Jan 16, 2021
by Edward Yao
The land of the rising sun.
Travelling to Japan has always been a dream of mine, a dream that was fostered as a child watching cartoons and anime on TV. As I've grown, my reasons for travelling to the land of the rising sun slightly evolved. Though still filled with the weeb culture—even to this day, my yearning to travel to this particular country was primarily predicated on self development, cultural appreciation and leisure. I wanted to inject myself into a foreign culture, to learn, to experience, to explore, to observe, to appreciate, to photograph, to connect and most importantly, to devour all the delicious food that Japan has to offer.
Fortunately, in 2018 I finally made plans to go, embarking on a one month and very, very well planned trip to Japan with my older sister—risky, I know!
We departed Sydney on the 24th of March, 2018 and in what felt like forever, landed and disembarked our flight on the 25th of March, 2018 at exactly 6:34am—not like I was keeping track or anything.
First things first though, after a flight like that, I really needed to use the bathroom, especially with the amount of food we ate during our 4 hour layover in Singapore.
I won't go into too much detail—but one word, bidet.
Anyway, moving on from that shitty story...
As we walked towards luggage pick-up, I stopped for a moment to gaze outside a window overlooking the tarmac of Haneda airport, and in that moment, as the sun began to peak over the horizon, it gleamed a comfortable and tranquil warmth throughout my body and I felt at home.
First stop, GINZA, TOKYO!
I'll try not to go too deep into our entire travel itinerary because it probably would become an extremely lengthy life story, instead I will devote a lot of my time to talk about what it's like in Japan, the impact it has had on me, the good and bad, why I fell in love with the country and food, lots and lots of food.
I think one of the best decisions we made was to travel to Japan during the Cherry Blossom season, despite it being a little bit more expensive than usual.
Japan is a lustrous place. There is an allure to it.
It has convenience. It has a deep rooted culture. It has charisma.
All of this is compounded when the streets are lined with blossoming Sakura—the aroma—the petals falling from the trees as the wind gently blows, lining the streets in white and pink.
There is an appreciation for its beauty like no other, not only from tourists but also locals. Something that happens once a year and only lasts for a few months, is adored.
Romantic really.
On the fishier side of Japan, there is a place in Tokyo famously known as the Tsukiji Fish Market—the largest fish market in the world, well at least when I was there. Now, the hugely popular inner market has relocated from Chūō City to Koto City, known as the Toyosu Market.
Regardless, this is no secret—the Japanese love their seafood, especially tuna.
I too love my seafood and being in Japan, why not visit the Tsukiji market.
A bucket list thing for me was to experience the live tuna auctions that lasted a whole 5 minutes—in reality it was probably like 20 minutes but felt like 5. But before we get to that, let me provide you with some context that gave us and a few others this 5 minute fishy experience.
Japan is very well known for their queues, getting into this tuna auction is no different.
We woke up at 2:00am, yes you read that right, 2:00am to walk from our hotel to the Tsukiji ticketing office, arriving there at roughly 2:15am. On arrival, we were met with an already eager crowd of 40 or so people—tourists and locals—it was pretty cold. We patiently waited in line as the Tsukiji officials proceeded with a head count and by 2:45am, the crowd reached the peak capacity of 120.
At 3:00am, we were all ushered into a small room and told to sit and wait. Sleep deprived and almost frostbitten, we sat on the hard timber floor and for 2 and a half hours of agonising back pain, we waited—a chair would have been nice.
Finally, at 5:20am we were quickly briefed and at 5:30am, guided to the autction by a local Japanese volunteer, businessman, multilingual, beer loving, sushi eating musician—introduced to us as Ricky—we got to know him whilst we were having back spasms.
Tightly packed together, we followed Ricky out of the room and mimicked his footsteps until arriving at a fenced off section within the inner market, a prime spot to take in the atmosphere and capture what would soon be the quickest tuna auction in history.
And this is where we left off earlier.
This experience has taught me a lot. Like bringing a fold out chair to wait in lines—but in all seriousness, it has made me appreciate the seafood we eat, the work that fishermen do in order to meet the demand, the sushi chef that comes early in the morning to inspect the produce prior to bidding and purchasing. It is that level of work ethic, dedication, resolve and commitment the Japanese have for their own craft—this hunger to master it and seek to perfect it.
A lifetime pursuit.
This mentality echoed throughout our entire trip and I will explain a little later on how it changed me when I returned to Sydney. For now, lets move onto the next adventure.
Say Fuji!—wasn't that a great ad.
From Tokyo, we made our way to Kawaguchiko station via bus, a two hour, one way trip.
And let me say this before I talk about the Mount Fuji experience—I have a huge appreciation for the transport network in Japan, it amazed me. The efficiency, the professionalism, the respect for passengers, the cleanliness, it is nothing like the transport network we have here in Australia. This is another prime example of the, pursuit for perfection—we even had a train instructor apologize to every single carriage because it was running 2 minutes late, how crazy is that!
But I digress—the first time you see Mount Fuji, it is usually hidden by low hanging clouds and pretty disappointing.....
Though we lucked out, as we made our way to Kawaguchiko, Mount Fuji was there to say hello. The first time you see it, you realise just how tiny you are—mind blowing really.
Mount Fuji makes you feel so inconsequential, and you begin to question your sanity—in a good way though!
We decided to spend the day walking around Lake Kawaguchiko, snapping up some shots along the way and scouting for future locations to shoot—not only for the next day but for all my future visits there too.
As we explored, I started to fall in love with Japan more and more.
And as we went deeper and deeper into our trip, that love, slowly and steadily grew.
From Kawaguchiko, we travelled to Hakone, a mountainous town known for its hot springs (onsens) and also, you guessed it, views of Fuji-san.
So let's talk about my first public onsen experience—what an awkward experience it was. The ryokan we chose to stay at had the option of a public or a private onsen. Given it was my first time, why not try public, why not assimilate to the Japanese culture and appreciate the natural volcanic hot spring.
I'm not embarrassed of being nude in front of strangers in a foreign country, especially when I expected not to talk with anyone whilst I was in there.
Oh boy was I wrong.
As I was disrobing in the change room, a Japanese business man walked in to also use the facility. He decided to stand right next to me and use the locker, also right next to me. Whilst I was placing my items in my locker, butt naked, he began to converse with me in Japanese, to which I replied in Japenglish, sumimasen, I don't speak nihongo—Japenglish: half Japanese and half English.
I thought that would be the end of that conversation and I could go about my onsen experience without further interaction.
But lo and behold, he began to converse with me in english, english that was probably more fluent than mine at the time given how awkward I felt about the whole situation.
We continued to talk as we went into the bathing area, and the conversation went on for another half an hour in the onsen. What I realised in the process was how natural it was for the Japanese, and not to judge or think of it as an embarrassing or awkward situation, but rather, embrace it, embrace the cultural experience and embrace the relaxing hot springs.
In the end our conversation led me to believe two things.
All Japanese business men are multilingual—he told me that he travelled around for work in different parts of China, the UK and the US, that is the only reason why he could speak Chinese and English. This conclusion was predicated on the only two lengthy interactions I had with Japanese businessmen.
And always be kind to others, have humility, be open, embrace different cultures, really show interest and learn from your cultural experiences. This type of attitude will get you pretty far in life. It will keep you out of trouble and also help you encounter some pretty awesome people along the way.
And off we go again, bidding farewell to Hakone and commuting via Shinkansen from Odawara to Kyoto—just another form of transport that Australia doesn't have.
Oh Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto—a magical city—so much to see, so much to do and so much to eat.
There were so many great things I experienced in this city and it is hard to narrow it down to just a select few. But given my ranting earlier I will try to keep these stories as concise as possible.
One of the best pizzas I've ever had in my life was in Kyoto.
It was at a small restaurant located along the philosophers path called Monk.
Owned by, Yoshihiro Imai, the food served there focuses on fresh and seasonal produce, creating simple dishes cooked in a primitive manner—over live fire.
We however, stumbled upon Monk during a time when Chef Yoshihiro was expecting a second child, so he decided to run a temporary walk-in only pizza stand, serving 50 pizzas a day from 11:30am.
Starving, we were invited to sit down at the bar and did our typical thing of ordering one of everything.
At first, I didn't think much of it, how good can pizza actually be?—but once I took my first bite, I realised how good pizza could be.
An out of body experience.
A mind blowing experience.
The same kind of experience you have when you see Fuji-san for the first time.
The photos I share with you show Chef Yoshihiro and also Chef Jacob Kear. I have followed both of these chefs on instagram since we ate at Monk and it is inspiring to see their projects over the years. Jacob Kear in the last two years has built his own brick and mortar restaurant called LURRA. In the 15 months of service, he and his team have been awarded a 1 Michelin star—a crazy feat.
When COVID-19 is over and you plan a trip to Japan, please go and visit both Monk and LURRA. (P.S. Bookings need to be made online)
Our last 24 hours in Kyoto was transcendentally beautiful and also a little vexing.
We explored the streets of Gion, walking through Hanami-koji-dori in search of Maikos and Geikos.
The commitment, the dedication, the tradition, the history, Japan is so set in their old ways and it is somewhat bewitching. These traditions have been cultivated and kept alive—and having a chance to see these women in the flesh is captivating.
Though I do feel a little bit of sorrow for them. Whether they have personally chosen to dedicate their lives to this tradition of arts and entertainment or whether it was forced upon them, I think tourists, including myself need to respect them for that, and really educate ourselves before we go and seek them out.
We have become a society where so many of us feel entitled and it is extremely frustrating to see this minority trying to stop these women in order to get the perfect selfie to post on their social media. It is never okay to do that.
Regardless, I am so humbled and privileged to have gotten the opportunity to observe these beautiful Maikos and Geikos from a far. I hope to go back soon to appreciate them a little more on the streets of Gion.
But hey, let's move on from this and simply appreciate their mysterious beauty over some Okonomiyaki.
Food.
It is a medium that we can ubiquitously relate with—It can satiate our most hedonistic desires—It can unify us—It can warm the soul—It can be that one thing that brings so much joy into your life and you can't even explain why.
There were so many of these moments during our trip.
Our first pizza, our first tomago sando at a Konbini, our first bowl of Ichiran ramen, our first yakiniku, our first tempura, our first chicken only yakitori, the list goes on and on and on.
One of the most noteworthy eats during our entire trip was in Osaka at a family run Okonomiyaki restaurant called Okonomiyaki Chitose.
What makes this place so memorable, was not only because we waited in line from 8:30am—they open at 11:30am.
But the style and balance of Okonomiyaki there was just to die for. The perfect crisp in the noodles, the silkiness from the egg, the fattiness from the pork belly, the texture from perfectly cooked prawns, the sweetness from the family recipe sauce and the love from the Chef Hideki san and his daughter.
Just talking about this makes my mouth water and floods me with so much joy.
I can't wait to go back and eat here again and again and again.
There's a certain something that makes Japan so different to everywhere else in the world, and this is one of these something's.
The abundance of attractions and activities that involve animals.
This is something that is so quintessentially Japan and to some degree has influenced the western world to adopt similar trends—ie. cat cafes.
We of course had to visit a few of these whilst we were here, but there were two that were really fascinating and enchanting.
Nara Park and Jigokudani Monkey Park.
So what makes these two places so uniquely Japan?
Well, Nara Park is a place where Sika deer can roam freely. Where humans (mainly tourists), can interact and feed the deer crackers that you can buy at various vendors around the parks edge. Though I'm not sure whether or not these crackers are a total scam, but regardless, the deer seem to enjoy them.
What makes these deer so interesting is not only their cuteness, but their adoption of a polite mannerism—bowing. This park to me is a must go if you are in Japan, regardless of the season and I hope my photos persuade you to check Nara out.
The next animal focused activity is Jigokundai Monkey Park, located in Nagano. In order to get to the park there is a decent amount of travel and hiking involved, but I strongly encourage you to allocate a full day to go there, more so during Winter!
Similarly to Nara Park, the Snow Monkeys here roam freely, often coming down from the trees on the mountainous ridge in search of food and to have a quick drink or dip in the relaxing hot springs. Because we went during spring, none of the monkeys were interested in soaking up the warmth in their public onsens, but here are a few photos that I managed to capture whilst I was there.
As we conclude our trip, we return to Tokyo for our final 5 days.
These last few days were bittersweet—the yearning to go home and sleep in my own bed conflicting with my new found love for Japan, a place where I felt at home.
But all good things must come to an end, and in typical Yao family tradition, we sought comfort in food, ending our trip on a sweet note.
The Japanese pride themselves in the fruit they produce. The sweetness, the bitterness, the juiciness, they take fruit to the next level and culturally, expensive fruits are often given as gifts—$1000 grapes or melons anyone?
Being a realist, I didn't want to spend that much money on fruit, so instead we ate expensive slices of cake instead at Patisserie Satsuki.
Let me tell you, face value these don't seem too worth it, but your first bite into the Extra Super Short Melon Cake and Extra Super Short Strawberry Cake will transform you and you will never go back to enjoying short cakes and fruits outside of Japan.
I can't really put into words how insane these slices of cake were and how incredibly sweet and juicy fruits could be. You will just need to go and try it out if you have the budget and time to do so.
So now, after a little over a month in Japan it was time to return home, back to Sydney.
The 11 hour flight gave me some time to reflect on this experience and appreciate how Japan has changed me for the better.
Besides the weight gain, travelling there has made me appreciate the life that we live and the opportunities we have to explore the world and understand different cultures and people. Observing the Japanese culture has fundamentally impacted me in becoming a better person—someone who is not only kinder and more patient, but also someone who is more humble and has copious amounts of humility.
It has made me further appreciate the work that I do and will continue to do in the future, whilst adopting this mentality of a lifetime pursuit of improvement and learning rather than perfection.
Beginning the pursuit of my happiness portfolio.
