Osaka

Osaka turned out to be a great 1-day break for us on this trip. Especially as we both felt that it gave us a real insight into the youth culture of Japan. Japan has always been famous for these really cool, trendy and somewhat crazy youngsters, and well Osaka gave us the opportunity to see them in their element.... and come out loving them!

Ostensibly we were going to see the Osaka-Jo Castle, which was in the middle of the Castle Gardens. The gardens were nicely landscaped, with lots of cherry blossoms still blooming, but the castle was a disappointment. It was a completely new structure, and more than a castle was a museum.. with everything in Japanese. So not much for us to see there.

On our way out, we saw a few skaters on the road trying to jump over a tall obstacle. Must have been 8 feet, and quite a few of them managed. We've all seen the japanese champs in X-Games across the years, so I was glad to finally see some proof.

Well, our day started looking up from there.... and the rest is history!

All through our walk in the gardens, we could hear loud bass sounds like a massive concert going on somewhere in the distance. We followed these sounds (and some really cool looking people) to an amphitheatre, where at the gates they were charging ¥ 500 per head for entry. Of course we had no idea what the hell was going on inside, and nobody there could speak english. A lot of them tried.... but nobody could tell us what the hell was happening.

Anyways, we decided to take the plunge... and it was one of the best decisions of our entire trip. We went inside to find something akin to a DJ mixing championship going on, with a group of a few DJs and an MC trooping up on stage one-after-another and scratching some tunes. Now the funny part, was the there was a lot more talk than there was music, and when there WAS music, it played only for a minute or so. And this went on throughout the couple of hours we were there... so I guess its its true about the Japanese that they like their content in really small capsules :-)

In any case, it wasnt the music that immediately drew us to the place, it was the people. The were about a 1000 people, ranging from 5 year olds to 50 year olds, each of them rocking to the music and each of them looking completely unique. What we found amazing that every one of them was so comfortable in their own skins, being cool without even trying, as though it is a part of their very DNA. There were 8 year old girls with red, hippie braids, 25 year old girls with beaded braids and scores of shirtless guys with massive tattoos parading around the place. I've tried to capture some of the characters in the photos below, but I'm afraid with my limited photography skills, I scarcely do it justice.

The concert it turns out was called Hacna Matada. They had given a website link on the stage, http://www.hacnamatada.com/, but it doesnt seem to be working. If this is a recurring event, which it certainly seems to be, I have a good mind to go there again next year!! Now if only i could find the url.

Sad to say that we didnt stay for the full concert (it would have been even better in the night I'm sure) as we had only 1 night in Osaka and there were other parts of the city we wanted to scope out. One of them was Amerika-Mura, a small square in the city centre, which has a congregation of youngsters, straight out of Brooklyn, New York or something like that. Everything that you associate with Hip-Hop culture, the retro-fitted saloon cars bouncing up-and-down in tune to the loud music blaring from within. Guys and girls dressed like they're lining up to enter an underground hip-hop club. As the name suggests.... its Little America. Its a really small square though, and after hanging around for 10 minutes, we decided it we'd had enough.

So we walked to Dotombori, which is the nightlife district of Osaka. There was a small bridge which had some amazingly lit digital billboards (captured below) and a few half-decent restaurants and pubs, one of which we sat down at.

Well, that was the end of Osaka for us. We went back home to our hotel, still in awe of the youth culture we'd imbibed today.... and completely in love with Japan as a result.

Tokyo : Harajuku

Well, the Cosplay in the streets was a little disappointing for us. Its said to be really hot on sundays, and unfortunately we visited harajuku twice, both on saturdays. We did see a few girls dressed up on saturday as well.... doing the most mundane things (like their homework).

Imagine the scene, these girls come from the various suburbs in Tokyo.... (read as - really far away) bringing shit-loads of clothes and make-up along. They then go to a mall to change and put the make-up on... which must take them atleast 2 hours.... - all to sit on the sidewalk and do their homework. Wow!

Apart from this, Harajuku is also home to a few unique stores, including the Oriental Bazaar, which incidentally turned out to be the best place in Japan to pick up souveniers and gifts. We went from Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kurashiki and Takayama.... and then came back to Oriental Bazaar and picked up all the gifts.

Tokyo : Tsukiji Fish Market

If you're a fan of fresh Sashimi and interesting Sushi (like I am) then the Tsukiji Fish Market is a must see. There is actually an auction that happens from 4am to 7am every morning, and the real enthusiasts would go and see the massive tuna and the other types of fish being auctioned. The lame ass ones like me however, go there at 8 am to just eat the sushi and the multiple types of sashimi.

One very interesting discovery, was that there are 3 types of tuna sushi we can get:
1. Red Tuna (least fatty)
2. Medium fatty tuna
3. High fatty tuna

Another discovery - I cant eat even the medium fatty one (trust me, I tried). Its just too chewy for me.

Tokyo : Shibuya

Shibuya is one place both A and I fell in love it. We had initially gone with only 2 items on our agenda, watching thousands of people cross the Shibuya Scramble, and shopping at the 109 building, where the young & hip buy their cosplay type clothes.

Well, the Scramble was everything we were told it would be. Thousands of people crossing the signal everytime the light turned green. The amazing part was that the pedestrian signals werent too far apart, it would get activated every 2 or 3 minutes, but there would be hundreds of people each time. Where do they come from?? Where do they go??

And just for the benefit of the tourists, signals from all sides would turn green at the same time.... so that everyone is crossing the street at the same time.... wonderfully chaotic, I must say!

But the real beauty of Shibuya lay on the inside streets, near the Love Hotel hill. Thats where the uniqueness of Shibuya really came to the fore. There were wonderful cobbled streets, with small, one-of-a-kind stores which were selling everything from kinky leather gear to Funky Monkey caps and food ranging from spanish tapas to street stalls with apple-cinnamon crepes.

One really cool thing we saw, was a black Hummer, with blaring speakers playing Flo-Rida's latest single (you spin me right round) and video screens on all sides playing the video. This was just parked outside the HMV store.... and was really really cool.

Tokyo : Shinjuku

Shinjuku is a great place. I already talked about how its centrally located and all that, but its actually a pretty cool place to hang around as well. We were staying on the west side of Shinjuku Station. This was where there were major stores like Odakyu Halc, Keio department stores, and the new opened (and huge) Uniqlo.

The streets were small and nice to walk around.

The East side has a Takashimaya and a very nice store called Journal Standard, which seems to have mostly hand-made / eco-friendly / rough n tough kinda clothing. The East also reportedly is home to Kabukicho, which is the red light area.... though we didnt get a chance to explore that.

Shinjuku West also has the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, the views from which are phenomenal. We went to the North Tower..... though a guide there told us that he personally prefers the view from the South Tower. There are specific days and timings to the towers, so you better check and plan your trip beforehand.

One of the really quaint and authentic Japanese places that we stumbled upon in Shinjuku, was a really slim street (the width must have been 1.5 metres), which is lined with about a 100 small restaurants. I use the term restaurants a little loosely here, as each one of them must have been about 2m x 5m, with 6 - 8 barstools closely packed together.

Tokyo

So we landed in Narita airport, and the first item on our agenda was to exchange our Japan Rail voucher, for the actual JR Pass and to get our bookings done for the week. Now I had made an excel sheet of the trips that we needed to make, and train timings for the trips.

When we went up to the JR counter, the lady there took the excel, and without a single question, reserved all our seats in 5 minutes. This was no mean feat, as we were taking about 9 trips in 7 days. But there was absolutely no confusion, and she booked with 100% accuracy.

The first real eye-opener for us, was that this lady at the train booking counter was using a full touchscreen machine to do the bookings. The machine was so old, that it actually had rust on the edges, and seemed atleast 30 years old. It then dawned upon us, that the japanese started using the technology that is so exciting for us today..... 30 years ago!!

Tip #1: JR Passes
1 week JR passes bought in Japan cost JP¥ 56,000 (per person). While we bought ours in Singapore for JP¥ 28,000 (about SG$ 640). Why they would choose to make travel on the bullet trains so cheap for tourists, and double the cost for locals is beyond me. Suffice to say, you have to buy your passes outside of Japan.

Tip #2: JR Booking lifeline
All the bullet train (Shinkansen) & normal JR train timings and connections can be found at www.hyperdia.com. This was an invaluable resource for us to figure out what all travel we could/should do and how much time it would take us to travel between cities.

We took the Narita Express to Shinjuku (~ ¥ 3000 per head) and then walked to Oakwood Apartments where we were booked. We got a great deal here.... about ¥ 12,600 per day (for a 4 day booking). Its a nice location, but I think next time we might just stay in Shibuya cos we loved that place so much. Shinjuku is also a great place, lots of shopping, interesting streets, sights to see, etc.... And overall it was a good place to explore rest of Tokyo from, as Shinjuku station is like City Hall in Singapore, where all the MRT lines congregate..... so its the most conveniently located.

And if you buy a Suica card, which is like our EZ-Link, you can take all the lines (and boy are there a LOT of lines). Reading the subway map needs an advanced degree in cartology! The great part is that the staff at all the subway stations are super helpful, and will always advise the best line to take and so on.

Japan Holiday Itinerary