Discovering Japan

visions of Hakone, Kyoto and Tokyo

By Ellie Pritts

May 21^st, 2016

too good to pass up

My journey to Japan starts with a crazy good flight deal I found randomly on someone’s Facebook page. A $450 round trip ticket to Tokyo; one of those “this can’t be for real” things that I normally ignore, but I was feeling particularly bored at the time and decided to check it out. And low and behold, it *was* for real! So I quickly bought tickets for just a few months later.

Ok, now what

Normally when I travel, I have a good idea of what to do once I’m at my destination. Japan was going to be the first place where that wasn’t true. So after surveying every friend, acquaintance and co-worker I could get a hold of, I finally arrived at a decision about where I should visit. I’d be exploring Hakone, Kyoto and Tokyo!

Hakone

The photos above are from getting to/around Hakone. I took my first high speed train getting there, which was really awesome. I can’t convey just how freaking fast those trains go. The first time one whizzed through my train stop, I found myself gripping the wall behind me because it startled me that much.

Hakone was very beautiful and somewhat remote. It was a great first stop on the trip, as every city after it was going to be progressively bigger.

I fell in love with kyoto

After spending two nights in Hakone, I made my way west to Kyoto. Every person I talked to about Japan said that I should visit Kyoto, so I was very excited to see what it would be like. I was not disappointed! It was different than I expected; it really had this small town vibe to it even though it’s a big city with a population of over a million people. Kyoto was filled with the cutest, tiniest little alley ways and hidden bars. Everything was beautiful, charming and pristine.

Bamboo forests, Shrines and a monkey park

I spent the majority of my Japan trip in Kyoto. I had a laundry list of suggested activities that I wanted to check out, beginning with the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and monkey park, of course.

Another destination I was sure to hit was the iconic Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was expectedly packed with tourists. Pretty early on I veered off the main path into a very secluded wooded area where there was a beautiful natural bamboo forest that I was able to explore without anyone else around. There were even some abandoned shacks I came across, one of them had bamboo growing straight through them! There’s a picture of that below.

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Iwatayama Monkey Park

I’m crazy about monkeys, so a visit to the Iwatayama Monkey Park was at the top of my list of things to do in Kyoto. I was there before they even opened, eagerly anticipating some quality monkey time. Unlike most zoos, Iwatayama Monkey Park does not keep their animals in captivity. The monkeys have free reign of the place. The park is not gated in any way and is situated on a vast mountain side. The only time you’ll see a cage is when you have to get in one yourself to feed them! And boy, do they get fed, which is probably why they stick around.

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last stop: tokyo

I’m very glad that I visited the cities I did in the order I did. Tokyo was the perfect place to end my trip in Japan. It’s very different than Hakone and Kyoto! It is huge, sprawling. What it lacks in old-world charm it more than makes up for in character and sheer humanity.

I stayed in the super hipster Shimokitazawa neighborhood and loved it to death. One of my favorite places was a thrift shop called Chicago, which being a Chicagoan I was obliged to visit. It’s probably the best vintage shop I’ve ever been to. One trip to that place and I was envisioning myself living in Tokyo, navigating the subway like a pro with a closet full of vintage dresses at home.

akihabara and ramen galore

Tokyo’s “Akihabara Electric Town” was one of the most visually compelling areas I researched and I was excited to explore it. Aside from being home to hundreds of small, specialized electronics shops it is also a haven for anime and video game enthusiasts. It’s also known for its maid cafes which are an attraction in their own right.

After spending a rainy day exploring Akihabara, I had set up a ramen tour with ramen connoisseur Hiroshi Shimakage, one of the founders of Ramen Beast. I was so, so excited for this ramen tour! Hiroshi took us to two ramen shops. At the first one we had a very thick, rich ramen. It was deliciously different and even with a half order of noodles I was wondering how I’d manage our next stop. For the lighter ramen, we went to an amazing place called Konjiki Hototogisu. Their ramen was possibly the best I have ever had. Afterwards, Hiroshi was kind enough to take us to his favorite neighborhood bar where we somehow managed to eat even more!