Japan Photos !

duotone

Great photos!  Japan is one of the places I would love to go to.

boogieman

Great shots Raymond. Looks a brilliant trip with some fascinating sights. How did you get on with communication? Do you speak any Japanese or is English widespread? 

Oh and I agree, get some of those shots printed or made into a photo book. 

RaymondLin

Philly_Q said:

Wonderful photos Raymond.  I'm not a traveller but it does look a fascinating place.

Have to say I find the food pictures quite intimidating.  Everything looks beautiful but I have absolutely no idea what most of it is. I think I'd lose a lot of weight if I went to Japan.

Japanese food are easy, and they always name it what it is.  Unlike English names such as Spotted Dick or Shepard’s Pie or Toad in the Hole or Trifle.  None of these gives a clue what you are eating.  Japanese food, or style of food are what they are, if you can read it, or google translate it, the translation will give you the actual name.

Niku means meat.  Yaki means grilled.

 With those in hand….Yaki soba means grilled soba.  Soba is a type of noodles and who doesn’t like grilled noodles?

Yakiniku means grilled meat.

 Their style of cooking has a lot of soy (miso), rice and fish & meat, and unless  you head into a Sushi restaurant, you are unlikely to get many raw fish so if you are such person who do not like raw fish or the thought of it, you don’t have to avoid it, to get it, you have to actually purposely look for it.  

 Restaurants also tend to specialists in certain things, there are very very few places where you can go in and get all kinds of food. 

 Ramen Restaurants will only sell  you ramen.  Yaki (grilled) niku (meat) places will only serve you grilled meat.  Katsu (You know Chicken Katsu in Wagamama?) places only sell  you deep fried food on a stick in bread crumps.  Conveyor belt sushi places will only serves sushi.  They tend to do one thing, do what they are good at and nothing else.  So don’t be that tourist person and ask for a burger in every place you go into.  You actually have to go into a burger joint to get a burger. 

 Also, if you see a queue, just queue up.  It means it’s good.  The queue generally go quite quickly, Japanese are not the type who sit and chat for hours during eating, especially lunches or places where you queue up.  They go in to eat and get out, average time most customers spend in a place are like 20 mins.  There are many stand up restaurants for this reason, to keep the orders moving.  It seems intimidating but honestly when travelling alone, it’s what I want, get inside, pay, get what I ordered, eat and get out.  I can order, pay and eat without speaking a word.  The ordering and pay is via a ticket machine too.  Plus, some of English menus but most places have pictures, some even have plastic food in their window display.

 Japan is not big on breakfast so outside of hotels, there are few breakfast places, there are no greasy spoons of sorts.  I had to resort to McDonald’s one morning.

Lunch I ate a lot of Ramen.  It’s just meat and noodles.

They are also big into their fried food, tampura, battered fried prawn, battered fried sweet potatoe, battered fried fish etc.

Desserts things have lots of red bean paste (it’s sweet), wrapped in mochi (rice bashed until sticky).

 If in doubt, head to 7-Eleven.

 It doesn’t cross my mind what they are or scared what I am eating, all of it is delicious, but I guess I have an advantage that I have done a tonne of research (and lived in Hong Kong), I am not allergic to anything, and there isn’t many, or any food that I am totally clueless about.  For example I didn’t get any Chicken Sashimi, which is exactly what it is, raw sliced chicken.  From what I gather, it’s not that nice anyway.  I also didn’t eat any Natto (?) which is fermented soy bean.  I also didn’t get to eat any horse meat, it’s a delicacy.  99% of the time I know what I am eating.  And to be honest, I would have tried all those if they were presented to me.  I’d give anything a go food wise.

 Half of travel for me is the food, you can learn a lot about the culture from its food, why they eat what they eat.  Certain dishes’ origin will gives you an insight into their history or certain periods of their culture.  For example, Korean have this dish where it’s a kind of everything chuck in a pot into a broth and cook together.  It came from during the Korean war where families were poor and food were low so they went into the US army bases to get whatever they could and whatever they got, they boiled it up.  It is now a thing. 

 There is also a difference between North Korean and South Korean noodles, eating north korean style noodles you can see the flavours are simplier and the ingredients are also simpler, for obvious reasons.  So if you trave the origins of any food, you can find out the history of the people with it.  There are reasons where Sushi are the size that they are, like why tapas are call tapas. 

 Say, the red bean paste for dessert.  Sugar is a relatively recent ingredient that brought into Japan through trades in the 1800’s and before that they had to use substitues so real traditional japanese sweets do not contain real sugar, certainly no chocolate.  Eating them really takes you back in time.

 Food is a good and tasty way to learn about a culture and broaden your horizon whilst stuffing your face at the same time.

 

RaymondLin

duotone said:

Great photos!  Japan is one of the places I would love to go to.

I thought that until one day I thought, what the hell and did it.  No regrets!

boogieman said:

Great shots Raymond. Looks a brilliant trip with some fascinating sights. How did you get on with communication? Do you speak any Japanese or is English widespread? 

Oh and I agree, get some of those shots printed or made into a photo book. 

The language thing is generally not a problem because a lot things are automated.  For example most ramen places have machines outside at the door where you put money in and press a button like a vending machine, out comes a ticket.  You take a ticket inside and hand it over and they give you the food.  You don’t need to say anything, the machines even some have no English, they have pictures.  I guess you do need a little knowledge of what is what to order.  For example you need to know the type of ramen on offer, I can for example tell by the colour of the broth and know roughly whether it is a pork bone broth (Tonkotsu) or a Shioyu (salt) or Soy base.  Or a dipping noodles dish or Udon (different kind of noodle).

If in doubt, pick the top left hand corner one, its the most popular.

 

Sushi place you can go to a conveyor belt type where food is served via an iPad (in English), and there is a check out button on the iPad where after  you pressed it.  A waiter will come over and give you a bill, which you take it to the cashier to pay.  No tip to pay, the Japanese do not tip, they do not expect it, they do not want it.  Pay what you are asked, simple as that.

 

Inside major cities like Tokyo you have no problem, they even have multi lingual menus as there are many Chinese and Korean tourist visits Japan and they cater for that.  English is also taught at school, hence you get all these 20 something from England/US/Canada/Australia going there to teach English.  All children or the young people know English.  The reason they don’t speak it back is perhaps their culture, the Japanese when doing something, they like to do it right or not bother at all.  They want to do it perfect, and they know their pronunciation is not 100% so they just don’t speak it, but if you show you are trying Japanese, get a few words out, and not afraid to embarrass yourself, they will reciprocate back with some broken English.  I found this out by speaking to an American girl who teaches English there. 

 

The only places you would or may struggle is outside in rural Japan, or in restaurants where they have only Japanese menus and only accept reservations via telephone, like these Michelin star sushi places.

 

In terms of getting around, all train stations have English signs, the tannoy on the trains is also in Japanese and English, hotel staff speaks basic English.  Just remember that they mix the L and the Rs there.  So, later will sound like Rater.  It will throw you off at first but you will quickly get used to it.  The ticket machines are also can be in English, so no problem buying your underground ticket.  I used Google Maps for directions, train times, journeys etc.  Rarely did I have to ask for directions if at all.  I guess once I tried to enter the Tokyo Art Center via the delivery entrance instead of the visitor entrance but that’s about it.

 

But there is a caveat, I have the advantage that I learn Chinese at school, I can read a bit of it, and Japanese uses quite a lot of Chinese characters in their writing so I know for example the words for male and female, it is useful when you go into the toilets.  I know the word for meat, water, the word for Exit etc, basic things like that, but useful enough that I can tell this is a meat dish.  These things I don’t think of, I just know it so if you are unfamiliar, this may cause some funny moments.

 

boogieman

RaymondLin said:

duotone said:

Great photos!  Japan is one of the places I would love to go to.

I thought that until one day I thought, what the hell and did it.  No regrets!

boogieman said:

Great shots Raymond. Looks a brilliant trip with some fascinating sights. How did you get on with communication? Do you speak any Japanese or is English widespread? 

Oh and I agree, get some of those shots printed or made into a photo book. 

The language thing is generally not a problem because a lot things are automated.  For example most ramen places have machines outside at the door where you put money in and press a button like a vending machine, out comes a ticket.  You take a ticket inside and hand it over and they give you the food.  You don’t need to say anything, the machines even some have no English, they have pictures.  I guess you do need a little knowledge of what is what to order.  For example you need to know the type of ramen on offer, I can for example tell by the colour of the broth and know roughly whether it is a pork bone broth (Tonkotsu) or a Shioyu (salt) or Soy base.  Or a dipping noodles dish or Udon (different kind of noodle).

If in doubt, pick the top left hand corner one, its the most popular.

 

Sushi place you can go to a conveyor belt type where food is served via an iPad (in English), and there is a check out button on the iPad where after  you pressed it.  A waiter will come over and give you a bill, which you take it to the cashier to pay.  No tip to pay, the Japanese do not tip, they do not expect it, they do not want it.  Pay what you are asked, simple as that.

 

Inside major cities like Tokyo you have no problem, they even have multi lingual menus as there are many Chinese and Korean tourist visits Japan and they cater for that.  English is also taught at school, hence you get all these 20 something from England/US/Canada/Australia going there to teach English.  All children or the young people know English.  The reason they don’t speak it back is perhaps their culture, the Japanese when doing something, they like to do it right or not bother at all.  They want to do it perfect, and they know their pronunciation is not 100% so they just don’t speak it, but if you show you are trying Japanese, get a few words out, and not afraid to embarrass yourself, they will reciprocate back with some broken English.  I found this out by speaking to an American girl who teaches English there. 

 

The only places you would or may struggle is outside in rural Japan, or in restaurants where they have only Japanese menus and only accept reservations via telephone, like these Michelin star sushi places.

 

In terms of getting around, all train stations have English signs, the tannoy on the trains is also in Japanese and English, hotel staff speaks basic English.  Just remember that they mix the L and the Rs there.  So, later will sound like Rater.  It will throw you off at first but you will quickly get used to it.  The ticket machines are also can be in English, so no problem buying your underground ticket.  I used Google Maps for directions, train times, journeys etc.  Rarely did I have to ask for directions if at all.  I guess once I tried to enter the Tokyo Art Center via the delivery entrance instead of the visitor entrance but that’s about it.

 

But there is a caveat, I have the advantage that I learn Chinese at school, I can read a bit of it, and Japanese uses quite a lot of Chinese characters in their writing so I know for example the words for male and female, it is useful when you go into the toilets.  I know the word for meat, water, the word for Exit etc, basic things like that, but useful enough that I can tell this is a meat dish.  These things I don’t think of, I just know it so if you are unfamiliar, this may cause some funny moments.

 

Cheers for that. My missus and me are doing a trip to China later this year, we’ll have an English speaking guide with us so not speaking the language won’t be an issue. I do always like to try and learn at least a few words before we go abroad though. I think it’s only polite; we’re terribly arrogant in expecting every nation to understand and display things in English.

My daughter has always been fascinated by all things Japanese (she’d live there given half a chance). I’ll show her your pics, sure she’ll love them. 

stickyfiddle

Even without a scrap of Japanese it's nowhere near as alien as it used to be. Most signage is dual language, which makes things very easy. 

One thing we did which was really good was to hire a portable wifi hotspot. That (or mobile roaming if you have a good package) gives you google translate and google maps on the go, which is a super-powerful combination. 

Notwithstanding that, learning at least a handful of the key shop and restaurant phrases is a good idea out of courtesy as much as anything else. 

RaymondLin

stickyfiddle said:

Even without a scrap of Japanese it's nowhere near as alien as it used to be. Most signage is dual language, which makes things very easy. 

One thing we did which was really good was to hire a portable wifi hotspot. That (or mobile roaming if you have a good package) gives you google translate and google maps on the go, which is a super-powerful combination. 

Notwithstanding that, learning at least a handful of the key shop and restaurant phrases is a good idea out of courtesy as much as anything else. 

I prefer buying a sim card, you can buy 5G/30day data for 5,000 yen.  Less things to carry.

stickyfiddle

RaymondLin said:

stickyfiddle said:

Even without a scrap of Japanese it's nowhere near as alien as it used to be. Most signage is dual language, which makes things very easy. 

One thing we did which was really good was to hire a portable wifi hotspot. That (or mobile roaming if you have a good package) gives you google translate and google maps on the go, which is a super-powerful combination. 

Notwithstanding that, learning at least a handful of the key shop and restaurant phrases is a good idea out of courtesy as much as anything else. 

I prefer buying a sim card, you can buy 5G/30day data for 5,000 yen.  Less things to carry.

That works too  

I think our wifi thing was a similar cost for 2 wks. 

RaymondLin

Day 9 (first full day in Tokyo)

So where does one go ?

Asakusa was the most convenient, straight up, no change on the subway.

The plan was this, start at the hotel (No.1/No.9) on the map and do a circle.

Got a snack (red bean paste)

Pork and onion

Then stopped by Yadabashi, I think this is Japan's largest electronic store.

Got a creme brûlée doughnut

Then Akihabara

Then saw this, for those that don't know.  Pablo is a store that makes Cheese Cake, with a Japanese twist.  It originated from Osaka but the Osaka version, or the original version are a large cake, family size.  Lucky they sell mini ones as I only wanted a taste.

Although the proper one has no crust on the side.

Then went to the first skyscraper, Tokyo Government Metropolitan Building.  South Tower was closed, only North Tower accessible.

Then I went to Park Hyatt Tokyo for their view, you may recognise this corridor

Then finish up at Shibuya Crossing.

bloodandtears

These pictures are fantastic.. It's somewhere that has intrigued me and both myself and my eldest son have always fancied a visit, but I have to admit I find the food daunting... my son has no chance lol

RaymondLin

Japan is on a lot of people’s bucket list but a lot of people get put off for various reasons.

 

1 – Money

 

The actual cost of Japan to visit isn’t any higher than New York or even London.  Accommodation and food and daily transport is comparable, or can be even less if you know where to go.  Only the flight is higher than the rest due to the distance but that is understandable and cannot be avoided.  You can mitigate this by getting a connected flight.

 

2 – Language

 

This again seems like a problem but in reality it is not.  Because that English signs are everywhere, people have a basic grasp of English and you now have Google Translate and Google Maps.  I was never lost and never completely clueless what I was buying.

 

3 – Food

 

For the unadventurous with food, I would just say “man the hell up”, so to speak.  To be perfectly frank, the stuff that  you don’t like probably cost more anyway, good quality Sea Urchin isn’t cheap, Tuna belly isn’t cheap and McDonalds and KFC are everywhere if you are so inclined.  But most regular Japanese food are nice, the ingredients are nothing really unusual.  We have all had rice, wheat, beans, beef, chicken.  It is just presented nicer IMO. 

 

One thing I really missed over there is fresh vegetables.  I was eating a tonne of carbs, plenty of meat and protein but I hardly got any fresh vegetables in me.  Fruit and veg in Japan is expensive, eye wateringly so, even at the supermarket, especially fruit.

 

For me, none of these are any reason not to visit, if you like history, Kyoto has more Unesco World Heritage site within a mile radius than most countries.  The people are nice, the place is clean, you would come away thinking this is how all modern society should be.  Crime is so low that kids as young as 6 will go to school all by themselves, even in Tokyo, and they will navigate Shinjuku station all alone.  The world’s busiest station.  The place is that safe. 

 

Food is fantastic, absolutely fantastic.  Japan is one place in the world where it is difficult to find a bad meal.  Partly this is due to they concentrate on what they are good at, like I said, a ramen place will only serve ramen, often just 1 type of ramen. They find what they are good at, then make it great.  There are more Michelin star restaurant in Tokyo alone than London, New York and Paris combined.  People go to Japan for the food, you don’t avoid Japan because of the food.  And man the hell up!

Jez6345789

I went to Japan in the late 70's and its a place I still want to go back to in the next couple of years.

Other than Tokyo back then it was a bit more alienating but not in a bad way just it seemed everything even down to their choice of colours was totally different to the West.  In these days of global everything, we are far more familiar with Japanese design and culture but its still a place that interests me. 

Lovely Pictures enjoyed seeing them and the descriptions of the trip. My only moan is not one picture of Japanese guitars or guitar shops . LOL

stickyfiddle

Re Food... I'm coeliac, which means no wheat, which in Japan means so soy sauce. That was a huge challenge and I still did ok. That said I'm not remotely fussy and will try pretty much anything once, as long as it won't make me ill. There’s plenty of fried crispy stuff if you want something less “weird jelly oddness”... 

My inlaws were struggling by about day 5, and made a beeline for the nearest Big Mac, but even they were ok overall.

That said, I'm never eating sea urchin (umi) ever again if I can help it. A deeply unpleasant flavour combination of snot and seawater. But I'm glad I tried it. And the same meal I tried that, I had medium fatty tuna for the first time, which is now one of my absolute favourite things in the entire world....



And just for @Jez6345789...

Ishibashi Osaka







 Ochanomizu, Tokyo. Almost every shop is 3+ floors, and there are between 15 and 20 shops, iirc. It makes Denmark Street look like kindergarten...

Jez6345789

Great you got a guitar fix gotta get back there next year and indulge myself.

RaymondLin

Let's finish this off, finished my photos now.

Day 10

Tsukiji Market

I just went snacks crazy here, for breakfast.

First up some tuna sushi.

Then 500 yen for 5 sticks of different kind of chicken, some are nicer than others

Then mochi with a strawberry, a bit expensive, 300 yen for this but it was nice. 

Japanese Omelett, it was okay,  This was meant to be famously delicious but at this point I wasn't hungry anymore.

Then I saw some Unagi. 

Time to head back to the hotel and drop off some grapes that I bought.  At 2000 yen…..they do taste different but boy are they expensive!

Mt Fuji from the hotel

Then I made my way to Meiji Shrine

Lucky to see someone getting married.

These are little boards that you can buy, you write something on it and the priest will bless it, you can also write a wish on it.

Reading these actually made me very grateful to be there and there are some funny ones.

Some kind of fruit and veg thing for the gods going on, there were a few of these.

Then made my way to Harajuku but first lunch, soba noodles with Tampura.

Novelty drinks in a light bulb.

The only graffiti that i saw

This is the famous street, but it is not as hip as it was 10 years ago, it's just a tourist trap these days.

I bought a crepe, every flavour has a model sample.

After that I head to Roppongi to Mori Tower.  IMO the best view of the city is here, you can pretty much don't need to bother with other places, if you had to pick one, this building is it.

I also went to an art exhibition inside, most of it is interactive.

Then I went to the roof

I wifi the 2 photos above to the couple on the spot, through broken english and lots of smiling and nodding.

Night set so 1 more place to see but first more ramen, tsukemen.

Phew, that was a long day !!!

RaymondLin

Day 11.

Lost in translation

Went to Ginza, this is like the rich shopping district, like 5th Avenue in NYC.

roof of Ginza 6, they even have a shrine up here

Then the most expensive Starbucks I've ever had

Lunch!

Real life Mario Kart, although it is no longer Mario Kart coz Nintendo made them to remove the outfits !

Then I went to get cake. This wasn't was also pricy.

Quick stop back here to get some gifts before heading to Tokyo Tower, got ice cream in a bread, the bread is hot

The "golden poop" is under renovation.

It's hard to judge the scale of how tall Tokyo Tower is because it is on the outskirt of the city.

For referece, that building in the middle of the frame is 30 stories tall.

More ramen, ticket from machine, much better than the last one!

It was raining so I wanted umbrella shots, back to Shibuya

It is normal to show a lot of legs in Japan but no one (locals anyway) shows cleavage or even shoulders.

RaymondLin

Day 12.

Bacon inside bread, 2 ways

Went back to Akihabara

Then dinner somewhere random that I forgot !

Then Shinjuku for Robot Restaurant.

RaymondLin

Day 13.

I purposely looked for Udon, another version of noodles I've not had in Japan until now, comes with chicken egg on rice on the side

Went to see some royal garden but it was closed so went to Ikebukuro

Hands down the best bowl of ramen ever, after all the food in the past 2 weeks, this was the best.

The Pokemon Centre was here, went to see it, just because.

Last visit to Shibuya

Saw a Delorean

On the way to Tokyo Tower I got off on the wrong stop, saw a poster for an exhibition for an anime director that i like so I went !

Then decided to walk to Tokyo Tower.

came across Shakeshack.

Day 14.

Sunrise, flight was at 11:30am so got up early, took the limousine bus notice the structures have metal joints, for earthquakes.

Phew !!!

Moominpapa

Great thread - now I feel like I've been on holiday in Japan, too! Thanks for taking the trouble to post all these pictures.

57Deluxe

no, here's a nice 'Japan' photo...



your can't beat a nice bit of
http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/metalware/japanlogo.jpg