13 Travel Tips For Visitors to Japan

1.    Skip Tokyo     

Japan’s capital is gigantic, heaving with people, stressful and ugly. The high points (Meiji-jingu, Hama-rikyu Gardens, Imperial Palace Park) are very

attractive, but you can easily find their equal, or better, in Kyoto. A journey on the Chuo or Sobu line in the morning would have made Gandhi lose his cool. Humans were not meant to live in a place like this.  

2.    Stay overnight in Nikko     

Words can hardly capture the magic of Nikko by night. The wide uphill avenue towards Tosho-gu, one of Japan’s most famous shrines, is deserted and only dimly lit. Massive cedar trees tower above you on both sides and you hear water running downhill in stone channels. You can’t enter the shrine complex but you can walk along its edge, where the atmosphere is electric. The stone lanterns resemble humans in the darkness, and the eaves of old buildings overhang the wall. It’s a spine-tingling walk.  

3.    Base yourself in Kyoto     

In Japan, Kyoto is peerless. It has an abundance of

superb sights: the gardens at Saiho-ji and Murin-an, the wooden platform and thatched roof of Kiyomizu-dera, the stone canals near the river, and the narrow alley of Pontocho at night. Kyoto is also very close to Nara, one of the few cities in Japan that is truly unmissable.  

4.    Do not visit in June and July      

A trip to Japan in the rainy season might mean days without seeing the sun. Worse, you might experience a biblical downpour that lasts forty hours. And when it’s over, the humidity is intolerable.  

5.    Stay near train stations     

This takes the pain out of looking for somewhere to have dinner. Large stations often have food courts in the basement, where you’ll find really good restaurants. The streets around stations usually feature a number of fast food restaurants, like Matsuya, Mos Burger, and McDonald's. Accommodation is plentiful and inexpensive too, even in Tokyo.   

6.    Don’t bother taking local trains     

Travelling by futsuu densha might seem like a good idea (you can save money and see the landscape), but it’s not. This is largely because there is very little of interest to see, just rice fields, unsightly buildings, and rivers with concrete banks. Better to get to your destination as fast as possible.   

7.    Fly to Kansai International Airport     

This puts you an hour and a half from Kyoto, and saves you having to pass through Tokyo, which you’ll have to do from Narita Airport. 

8.    Beware of the hype     

My guidebook contained the startling assertion that beauty in Japan could be found round every corner. In many cities you’ll be lucky to find it round any corner. The Japanese are very conceited when it comes to food, but, like me, you may find you have difficulty keeping the likes of unagi (eel) down.   

9.    Consider hitching     

This is probably not a good idea if you’re female. For men, though, it’s a pretty good option, and you may not even have to stick your thumb out to get a lift. Stand near a bus stop on a main road in the less touristed parts of the country and there’s a strong chance someone will pull over within minutes.  

10.    Visit Kamakura     

Kamakura, a short train journey south west from Tokyo, is one of the most interesting places in Japan. The bronze Daibutsu (Great Buddha) dates to 1252 and sits on a pedestal in the open air, the hall in which it was housed having been destroyed by a tsunami five hundred years ago. There are temples and beautiful gardens aplenty, the best of which (Zuisen-ji, for instance) are located in the east of the city, where many tourists do not venture. Hiking trails lead through the shady, wooded hills that surround Kamakura on three sides. It even boasts a beach, though the sea looks far from clean here.  

11.    Eat tonkatsu     

Not keen on raw fish, cold noodles or miso soup? Me neither. Try tonkatsu, a pork cutlet coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. You grind up some sesame seeds using a pestle and mortar, add some dark tonkatsu sauce and then dip the pork in it. It’s served with rice, cabbage and – wait for it – miso soup.  

12.    Look out for local beers     

Japan’s oligopoly of beer producers make some fairly good brews, but you may find yourself yearning for something different. A good option is Hub Ale, found in the British pub chain of the same name, which has branches in large cities. Even better are the beers produced by micro-breweries in Takayama, Hakodate and Gotemba, but you’ve got to go out of your way to find these. 

13. Take a night bus

This is a cheap way of getting around, though you may feel out of place if you are over 20. You can reserve tickets online with Willer Express. Buses are surprisingly comfortable and are hermetically sealed against intruding lights, natural or otherwise. A sort of blackout curtain divides driver and passengers. The only drawback is arriving at the crack of dawn, when everything's shut except McDonald's. 

The 'Living Buddhas' of Yamagata

   

There’s a tiny figure in a glass cabinet in this roasting hall. Sweating profusely, I size it up. It’s wearing a red robe and a headdress that resembles an upside down ice cream cone. Its knobbly fingers look like they’re made of very old and dark wood. The face is hideous: there’s a hole where the nose once was, and it’s missing an eye.

Churen-ji

This is the ‘living buddha’ of Churen-ji, a temple outside the minuscule hamlet of Oami in mountainous Yamagata. Just sixteen of these weird mummies remain in Japan. The bizarre appearance of these onetime priests is the product of a shocking diet, which involved years of plant food and a special tea made from poisonous tree sap. The final stage sounds terrifying: burial alive in a box with a breathing tube and a bell.

The bus stop in Oami

A female monk tells me that only about twenty foreigners a year make it to Churen-ji. There are few buses from sleepy Tsuruoka, and once you get off, you’re faced with a trek of several miles. When I make the journey, it’s 38 degrees, and I can feel my fair skin cooking in the sun. 

There’s a second mummy nearby, in the temple of Dainichibo, whose relative proximity to the bus stop makes it more accessible. Tall trees stand guard in front of the temple, beyond a lovely path lined with hydrangeas. 

The gate at Dainichibo

My sole interest here is with the mummy, but after paying my 500 yen, I am motioned to sit before an altar. A pair of giant drums adorns the room, along with a multi-coloured sheet. A bald-headed man in a black robe, presumably a monk or a priest, begins chanting and beating a drum. A shriveled old man in white, also bald, sits down beside me, placing his legs at an impossible angle. He begins to tell his beads. 

The approach to Dainichibo

The pounding of the drum ceases and the black-robed man grabs a wooden pole topped with white ribbons. He starts waving it over my head, once brushing it against my hair. He chants and stares at me, as though I’m being initiated into a cult. 

Dainichibo

The swinging of the stick ends and the old monk rises and motions me to follow him. We walk to a small and very bright room, and sit before a glass cabinet. The mummy is inside, clad in a reddish-orange robe. It is more skeletal than its counterpart in Churen-ji, and it has a diabolical grin. This ‘living buddha’, I read, died in 1783 aged ninety-six, having followed the plant food diet for an unimaginable seventy years.

Later I hitch a lift back to Tsuruoka. I regale the driver with the tale of my encounter with the ‘living buddhas’.

‘Why didn’t you go to Setaka?’ she asks. I know where she means, for I passed through it during my eight hour train ride the day before.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, there are mummies there.’

I let it fly, for why would I have missed this?

The view from Churen-ji