“What the hell am I doing?”, I asked myself, frantic. It was 4am, I hadn’t yet slept, and I was rushing to gather the last of my gear in a daze before my Lyft arrived. “What the hell am I doing? Is this really happening?”
Amazingly, the fact that I was really, yes, really, going to Japan in a few hours didn’t register until that exact moment, hence the panicking.
I’ve wanted to go to Japan in earnest since early high school. I have distinct memories of downloading the first editions of the Genki textbooks my second year and trying to pick up whatever bits of the language I could. I took Japanese on and off throughout college, and when I enrolled for grad school, I picked it back up with gusto. I now take around 3 hours of Japanese every week and I love it.
After I passed my PhD qualification exam, I decided to finally pull the trigger and buy my tickets to Japan, bringing this dream of mine sharply into focus. I’m writing this now on the Hikari super-duper high-speed train (+200mph) as it’s literally screaming its way across the Japanese countryside en route to Kyoto. Not long ago, I finished hiking the lovely, historic Nakasendo Trail (more on that below). I’ve been in Japan now for about 30 hours and I already feel like I could stay here exploring for years.
Yesterday was…an extra long day. My flight from Sacramento left bright and early at 6:55am, then after a brief layover, the flight from LA to the Haneda Airport in Tokyo took another 11 hours.
(Below: Japanese toilets are the best toilets! They’re warmed, they play a soundtrack of a rushing river as you tinkle, they squirt warm water to clean you off, and then they blow air on your bum until it’s all dry! This was one in the airport in Haneda. We’re seriously missing the boat on this, America!).
After arriving at around 3pm local time, I wandered around the airport looking for the post office to pick up a data-only SIM card I arranged to have delivered before I left the states, then I activated my first rail pass (bestowing me with free unlimited rides on nearly all Japan Railways routes), then changed money in Shinjuku, then took the Shinkansen Hikari to Nagoya, then a local train to Nakatsugawa (that I missed twice because I was honestly a sleepwalking zombie by that point), and finally a taxi to my hotel. I got to my room by 11:25pm.
All I wanted to do was undress and pass out in my bed at least until the next century, but my hotel had a public bath that stayed open until 2am that I wanted to experience too, so I washed up in my room, changed into the yukata that the staff left by my bed, and clomped downstairs in my slightly too small borrowed slippers to the bathhouse. A sweet Japanese girl gave me a crash course in bathing in public in Japan and after a split-second of self-conscious hesitation (because honestly this ain’t my first [publicly nude] rodeo), I stripped down to my birthday suit and hopped in the bath.
After the grueling day (days??) of travel I had, the hot water felt absolutely divine. Tension melted away from my sore muscles and feet, and it felt like my entire body let out a relaxed sigh as I soaked. When my fingers started to get pruny, I got up, dried off, and went back to my room. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
(Below: Views from my hotel room in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture)
In the morning, I met my new friend for breakfast and we had a surprisingly effective conversation — she spoke to me in English and I responded to her in Japanese. We knew just enough of each others’ mother tongues for us to discuss things like hometowns, places we want to see in the world, jobs, pets, and family. I felt so happy when I was able to use my broken Japanese to describe my research to her — she seemed genuinely interested in my work on the land crabs!
After we parted, I checked out, hopped on a local bus to the station with other foreigners planning to do the Nakasendo for the day, and headed to my first location — Magome.
The Magome-Tsumago Trail (called the “Nakasendo” — the central mountain road) is part of a historic path that pilgrims used to walk from Kyoto all the way to Tokyo in the Edo period, a journey that usually took about ten days and passed through 69 towns. This part of the trail is a site of special historic significance and the buildings along the way have been preserved to look exactly as they did long ago. Thankfully, instead of ten days, this small section only took 3.5 hours and passed through around 8km (5 miles) of lovely forests near rushing streams, rice paddies, and micro-towns with quaint tea shops that greet foreign visitors with piping hot cups of tea. It was absolutely lovely and so peaceful. Here are some of my favorite photos from the hike:
It’s so gratifying to be able to carry out simple conversations with people in Japanese! One conversation that stood out for me from the hike was one I had with a 74-year old man who owns a dumpling shop in Tsumago. He told me (all in Japanese) that he and his family had lived in the area for many years and that he doesn’t often see women walking the trail alone (he said he’d only seen about 4, including me, this whole week!). He said he thought he was too old to learn English now, but that my Japanese was very good (spoiler alert: it kinda isn’t, but the Japanese are very kind). I told him about my family and hometown, where I go to school, my plans while I’m in Japan, and what I thought of the trail. It was so fun! I can understand a lot more than I can say (I found myself laughing out loud after overhearing a group of school girls tell jokes to each other on the trail), but I’m challenging myself to speak Japanese as often as possible so I can get better!
Over the next four days, I’m all set to wander around Kyoto. In addition to lots of temple and shrine visits (Fushimi Inari Taisha, here’s looking at you, beautiful! π), I’m planning to watch a springtime geisha dance, visit local shopping arcades, and the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.
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π¦ origami crab ποΈ 