Konnichiwa Japan – 今日は 日本
Get ready for our first real travel update after one week in Japan! We discovered new foods, struggled with the Japanese writings, saw the Fujisan, and discovered unique places with our funny little car.
It is Monday morning, and we are sitting in our car at Ise-Shima National Parc in the Mie Prefecture. The weather is rainy, but we have a nice Ocean view and hot Coffee. Perfect weather to finish our first travel update from Japan. Have fun reading!
Arigato Gozaimasu
Alicia & Marco
Arriving in Japan
After our two flights and almost 24 hours of travel, we reached our first destination, the land of the rising sun: Japan. The arrival was smooth, and we were directed to the short-distance taxis without any problems. We prebooked a hotel near the Narita Airport, first because we wanted a hotel within reach and second because we picked up our camper van near Narita. We arrived at the Meet Inn Narita hotel at 2 PM, left our backpacks at the reception, and started exploring Nariata because check-in was only possible after 3 PM. We used the time to get cash at a 7-Eleven ATM and purchased our first Japanese snack, Gyoza. We also discovered a busy street with one restaurant after another. We tried a few things like cucumber on a stick or fried rice dumplings with different sauces. At the end of this street, we saw our first Buddhist temple, Nimomon Gate. We had no expectations, but the old building was imposing.
The first problem with Japanese Writings
For dinner, we picked a small Japanese Ramen shop named Menya Aoyama. There were only locals inside, a good sign for authentic Japanese food. In many ramen shops or restaurants, you must purchase your meal on a vending machine, pay for it, and hand the receipt to the kitchen. Most vending machines have pictures of the meal you purchase on the buttons, but this one was different. There were no pictures, no translation to English, only the Japanese Writing on the buttons. We were fortunate because the Japanese Lady in the ramen shop recognized our problem and helped us to choose a good ramen. Ultimately, her recommendations for us (Tonkatsu Ramen for Marco and mild Tonkatsu Ramen for Alicia) were perfect, and we enjoyed our first delicious ramen in Japan.
Jetlag and Day One in Japan
On wednesday we skipped breakfast and lunch and woke up at 1 PM. Before starting our tour, we checked how to solve our problems with the Japanese writings. If nobody was around speaking English, we had to make a random choice on the vending machine the evening before. The solution was simple: the Apple Translation App could also translate pictures and works offline if the language is downloaded to the phone (for Android users, the Google Translate App with downloaded languages would be another solution). With our problem solved, we got an excellent coffee in the hotel lobby. We started our tour through Narita, where we stopped the day before at the Naritasan Park beside the Nimomon Gate Temple. After exploring for a while, we drank a matcha tee and were ready for lunch after another hour. We chose a small restaurant inside the Narita Train Station and ordered two udon noodles for 500 JPY or 3€ per meal. The meal was delicious again, and we started to wonder if it was possible to choose something untasty in Japan.
Picking up our Japanese Campervan
On Thursday, Yoshi picked us up and took us to the Japan Campers station near Narita. We got our campervan and other camping gear like a gas stove, camping chairs, table, etc. They showed us how to prepare our camper for the night. It’s impressive how this little car can keep all the camping gear, our backpacks, and even a cooling box. We fell in love with it immediately. Finally, we filled our water tank and were ready to hit the Japanese roads!
First Driving Experiences to Odawara Castle
It was easy to drive this little car, shaped like a shoe box, and the automatic gearbox made it even easier. It has been a while going on the left side of the road, but Marco got used to it relatively quickly. Our first stop was a 7-Eleven, which you can find on every second corner in Japanese cities. We picked up some supplies, funny snacks, and drinks and were ready for some highways to escape the crowded surroundings of Tokyo. We read about some Japanese stamp rallies and that you could start one at Odawara Castle. The Castle itself was very astonishing and in relatively good shape. We also found our first stamp in the Castle; more to Japanese Stamp Rallies later…
Fujisan
We got our first views of Mount Fuji on the highway to Odawara. But this differed from our view after passing the Mount Mikuni pass road. The sun was setting, and we accidentally came to the right place at the right time. After sunset, we found a nice sleeping spot just beside the lake. The following morning, we discovered why Japan is called the land of the rising sun. It started at around 5 AM, and the parking lot beside the lake got fuller and fuller. At around 5:30 AM, the parking was full. Photographers trying to get good shots from Mount Fuji as the sun rises, a group of old ladies stretching at the beach, and a couple in traditional Japanese clothes right at the lakefront. It was a very busy morning at the lakefront, and it wasn’t even 6 AM! After a little hike recommended by an old Japanese man we met on the walk again, we drove to Fujiyoshida for lunch. We chose Lake Tanuki for sunset, with a charming lakeside view of Mount Fuji. On this day, we were surprised with presents from Japanese people twice: the first one was the older man who recommended the hike (some power drinks), and the second was a family playing football at the lakeside (some wasabi snacks).
Yume no Tsuribashi Suspension Bridge
After Fujisan, we went more into the hills and recognized, once again, how small the engine of our Suzuki Every was. Every little steeper section was torture for the little car. But we were not in a hurry, so we finally reached our destination, Sumatakakyo Gorge, with its beautiful suspension bridge.
Lazy Japanese Sundays
The lazy Japanese Sunday starts at around 4 AM with fishing. After fishing, the first surfers arrive at 5 AM. We slept the night at a parking place right behind the dunes of the Pacific Ocean. On Saturday night, there were only five cars. On Sunday morning, the whole parking lot was packed. Like always, beforehand 6 AM. Everyone went either surfing or fishing. The weather was not the best that day, and there should be rain later in the morning, so Marco went for his first dip in the Pacific. The water was warmer, as expected. After the bath, we went for a coffee, and it started to rain. We were ready for our first Japanese Onsen experience. Onsen are traditional Japanese hot baths you can find all over Japan. Renewed and fresh, we hit the road again and set off with a ferry from Irago to Toba. We met Hatano and his friends on the ferry, who were interested in how two Germans found this remote ferry line. He translated all the Japanese loudspeaker announcements and liked the Bundesliga. We found a nice little spot beside the ocean for the night. One more thing to mention is the Japanese public toilets. They are everywhere, always (!) clean, and most of them have heated toilet seats.
Japanese Stamp Rallies
Stamp Rallies are very popular all over Japan, and you can get stamps at train stations, castles, and Michi-no-ekis (Japanese Road stations). We collected our first stamp at Odawara Castle. With the castle challenge, you have two options: The 100 Castle challenge or the 24 Castle challenge. Both are very ambitious, even if you travel for four weeks in Japan. So we decided to collect stamps where we got some, and that’s it. We bought a Michi-no-Eki stamp rally book at the Subashiri Road Station and started to collect these stamps in the book since we are traveling by car and will see a lot of Michi-no-Ekis. It’s a lot of fun to collect stamps, and sometimes you even have to wait because others are stamping their rally books right in front of you.
More Food and Drinks
Here is a small collection of our food and drinks during our first week in Japan. One thing we liked very much is the unsweetened green tee you can get everywhere (especially while driving). It is quite surprising the first time you try it because you expect something sweet, like all the iced teas in Germany. Another great Snack is the riceballs you can get with every flavor at every 7-Eleven or similar store. Our favorite one is fried egg rice with soy sauce and broth.
Another great thing we discovered by coincidence was Komeda’s Coffee. It is a food chain where you can get breakfast for free if you order Coffee for 480 JPY or 3€ (until 11 AM). This is also where a lot of this blog post was written.
That’s it for this week’s blog post. Thanks if you made it down here! Let’s see what the new week will bring.
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October 9, 2023 @ 9:56 am
Hallo ihr 2,
Wünsche Euch eine eindrucksvolle Reise um die (halbe) Welt! Wirkt alles sehr professionell mit eurem Reisebericht; man kann gar nicht aufhören zu lesen….
October 9, 2023 @ 9:58 pm
Hallo Bernd, vielen Dank!
Freut uns, dass unser Bericht dir so gefällt 🙂
Grüße
October 12, 2023 @ 7:39 pm
Kon’nichiwa ihr beiden,
tolle Berichte, coole Fotos.
Besonders beeindruckend finden wir wie Marco den fahrenden Schuhkarton mit den Knien lenkt 😁.
Weiterhin ganz viel Spaß und tolle Eindrücke.
VG
Micha & Bibi
October 14, 2023 @ 8:12 am
Danke euch 🙂 Ist tatsächlich mehr Platz darin als man so denkt! Wir halten euch hier weiter auf dem Laufenden.
Liebe Grüße
October 14, 2023 @ 8:57 am
Geile Karre 😀