Snow, Sashimi, Sake, and a Marathon
Japan – Nikko – Narabijizo
We had an incredibly busy week! We spent two nights north of Tokyo in Nikko, then two nights south of Tokyo in Hakone, then back to Tokyo for the rest of the week. Nikko is in the foothills and full of temples, one of which holds the original hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys. It was by far the coldest we have been since South America, but very picturesque. Hakone is a popular destination from Tokyo and it’s easy to see why. On a clear day, Mt Fuji is visible from the lake (we did not see it) and the typical tourist route includes at least five different kinds of transport – bus, boat, gondola, funicular, and train. Back in Tokyo, we spent most our time on the west side of the city and even got to watch the Tokyo Marathon!
1. Go
For some reason we thought that public transportation in Japan would be cheap… at least cheaper than it is. Even metro rides are usually a few dollars. There are many convenient passes that tourist can buy that make traveling much easier, but not really much cheaper. We bought the Hakone FreePass, which was about $50 each and included a round trip from Tokyo and all transportation around Hakone for three days. It allowed us to simply flash the pass and board any form of transport. The typical Hakone loop includes taking a bus from town to Lake Ashi, a boat across Lake Ashi, a gondola (which they called a ropeway) up the mountain, a funicular (which they call a cable car) down the other side of the mountain to Gora, and finally a train from Gora back to Hakone. Whew!
- Train – 330 km. From Nikko through Tokyo to Hakone and back to Tokyo.
- Bus – 35 km. From Hakone to Lake Ashi and from the gondola to the funicular.
- Gondola – 2 km. Normally, the ride takes people all the way to the top of the mountain, but it was only open a third of the way due to poisonous fumes from all the volcanic activity.
- Funicular – 1.5 km. Down the mountain to Gora.
- Metro – 100 km. Around Tokyo.
- Boat – 10 km. Across Lake Ashi. Not only was this a cool looking ship, they had a navigation system that looked like a Monty Python sketch.
- Foot -108,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 54 miles)
2. See
Nikko is a World Heritage site known for its temples and shrines. Unfortunately, admission to the temples and shrines is really expensive, but there is plenty to see outside as well. We spent a blue bird day walking through the valley. Our most memorable places were Narabijizo and the Takino Shrine. Narabijizo is a long row of stone statues along the river, each wearing a little red hat and bib. Takino Shrine was up the hill behind the popular temples and we were nearly the only people there. There was a hole at the top of one of the gates that people throw stones at. If you make it through the hole, then you have good luck – Pat has luck and Lindsey does not.
Hakone is a much more touristy place than Nikko, but for completely different reasons. It is closer to Tokyo and boasts a popular loop on which you must take five types of transportation – bus, boat, gondola, funicular, and train. It was pretty cold during both our days there, and as much as we hoped for a clear view of Mt. Fuji, we missed out. But at least we an onsen at our hostel and we got a fresh dusting of snow on our last morning. Of all the modes of transportation, the boat across Lake Ashi was probably our favorite. It’s a modern ferry made to look like 18th century French and Swedish navy ships.
Back in Tokyo we spent two days walking through different neighborhoods. On the first, we walked across Shibuya crossing (the busiest pedestrian crossing), strolled down Takeshita Dori shopping street where the young come to see and be seen, and learned how to pray at Meiji Jingu shrine.
On the second day back in Tokyo, we started with a sashimi breakfast at Tsukiji fish market, then walked through Zojo-ji temple, on past Tokyo Tower where we saw Bowser, Mario, and Yoshi racing through the Roppongi hills (no joke). There we visited the Mori Art Museum featuring Takashi Murakami’s piece “The 500 Arhats.” The museum is on the 53rd floor with incredible views of the city. The art itself was colorful, wild, trippy, and unlike anything we’ve seen – really interesting. We finished the day with an at-home sake tasting.
On Sunday, we watched the Tokyo Marathon. We were lucky that we found an AirBnB very close to the starting line. We were blown away by the sheer number of people running and many were wearing costumes. Like everything else is Japan, it was surprisingly quiet. No one was clapping, but people were quietly cheering and one lady had some bells she was jingling to the rhythm of the runners. Lots of the spectators had flags and were wearing costumes as well. Despite the quiet atmosphere, it was still very festive and exciting. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the footage on TV.
Japan – Tokyo – Vegeta, Goku, and Bulma running the Marathon
3. Eat
7-11 is the place to eat! If you’re thinking of stale potato chips and slurpees, you’ve never been to a 7-11 in Japan (or Taiwan for that matter). They have a large variety of fresh foods made daily. Our technique for selecting food is to see what other people are buying, or just grab something random. There is very little, if any, English so we usually have no idea what we are buying. We’ve discovered a few new favorites this way, but we’ve also had some things that we will never eat again (e.g., squid flavored chips). Two of our favorites include rice triangles and banana delight – both of these names are completely made up by us since we can’t read Japanese. Rice triangles (real name is onigiri) are a triangle shaped ball of rice wrapped in seaweed and filled with something, usually fish. Banana delight is a banana with creme wrapped inside a pancake. It comes in two flavors, vanilla and chocolate.
Our hostel in Nikko served us dinner and breakfast which was an excellent opportunity to try the local food. For dinner they served salad, rice, soup, and yuba sashimi. Yuba is a Nikko specialty and is a bit strange. It’s a by-product of the tofu making process. Tofu is made from soy milk and while the soy milk is boiling a skin forms on the surface which is removed. That is yuba – the skin removed during boiling. It’s served in many ways. The sashimi version is like a slimy tofu ribbon with soy sauce… weird but good. We also had it wrapped around azuki bean paste and deep fried which was delicious (obviously because anything that has azuki and is deep fried would be)!
We splurged in a major way this week by having a large sashimi breakfast at the Tsukiji fish market. It was so fresh! We arrived around 10:00am and nearly every place had a line out the door. Upon later reflection, this may have had something to do with being the Saturday before the largest marathon in the world. We got lucky and found a place with a break and were able to sit right away. When we left, the line was about twenty people deep. We had tuna, fatty tuna, white fish, salmon, squid, sea urchin, roe, shrimp, and crab. Pat’s favorite is still tuna, while Lindsey’s is still salmon. Our biggest surprises were the white fish and the squid. The skin was left on the white fish which gave it a different texture, while the squid had a bizarre mouth feel that neither of us could get over.
4. Drink
We had sake twice this week. First, in Nikko we had hot sake which helped ward off the cold. Second, we did an at-home sake tasting after reading about different varieties online. We picked three different bottles with various levels of sweetness and acidity – all bought at 7-11… are you convinced yet that 7-11 in Japan is amazing? We were impressed by how different our three bottles tasted, but easily picked our favorites. We were glad the next morning that we were only watching the marathon and not running it.
5. Sleep
We had some wonderful and unique accommodation this week. In Nikko, we stayed at a hostel in a private double room, which was a tiny bed in a loft. Although it was small, it was very comfortable. The best thing about the hostel was that it included dinner and breakfast. In Hakone, we stayed at a hostel in dorm beds. There were eight beds in a room and each was in a cubby with a curtain, like a capsule. What made this hostel worth it was the onsen (a traditional Japanese style hot spring). They had both an indoor and an outdoor onsen – one for men and one for women (alternating). Our third accommodation was a tiny (the tiniest) AirBnB apartment in Tokyo. Although it was really, really small it was well organized and private. After spending many nights with shared bathrooms, it’s nice to have a whole place to ourselves.
6. Move
Like last week, we spent a lot of time walking this week (our highest step count since Taiwan). The cool temperatures were mostly refreshing, but there were a few times in Nikko and Hakone when we got too cold. Pat was so inspired by watching the marathon that he went out and ran 11 miles on Sunday afternoon.
Check out Pat’s CADENCE Week 39 post (coming soon?) for details about this week.
7. Etcetera
Ok, can we just talk for a moment about the toilets in Japan? Never have we had so many surprises with something so seemingly mundane and ordinary. Most toilets – public and private – are automatic. Not only do they flush automatically, they have heated seats and a variety of bidet options (various pressure levels and temperature). Many also make “privacy sounds,” like the sound of a stream. There are lots of buttons that we can’t read, so there may be more options that we don’t know about yet.
Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.
Nomadic Cadence 