Tokyo

Shinjuku, the red-light district

After staying at a classy hotel with my parents in the historic Kyoto, I spent a few days by myself in the liveliest late-night district of Tokyo, in a capsule hotel.  I wasn't expecting the capsules not to even have doors, just a pull-down privacy shade, but I slept like a princess.  Japan is an ideal place to be a single female traveler because it is extremely safe--so much so that even Taiwanese people are impressed.  The culture in Taiwan and Japan is very anti-theft.  I'm not sure if it is because of a relative economic prosperity paired with the influence of Buddhism, but unattended property is always left undisturbed.  When my friend goes for an evening jog in downtown Taipei, she leaves her backpack on a park bench.

The first day I spent with some Japanese friends of a friend, both single men who had very niche hobbies and worked long hours in Tokyo, both named Keisuke. They were really gracious, welcoming hosts to the city.  We met up in Asakusa for yakitori (grilled meat skewers) and tofu (tastes so much softer in Japan!! melts in your mouth) at a lunch place overlooking the river, as well as red bean, matcha ice cream, mochi dessert at a traditional teahouse.  Walking through the Thunder Gate to the Senso Temple, we were packed next to people coming to pray after the New Year (celebrated with the Gregorian calendar in Japan, not the lunar calendar).  Much like in Taiwan, religion is fluid and polytheistic, and my new friends couldn't name any differences between Shinto and Buddhism, except that Buddhism was imported from India via China, whereas Shinto is inherently Japanese.

Kaminarimon, Thunder Gate

When I walked to Meiji Shrine on my own the next day, I was unexpectedly swept up into a tide of worshippers as soon as I entered the huge surrounding park.  I learned the second Monday of January is Coming of Age Day in Japan, celebrating those who have reached or will reach adulthood that year.

Young women in kimonos to celebrate the occasion at Meiji Shrine

I was amazed by how huge and urban Tokyo was.  The street fashion was unparalleled  (think platform shoes and dyed hair).  Skyscrapers and designer stores were innumerable.  The Japanese public transit system was a pioneering and remarkably vast system, but it felt outdated and confusing compared to Taipei's.  Much of it is above ground trains connecting districts, rather than subterranean metro.  The train cars were often wood paneled with velvet seats, and extremely loud.  The trickiest part was that multiple lines with different destinations would come to the same track.  Despite its extensiveness, the system is still overtaxed by the dense urban population; while I was there, a new policy was announced offering incentives for citizens to move out of Tokyo.

The famous Shibuya crossing (at mid-morning)

Moat surrounding the Imperial Gardens and Palace

Business district near Tokyo Station

I was surprised by the popularity of pachinko parlors, a specific style of Japanese gambling that exploits a loophole in the no gambling law.  Similarly, there is a thriving sex industry that creatively skirts a prostitution law officially outlawing intercourse in exchange for payment.

Secluded gardens of the Nezu Museum

Shiba Park with a view of Tokyo Tower

Mount Fuji

Another day I spent with a friend visiting from Taipei.  We went to the Yaushukan Museum of military history.  Museums are always intriguing for their local revisionism, but particularly so a military history museum in a country with a history of militarism ideology.

Yasukuni Shrine for fallen warriors

Omoide Yokocho alleyway, where we chose a tiny local BBQ place
with a single counter of seating but no English menus, turned out the owner was from China
and visibly taken aback when I spoke to her in Chinese

Japanese style souffle pancakes

Finally, my friend and I went to Akihabara, AKA anime central.  In addition to an enormous shopping mall of all electronics, a Don Quixote (claustrophobia inducing general merchandise store), and a seven floor Tenga sex store, we also went to a maid cafe.  The staff was all young women dressed to the nines as maids, and the clientele was mostly Japanese men.  To get the waitress's attention, you were supposed to say nyan nyan (the Japanese onomatopoeia for meow meow), and the bathroom was referred to as the flower garden.  The food was all in line with kawaii cuteness culture, and the waitresses performed very impressive K-pop style dances in their stockings and platform shoes.  There were tons of add-on offers to buy a photo of a waitress or other memorabilia.

Kyoto

After visiting Taiwan, my parents and I went to Kyoto for a few days, our first ever time in Japan.  It was fascinating to see where certain aspects of Taiwanese culture originated.  Every place is unique, but Japan almost didn't feel like Asia.  The small neighborhoods with quaint houses and extremely clean streets with sidewalks with no curb almost felt European.  The sidewalk traffic was not as politely orderly as in Taiwan, but maybe because we were constantly forgetting to walk on the left.

Visiting the Giant Buddha of Nara, a temple complex roamed freely by deer

Our first full day in Japan, we did a self-guided bike tour (with my mom on an electric bike) to various sites.  Every time we hit a hill, my mom's pedal assist would suddenly engage and she would zoom past us.  The climax of the day was a climb to Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion.  It glowed in the sunshine of a chilly day.  I was struck by how the weather was opposite that of Taiwan; Japan was dry, sunny, and cold.  It was comforting to once again be around locals who react nonchalantly to chilly weather.  On a 65 degree day, you could expect Taiwanese people to be wearing parkas, hats, and gloves, whereas Japanese people wore less on a 45 degree day.

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

Kinkaku Temple, covered in gold leaf

Ending the biking day at a nice teahouse with traditional desserts

New Year's miso soup with mochi balls

The next day, we went to Kiyomizu-dera, the most striking temple complex of the trip.  To reach the temple at the top of a hill, you walk up winding cobblestone streets (including one claiming to be the most beautiful in all of Kyoto) packed with tourists in kimonos and vendors selling snacks and souvenirs.

Attending a Japenese tea ceremony was radically different than drinking tea in China or Taiwan.  Part of the experience is the aesthetics of the flowers and the painting chosen for decoration in the tatami mat room.  The tea leaves are ground into a powder called matcha, whereas Chinese tea is the leaves steeped and then filtered out.  The tea is drunk from bowls rather than cups, and there is an emphasis on purity, or everything being clean.  Since being in Taiwan, I'd already become obsessed with matcha so I enjoyed every tea, ice cream, crepe, cream puff, waffle, mochi, cocktail I could find in matcha flavor.

Kodai Temple

For dinner, we had kaiseki, a traditional meal of small courses, at Roan Kikunoi, my first ever two Michelin star restaurant.  It was a spectacular feast.  The first course was a small saucer of sake with gold flakes.  It did feel very different than Western haute cuisine.  There were quite a few cold, mushy dishes--as my mom said, even in Taiwan after having too much mochi and boba, Westerners like more crunch.  A lot of emphasis was placed on the aromas, the variations of umami flavors, and how the handcrafted pottery paired with the dishes.

The next day, we hiked all around the one-of-a-kind Fushimi Inari shrine.  The tunnels of red tori were stunning to walk through in person; just like the bamboo forest, there was a special ambiance that couldn't be captured in photos.

As we decided to hike all the way to the summit all the other tourists disappeared.  We ended up following an abandoned path through a cemetery (where my dad managed to suddenly get lost) down the backside of the mountain to another temple, this time in the middle of a private residential community.

Tofuku Temple

Nishiki Market

None of the restaurant portions were ever big enough for my mom, so one night on our way home from dinner we stopped at an Ichiran Ramen.  Only Japan could have created a dining concept where you order from a machine, are seated in an individual booth, and delivered your food under a curtain.  The only time you saw your server was when they lifted the shade just enough so that you could see their deep bow.  If we heard arigato gozaimasu once that trip, we heard it five hundred times.