Nearly Neutral Travel

After a great couple of days exploring Tokyo with George and Erin, they were on their way to Vietnam and we were ready to move onto our next destination. We’d read that many people travel to see family over the new year and that getting seat reservations could be extremely tricky, which was a little worrying due to our laissez-faire approach to booking ahead. We also had no idea where to go next! I had a vague idea that I fancied visiting Hokkaidō (the northernmost of the main islands), so we set off on an ambitious journey to travel almost the entire length of Japan on the busiest travel day of the year.

By booking around ten days in advance, we just about managed to secure seat reservations, but the downside was that our train departed at 6.30am on New Year’s Eve. After spending the previous evening sharing the joys of Korean BBQ and soju with George and Erin in Shin-Okubo, the Korean district of Tokyo, our 4.30am alarm was not exactly welcome!

We were pretty exhausted when we arrived, so we were secretly delighted to discover that there wasn’t a lot going on in the streets of Sapporo! New Year is a big deal in Japan, but unlike elsewhere in the world where it is synonymous with champagne and fireworks, here it is much more to do with having quiet time with family. So, we saw in 2023 from our hotel room with a glass of bubbly and J-pop on the TV. This was by far our lowest key New Year celebrations ever – we must be getting old!

We’d read that the thing to do on 1st January in Japan was to go on our first shrine or temple visit of the year – people begin visiting immediately after midnight but the first three or so days of the year are extremely busy. We joined the crowds around mid-morning to queue through a snowy park in the gorgeous sunshine, a proper winter wonderland. Sadly, we didn’t see anyone in traditional dress – apparently it is normal to get really dressed up, but only if the weather is good enough. Sure enough, five minutes later it was snowing so hard that we could barely see where we were going – a crash course in Hokkaidō weather!

When we entered the Hokkaidō Shrine, we were greeted with a festive atmosphere. People were milling around, taking photographs, queuing up to pray, and writing their wishes for the year on ema (small wooden plaques) and then hanging them on wooden frames in the temple grounds.

We joined in by buying omikuji, small strips of paper that tell your fortune, and then had great fun attempting (somewhat unsuccessfully) to decode what we had in store using Google Translate. Next, we tied our fortunes to a wooden frame, which represents a pine tree (without causing damage to an actual tree). Apparently, it’s normal to keep the paper if the fortune is good but tie it to the pine tree if the fortune is bad, because this means that it will wait at the tree rather than following you home. However, we also read that if it is a good fortune, tying it to the tree can mean that your good luck is magnified. Given that at this point we still weren’t quite sure what our omikuji foretold, it seemed the safest bet to leave our fortunes at the shrine!

Later on, Yuki (one of Oli’s friends) came to the rescue and translated his fortune for him – thanks, Yuki! She explained that there were individual fortunes for different areas of his life, including travel, business, study, stock options and love. Apparently he’s going to have good luck in travel and will find something that he has lost. But more worryingly, he will also find his dream partner! I’m not sure whether to be concerned by this – perhaps it just means he’ll be reunited with the love of his life, Thomas, later this year…

Our next stop was the Sapporo Brewery, which had a highly rated (and free!) tour. Sadly, there appeared to be a full contingent of staff at the entrance gate solely there for the purpose of telling people that the museum was shut until 4th January. Honestly, with the amount of staff that were working I’m not sure why they couldn’t just open up and be done with it! Not to be defeated, Oli bought a couple of bottles for a taste test back at our hotel instead.

Sapporo is known for its miso ramen, which we’d already sampled the previous evening. However, we found that everywhere we went, there were incredibly long queues for food (at all restaurants, not just the good ones!) snaking along the cold and snowy streets. This wasn’t much fun when hungry, so we saved visiting one of the famous ‘ramen alleys’ until lunchtime the next day when things were a bit calmer.

What our lunchtime visit lacked in atmosphere it made up for in flavour, and my spicy miso ramen (below left) was definitely in my top three ramens of the trip so far (high praise as we’ve eaten it practically every day!). Hokkaidō is also known for its corn and dairy products, so Oli upped the calorie ante by ordering a butter sweetcorn ramen (below right), which was also delicious.

The final stop on our Sapporo itinerary was taking a ride on the ropeway up to the summit of Mount Moiwa, a small mountain to the south-west of the city. The visibility from the top wasn’t brilliant, so Sapporo looked like a very blocky video game spread out below us (which was actually pretty cool – although it didn’t photograph well).

We visited a small temple, fell over in the very deep snow, and found two more bells for me to ring.

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Next, it was time to do something productive with all this perfectly powdery snow we were seeing in Hokkaidō – we were off skiing again!

We arrived in Tokyo via another Shinkansen high-speed train, which zoomed the 498 km from Osaka in 2 hours and 54 minutes.

On our way we sped past Mount Fuji, its perfect cone capped with snow that appeared to run down the mountainside like rivers.

We were super excited to arrive in the most populated metropolis in the world because we’d planned to meet up with our good friends George and Erin. They were kicking off their honeymoon in Japan, which just so happened to match up with our itinerary. After spending the last 5 months talking over video calls, it felt so good to catch up at an Izakaya restaurant in the historic Omoide Yokocho alley, and put the world to rights over a few rounds of drinks and grilled skewers.

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Fuelled by George and Erin’s excitement and adrenaline, we started the following day bright and early at Shinjuku Gyoen park and botanical gardens. The sky was beautifully clear and the temperature was mild (especially in the giant greenhouse!), in stark contrast with the rain and snow we’d encountered on Kyushu.

Having read plenty about Tokyo’s overwhelming size (and knowing that we’d return in a couple of weeks), we were keen to focus on the area around where we were staying in Shinjuku. So, our next stop was the Meiji Jingu (shrine).

This shrine was set in a large forested park, and we might have struggled to find it if it weren’t for plenty of other folks heading in the same direction. While George made a wish at the shrine after making a donation and diligently completing the required series of claps and bows, it was the wall of Bourgogne wine barrels that caught Erin and Sara’s attention. These barrels had been offered by celebrated wineries in France, and a nearby sign explained how the wine represented the friendship between the two countries and wished for it to continue for many years to come. Who knew?

Later that day we paid a visit to Shibuya’s famous crossing; the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection. The crossing is an example of a pedestrian scramble, which means that all traffic is periodically stopped to allow pedestrians to cross the junction in every direction, including diagonally. The crossing connects a handful of shopping centres and offices with a busy transport hub, meaning that the foot traffic ebbs and flows with the arrival of trains and buses. We (unintentionally) crossed the intersection in pretty much every direction before finally managing to locate a bar overlooking the busy world below.

Much of the rest of the evening was spent trying to convince George into joining us for a karaoke session, which after a few drinks was forced by Erin’s ultimatum – either we did karaoke RIGHT NOW or we called it a night. We walked into the first karaoke venue upon exiting Shinjuku station, which happened to be an eight-storey building of private karaoke rooms. This session was much more successful than our disaster in Daegu in South Korea, and we happily butchered our way through too many pop classics to list here. I think Erin and Sara claimed the highest score for their heartfelt rendition of You’re Still The One, but the people’s choice award went to George for his energetic performance of Earth Song.

On the way back to our hotel we came across possibly the finest piece of public signage on the metro. The poster covers the very serious topic of assaulting police officers through two fighting cats. The text at the top translates as “I’m drunk and can’t remember”, while the drunk cat with a tie around its head is simply saying “meow!” after being stopped by the cat police.

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We spent the next day forest bathing (i.e. hiking) in the Ōme Hills to the west of Tokyo. To get there, we left the city centre behind and headed out deep into the suburbs on a local train. As we exited the quiet little station of Ōme, it felt just like arriving in the suburbs of London to walk a section of the London LOOP (a long distance route around London through suburban parks) we’d been walking with George and Erin prior to this trip. Fortunately, the walk itself along a forested ridge was far more spectacular than some of the furniture superstore car parks we’ve found ourselves walking through on the LOOP.

It would have been a very relaxing way to spend a few hours together had it not been for the signs warning us of wild bear attacks. To make matters worse, most of our fellow hikers had bear bells (apparently bears also don’t enjoy surprise meetings) so we felt a little underprepared. Still, we did our best to chat away as we went, attempting to strike a balance between scaring off any unsuspecting bears while also not breaking the peace.

Prior to starting the hike, we spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to locate Ōme’s “cat alley”; a tiny pedestrian walkway that had been decorated with a bizarre collection of cat paraphernalia. Strangely though, we only spotted a single real-life cat in this seemingly cat-obsessed town.

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With Japan’s cat count languishing depressingly low, we applied the same treatment as in Korea and visited a cat cafe. We weren’t the only ones missing a furry companion, since George and Erin had recently returned Gordon – the absolute unit of a cat they’d been looking after for a friend. As was the case at our previous cat cafe, our feline friends paid us relatively little attention until George took matters into his own hands and purchased some cat treats. It wasn’t long before he was absolutely mobbed by cats, but he diligently shared the treats out to ensure every cat felt valued.

Our final destination in Tokyo was Akihabara, a neighbourhood that has become a centre of various geek subcultures, specialising in everything from anime and manga to retro video and arcade games. Some buildings had up to eight floors of stores and arcades, ensuring that any niche interest could be represented here.

Honestly, some of the floors featured such a sensory overload of lights and sounds that we didn’t last long, although George and I did find time for a quick dance off. It turned out that we’re both too old for this kind of competition, and had to leave after two songs for some fresh air and a sit down. Believe it or not, the screens are feeding us both with the same instructions in the video below.

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It was lovely to spend some time with such good friends so far from home. I’m not sure whether it was the good company or packed itinerary, but the three days absolutely flew by and we were sad to part ways so soon. Still, George and Erin had exciting plans to continue their honeymoon in south-east Asia, while Sara and I headed to Hokkaido; Japan’s wild and sparsely populated northern island.

We arrived in Hiroshima on Christmas Eve, and although it didn’t feel much like Christmas yet, the weather had at least obliged with a little bit of snow on the ground. This caused chaos on the rail network, and our bullet train was (shock horror) delayed by SIX MINUTES! We were very amused by the frequent and heartfelt apologies from the train conductor about this ‘serious delay’.

If you’re thinking that Hiroshima doesn’t sound like an obvious Christmas destination, you would be right! But it turns out that although Christmas itself isn’t a particularly big deal in Japan, Christmas Eve is like Valentine’s Day and then some, and so while we started planning our itinerary about three weeks in advance (very early by our standards), everywhere we looked was alarmingly booked up and extortionately expensive. So Tokyo was out, but Hiroshima turned out to be a pleasant city with plenty of winter illuminations and we were able to book a lovely hotel that only somewhat blew our budget.

Our first stop was at a confusing, five-storey conglomeration of restaurants that all served Okonomiyaki, a local speciality. This consisted of two thin egg crêpes sandwiching an enormous pile of noodles, cabbage, beansprouts, spring onion and pork, smothered in a rich, sweet and tangy sauce. We watched our humongous order (one with added teriyaki chicken and one with added cheese and rice cakes – which we only ordered because we had no idea how this could possibly go with the other ingredients) being prepared with great skill on the hotplate in front of us, and then dug in with some difficulty – I’m not sure they were designed for easy eating!

Oli ate the whole thing without being able to decide whether he liked it or not, but I enjoyed it, confusing as it was. I think the best comparison would be to call it a Japanese bubble and squeak!

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have chosen to come to Hiroshima under other circumstances, but as we were here, we felt that we couldn’t skip visiting the Peace Memorial park and museum that remembered the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. We stood on a bridge overlooking the atomic dome, one of the few buildings left standing near the hypocentre of the explosion (92% of the city’s buildings were destroyed) and now preserved as a permanent memorial. While we were there, a flock of birds flew down the river past the atomic dome and swooped over our heads. It was beautiful.

The museum itself was really harrowing, with many personal stories of those who had been caught up in the bombing, alongside graphic descriptions and photographs of their injuries, exhibits of personal belongings and other artefacts. For me, one of the exhibits that best illustrated the unimaginable heat of the explosion was a set of glass bottles that had fused together at an ink factory 1800 m from the hypocentre (below right).

But really, the most terrible part seemed to be the fallout from the explosion, with radioactive ‘black rain’ falling on those who had survived or had come into the city to help the wounded. Can you imagine being one of the ‘lucky ones’ by escaping serious injury or death during the explosion itself, only to live the rest of your life with the fear that any day now, you might experience the onset of dreadful symptoms caused by radiation?

Above all else, the museum really brought home the scale and longevity of suffering that the bomb caused and why it is so, so important that this kind of weapon should never be used again. The second part of the museum was dedicated to exactly this message, detailing the geopolitical context of the bombing and describing more recent efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament.

In the park outside the museum, we visited various other poignant memorials, including the Children’s Peace Monument. Surrounding this were shelters housing thousands upon thousands of origami paper cranes crafted into elaborate displays that are still sent from children around the world. These are in honour of Sadako Sasaki, a young victim of the bombing who believed that if she met her goal of folding 1000 paper cranes while receiving treatment for Leukaemia, she would survive her illness. She died before she could fold them all, but her classmates finished them on her behalf and they came to be seen as a symbol of peace. It felt like a rare bit of colour and hope in what had been a very sombre afternoon.

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There’s a bit in one of the Harry Potter films where Harry and Hermione have been on the run so long that they don’t immediately realise it’s Christmas, and this is exactly how we felt. So, after a supermarket sweep to pick up some treats and a very casual ramen dinner that evening (avoiding lots of beautifully dressed couples out for their romantic Christmas Eve meals), we put on a film and attempted to get into the Christmas spirit.

The next morning, we felt a very long way from home, but we celebrated anyway with coffee, cava, Father Christmas shaped buns and another Christmas film.

Next, it was time for the main event! We had pre-ordered our KFC about a week in advance (it is big business) and walked an hour’s round trip to collect it. This eased some of our guilt at eating fast food, and the rest was eased by the fact that we were doing Christmas the Japanese way! Admittedly, I think the idea is to have a KFC party with lots of friends, but eating in bed wearing our yukatas felt like a pretty good substitute.

That evening, we chatted to family as they opened presents and prepared for their Christmas dinners and drooled over the thought of all the pigs in blankets that we were missing.

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We had plans in Tokyo on the 27th, so we decided to break our journey by spending Boxing Day in Osaka. With fewer than 24 hours in one of the biggest cities in the world, we had to be really selective about what to do and see. Food, castles and neon were on the agenda, and our first stop was Osaka Castle.

As night fell, we followed a self-guided walking tour of the lively, neon-lit Dotonbori area and snacked on as much local food as possible.

We had an early start the next day, but our hotel offered free instant ramen and alcoholic drinks before 11pm, so we couldn’t resist hanging out in the lobby for a while on our way back. Perhaps I hit the free shōchū too hard, but I had a bit of a moment with the hot drinks machine and managed to make up my ramen with coffee, rather than hot water. Whoops! Never one to be defeated, I ate it anyway and then didn’t sleep a wink.

To our horror, even while this first mishap was unfolding, we saw the hotel staff taking down the Christmas decorations. We’d read that this often happened to make space for New Year decorations (which is a much bigger deal here), but it was still very sad to see on Boxing Day!

This evening marked the end of our brief Christmas celebrations (and a very strange Christmas it had been, too) but we were extremely excited to be heading to Tokyo the next day to gatecrash our good friends’ honeymoon…