Over the holidays, my wife, kids, and I spent two weeks in Japan, visiting places we had not been to before and seeing family. Japan is my favorite country to visit for many reasons, mainly because I always experience something new on every trip. This trip was no different. Starting in Osaka, we traveled to Ise to visit the Ise Shrine, one of the Japanese sites that everyone should visit in their lifetime. I took the bullet train down to Hiroshima prefecture to visit family. Then, I hopped over to Nagoya and on to Tokyo. We saw a few of the castles we had missed, as well as a number of key and smaller, fascinating shrines and temples.
What stood out?
Japan’s Train Efficiency – Everyone raves about how efficient public transportation is at all levels. I think we rode everything except a ferry this trip to get around. We were worried as our train from Osaka Airport was forced to transfer due to a track disruption. Other than that disruption and a delay on one of our bullet train rides due to a fire next to the track, every train was on time.
Commercialized Christmas – I believe Japan epitomizes commercialized Christmas. The sales, lights, cakes, and parties are all for the festivities and gift-giving. It is essentially pre-gaming for Japan’s New Year celebrations. Christmas is a typical workday in Japan, so everything is open; however, many friends and coworkers are out enjoying holiday dinners and festivities that start on Christmas Eve. We had to resist doing the KFC Christmas dinner tradition, which is popular among many.
Temples and Shrines Embracing Social Media – Two things stood out in this category. Many temples and shrines we visited leveraged something unique on social media to attract visitors. One example has capitalized on their focus to become the Onigiri Shrine, which my daughter discovered on social media, representing one of her favorite Japanese foods. Walking to this shrine, we saw a steady stream of foreigners, all carrying bags from convenience stores containing onigiri.
The second surprise was the number of shrines taking multiple forms of currency. When you pray, you must toss coins into the box. Many of them could pay with digital currency. The same is true for stamps and amulets from each temple. It seems this ancient tradition are on the ball with adapting to changing times.
Delivery Services – Anticipating the full bullet train, we opted to ship our luggage from Nagoya to Tokyo. For 5 bags, it was around $60, and they were delivered the next day. Both airports in Tokyo and Osaka offer luggage shipping services to minimize the number of bags on the subway and trains. I have always been fascinated by the speed and efficiency of delivery services in Japan. Nearly every store offers some form of shipping option, including for heavier items typically found in supermarkets. Food delivery services, which have always been available in Japan, are in full swing, with many Uber Eats scooters zipping around.
Overtourism – Japan is expected to have experienced an estimated 35 million tourists this year. During the holiday period, Kyoto was so crowded with tourists that it was nicknamed the “7th Ring of Hell.” I had planned to spend a day in my favorite city but chose not to go because of all the tourists. It was even crazier in Tokyo after Christmas when many Japanese people went home for New Year’s. The train stations, especially the bullet trains, were jam-packed. While Japan is equipped to deal with large numbers of people with courtesy and traffic flows, this is disrupted by selfish tourists that crowd their way in or, worst of all, stop as they exit an escalator to look around.
Your Toiletries and Accessories Needs – On this trip, we stayed mostly in Japanese brand hotels as they were more convenient to the specific sites we were visiting. All of them had these setups where you could get any of the small toiletries that you may have forgotten.
Beyond just these smaller consumables, most had a pillow and blanket stand where you could select pillows of different firmness. You could check out curling irons, lamps, and even a wheelchair. There was an honor system for most of these items to be returned.
Foreign Workers – The number of foreign workers in Japan is astounding. Japan has embraced foreign workers due to the declining and aging population. Japan faces a shortage of workers, particularly in the hospitality sector. Many of the front desk staff, servers, and nearly every convenience store worker were foreign. Most spoke decent Japanese, which was great and offered similar levels of service and courtesy you would expect.
Food Quality – One of the main goals of this trip was to enjoy the food, especially lunch specials, which many expensive restaurants offer at discounted prices during lunchtime. You can dine at a Micheline Star restaurant for lunch at a fraction of the dinner price. We have lived in Japan for several years and have returned many times, and I have rarely had a bad meal there. Unfortunately, we had several less-than-optimal experiences on this trip, mainly when we ate in tourist areas. Outside of major cities and tourist areas, the meals were terrific. I am unsure whether the foreign workers lack the same passion for preparing or if it is due to the volume of people, but something has changed. We can solve this by avoiding tourist zones, getting a variety of items from supermarkets, and having picnics.
Encouraging Overeating – I was surprised at how many fast food chains (both US and Japanese) were promoting mega burgers with 4 to 6 patties, as well as others featuring various TikTok hacks of multiple items stacked high.
Meat and Tofu Sticks – We had seen these on a Japanese food review show we watched on the internet but were surprised at how prevalent they were. There were multiple options, including meat, tofu, and seafood “sticks,” as a quick protein snack. We did not try any of them due to the high sodium count.
Coffee Pilgrimage – Unfortunately, due to various family activities, I was unable to make my usual coffee pilgrimage to sample different coffee roasts. I managed to visit a few of them and discovered a great little shop with a wide assortment of beans, including some hard-to-find ones from Yemen and Mt. Kilimanjaro. I again went to Reissue, a “latte art cafe” near Harajuku, with my daughter so she could get her Instagram shot of her favorite Japanese character.
