Last Updated on 07/04/24 by Rose Palmer
Japan is one of my favorite travel destinations. I’ve visited four times in the last few years and could easily go back again and again. The unique mix of east and west in this culturally rich country continues to fascinate me.
I just returned from another extended trip to Japan and once again, had an overabundance of unique experiences. I’ve been very fortunate in that this was my fourth trip to this Asian country and I would happily return at the drop of a hat.
I’ve experienced their comfortable late spring weather, a hot and humid summer, a not quite so cold January, and a very colorful autumn. Visiting during the cherry blossom season in early spring is still on my list.
This is my personal list of unique Japanese experiences with some of my favorite images which I think capture a little of the essence of what I find so fascinating about Japan.
My favorite unique Japanese experiences
The two faces of Tokyo
For me these are the two faces of Tokyo – centuries of unchanging tradition in contrast with cutting edge modern technology. I am continuously fascinated at how the Japanese incorporate western aspects while still maintaining their ancient traditions.
Senso-ji Temple is the oldest and most popular temple in Tokyo. The first temple was founded here in 645 AD, and the current temple is a popular destination for Japanese visitors as well as tourists.
Within sight of this ancient temple is the Tokyo Sky Tree, the tallest tower in the world and the third tallest structure in the world. The Tokyo Sky Tree is primarily a broadcasting tower but also has restaurants and observation decks on floors 350 and 450.
The teamLab experience
teamLab puts on digital art creations that combine light, sound, mirrors, and the natural environment in new and inoovative ways that challenged all my senses. I attended all the teamLab events in Tokyo and also the one in Osaka and was enthralled by the ingenuity of each installation.
There are teamLab installations all over the world and I will now be on the lookout to see these throughout my future travels.
English language homework
On my first visit to Tokyo, my husband and I were stopped numerous times at the various tourist sites we were visiting, to be interviewed by students clearly doing English language homework for school.
Even though it was mid summer, these kids were in their school uniforms, asking questions and diligently writing down our answers. “Where are you from?” – USA. “What is your favorite food?” – Pizza. “What do you like most about Japan” – how friendly the people are. And so on.
On my most recent visit I was once again surrounded by third graders practicing their newly learned English skills.”Hello, my name is___”. “Welcome to Sakata”.
This open and welcoming attitude is one of the things I love most about Japan.
The freshest sushi
Throughout my travels in Japan, I’ve had some of the best sushi and sashimi that I ever tasted. The Tsukiji outer market area in Tokyo still exists with a variety of vendors and small little sushi restaurants.
The restaurants are barely wider than their front door and have just enough room for a counter with less than a dozen stools and space for the chef to prepare his specialties with the latest catch.
We patiently waited in line outside until two seats opened up and then enjoyed the chef’s daily sushi special, prepared on a plate of ice with intense concentration and delicate artistry.
This photo was awarded an Honorable Mention in the People of Food category in the 2021 International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Photography competition.
I had another cool experience at the Aomori Gyosai Center, the town’s local fresh fish market. I followed the lead of the locals and purchased a bowl of rice and six tickets. Then I walked around the market and pointed to a piece of fish for my rice bowl in exchange for a ticket. My impromptu lunch was one of the beast meals I had in Japan.
Tokyo’s department store food floors
No-this was not Paris or Vienna, this was still Tokyo. The basement levels of the large department stores in the Ginza area are all about food and drink.
There is the expected Japanese array and variety, but also a dizzying selection of western foods – cheeses, meats, breads, pre-prepared foods, wine and alcohols, and deserts. Always artfully displayed and always beautifully wrapped to take away. And always delicious.
The Japanese aesthetic
Aesthetics and attention to detail – always. Whether it’s a gourmet dish in a fancy Tokyo restaurant, a small plate in a side street cafe with three tables, or the hotel breakfast buffet, the food was always presented beautifully. And it always tasted good too.
Girls just want to wear yukatas
East meets West. It was not a surprise to see many Starbucks coffee shops throughout Tokyo. It was also not unusual to see young women dressed in the traditional cotton dress that look like kimonos but are called yukatas.
I often saw small groups of young women dressed in this traditional garb when they were “out on the town”. Interestingly, I only saw the young men dressed in the male equivalent if they were accompanying their date and she was dressed in a yukata.
The Japanese wedding dress
As I walked from my hotel to Tokyo Station each day, I would pass a bridal shop displaying and selling the typical white, flowy, lacy wedding gowns that are worn in the west, which did come as a bit of a surprise.
So, I was thrilled to find couples posing for wedding photos at various gardens and temples throughout my travels in Japan, wearing traditional Japanese wedding garb – it seemed more fitting somehow.
Shichi-Go-San Day
The Japanese celebrate many holidays. Some are National Holidays like Children’s Day or Respect for the Aged Day or Mountain Day where people get the day off from work.
Other holidays are observed holidays, like Shichi-Go-San, or 3-5-7 day which has been celebrated for over 1000 years. This day celebrates the health of 3 and 7 year old girls and 5 and 7 year old boys with a visit to the local shrine.
This official holiday is on Nov. 15, but I saw children dressed up in traditional garb at the shrines throughout the whole week around Nov. 15. Besides the shrine visit this is also a photo op day where the parents try to get the kids to sit still long enough in their finery for formal portraits and video. This was at Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Shrine.
Unborn Children’s Garden
I photographed this because I found it cute, not really knowing what it was until I came home and did some research. This is the Unborn Children’s Garden at Zojo-ji Temple in central Tokyo.
At this temple, parents choose a statue representing their unborn child (either through miscarriage, abortion, or stillbirth), decorate it, and provide toys and trinkets in honor of Jizō, the guardian of unborn children, to ensure that he helps them pass into the afterlife.
What a touching and lovely memorial.
Getting wet at Tokyo DisneySea
I spent a day at Tokyo’s DisneySea in the heat and humidity of early August. I couldn’t understand why so many of the Japanese were buying and wearing short terry ponchos with hoods that mimicked their favorite Disney character – Mickey’s mouse ears, Donald’s duckbill and cap, Goofy’s ears.
It was so hot and humid, why put on another layer? Then when the afternoon water parade started, I understood. The floats had water cannons that the characters shot into the crowds. The hooded ponchos helped to keep everyone in the audience from getting drenched – except me.
Tokyo DisneySea is unique to Japan and has attractions that can only be found at this park. On my most recent visit to Tokyo, I spent an afternoon at DisneySea again.
Though it is counterintuitive, DisneySea was one of the most Japanese things I did. I was one of a handful of westerners in the park and it was fascinating to just watch and observe how the Japanese were enjoying the Disney experience.
Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival
If you are not a quilter, then you would not know that until 2020 the largest international quilt show was held in Tokyo every January at the Tokyo Dome (home of the Tokyo baseball team). The Japanese adopted the American quilting tradition and have made it their own.
Their long tradition for delicate, time consuming handwork was evident in the quality of the quilts in this show. Any one of the hundreds of quilts on display would win a major quilt competition in the USA (and they usually do when they send them over here).
The quilts were large, intricate, highly artistic, and all done by hand. I was fortunate to attend the show in 2016, and was completely humbled and left in awe of the work that I saw.
Sadly, the pandemic put a stop to the Tokyo Quilt Show, even though it was considered to be the best in the world. It has been replaced by a new annual quilt show in Yokohama.
Snow Monkey Park
There are many tours during the winter months that can take you from Tokyo to the Snow Monkey Park, but it is also easily done as an independent day trip.
Normally, the area is covered in snow for 4 months of the year, however, when I was there in January 2016, there wasn’t any snow due to an unseasonable warm spell.
The warm weather did not take away from watching the Japanese macaque troop soaking in the hot spring baths, and playing, preening, and posturing.
It was clear that they had individual personalities and that there was a defined pecking order. They also seemed to be quite used to humans so I could get quite close.
Kegon Falls
One of the tours I took from Tokyo included a stop at Kegon Falls in Nikko National Park. We only had about 30 minutes to get to the overlook at the base of the mountain to see the falls. Turns out that was more than enough time.
I could hike quickly down and then back up – OR – I could take the elevator down and then walk through a short tunnel dug out of the mountain to the overlook for the view of the falls. A lot more efficient and a lot less sweaty.
As I have come to learn from all my trips to Japan, this easy accessibility to beautiful natural scenery was a common element in Japan’s National Parks.
A day in Shirakawa-Go
Another tour took me to Shirakawa-Go, another of Japan’s UNESCO World Heritage sites. This is a small village where I could still see traditional thatched roof farmhouses amid rice paddies surrounded by flower beds. I don’t know if there is a more charming village in all of Japan.
Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route
One of the most challenging tours I took was the all Japanese (because there was no English tour available) Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route in Japan’s northern alps. It was my personal Lost-In-Translation experience which is worthy of its own separate post.
The scenery was majestic and the transport included buses, cable cars, trolley buses and aerial tramways to go up, over, under, and through the mountains. In spite of the language barrier, I successfully made every meeting point on time while enjoying the stunning scenery.
This was yet another example of how the Japanese tame nature to make it accessible to all.
Mt. Fuji
Nothing symbolizes Japan more than Mt. Fuji. With a height of 12,389 ft. it is Japan’s highest mountain and is another one of the country’s UNESCO sites.
The five lakes region around Mt. Fuji is also a very popular and highly developed tourist destination. I could do all sorts of activities within sight of this icon, including riding a roller coaster at an amusement park.
However, my favorite location for seeing Mt. Fuji was the small town of Kawaguchiko, especially at sunrise.
An Onsen Experience
An Onsen is a traditional Japanese bath fed by geothermally heated waters. Any Japanese Onsen experience will be special, but taking one within sight of Mount Fuji was memorable (even if I did have to go naked into this public bath-fortunately I was all alone).
The Nara deer
Nara is also one of Japan’s UNESCO World Heritage sites and was the capital of Japan in the 8th century AD. But while the tours come here to see the ancient temples and shrines, the many tame, free roaming deer steal the show.
Geisha for a day
Only in Japan can you dress up and be a Geisha for a day. I came across these young women strolling the streets of the Gion area of Kyoto early one morning.
I don’t think these two ladies were real Geisha (or Geiko as they call them in Japan) because it was so early and because they were clearly just sightseeing and window shopping. Nevertheless, it was still a pretty sight.
Torii gates
The thousands of torii gates at Fushimi-Inari shrine in Kyoto were made famous to westerners when they were seen in the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha”. The 4 km path up the mountain goes through about 10,000 torii gates.
The classic photo shows the tunnel of orange gates going off into the distance. I think I like this photo better, showing the outside of the torii gates as they march up the mountain side. Besides the torii gates, there were also many interesting side shrines and tea houses as I climb up. I spent a morning there, only hiking about half way and could easily have spent the whole day.
The torii gate is the symbol of the Shinto religion which is unique to Japan. There are many, many Inari shrines throughout Japan, with Fushimi Inari being the head shrine.
However, my favorite shrine was the Takayama Inari shrine. This one also consisted of a string of torii gates snaking their way up a hillside, but it was smaller and more intimate and much more serene without the busloads of tourists.
Japanese maples in fall
The Japanese maple is the star of the fall foliage show, especially in the shrine and temple gardens of Kyoto. With the sunlight shining through the leaves, the trees get a neon like glow.
The Japanese love their fall foliage and if there was a red or orange or yellow tree around, you could bet that someone was taking a selfie or posing for a photo in front of it.
The Japanese Garden
Japanese garden design has its own unique aesthetic. No flowers tumbling over picket fences here. It’s all about clean sight lines, meticulously placed elements, and combining rocks, water, and plants to form a calm and serene environment.
Some gardens are for strolling through while others are designed to just be looked at and have a pleasing perspective from any angle at any time of year.
In Tokyo I enjoyed the gardens in Hibiya Park, Hamarikyu Gardens, and Rikugi-en garden. In Kyoto, every shrine and temple I visited had a beautiful and unique garden attached to it, as did Nijō castle.
One of my favorite gardens surrounded the Adachi Museum of Art near the city of Sakaiminato. This was a “look at” garden with meticulously placed elements that were complimented by the surrounding green hills. Each aspect of the gardens were perfectly framed by views from within the art museum.
Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park
Walking through the Hiroshima Peace Park was a moving experience for me. For the Japanese, the memorials in the park are clearly not just a collection of sculptures to draw in tourists, but a source of lessons for future generations.
The first time I visited, two large school groups were visiting the Peace Park on field trips. The students were subdivided into groups that went around to each of the memorials where they received a lesson.
In this photo, a group of students was gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound which contains the ashes of 70,000 cremated unidentified victims of the first nuclear bomb.
Itsukushima Shrine
Miyajima island is a short ferry trip from Hiroshima. It’s best known for the floating torii gate that is part of the Itsukushima Shrine, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The shrine has many sub shrines and temples, all of which are interesting to visit. There was also a cable car that could take me to the top of the mountain for views of the harbor.
With its traditional buildings, Miyajima town was fun to stroll through. Since this is a popular tourist destination, there were many shops and eateries. I only spent a day here but could have stayed longer.
Learning Taiko drumming
The word taiko literally means “drum” in Japanese. This ancient art form is as much an energetic choreographed dance as it is a percussive work out.
On Sado Island I had the chance to try my hand at Taiko drumming and it was a blast. There was no banging the drum slowly here. This was all about powerful strokes and drum reverberations that I could feel with my whole body as well as hear.
The intangible Japanese cultural essence
Finally, the aspects of Japanese culture that I most appreciate are difficult to photograph. Everywhere I’ve gone, I have been treated with the most polite and gracious hospitality.
The culture is based on order and rules. If the light is red, no one j-walks, even if it is late at night and there is no traffic. As a tourist, this makes it much easier to travel.
With rules and order also comes a culture of honesty. Many people ride bikes in the cities, but I saw very few locked up when they were not in use.
And finally, the focus on cleanliness. As I was waiting for trains, I saw stairs being swept and handrails wiped down. Tokyo has to be the cleanest big city I’ve ever visited-whether it’s the highways, the streets, or the train stations. I was amazed at how immaculate the restroom was at Tokyo Station, one of the largest train and subway stations in the city (and in the world). (Not sure I would want to use a public restroom in any subway back home).
With these images and stories of my Japanese experiences, I know I am barely scratching the surface of a very deep and rich culture. In traveling through Japan, I initially took some tours which were an efficient way to see the sights. But once I became comfortable with using the transportation system, I traveled independently at a slower pace which allowed me to be more observant and interactive.
Most recently, I took cruises that circumnavigated the Japanese islands with both Heritage Expeditions and Princess. This was another very easy and enjoyable way to experience Japanese locations that I would have had to go out of my way to see.
The Japanese cultural heritage is very deep. Even though I have been to Japan four times already, I look forward to going back again – there is still much that I haven’t seen and many more unique Japanese experiences for me to discover.
I like to use japan-guide.com as a resource for sights to add to my Japan Itinerary.
Thanks for visiting.
Rose
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