night in the big city. We met some friends and squashed ourselves into the busiest metro line in Tokyo, got bustled across the totally crazy 3 way pedestrian crossing at shibuya, ate in a funky underground restaurant and ended the night drinking in an absolutely tiny (max capacity 10 people), ruby red, elaborately decorated, super chic bar where the beer was served in goblets.
All in all it was a fabulous trip that was worth every penny because the memories we created will without a doubt last as long as my lifetime :) xxx