Perhaps more than any other country in the world, Japan is subject to opinions that are the result of simplifications and assumptions with the best way to truly understand this nation is free from any bias. Between the elegant formality of Japanese manners and the candid, sometimes unruly conversations that take place in the bar after a few drinks, between the aseptic shopping arcades and the genuine rural festivals, every visitor can develop their own personal vision of Japan.
Whether you finalize a picture of a reproduction of the Eiffel Tower or you find yourself surfing in a wave pool, and you pass the nights in hotels or love you in the crushed capsule hotel, try to come up with a more open mind and prepared to be blown away.
The most striking aspect of Japan's capital is its power button. We must admit that the visual impact with housing complexes and office blocks between which flow large elevated roads clogged with traffic can be quite depressing, but Tokyo is a living example of the success of Japan. The suburbs usually were saved by the culture of the department store and along their streets are lined tiny shops and bustling restaurants, in most cases, remain open until late at night.
In addition to the high-rise offices survive different aspects of Tokyo, which manifests itself in an old wooden house, a kimono shop, a traditional inn or an elderly woman in a kimono that cleans the sidewalk in front of the door with a broom sorghum. Tokyo is more than anything else a place where the rapid rhythms of consumer culture collide with the quiet moments of reflection and handed down from traditional culture. It is a city that pulsates with life in which no one is ever without something new to visit.
Tokyo is a vast conurbation of Tokyo-wan Bay extends in the Kanto Plain. Almost entirely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1923 and then again after the air raids of the United States during World War II, Tokyo is literally risen from the ashes. It is roughly divided into two parts, with the bright areas of offices and shops in the area west of Ginza, downtown, and more modest residential neighborhoods to the east. Virtually all of the tourist attractions are located in the area served by the JR Yamanote line, which describes a circuit around the center of Tokyo.
During the post-war reconstruction has given importance especially in the pragmatic aspects, creating urban landscapes in which the aesthetic is very little space. To capture the most interesting aspects of the city need to dive into its bustling chaos and then enjoy its oasis of calm. Ginza is the area's main shopping street is opulent, full of life and people and is the ideal place to come and spend money, but also has many small private galleries that make it a great place to browse even if you do not have intention to shop.
At Ueno-koen Park, north of downtown, you will find some of the most interesting museums and galleries in Japan. The Tokyo National Museum houses the world's largest collection of Japanese art; the National Science Museum is a huge complex full of scientific articles and Shitamachi History Museum is home to the reproduction of the popular districts of old Tokyo.
Considered for a long time, the heart of the old town, Asakusa, north-east of the center, is a of the few areas where you can still test some aspect of life in the ancient Shitamachi.
The main goal is the Senso-ji Temple, which is probably the busiest place of Buddhist worship in all of Japan, but also the rest of the neighborhood is ideal for a walk. Asakusa was once an infamous district of pleasures, outbreak of production, but also theatrical and musical activity more equivocal, and still has some evidence of that era. Shinjuku, west of downtown, is the entertainment district of the city's most turbulent; if you only have one day to spend in Tokyo and want to throw himself headlong into modern Japan, this vast district, whose activities do not know a moment of peace, is what is right for you.
You can find pretty much everything that makes Tokyo an interesting city: class department stores, shopping arcades with discounted prices, neon lights, government offices, the crowd pressed on all sides, the video screens on the streets, bars where you can eat the noodles while standing at the counter, hostess clubs, bars and hidden temples with striptease.
Regarding accommodation, Tokyo is an expensive city. There are two youth hostels in the west of the city center and some relatively cheap places to Ueno and Ikebukuro; Shinjuku alternatively may be a good choice if you do not mind the idea of sleeping in a capsule hotel. Shinjuku is also one of the best areas relating to restaurants. Ueno and Asakusa are shown if you are looking for traditional cuisine; Ginza is also a good area with regard to the restaurants, but in the evening it is better to avoid it because it definitely expensive.
Mount Fuji
The highest mountain in Japan (3776 m) is the only destination country's natural that foreign visitors usually do not want to miss seeing. Fuji-san is a perfectly symmetrical volcanic cone that last erupted in 1707, covering of volcanic ash in the streets of Tokyo, 100 km away. On very clear days you can see Mount Fuji from the capital, but for most of the year it is necessary to go so far just 100 m away from the mountain to be able to see it because it is almost always hidden by the clouds. In general, the best views can be admired in the winter and early spring, when the snow-capped summit makes it even more beautiful landscape.
Officially the climbing season lasts from July to August and the Japanese, who like to do things 'properly' , come to visit in droves during this period. In fact you can get on the Fuji at any time of the year, but in winter the rise is recommended only to experienced mountaineers. Whatever time you choose to accomplish the feat, however, do not take it lightly: the altitude is enough to cause altitude sickness and the weather is very changeable. The summit gives his best in the early morning, not only because it allows you to watch the sunrise but also because it is more likely that at this time it is not shrouded by clouds; This means that you have to start in the afternoon, spend the night in a shelter (which is an expensive solution) and continue the next morning, or doing all the rise of night.
The five lakes that surround the northern slope of the mountain is a popular destination for the inhabitants of Tokyo and offer water sports, amusement parks, ice caves and beautiful views of Mt Fuji. To reach the area of the Fuji the quickest solution is to take a bus to the terminus of Shinjuku; an extensive network of media serving the region of the lakes and hills at the foot of the mountain.
Kyoto
City by the hundreds of temples and gardens, Kyoto covered the role of the imperial capital between 794 and 1868 and is still the main cultural center of Japan. Although the traditional architecture is now drowned out by businesses and industries, it is still possible to see the gardens with raked pebbles, see the sinuous profile of the roof of a temple and meet the modern geisha so dear to Westerners in search of clichés. The Imperial Palace is one of the few tourist destinations located in the center; the present building was erected in 1855 and can be seen only with an organized tour of the city.
The part of the Kyoto more worthy of attention is that of Eastern Europe, in particular the Higashiyama district, with its beautiful temples, quiet walks and nightly entertainment, traditional Gion. Particularly interesting is the Kiyomizu Temple Temple, which houses 1001 statues of Kannon, the Thousand Arms, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. In the northwestern area of Kyoto are located some amazing Zen temples including the Kinkaku-ji Temple, destroyed in 1950 by a fire set by a monaco in the grip of obsessive manias and then rebuilt with the addition of a covering of gold leaf. The neighborhood of Takao, hidden in the northwestern part of the city, is famous for the colors taken from the foliage of the trees in autumn. The Castle of Himeji-jo, reachable from Kyoto with a day trip, is the most beautiful Japanese castle still exists; its color and its sleek shape have earned him the nickname of 'white heron'.
During the year the Kyoto hosts hundreds of events and celebrations, and on these occasions it is essential to book. The most spectacular celebrations are Aoi Matsuri (May 15), which commemorates the prayers recited in the sixth century to ask the gods to end the bad weather; Gion Matsuri (July 17), the most famous festival in Japan, culminating in a grand parade; Damon-ji Gozan Okuribi (August 16), during which light huge bonfires to welcome the souls of the ancestors; Finally, the Kurama-no-Himatsuri Fire Festival (October 22), when the streets of the city parade portable altars, accompanied by young men with torches in hand.
Hotels Mid almost all are located north and northwest of the city, but in the east there are two nice hostels. In the center you can eat international cuisine and Japanese specialties at reasonable prices, while in the east found yakitori and western restaurants.
Daisetsuzan National Park
The largest national park in the country (2309 sq km) is located in the center of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Japanese islands and the second in order of magnitude, and has a land full of mountains, volcanoes, lakes and forests which are ideal for hiking and skiing. In summer and early autumn, the park is terribly crowded and you have to have a few days to be able to step away from the crowd. Hub of tourist accommodation is Sounkyo, where you will find a spa complex and a throat; this is also a good starting point for excursions within the park. Furano is one of the most famous ski resorts in Japan; some even believe that its powder snow is the best in the world. A short distance to the north-east, there are the remote villages of thermal Tokachidake and Shirogane Onsen Onsen, less crowded, and great as a base for hiking and skiing.
Nagasaki
Nagasaki is a city bustling and picturesque, but its sad fate of target atomic ago overshadow its interesting history of contact with the Portuguese and the Dutch. Ukrami, the epicenter of the atomic explosion, today is a prosperous and peaceful neighborhood, where the chilling A-Bomb Museum, the evocative monument of the horror of nuclear annihilation, and Hypocentre Park, which in addition to various ruins and remains home to a column of black stone that marks the exact spot where the bomb exploded. A bell Fukusai-ji Zen Temple plays every day at 11.02, the time of the explosion.
The Foucault pendulum (pendulum demonstrating the Earth's rotation), hanging inside the temple, is among the largest in the world. The southern end of Glover Garden in Nagasaki, on the side of a hill, the houses have been rebuilt to some Europeans who lived in the city. The escalators, fountains and goldfish give this place the appearance of a kind of Disneyland, but the houses are beautiful and you can admire beautiful views of Nagasaki. An hour north of Nagasaki is the Huis ten Bosch, amazing reconstruction of a Dutch town with a lot of windmills, dikes, a copy of the house of the Dutch royal family and a cheese shop. It is a curious residential area populated by 10,000 people who want to live in a cleaned-up version of Holland's southernmost island of Japan.
Kirishima National Park
The Park Kirishima, in the southern part of Kyushu, is known for its beautiful mountain scenery, for its thermal springs, to the impressive waterfall of Senriga-taki and the spring wildflowers. The walk from the village of Ebino kogen-up to the summit of a series of volcanoes is one of the most beautiful excursions offered by Japan. You can also do shorter trips, such as a walk around some volcanic lakes; with its blue-green waters of Lake Rokkannon is the one with the strongest color. The view that you see looking south from the summit of Mount Karakuni-dake is beautiful: on a clear day the view extends to Kagoshima, the nearest metropolis, and steaming cones of Sakurajima, a volcano decidedly hyperactive. A direct bus service from Kagoshima to make Ebino-kogen.
Noto-Hanto Peninsula
This peninsula offers a pleasant combination of rugged seascapes and traditional rural life with the addition of some interesting cultural destination. His wild and exposed western side, which stretches from the northern part of Honshu, is less developed and the rugged east coast is probably the most interesting part. This region is characterized by dozens of festivals including the Gokinjo Nabune Daiko Festival (July 31 and August 1), during which they perform the percussionists who wear a head covering of algae, and Ishizaki Hoto Festival (early August), famous for its parade of lanterns mounted on top of tall poles. The Noto-Hanto Peninsula is easily reached by train from Kanazawa, Toyama and Takaoka.
The neighborhood of the love hotel
Situated in Tokyo's Shibuya district, there is a concentration of love hotels to suit every taste. The buildings ranging from medieval castles to temples in the Middle East, and in them you can fulfill almost any fantasy in rooms whose style ranges from reconstructions of the harem environments from science fiction movies. There are also vibrating beds, rooms entirely covered with mirrors, accessories for bondage and VCRs (remember to take out the cassette.)
Once you cross the threshold of a love hotel usually is a screen illuminated with photographs of various rooms available ; you choose the one you like by pressing the button under the picture and then you go to the cashier. Although to give much importance to discretion, these hotels are frequented not only by couples clandestine or customers with tastes 'special', but also by married couples at home does not have a space for their intimacy.
Seagaia
The Seagaia Ocean Dome, which closed its doors in October 2002 following the events of bankruptcy proceedings, is a truly unique (can be reached by bus from Miyazaki, a city that lies on the southeast coast of Kyushu): it is a white, sandy beach 140 m long with a lot of ocean water placed under a 'sky' eternally blue, all located in a 'natural' completely controlled. All this is even more surprising considering that the complex is a stone's throw from the waves and the beaches of the coast of real Miyazaki-ken, Kyushu. This site marks the apotheosis of obsession for Japanese playgrounds and amusement for the artificial, which, however, did not prevent the bankruptcy of the company that ran the entire resort (that has aroused no little fanfare, since for the construction of the resort was also used public money). The company's intention is to reopen the Ocean Dome as soon as possible, but at the moment no one knows when this will be possible.
Many of the national parks have hiking trails. In the Tokyo area the most popular areas for hiking are Kikko and the Chichibu-Tama National Park. Other itineraries are beautiful but the most isolated in Gumma Prefecture in the Kansai region, in Nara. To get in touch with a Japan that few outsiders see it go on the central mountains, less populated. Normally from December to April you can ski; Most of the ski resorts is on the island of Honshu, Hokkaido, but also has a great powder snow.
The islands around Okinawa in the far south-west of Japan, are renowned for scuba diving. Cycling is popular especially in coastal regions, the flatter, but there are also some intrepid cyclists who climb Mount Fuji! Golf in Japan is synonymous with prestige; the requirements to set foot on a green portfolio are well-fed and a recommendation. The green fees usually start at around U.S. $ 100 per day.
Until the last century the Japanese art was influenced primarily by China and Korea, but this does not exclude the presence of an aesthetic uniquely Japanese. The Japanese taste is characterized by an interest in the ephemeral (as in the 'ikebana', the art of flower arrangement), for the bald and the forms that reflect the randomness of nature. The Japanese also have a gift for grotesque aspects, which is manifested by the ancient Zen ink paintings to the manga (comics) contemporaries.
Many works express passion and impetuosity as well as an interest in the grotesque or bizarre, as in Buddhist scrolls that depict the horrors of hell or stylized representations of the body parts of the woodblock prints of the Edo period. Japanese aesthetics manifests itself in a wide range of applications, from cute Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples to the elaborate castles and houses from the thin structure that allows them to remain cool in the summer but crumble during earthquakes. The importance attached to the precision of the physical composition is evident in the Japanese gardens, which are meticulously designed even if they seem left to chance.
The two most famous Japanese theatrical forms are the 'kabuki' (melodramatic theater) and no (formal theater mask), you can see both in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Early music gaguku uses drums and Japanese instruments like the lute, the harp, oboe and flute. Pop music is widespread, local groups are typically formed by a handsome singer but without any particular musical talent. Lately they have very successfully girl punk bands.
Nearly all the ancient Japanese literature has been produced by female authors, in part due to the fact that men preferred to Chinese characters while women used the Japanese writing. One of these writers is Murasaki Shikibu, author of what is perhaps the most important literary works of Japan, the Tale of Genji ', which tells the intrigues of court life. A poet who still enjoys great consideration is Matsuo Basho, the inventor of poetry in the seventeenth century 'haiku'. Among the more modern authors cite the controversial Yukio Mishima, the provocateur Ryu Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto nonconformist.
If you want to learn Japanese to know that you will have to study for several years, because it has one of the most complex writing systems of the world and uses three scripts several (four if you add the Romaji, the Roman alphabet, which is widespread). Fortunately for foreigners, however, the Japanese, unlike other Asian languages, is tonal and so it is quite easy to learn the pronunciation. In any case, with a little effort should have no trouble putting together a repertoire of phrases from the tourist; the only problem is to understand what people will respond.
In Japan live alongside one another Shinto (the indigenous religion of Japan), Buddhism (from India), Confucianism (which is a code of ethics that a religion and came from China), and even Christianity. These religions all play an important role in contemporary Japanese society, and somehow determine the Japanese mentality. Shintoism was born of the fear aroused by natural phenomena such as the sun, water, rocks, trees and even sounds: each of them was given a deity and in particularly sacred temples were built to worship them. Many Shinto beliefs were incorporated into Japanese Buddhism after its introduction in the sixth century.
The cuisine will be one of the most interesting aspects of your visit Japan and fans of culinary adventures will be pleased to know that the traditional dishes go well beyond sushi, tempura and sukiyaki, the most famous specialties abroad. Except for shokudo (local offering various types of cuisine) and izakaya (the equivalent of bars that also serve food), usually Japanese restaurants specialize in one type of cuisine. In the premises 'okonomiyaki' patrons choose a mixture of meat, seafood and vegetables and they do cook vegetable dipping in a batter made with cabbage, while the 'robatayaki' are simple local specialize in grilled foods.
There are also various types of restaurants in which one cooks the food by themselves at their table; in these places, you can enjoy sukiyaki (thinly sliced beef, vegetables and tofu cooked in broth), shabu-shabu (meat and vegetables cooked in broth and then dipped in a sauce) or the namebono (a convivial meal in which each diner takes the raw food from a tray and does it in a frying pan common). For you can just spend a little humble 'shokudo' or using the 'bento' (set meals) that you find in cheaper restaurants or cafeterias. Consumption of alcoholic beverages is the glue of Japanese society.
Virtually all adults, both male and female, drink alcohol and so does most of the teenagers. The drink of choice is beer, which is available everywhere; it can be purchased at vending machines, and even in the temples that offer overnight. Sake (rice wine) is served hot or cold and when hot it goes straight to the head. Green tea contains a lot of vitamin C and caffeine; is a very healthy and refreshing drink and it is also said to help prevent cancer.
With its clear skies and cherry blossoms, spring (March to May) is probably the most celebrated season in Japan, but coincides with the period of Japanese holidays and, as a result, many of the most famous places tend to be filled with local tourists. Autumn (September to November) is a wonderful time to visit the country: the temperatures are pleasant and the countryside becomes covered with fantastic colors.
In the height of winter (December to February) can be very cold, while the heat of summer (June to August), even if only briefly venturing into an area without air conditioning can become exhausting undertaking; the advantage of these periods is that the tourist destinations are usually less crowded. When planning the trip is also useful to remember the holiday periods: move and look for a hotel in New Year in Golden Week (between late April and early May) and during the Obon festival, in summer, it can become very problematic.
During the two most important parties Japanese New Year from 29 December to 6 January and the Golden Week which includes the Green Party, Constitution Day and Children's Day, from April 27 to May 6 is almost impossible to find a place on the means of transport and hotels. Another important event is the Feast of Adults (15 January), when you perform ceremonies for boys who reach the age of majority (20 years old). On this day, the Japanese also celebrate the end of winter by throwing beans and singing hymns to attract good luck and cast out demons.
Hanami (contemplation of the trees in bloom) usually lasts from February to April; the romantic Tanabata Matsuri (Festival of Stars) is celebrated on July 7; between mid-July and August during the OBon (Festival of the Dead) light lanterns that are left to float in rivers, lakes and the sea to symbolize the return of the dead to the afterlife. Matsuri Kyoto Gion (17 July), which is perhaps the most famous festival in all of Japan, culminating in a massive parade of carts drawn by hand and richly decorated;
This celebration dates back to an episode of the ninth century, when the inhabitants of Kyoto asked the gods to end a plague that was ravaging the city. Moving on to the most bizarre events, the Niramekko Obisha (20 January, Chiba) is in a race where you have to fixate drinking sake; player who can hold out longest without bursting out laughing. The Yaya Matsuri Festival (early February; Owase) provides that the contestants scream 'yah yah!' trying to instill fear. At the Knickers Giving Day (14 March), the men reciprocate the gift received on Valentine's Day by giving their girlfriends a pair of panties.