A Trip to Japan
We went to Japan!
The vacation was about two weeks long and it was amazing! We split the time between Tokyo and Kyoto and enjoyed almost all of it. There were a couple tough moments, but all in all it was just a great time seeing lots of beautiful gardens, castles, and shrines.
Japan is a huge culture shock; people seem to have this thing called “respect” and “community care” that is completely absent in the US. That suited us fine because we respected this about their culture in return. Two simple examples: virtually no litter despite there being also virtually no trash cans (people just carry their trash with them until they come across a garbage) and on escalators everyone automatcially stays to one side in case walkers come by. Super simple things that just don’t happen in the US and which make life better for everyone.
Of course, we had to go somewhere we could get a panoramic view of Tokyo, get a sense of how large this, one of the most populated cities in the world, actually is, and the Tokyo Sky Tree delivered. Since we’re tourists, we were able to go up pretty rapidly (they have a fast line for tourists and a regular line for non-tourists), and our timing couldn’t be better; we got up just at sunset. This city is huge!
Most of the shrines and parks we went to seemed so out of place; we only went out of big cities once but the parks and shrines still seemed like they were totally isolated. They do an incredible job keeping these places pristine and in good repair and, mixed with the fact that there’s basically no horns blaring, you can’t hear the traffic around so you just kinda vanish into these natural areas which take you back in time.
Of course, one has to hit Himeji Castle while in Japan. Like most Japanese castles, the outer areas act as a kind of maze gradually leading to the keep since this was designed to keep invaders out - or at least to hold them up a lot and be attacked a lot before getting through to the castle keep.
To get between Tokyo and Kyoto, we took the bullet train (shinkansen) which made it about a 3.5 hour trip. The train was surprisingly smooth; we didn’t really have any sense of how fast we were going since there wasn’t the normal bumpiness that we associate with train travel. But then you look out at the scenery and it’s just blazing past and you realize “oh yeah, we’re going a couple hundred miles an hour”.
The subway system was one of my favorite parts. It’s a different vibe to the over city, as there’s a virtual city underground, especially at the main Tokyo station. There’s tons of shops, everything from food to take and eat to groceries to souvenirs to clothes to electronics; it really is its own little ecosystem.
Legoland in Nagoya was a treat; like other Legolands, they have a lot of buildings and things made from Lego all over the park, along with amusement park rides. The constructions are incredible; they had ~15 foot tall buildings representing Shibyua, a baseball stadium that was at least 10’ wide, bridges, etc. This is by far my favorite Legoland in terms of the construction. Also, it was not busy at all; we rarely had to wait in line for anything. It was still fairly new, having opened only a couple years ago, but we were glad to not have to deal with crowds.
Disney Japan was another star; Disney Sea was an incredible experience and widely regarded as one of the best - if not the best - parks in the world. All the sets and environments (biomes?) were so incredibly immersive and well done, and the rides were a ton of fun. No luck with the crowds though; it was definitely a Disney park. At the end of the day, this marked the first time I’d stayed for the Disney fireworks… well, except for New Year’s from 1999-2000 in Disneyland.
Any rate, Japan: 10 out of 10, will go back again.