こんにちは日本

helloooooo japan!

i was in japan for almost two weeks. we hit osaka (with day trips to kobe and nara), kyoto and tokyo. our outbound flight was delayed so we got a 15 minute airport massage lol. since we were delayed, there wasn't anything to do except eat and sleep once we arrived in osaka. we had booked the cheapest flight so we were both starving after deboarding. we did in one way have good timing – any later and we would've missed the last train into the city from the airport.

part one: osaka

the next day, we are just on our way to get breakfast before we went to osaka castle but a cute little uncle saw us and waved us into his shop. it was super cute, vinatage-y and had movie posters all over. the food was delicious and a great welcome to the city.

osaka castle is beautiful and has a great view. i got some good photography practice.

we also explored the night scene in search of okonomiyaki, running into the shopping scene and just had to visit uniqlo in its home country hahah.

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the next day we went to the osaka aquarium which is pretty iconic, even having a section for monterey, CA. they had this giant, giant tank with pacific creatures including whale sharks, manta rays and so much more. it was magical. we were lucky enough to catch a lot of the feeding times as well.

then we head to dotonburi street which is really more of a canal. saw the iconic running man and octopus as this is a popular place to get takoyaki. unfortunately, i still don't really like it...

part two: kobe

kobe is just about an hour out of osaka and we essentially just went to the herbal gardens up in the mountains and shopped. else than that, kobe is very slow living.

for dinner, we tried the signature kobe beef. you can have it straight, with egg and rice, with soy sauce, with salt or with their signature sauce. i think the best to bring out the meat flavor is the salt, but the sauce is bomb.

part three: nara

nara is also about an hour out of osaka but in the other direction than kobe. the main attraction here are the deers that seem to self contain to nara park where visitors can feed them. tbh it's kind of like a giant petting zoo but better because the deer are free roaming and also they know how to bow to ask for food. the males are a bit mean though. headbutting and biting is not uncommon.

we also explored the park's temple, todai-ji temple, which has a giant Buddha.

on the way back to our airbnb, we tried one of the ramen shops where you don't have to talk to anyone. you order at a kiosk and then you get a "cubicle" and the food just appears lol.

part four: kyoto

time for temples galore. we only had one night here so we had to pack a lot into the first day. started off at kiyomizu-dera and saw one other on the way to the thousand torii gates or Fushimi Inari shrine. i feel like there are more than a thousand tbh. it just kept going. technically we did summit mount inari! the gates are beautiful and on the way back we caught the sunset – lighting *chef's kiss* . what a day of walking though.

with kyoto being the old capitol, we decided to try a traditional stay with tatami mats, futons and the whole thing. it's really not bad at all.

part five: tokyo

it's shinkansen time!! i'm pretty sure this train goes faster than taiwan's HSR. we got to see some different areas of japan through the windows – even mt. fuji for a second! it's also apparently very common to eat bentos on the shinkansen so we picked up some before we departed. we travelled unreserved with no issue. there are designated cars for this kind of ticket and then you just sit wherever. it might not be so effective during peak tourist season but it was perfect or us because the train time was not specified either, any train was fine as long as it was on the day.

we spent the first day in the city at the imperial palace which is gigantic but we only get to see a little bit of it because the guy actually still lives there. the contrast to the city skyscrapers is crazy...

because it's still in use, we had to do an official tour and learned some cool stuff:

• after fire the in edo, they didn’t rebuild the main towers and gave money to rebuilding city (very philanthropic)

• the gardens are meant to reflect nature – essential compress the natural world into a certain space

  • this means no bright flowers etc.

• the emperor still receives guest, diplomats etc. here and serves tea but they do british style because the traditional tea ceremony is associated with samurai which is not suitable for the emperor

after that bit of histoy and culture, we saw the other big japanese culture, its weeb (games and anime) center, akihabara. to my surprise it was quite the vibe. the arcade was hella fun.

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the next day was my splurge day because it was GHIBLI DAY!! we went to the museum (no the park) so there's an exhibition on animation itself and my favorite was the room with storyboards posted all around and some full movie storyboard books to flip though. i almost bought the storyboards for my favorites but i know them already. maybe a bit too well ahahah. i can quote a lot of the scenes. instead i opted for the artbooks! i think it's a really well done museum. ghibli even made several short films to show exclusively at the museum. we saw the caterpillar one. unfortunately, no photos in the building but i guess that maintains how special the museum is.

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the next day was teamlabs which is one of those light show art exhibition thingies. i think it's funny that the rabbits are depicted as slaves to the frogs.

then we had the best dinner period. garlic butter edamame, egg wrap, okonomiyaki, yakisoba and a lemon sour. we were seated at the last two spots at the bar so we got to watch the cook!

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the next day, we met up at a park with a cousin who's there teaching english. there just happened to be a prefectural food fair while we were there which was fire. and we ended up back in akihabara at an arcade lol. the crazy thing is that this was the weekend and so the street in this area was so crazy that they apparently shut it down during busy hours of the day. walking in the middle of a huge street in tokyo felt like the apocalypse had happened or something hahah.

then off to the tokyo met building to watch sunset!

at night, we quested for udon and had a stop at hard rock cafe tokyo!

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and for our final day, we packed up, went to the restaurant that inspired Kill Bill and yet another kissaten. kissaten is "tea drinking shop" but now it's also coffee, cakes, and many even surve curry! this was certainly not the only one we visited on the trip.

all in all, this trip was fantastic! i got to see five cities' and eat so much good food. if i had to categorize the three cities we stayed in, osaka is the spot for nightlife of isakayas drinking and clubbing, kyoto is the slow life and tokyo is the bustling.

regardless, compared to taipei, all were so quiet! i will say my biggest problem with japan is the metro. a surprising thing to find out, yes? i thought it would be very much like that of taiwan and functionally, yes, but it's not simply because they have like five companies, so even if i only transfer at a station, i still have to tap in and out. and this also means there is not a universal card to pay with! as for buses, in osaka you get on in the middle and pay going out the front, but it's the opposite in tokyo. essentially, it's not standardized and it makes it confusing. i could rant for more but i'll jut leave it here.

i really did love it but i couldn't imagine living any of the place we went. i also just have soft spot for taipei. coming back today, it felt so right and like my home in asia. nowhere i've been matches the balance taipei has between concrete and nature.

i'm making a plushie family i guess

see ya in the next term

♡蘇晨