We are on the receiving end of some heavy rain in the UK at the moment, so I thought I would share a video my Mother-in-law’s garden in the rain. If you put the sound on you can hear how alive the garden is.
I tend to visit Japan in August which as well as being very hot is also typhoon season. Most years a typhoon passes through while I am there, sometimes they are spectacular with violent thunderstorms, but they always bring lots of rain. Personally, I love the rain, particularly if it is still hot and I think Japan can be very beautiful in the rain.
Back in 2015, we had a multitude of typhoons one after another for whole of the time I was there. It rained pretty much non-stop and there were plenty of thunderstorms to accompany the rain. We seemed to spend all our time, darting from one bit of shelter to another.
One thing to note, if you are in Japan in the summer when it rains, it is great to walk around the city because the streets tend to empty. Getting wet will probably not bother you too much because it’s so warm, however be careful when you go inside a shop, restaurant or mall because the air conditioning will still be full on and if you are wet you will get cold very quickly.
Sooner or later, when you visit Japan, you will encounter the Washlet. This is pretty much the standard toilet in most domestic premises and in half-decent restaurants and hotels. It looks, in the main, like an ordinary toilet but it has a set of electronic controls associated with it. Sometimes the controls will be mounted separately on an adjacent wall or as in the above they will be mounted on a arm that is fixed the main body of the toilet.
The Washlet has a heated seat, often these are heated all year round, but you probably wont notice unless it is cold outside. The Japanese have become so accustomed to having warm toilet seats that this is the thing they mention as being one of the big differences with other countries, when they visit.
The controls do not always have an English translation, but the symbols are always the same. The Rear button, which looks like a butt being sprayed with water is indeed that. The text says Oi Shi Ri which is “Bottom”. Press this button and you will get a shower spray on your derriere. You can adjust the spray pressure if you chose. Some models will also have a control to allow you alter the position of the spray, the one above is the basic model and doesn’t have it. The button to the right of that, which has an icon that looks like a woman sitting on a shower is the bidet function. Again the pressure and sometime direction can be altered. The spray will continue until you press the stop button. The other button on this above Washlet, with the musical notes icon, will play a sound, sometimes music, sometimes a noise that sounds like a toilet being flushed will be played. There is a volume control for this function. The purpose of this is to give the user some privacy.
Some of the more fancy Washlets will have controls to raise the toilet lid, some will automatically open the lid when a presence is detected. This particular Washlet has a manual flush control but some will have automatic flush control.
You can use the Washlet without using the electronic functions and my advice would be to only use the functions if you are sure about how they work. Don’t just randomly press the buttons, you could end up wet in places you are not expecting to get wet.
You will notice that slippers are provided for you to wear in some public toilets, such as those in swimming pools, restaurants and any other places where you will have previously removed your shoes, such as in a private residence. What is the reason for this?
There are many customs in Japan that are unfamiliar to those from the West and the slippers in the toilet is probably one of the strangest ones to get your head around. Particularly when you are in a private residence and have been given house slippers to wear. You will be expected to remove your house slippers before entering the toilet and to wear the toilet slippers.
As far as I can figure out the reason for this is because, as in the west, the toilet was once outside and now even though the toilet is now indoors, metaphorically it is still outdoors and is considered dirty therefore you are expected to put on outdoor slippers when you enter the toilet.
Another slipper related custom that always baffles me is that when you are in a private residence and you are given slippers to wear, you will be expected to take them off if you walk on the carpet. This is something that often catches me out and has my wife and my in-laws quite animated. Even back at home my wife will remove her slippers at the foot of the stairs where the carpet begins.
Hotels in Japan will always provide guests with slippers to wear in the rooms, some, particularly Onsen hotels, will insist on shoes being removed in the reception area.
Visitors to Japan need to be careful to remove shoes whenever entering a private residence, you will be told if you get it wrong and it may cause great offence.
Lets start with the Shinkansen, also known as the Japanese bullet train. The Shinkansen, which literally means New Trunk Line, has been around almost as long as I have. The Tokaido Shinkansen, which connects Japans three largest metropolitan areas, Tokyo/Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka/Kyoto opened in 1964. The Shinkansen trains run on their own dedicated tracks at speeds of up to 320km/h (200mph).
The interior of a Shinkansen feels more like an Aeroplane than a train
The ride is incredibly smooth and it never feels as if you are travelling at such high speeds.
All Shinkansen platforms have half height platform screen doors, as you can see in the video clips below, that provide additional safety for passengers waiting on the platforms. You will also notice from these clips how quiet the Shinkansen trains are.
My love for Japan and all things Japanese is inexorably linked to the Shinkansen train. I was fortunate enough to work for, first Toshiba and then later Mitsubishi on the Taiwan High Speed Rail project, which was the very first Shinkansen rail system to be built outside of Japan. It was while working on that project in Taipei that I met the woman who would later become my wife. For this reason the Shinkansen holds a special place in my heart and a high speed train ride in Japan is something I always look forward to.
Great view of Mount Fuji on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya
I have travelled on the Shinkansen between Nagoya and Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto and Kanazawa and Toyama. There’s no getting away from the fact that the Shinkansen is expensive, so if you are on a limited budget but really want to ride the Shinkansen. I suggest you take it on the short route between Nagoya and Kyoto which will set you back about £50 for a one-way trip with a reserved seat.
Nozomi is the name of a type of Shinkansen that operates on the Tokaido line
If you want the most picturesque Shinkansen journey I suggest you take it between Nagoya and Tokyo, this will cost around £100 for a one-way trip with a reserved seat, however the route takes you right past Mount Fuji. Both Nagoya and Tokyo Shinagawa stations have English speaking counters for the Shinkansen bookings. You can even reserve a seat on the Mount Fuji side of the train to get the best views. Although even being on the right side of the train may not always be enough to get a good view of Fuji-san, it is a mountain and as such is often obscured by clouds.
Not quite such a good view of Fuji-san on the journey from Nagoya to Tokyo
A Limited Express train pulls in to the station
The thing to remember about all Japanese trains is that they always, always run on time. They are so punctual that commuters plan their journeys to the minute and if trains do depart early senior rail company executives are forced to issue apologies because travellers will have missed their connections. Bear this in mind when booking your train, especially if you are already at the station, be sure to book on to a train that will be able to catch, many stations in the big cities are enormous and travelling from booking hall to platform can be an adventure in itself. I recently transferred from the Osaka Airport train to the Kintetsu line at Osaka Namba station and distance wise its about a 20 minute walk, but it is also a very crowded station and houses a shopping mall the size of which would rival Westfield Stratford and this made it more like a 30 minute walk.
Most trains, other than strictly local trains, are very comfortable and are equipped with reversible seats, which means you need never be facing the wrong way or if you’re travelling as a group you can turn the seats to face each other. The train company will always re-configure the seat arrangement at the end of the line, prior to the return journey to ensure the seats are always set in the direction of travel, but you can change them if you want.
A limited Express Train operating on the Kintetsu Line at Nagoya StationYokkaichi Station timetable
Buying a ticket for non-shinkansen train travel always seemed quite daunting to me, but I forced myself to do recently, rather than rely on my Japanese speaking family member to do it for me. The first thing to understand is the concept of the Limited express service. An express train service will get you to your destination, but it will stop at every station on the route. A limited express service will only stop at some stations, hence the term ‘Limited Express’. From the Yokkaichi Station timetables above you can see there are 4 different types of train operating this station, the Limited Express in Red at the top, the Express, the Semi-express and the local trains. Unless you want long slow journey or are only going a short distance, I recommend using the Limited express service where you can.
The above picture shows the fares for the Express and Limited Express services operating from Yokkaichi station. To travel on the Limited Express service you have to pay the Express fare and the Limited Express fare. So, for the journey I made from Yokkaichi to Ise-Nakagawa the price for the journey is ¥690 for the Express fare plus ¥900 for the Limited Express fare, making a total of ¥1590 for a one-way journey with a reserved seat.
Most stations will have automatic ticket selling machines that can be selected to operate in English.
Kiosk at Tokyo Shinagawa station
There are usually kiosks selling food and drink on the platforms of most stations and sometimes there are vending machines actually on the trains.
Vending machine on a Limited Express train
If you drive in Japan you will soon realise that there are many more level crossings than we have in the UK and it wont be long before you have to wait for a train to pass. We are always amused when we see a local train that consists of just a single carriage.
To travel by train is to truly experience Japanese life, they are always clean, punctual, reliable, expensive and thoroughly enjoyable. Japan is better connected by train than any other country and to me it is always a joy to travel by train in Japan.
The stations can be cavernous with many different train companies operating out of them, with shopping malls and endless streams of travellers no matter what time of day or night. Some like Namba in Osaka would take you days to fully explore. There are always places to eat at anything other than the smallest stations and you can often find some wonderful Sushi carousel restaurants at stations. I wholeheartedly recommend that you take a train journey when you are in Japan, even if it is just a short trip so that you can marvel at how implausibly punctual the trains are. After all, when you take the train, it is a chance to sit back and admire the beauty of Japan as the train speeds downs the tracks.
Nara is easily accessible by car and is connected to motorways that link to Nagoya and Osaka.
Nara also has two mainline railway stations, the Nara JR station serves Nagoya and Japan and this is the station you will use if you are travelling on a Japan rail pass. The other mainline station serves the Kintetsu line and connects to local services in Mie.
There is an excellent Tourist information centre in the Café Etranger right in the centre of Nara, close to Naramachi.
I can recommend the Onyado Nono hotel for real Japanese experience that won’t break the bank.
There are lots fabulous restaurants in Nara, you can about my experiences in A Night out in Nara.
Just a few kilometres from the centre of Nara is the Horyu-ji temple complex which dates back to the 7th Century AD. Horyu-ji is a UNESCO world heritage site and well worth a visit if you are in Nara.
The site contains a collection of wooden structures that typify Japanese Buddhist architecture and are situated in perfectly manicured grounds.
They are only half an hour drive in the car or you can take a train from the Kintetsu station to Horyu-ji station or take the 97 bus from Nara JR station. It is a very popular tourist spot and will be busy at the weekends. We went on a Monday morning and pretty much had the place to ourselves.
I really enjoyed wandering around the site looking at the beautiful temple buildings and grounds. Entrance to main site was about ¥1000 and we paid another ¥1000 to visit Ikaruga Gosho temple, which houses a rare sitting Bodhisattva with one leg pendant and is said to be one of three smiling masterpieces of the modern world, the other two being the Sphinx of Egypt and the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
As it was lunchtime when we left the site we decided to try a local café, called Zadan. It looked very humble from the outside and I feared it may not be much good. However, it turned out to be a lovely place for lunch.
The entrance foyer had some art and crafts on sale and the restaurant itself had homely feel about it. It was run by a young couple and if it was in London, you would say it was a hipster business, but without the inflated prices!
The menu was not extensive, but it was good value, with most meals costing around ¥1000. I had the curry and rice which came with a salad and a small mug of soup. It was very good and we enjoyed a long lazy lunch recovering from our walking around the temples in the heat of the day.
If you visit Nara and have time for a little detour, the temple site of Horyu-ji is a rewarding place to visit. Go see the smiling masterpiece that is on a par with the Mona Lisa and Sphinx, it really is an excellent day out.
There are lots of restaurants to chose from in Nara, as our hotel was close to Naramachi we headed their and looked for somewhere suitable.
It was Sunday night in high tourist season, we did not have a reservation, consequently the first couple of places we tried were full. We finally found a place called Shikamaru, which is an Izakaya specialising in BBQ food.
Shikamaru was a lively place, the kitchen was fully visible to the diners so there was always something to watch.
Most Japanese restaurants will give you Otsumami to eat while you look at the menu, at Shikamaru they gave us Natto, which is fermented soya beans and pickled cucumber.
The sashimi plate was very good, with Octopus, Salmon, Tuna and Yellow Tail.
When we ordered the squid they brought a mini BBQ to our table.
They served my friend Ken a grapefruit highball.
We went to the Hana Bar for drinks, which is a very classy cocktail bar in Naramachi. The proprietor will make just about any drink you want and has a wide variety of non-alcoholic drinks. We visited Hana bar before we went for dinner and we returned afterwards. The bar only seats about 12 people and at times during the night it was full, a notice on the wall states that’s open until Midnight.
Hana bar served us with Ostumami of dried candied fruit and nuts.
Happy punters in the Hana Bar at the end of a great night eating and drinking in Nara
Cost approximately £75 a night for a double room. Breakfast was an additional ¥1800 per person.
When we visited Nara we stayed for 2 nights at the Hotel Onyado Nono which is a Spa Hotel. This means the hotel has Onsen facilities available to guests.
The Onsen at Onyado Nono was fabulous, beautifully designed with both indoor and outdoor baths as wells as a sauna and a cold pool. I think we managed to use the Onsen at least 4 times over the course of the 2 days, including on the morning we were leaving a visit at 07:00 and I have to say despite the early hour, an Onsen is definitely one of the best ways start your day.
There are a few rules you need to be aware of when using an Onsen for the first time.
Rule 1 – you must always wash yourself in the wash area thoroughly before getting in the bath or sauna. The Onsen always provides body wash, shampoo and conditioner as well as disposable razors and shaving cream. At a hotel Onsen they will provide you with a wash cloth, which is a little bit smaller than a hand towel but larger than a flannel, you should use this wash cloth in the wash area only and must never take it in the baths. You will see Japanese people carrying their wash cloths around with them as they go from bath to bath, sometimes they will put it on their head, but they never put it in the bath.
Rule 2 – You are not allowed to wear any clothes, including swim wear, in the Onsen. To break this rule is a major faux-pas, because clothes are considered dirty or soiled and not to be worn in the bath. You may feel a little self conscious at first but you’ll soon get used to it and it is acceptable to use your wash cloth to cover yourself when walking around the Onsen or when lounging.
Rule 3 – Absolutely no tattoos are allowed, if you have small tattoos you may get away with covering them up. But if you have large tattoos you will not be permitted entry.
The Onyado Nono provided us with Onsen baskets in our room, in these were our wash cloths. The hotel also provide a Jinbei for all guests to wear, these are similar to Kimonos but have trousers. Most guests will wear the Jinbei whenever they are in the hotel.
The hotel rooms were traditional Japanese style with a lot of wood and a low level bed.
Japanese hotels always provide you with toothbrushes, razors, combs and shower caps. One of the great things about visiting a Japanese hotel is that you don’t have to pack these things.
There were tatami style mats as flooring throughout the hotel and the décor was traditional Japanese.
The buffet breakfast was amazing, offering traditional Japanese style with Miso soup, grilled fish, rice, tofu, pickles and salad. While also offering Western cooked breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast and coffee. We really enjoyed the breakfasts at Onyado Nono.
The hotel had an ingenious way of parking cars using an elevator system.
We really enjoyed our stay at Onyado Nono, it was stylish, comfortable with a lovely Onsen and delicious breakfasts.
Naramachi is an area in the centre of Nara City of side streets with small shops and cafes. The main shopping street has an arcade cover, which in the middle of summer was a most welcome escape from the heat of the sun. We spent several hours wandering along this street, browsing and buying. The Japanese love their handicrafts, some of which, like Origami, are famous the world over. In the Naramachi streets you will find all sorts of handmade crafts on sale.
This was our favourite shop, we spent a long time looking round and even returned back later in the day to buy something else that we’d seen.
It was a wonderful little artisan store selling locally made art and crafts. We bought several fabric print posters depicting scenes from in and around Nara. We also picked some Omiyagi for the family back in Mie. Omiyagi are gifts, often of food, given when returning from travelling, to apologise for going away
There were so many different handicrafts on sale in Naramachi, in this shop I bought the fluffy sheep seen in the window as Omiyagi for my 9 year old daughter, this was made from the wool of local sheep.
There were many side streets leading off from the main thoroughfare, it didn’t get overly busy even though it was a Saturday morning.
There were several really nice places to take lunch, a few traditional Japanese Izakaya style restaurants with fine looking menus.
Eventually we stopped for something to eat ourselves, settling for a regular café, I had a Curry with potato and pork and Chiho had Omurice with cream sauce. This is an omelette filled with rice and come with a Cod roe sauce which is known as cream sauce in Japan, both dishes were great and cost around ¥1000 each.
Often, in a café, you will find a basket underneath your seat, this is there for you put bags out of the way while you dine and is much appreciated.
At one point we stopped for a cold drink in another café, this one was called Treasure Island. I had a grapefruit tea, which was made by brewing English tea with some grapefruit juice in it, serving over ice with a slice of grapefruit, it really was just what I needed to cool me down and something I will be trying to re-create back at home.
On one of the Naramachi side streets we found an old style tea shop, selling all kinds of tea blends, it felt a bit like we were in a museum. We bought some tea as Omiyagi and for ourselves to take back to London.
There were countless side street cafes and izakaya’s in and around Naramachi.
There was even a shop that hosted the local radio station which was broadcasting while we were there.
It is possible to spend hours wandering around the streets of Naramachi, we loved it and next we go there we will take the children because I know they will love it, it was a really great way to spend a day.
In August 2019 we took a trip to the city of Nara, which was once the ancient capital of Japan. Nara is where Buddhism took root in Japan. In the 5th century AD, there was a shipping route between China and Japan and at the time this was considered to be the end of the Silk Road. Buddhism entered Japan through this route and Prince Shotokutaishi created the first written constitution of Japan based on the teachings Buddha. Shotokutaishi started building a temple in Nara and although he didn’t live to see it completed, his son did and in so doing established Nara as a centre for Buddhist learning.
All the temple buildings are wooden constructs and of course, over the years, some of the buildings have been destroyed by fire, however many of the original buildings remain and there are some incredible ancient Buddhist treasures to see in Nara.
The main campus of temples are in and around the Park in the centre of Nara and very easy to find. If you are driving like we were, just follow the signs to Kohfukuji Temple. We arrived mid afternoon on a Saturday and found a parking space close to the main site without too much bother. If you are travelling by train, it is well signed from either the JR station or the Kintetsu Line Station and is only a short walk from either.
We visited the Kohfukuji National Treasure Hall, it cost ¥700 per adult for entry and this also included entry to 2 other temples in the park.
The following day we visited the Todaiji temple which cost about ¥1000 to enter and houses a big Buddha.
To get to the Todaiji temple you have to walk through the Park and in the park there many wild deer who roam free and are happy to mingle with the tourists and visitors. The deer are incredibly tame and you can buy special biscuits to feed to them. They cost ¥100 per pack and are on sale throughout the park.
The day we went to the park was very hot and we found some deer sat under the cover of stall and trying to cool off under a water spray.
On the approach to the Todaiji temple there are gates guarded by demons.
The Todaiji temple is impressive from a distance and is one of the few temples that you are permitted to take photos once you are inside.
Just before the main entrance there is a small sheltered area with water to drink and for a wash. It was a really hot day so the drink was welcome, but as mark of respect it’s a good idea to wash your hands and face before you enter the temple.
The temples are all floodlit at night and make an evening stroll around the city quite delightful.
