Happy Halloween, dear readers! As we are about to embark on our California National Park adventure, I thought it prudent to stop and regale you all with the tales of the highlight of October, our trip to Japan. This beautiful country has been on my bucket list since I heard about (wish I could remember how) the Nakasendo Trail, the original path built during the Edo Period of Japan’s history, and was the primary route the Shogun, Samarai, and the Imperial Leaders took to travel between Kyoto and Tokyo. So, when a trip brochure from Boundless Journeys (the group we went with to both Rwanda and the Tour de Mont Blanc) came to my attention, there was no doubt we were signing up! We were lucky enough to convince our friends Phil and Susan Chizm to join us, as the minimum travelers is four, and with them, we made the minimum!
This trip was designed to provide, not only the chance to hike on and around the Nakasendo Trail, but also learn about the cultural aspects of the country, primarily in arts and cuisine. And I was completely enamored with the whole experience!
We started our experience with a few days in Tokyo, without the benefit of a tour guide. Our hotel was located in the heart of the Shinjuku district, which we came to learn, is the hot spot for the party scene. As we followed Phil’s leadership through the subway systems to explore what is truly just a fraction of this great city, we all managed to wrack up at least ten miles of walking a day. Good practice for the upcoming hiking tour, but also a bit exhausting. In summary, here is a list of opening impressions:
- There are people EVERYWHERE.
- They are very fashionably and conservatively dressed.
- They are very quiet and polite.
- The Subway system is the most impressive we’ve ever encountered.
- The city is INCREDIBLY clean.
- There are no public trash cans ANYWHERE. If you make trash (empty bottle, candy wrapper, used napkin) you take it with you.
- The neon lights live up to their reputation – our first walk to the hotel was like every science fiction movie I’ve seen.
- When there is storm in the Pacific, Japan is incredibly hot and muggy.
- There are people EVERYWHERE. (COVID must have been awful!)
We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto a day ahead of our official tour beginning and joined a bike tour through town. We had read it as an ebike trip through the bamboo forest of Kyoto, which turned out to be a regular bike tour to the bamboo forest and associated Zen Temple, then around the small family farms and rice fields of Kyoto. It was a good way to spend the day before the hiking was set to begin.
Our official tour began with a tour of Kyoto with our lovely guide, Hana. She started us right off with a walking tour of Kyoto and a tea ceremony with a tea master. It was quite a production of making matcha tea, and I do wish I’d more questions about what makes a tea master. Other than knowing he was the future of many generations of tea makers, we just didn’t ask! But the production was so cool, I had to invest in the tea and the tools. We didn’t buy the cup, mostly because we really don’t have room in the RV! I’ll be posting the video of my attempt to duplicate what we learned under a separate post, I promise! The opening day culminated with the first of many traditional Japanese dinners, this one in the Geisha District of Kyoto. We were VERY lucky to see several geisha on the street – but we were forbidden from taking pics. I guess they don’t get a kick out of the whole selfie thing.
Hiking started the next day at a temple on Mt Kurama, just north of Kyoto. The hike was a whole lot of steps up, then a whole lot of steps back down. It was pretty clear that the hiking parts of this trip were not going to be for sissies! They weren’t a lot of miles, but they had elevation gain. We also began the education on the different temples, each of them was built to give thanks to Shinto spirits known as kami, or Buddhist deities. I had so much fun finding out which one of the many a particular temple or shrine was honoring, then if I hoped for their help, I’d give a little prayer. It never got old! We ended the day with a tour and tasting at a sake brewery. It was an interesting tour, but sake and I had a rather unpleasant experience MANY years ago, and I have never forgotten. So we did not leave laden with bottles of sake.
The next day was a visit to a Zen temple and a lesson in meditation. Our monk had explained that as new monks are learning the art of meditation, they must sit straight and focus. Should any of them feel tired or lose their posture, they may ask the master for forgiveness while they “reset”. This entailed namaste hands and head down until the master comes and taps each shoulder in acknowledgment. I don’t think any of us wanted to look bad, even though we were told it is part of the experience so none of us moved a muscle. Before we knew it, our 25 minutes of meditation was up!
The next day we trained to Nara, the first capital of Japan, and hiked around town. The historical lore says that the Shinto diety Takemikazuchi rode into Nara on a white deer to protect the city. And to this day, the deer are considered sacred and are protected, and therefore are everywhere. And very very very happy to have you feed them. In fact, if you don’t show them your empty hands they will think you are holding back on them and start nibbling your clothes. If you are not ready for it, its rather alarming!
The next several days we were working our way along and around the Nakasendo Trail. Along the way we got to visit a farm working to preserve one of the native breeds of horses in Japan, were taught a traditional Japanese dance, watched a master wood carver producing one of their famous combs made of cypress, and ended our tour back in Tokyo and a concert of traditional Japanese instruments. And at every stop, a traditional Japanese dinner was served. And I do mean traditional, always multi courses, and I did confirm with Hana that the typical Japanese citizen does not eat like this everyday. Basically we got the special dinner experience every night. I was in heaven! I really need to plug Boundless Journeys for a minute. This is our third trip with this operator, and every trip has been so well thought out. They are focused on an upscale active vacation experience, whether hiking, biking or multi-sport, you get to experience the location in a way different from the average traveler.
We had an extra day in Tokyo before our flights home, so Dale and I headed to the top of Tokyo Tower for one last birds eye view of this incredible city. Little factoid…New York City boasts a population of around 8million. Tokyo? 14million. It goes on and on an awful long way! We all visited the famous Fish Market, and then enjoyed a pub crawl, back in Shinjuku, to cap it all off. We were all rather happy we experienced this as part of a tour, rather than on our own. The places we stopped were small, the district was crazy busy, and if we’d all tried to find seats without the tour reservations, we don’t know where we would have ended up.
A special note about the last photo above. The top half was taken by Dale and I at the start of our trip during an early morning walk outside our hotel Those two were indeed sleeping (passed out?) in those places! Of course, Dale and Phil could hardly wait to recreate it after our pub crawl at the end of the trip!
Japan was a wonderful experience and I would LOVE to go back! We will just have to see how soon it lands back on my bucket list! For now, it’s time to refocus on the US National Park tour. California here we come! Until next time, dear readers, Lady Wanderingwise is OUT!
Weise's Wanderings 
Leave a comment