Japan 2025: part 1

We spent just under 3 weeks in Japan in October 2025, initially as part of an organised trip with Intrepid Travel and then by ourselves.

We flew via Singapore. The flight from Perth arrived not long before sunset and we were amazed again by the number of ships waiting to go into the harbour.

As we arrived in Haneda we managed to get a first glimpse of the iconic sacred mountain. We had plenty of time to do that as we landed successfully on our third attempt.

We caught the train from Haneda to our accommodation and were amazed by the multitude of adverts and announcements inside, in stark contrast to how quiet the personal lives of Japanese are and the scarcity of things around their private houses.

We stayed at a hotel in Ueno Shin-Okachimachi. First day we sampled an offal yakitori place which was very… different to say the least. I ordered a beef tendon bowl and this was one of the few occasions when none of us could eat something. We went to Coffee Lounge afterwards, to cleanse our taste buds with some ice cream. In both places there were quite a few people smoking inside. Funnily enough there were two old ladies smoking inside the Coffee Lounge, and when they got ready to leave they put their masks on, probably to protect them from pollution! The Coffee lounge had a couple of items on the menu that sounded very familiar to us

As part of our foodie tour we went to a sushi cooking class. After some stories about katsuobushi (dried bonito) and the differences between different types of sushi (the traditional one in Osaka being rectangular rather than round!), we were shown how to make flower (hana) sushi and nori sushi. We then “cooked” our own sushi and shared it, accompanied by some bonito soup (with mitsuba, a herb that looks like coriander but tastes like parsley).

The next destination was Tsukiji markets, where we were left to roam free and explore some local delicacies. We enjoyed some yakitori tuna, yakitory rice balls, scallops in butter, and of course matcha – hot, cold and ice cream. For the rest of this trip we would be surprised at how few places sell matcha ready to drink – probably less than in Australia. And extremely few have a non-dairy milk alternative (eg soy or almond milk).

We walked past Kabukiza theatre in Ginza where there were lots of local people queuing to get in for a show. We learned that in kabuki plays there’s only men performing and each theatre is very much a family business, with actor fathers teaching their sons the art of kabuki. Kokuho is a movie that was released this year, about the life and legacy of this particular kabuki theatre owners, and it led to a resurgence in its popularity.

In Asakusa we went to the Senso-ji temple, Tokyo’s oldest temple, built in 645. It is very big and was extremely busy, but still interesting to see. There were lots of people (men and women) dressed in kimonos which were available for hire nearby. On the street there were lots of rickshaws (and of course their drivers trying to attract customers). We went in through the famous Thunder Gate and the huge red lantern donated by the founder of Panasonic, walked along Nakamise Street, with vendors on each side, before reaching the actual temple where there was incense burning and also a water fountain, both smoke and water being used for purification (salt being the third option!). There was also an area to leave wishes (aka prayers), and another one to throw money in.

Fooled by a beautiful owl, we thought about going to one of their famous animal cafes but changed our mind once we got there as it smelled pretty badly and the animals (we only saw some ferrets briefly) were in small enclosures on the concrete floor.

So we went to the Asakusa Culture Tourist info centre instead and took the elevator to the 8th floor, which has a very nice viewing deck offering 180 degree views:

• towards the highest building in the city, Tokyo Skytree (or 634 which is its height but also the previous name of this area of Tokyo, Musashi – and the same name that one of their famous swordsmen took). Next to it there’s the Asahi headquarters for its beer production and their Super Dry Hall (aka the Golden Turd).

• towards Senso-ji and the market walk we had already done, having a different perspective on it from up high

Hannah Cafe was another experience. We got to try hojicha latte and a flamed cheese cake. But the most interesting thing was watching the oshi-katsu phenomenon. Two ladies, likely mum and daughter, came into the cafe and, once their food came, they brought out some photo figurines and started taking photos of their food with these figurines. Apparently it is a modern fandom thing, where they place photos or merchandise of their favourite stars next to the food, and then they share the photos on social media pretty much meaning that they wish their idol was there to enjoy it with them!

The streets are extremely clean, we didn’t really see any rubbish. At the train stations there were staff members cleaning the metal behind the handrail of the escalator, a huge difference to any other major city we’ve seen. On quite a few evenings we ended up on back alleys and were surprised to see how clean they were – in most other cities there would have been garbage everywhere and the associated smell.

There were quite a few dogs being walked, all of them pure breed or designer (poodle crosses mainly, but also chihuahuas and shiba inus) and freshly brushed. At the temple there were quite a few dogs in strollers and all were in nappies, and on the streets we noticed that the owners had squeeze bottles to rinse the kerb or other targets after the dog peed!

We caught the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kanazawa. It took a while to get out of the concrete jungle of Tokyo and start seeing some natural greenery. We noticed that in most cities the rivers are well on the edge of towns, with weeds growing on the shore and no walkways near them. Also most of their cities do not have any parks so I’m more and more doubtful of this alleged principle of shinrin-yoku.
It is interesting what local knowledge sometimes means… our guide, told us that he chose not to leave Tokyo on a Monday, as that’s when there are lots of delays because people kill themselves by jumping in front of trains. And that is because they had too much time over the weekend to think and reflect rather than being busy with their work! Incredibly sad!

Kanazawa has always been quite a rich area apparently, first because they had very strong (hence rich) samurai, and then because it escaped destruction during WW II.
We had lunch at Omicho markets, where there is a huge variety of fish and seafood. We noticed that the sushi in Japan has less rice then in Australia, the filling in the middle making more than 50% of the content.

Kanazawa is famous for their use of golden leaves on everything including food and drinks, so we had to have an ice cream with a golden leaf! They started using the golden leaves to show how rich they were, and now the city is simply famous for it, so they keep the tradition (and make money out of it). Even our hotel walls featured gilded brush strokes.

Tsuzumi-mon Gate is a famous wooden structure near the train station, and inspired by a traditional Noh theater drum.

Chaya Gai district is the old part of the city where they still have old wooden tea houses. We saw a temple and a couple of shrines, visited some more shops selling gold-based goods and a very nice shop selling various bells and small metal bowls to play music.

We had an interesting experience at a local shopping center. They open at 10 am. We got there at 9:56 am. Customers on the outside of the door, employees on the inside. At 10 am on the second they turned the key and opened the door. And as we walked in, the security guards bent down to welcome us and so did every single shop assistant, all lined up at the entrance to their stores!

We did a home cooking class in Kanazawa House which was amazing. The lady running it (Miki) was extremely enthusiastic but she didn’t speak much English, so she had an interpreter with her (Chikako) and a helper (Ryu – who is training to be an interpreter and is currently a Kanazawa walking tour guide). We cooked tamagoyaki (the rolled Japanese omelette in the rectangular skillet pan); fried chicken and fish – learned that you have to start with cold oil. We made the pickled vegetable / ginger mountain that we had the night before and at the end enjoyed cherry blossom jelly with dried soy powder and brown sugar syrup. The food was really nice and the whole experience pretty good.

Kenroku-en is considered one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It is a so-called strolling-style garden, with ponds and artificially built hills. It was established during the Edo period by the feudal lords of Kaga as a daimyo garden.
We split in two smaller groups and walked with local guides around the grounds. We first had a look at a small garden at the bottom of the hill – beautiful to look at, but you’re not allowed to walk on the paths / bridges which is a bit disappointing. There are no frogs in the big pond as the tadpoles get eaten by bats; however we walked past a smaller pond that had lots of frogs, opposite a big tree with a den where Totoro allegedly lives.

On the castle boundary there are a warehouse and two sentry towers watching towards the sea for enemy Russian ships that would potentially attack from that side.

The palace itself was destroyed in the late 1800s and now they are rebuilding it using drawings / plans of similar palaces from the same era. This seems to be a recurrent thing for Japanese castles, most of them had been rebuilt multiple times after being destroyed, usually by fire.

Next to the main gate we saw the cannon holes that were covered to look pretty (but the tiles would be smashed if they needed to use them). The access road was also being renovated – undone and then redone stone by stone.

We then walked through Kenroku-en itself, where the gardeners were trimming the trees (some by hand) and preparing them for winter. The big pines had props for their branches. There is also a statue of an unnamed warrior in memory of local warriors that went to fight in other regions and never came back. And also a famous lantern that has legs of unequal length, one on land and one in the water. The diamond-shaped pavement is quite interesting as well.

Japanese gardens look the way they do because their gardeners are so patient and dedicated – we watched one of them trimming carefully the pine needles.

We attended a tea ceremony and geisha performance in Higashi Chaya, one of the old districts of Kanazawa. It was run in the Kaikaro teahouse by Lady Baba. There are only 8 seats for the tea ceremony. First Lady Baba explained to us the protocol (start with something very sweet, then on to the matcha – start with “the beautiful part of the bowl” towards you, then turn it clockwise twice, drink in 3 sips making sure to slurp the last one, then turn it anticlockwise twice again, before putting it back down). And you lift it with the right hand, placing it on the left hand which is used to drink.

We were then treated to a geisha show (where we had front row seats) featuring Japanese guitar shamisen, drums, dancing and finished with a sake drinking game (rock / paper style, no scissors).

At the end we did a bit of a tour of the house to see where the geishas used to live (and only work now).

We caught the Shinkansen again and then a local train to go to Kyoto. The scenery was very nice, green, not as much concrete as the previous days. The Kyoto train station was much busier than the other ones (even than Tokyo), with many more tourists, but very well organised, as most things in Japan.

First destination in Kyoto was Nishiki markets where we arrived just in time for lunch. We ate bits and pieces, including some very nice gyoza and a local speciality of baby octopus with boiled quail egg; we also found a shop selling matcha ice cream of five different grades which was quite nice, probably the best we had in Japan.

From Nishiki we crossed a bridge, walked to Kennin-Ji temple which we visited

before entering the Gion area, where the teahouses are.

We walked around, noticing the welcoming figurines above each shop entrance door and the small alleyways in between the houses “where the eel goes to sleep”.

It was quite a nice evening so people were walking along the river and it was quite a relaxed atmosphere, not as pressured as in Tokyo. We walked back to the hotel, window shopping along the way and mesmerized by the city lights.

We visited Fushimi Inari Shrine, with its thousands of gates, on a Saturday morning. It was extremely busy when we got there, with tens of thousands of people, mostly tourists. There were some locals as well praying or attending religious ceremonies, but I felt sorry for them as it must be really hard to attempt to live a seemingly normal life when you’re surrounded by so much noise and big crowds. Once we went a bit higher though, the crowds thinned out and we found some side alleys that had forgotten shrines, and even a bamboo forest that was quite peaceful and there was nobody else there. The “gates” have been donated by people, organizations etc and it can cost as much as 300,000 USD for one gate!

From the shrine we caught the train to Matsui Sake Brewery. This was very interesting – we learned how they make sake, which is a fermented wine-like drink rather than a spirit. The outer hull of the rice grains is removed to the shiny core, then it is mixed with an Aspergillus mold to go through a fermentation process called koji (the same one used to make miso paste or soy sauce) that is done in a hot room. Then this is mixed with more rice, water and a Saccharomyces yeast and left to cold ferment in big stainless steel gallons for about 20 – 25 days. This produces alcohol and once a certain concentration is reached, it will inhibit the remaining yeast so the fermentation process stops by itself. To make a more alcoholic sake they simply add alcohol, they don’t distil the sake. And most of the sake sold in Japan is “raw” and kept / sold refrigerated. However, in order to sell their sake overseas, they need to pasteurize it, and once that happens it can be stored at room temperature as there won’t be any ongoing fermentation.
We had the opportunity to sample the sakes, yuzu gin and tonic as well as well as some interesting foods – salmon biltong, sesame coated cashews, miso cream cheese.

Shinogano Shrine and the park next to it, Tadasu no Mori, are not as busy / not as popular with tourists as the other places and we spent a nice relaxing hour in that area.

The Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-Ji, is probably quite tranquil outside its opening hours, but when we went there were hordes of tourists, it was extremely busy. Apparently it was built in the shape of a pagoda to hold some Buddha remains for the nearby temple. And it is golden, as at the time when it was built, the Buddha statues were painted gold.

On the way to the exit there is a nice cafe where they serve matcha and a sweet cake, and it was peaceful to stay there and watch the maddening crowd move around us.

From Kinkaku-Ji we walked to Ryoan-ji, a buddhist temple with a zen rock garden. This was pretty quiet and relaxing. We got to admire a big pond with one big solitary goose and lots of big fish in it. The zen garden itself was ok, just extremely manicured as most other gardens here.

From Ryoan-ji we caught the bus and then walked to a really nice restaurant, Rennosuke – a very small place that has a Michelin star, and where we had the best ramen ever (and the best dinner of this trip so far).

Kyoto tower is right next to the train station and an excellent place to watch a watch the sunset from, with the various shades of orange shining over the city and reflecting onto the railway lines.

We caught the bus from Kyoto to Uji, the area famous with tourists for its tea plantations. We saw a Inoda coffee place in the train station, the chain that belongs to the daimyo of Kanazawa.

We got on a small bus to go to Uji and the journey was quite interesting, with extra foldable seats added where the corridor would be, so that all the space is utilised. Too bad that those seating on the extra seats don’t have a back rest, or that there’s no escape in case of an emergency.

We passed rows and rows of bright green Camellia sinensis plants, and also went through quite a long tunnel. There are fans above these tea plantations, apparently to circulate warmer air and prevent plants from getting too cold and freeze in winter.

We arrived at Obubu tea plantation, where we first learned about how they harvest the tea and then process it for sencha, matcha but also the black Japanese tea, wakoucha. We met their intern, Lotte, from Belgium, who is doing a 3 month internship (that she found as she was looking for opportunities to volunteer / work on a farm and also likes tea). We then had lunch, including hojicha tea infused rice which was nice. We bought quite a few teas from the shop, saw the local postie delivering a parcel from Amazon, then got on the bus again to go to Uji.

In Uji we got to explore the shops (lots of matcha!)

and also see the Byodoin temple, which features on the 10 yen coin.

More stories in part 2 of our trip.