Japan is beautiful and very intentional

It's quite unlike anywhere else

Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

As I write this from the eastern city of Hualien in Taiwan, I’ve had a week or so to reflect on my time in Japan. All told, Alexa and I spent nearly three weeks in the country, mostly on the southern island of Kyushu but also in Tokyo and a bit of Kyoto. As it turns out though the excursion to the south was WELL worth the effort. But this isn’t just a travel recommendations article, it’s an article on my overall thoughts on the country with some travel recommendations at the very end. So skip down if you want to just read those.

I you want to follow along on our travel adventures you can. We currently have our first video on Tokyo available now. Watch it here:

There will be a couple more videos coming out about Japan over the next couple weeks. Oh and don’t worry, there will be a similar article on Taiwan and then Vietnam and so on as we travel around the world. So stay tuned for those!

Japan is an intentional country

More so than any other country I’ve ever visited, Japan exudes a level of intentionality that I honestly didn’t really think existed. I know that’s a little nubulous of a concept, but let me explain as best as I’m able.

As a geographer and city planner, I’m accustom to looking and studying things that are both intentional (as in built for a specific purpose or done so in a particular way) and not intentional (it just sort of happens and that’s the way it is). More often than not in the United States, as well as most countries I’ve visited, things are the way they are not because it was ever really intended to be that way, but rather it’s just how things naturally came to be over time.

Now I’m not going to say that everything in Japan is intentional. It certainly is not. But the country is absolutely well designed and well planned, to an extent that I’ve simply not seen before.

Take the Shinkansen high speed train as a prime example. Every single day about 1 million people ride on the Shinkansen (on average). From the very north in Hokkaido, through Honshu and down to Kyushu, nearly every corner of Japan is connected by high speed rail (though the northern city of Sapporo and the island of Shikoku have yet to be connected). This is an enormous transportation network! But despite its size and volume of passengers, the Shinkansen train is VERY safe and VERY reliable. In the Shinkansen’s 60 year history, carrying over 10 billion passengers, there has not been a single passenger fatality due to train crashes or derailments, even during times of natural disasters. And in 2016, the average delay for each train was just 24 seconds and once again this includes factoring in delays caused by natural disasters. The collective level of effort behind ensuring this massive train system runs smoothly and effectively every single day and every single year goes beyond just having a well planned train system. It’s a cultural intentionality that ensures everybody does exactly what they’re supposed to at the right time, from the traffic controllers, to the train engineers and cleaners, to the very passengers who board and alight.

The Shinkansen, of course, is just a single example. You see this same sort of intentionality everywhere. From tiny little sushi and ramen restaurants where people line up outside to get in and order from a vending machine before being served, to people avoiding eating and drinking while walking/traveling due to not wanting to generate waste on the go. In fact, they’re so intentional about the latter that Tokyo is almost completely bereft of trash cans! They simply don’t really need them. This doesn’t mean their cities are dirty or trashy by any means either, quite the opposite, Tokyo, despite being the world’s largest metropolitan region, is immaculate. Alexa and I played a game in the above video trying to find litter in the busiest district within the city and came up mostly empty.

I could go on and on about this topic, but it’s a wonder to behold. But before I move on, I do want to caveat this section a little bit. Japan is not a perfect country nor are they intentional about everything. I definitely don’t want this article to come off as setting up Japan or Japanese people as perfect. That would do them a disservice. But I do think we could all learn at least a little bit from the culture of Japan which, above all else, seems to do things with intention and thoughtfulness.

Alright, I’ve gone on long enough about Japan. Let’s get to some travel recommendations!

Where to go and what to see in Japan

These kinds of articles are a dime a dozen these days, so I won’t bother writing an exhaustive article. Instead, I’ll focus on my favorite three things you should do and how you should get around (hint: don’t fly or rent a car!).

Tokyo is a must

It seems cliche, it is Japan’s biggest city after all, but the city is wonderful feast for the senses. It has absolutely become one of my favorite cities in the world. Not least because it just works so dang well (see the above video). Moving in and through it, getting food, seeing the sights, it’s all done with a level of ease that I don’t experience in places I’m more accustom to, such as New York City. But here’s the kicker: there’s not really a single sight in Tokyo that everyone gravitates to such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Instead it’s a vast collection of neighborhoods, each with their own charms and places to see.

If you do go, I strongly recommend staying in the Ebisu neighborhood. It had the perfect combination of stuff to see while still being central to everything you’d want to see. It also has a really cool speak-easy called Janai Coffee. I won’t say anymore, but figure out the puzzle and then have some of the best cocktails every. Word of warning if you go without solving the puzzle: they will not let you in even if you know.

You can also do a day-trip to Mount Fuji which is, quite simply gorgeous. There is one particularly famous picture taking spot in front of a Lawson’s convenient store that everyone seems to love taking a picture in front of. It is a very pretty spot, but locals will absolutely make fun of you for doing so because they think it’s silly.

Kyoto is beautiful but overtouristed

Kyoto is also a great place to visit, but it’s swamped with tourists. I don’t throw that word around lightly either. Alexa and I were there in the beginning of February (very much the off-season) and it was still packed. I can’t even imagine how the city must feel every summer. So here’s what I recommend:

If you want to go to Kyoto, do it. The temples and shrines alone are well worth the excursion. But be prepared to deal with a mass of tourists and, most importantly, be respectful of the people that live there.

If you don’t want to go to Tokyo, I strongly recommend going to Osaka instead (they have very similar vibes so I wouldn’t do both). From there you can get a hotel in a city better equipped to handle it and take a day trip or two into Kyoto to visit the shrines. It only takes about 40 minutes by train and costs a couple dollars (or euros) by train. Staying in Kyoto, especially during the summer, will get very expensive.

Get away from the major cities

Above all else, I strongly recommend you spend some time outside of Japan’s major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Maybe Nagoya as well, though I’m not sure how touristed that city is. Regardless, go explore the country of Japan! Alexa and I spent more than a week on the southern island of Kyushu, specifically around Beppu, and we found it culturally well worth it. The locals also seemed very appreciative for visitors.

And if you want to travel to other parts of the country, take the train or even a ferry! To get from Tokyo to Kyoto to Osaka and then to Beppy, Alexa and I took a series of trains (high speed and otherwise) and then an overnight ferry to Beppu. We loved it! It was refreshing not to have to be in a car or head to an airport and, again, everything is done so intentionally and efficiently that it’s way easier than you would expect.

And that does it for Japan! Onward to Taiwan (where I’m currently located)!