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Originally Posted by Lord Raiden
tsurumaru: Aside from your recommendation of Kyoko when going to Japan, what other cities would you recommend going to and what airports would you suggest flying into to get to them? I do agree with you that flying into Tokyo kinda blows the whole explerience...well, unless you're an uber geek and love lots of cool electronic toys.  |
Thats a difficult question, because of my Round the World Ticket I had to stipulate my point of arrival and departure well in advance. I decided on Arrive in Tokyo and leave from Fukuoka (in the very west of mainland Japan(Kyushu)). this allowed me to take a round trip ferry service to Okinawa from Fukuoka and travel direct to Hong Kong although I would have prefered to take a slower journey and stop on some of the islands along the way.
I'd probably recommend you do fly in to one of the Major cities purely in order to be able to find English speaking assistance. Although most Japanese learn English for about 7 years mostly this is based around reading and comprehension skills and not conversational skills a lot of the Japanese I met unless particularly skilled were not willing to "Lose face" and try to communicate with me in English in public, for fear that they would be judged as failures by their peers.......
I regretted not being able to travel very far to the North of Japan (I heard many say that Sapporo in Hokaido was quite beautiful) However whilst I was in Okinawa most of the Japanese students/youth who had also travelled there seemed to be from Hokaido too as apparently whilst it was mid 20's Celsius in Okinawa it was -30 Celsius in Sapporo! (PS if you manage to get to Okinawa try Ryukyu Soba)
Okinawa - Sadly most of the culture on the main island has been wiped off the map by the Japanese and Americans but check out Shuri castle even though its reconstructed it has been done so to the original 14th (?) century designs and there is both beautiful craftmanship and unique design ( a blend of Japanese, Chinese and original Okinanwan ethos). Its also worth checking out Okinawan folk music with its use of Sanshin's (three stringed guitars) and watch out for Japan's deadliest snake, the Habu, which is only found in Okinawa and some outlying islands (To be honest with you you'll probably only see these at the bottom of bottles of the famous Awamori or "Habushu Snake Liquor" alcoholic drinks).
I managed to visit a friend who was on the Jet scheme in Tochigi and also ventured up to Nikko (Which is definitely worth a visit) but sadly didn't go any further North than that. Niigata and Sendai also got several mentions from friends who had managed to travel round a bit more.
Osaka is meant to be fairly industrialised, (so I opted for Kyouto instead) Nara (which is the third city in the so called Golden triangle is also worth a visit if you are going to spend any amount of time based in either Kyoto or Osaka).
In the south Hiroshima, Fukuoka (You've gotta try Hakata Ramen - Oishii!) and although I didn't manage to get that far south Kagoshima, are good places to start (wanted to go visit the active volcanoes near there but perhaps next time)
Sorry, I cant write more at the moment I have to go out soon.