Land of the rising Sun

Takaisin turvallisesti kotona Japanista. Tulin kotia reissusta torstaina illalla.

Ajattelin että kirjottelen nyt oman kokemuksen perusteella että mitä kannattaa tehä ja mitä ei kannata tehä jos olet menossa Japaniin. Ja ihan vaan itselle helpotukseksi voisin kirjottaa tämän vain englanniksi niin ei tarvi alkaa kahella kielellä koko hommaa selittämään. : )

So I'm back safely at home from Japan. I came back from the trip on Thursday evening. 

I thought I'd write a bit from my own experience about what you should do and not do if you're going to Japan. And just to cut myself some slack, I'm going to write this only in English so I won't have to do this whole thing in two languages. : )

Okay, so the journey to my goal of reaching Japan started a long, long time ago. I have wanted to go there since ten years ago, I turned twenty on the 8th so, the beginning dates all the way back to when I was about ten years old. My parents made a promise to me that when I graduate from upper secondary school they would pay for my trip to Japan as a graduation gift. So that's where this whole thing started.

On the plane!

My dream of finally stepping on the land of the rising Sun finally came alive on the fifth of April this year, 2014. The group of family members that were originally supposed to go with me to Japan reduced to being just me and my mother, and so we made this unforgettable trip with just the two of us. I suppose our dogs are pretty darn happy that dad stayed here with them so we didn't need to take them to someone else's care while we were away. 

We first took a plane from Oulu to Helsinki and then another plane from Helsinki to Nagoya, Japan. The flight from Helsinki to Nagoya took about ten hours, during which the 4th day changed to the 5th day of April. When we arrived in Japan we first had to wait a bit over an hour for the immigration check, since the lines were quite long. Just in case you didn't know they take your picture and fingerprints when you land into the country, also you need to present your passport and landing card, which you're most likely given on the flight to Japan. I was very, very tired when we arrived to Japan as I hadn't slept on the entire flight, nor really the night before. So I was pushing more than 24 hours awake. At the immigration check there was a bit of a hurdle; for some reason, I'm not quite sure if it was the machine or what, but they weren't able to get clear fingerprints from my index fingers. It took some good ten minutes, a change of machine and some confused laughter between me and the officer before we got the prints, not from my index fingers, but rather my middle fingers. But hey at least the officer praised my Japanese language skills!

After the immigration check was done we headed for the baggage claim and from there to the customs. At the customs they simply ask that you show the customs declaration that you most likely have filled out on the plane. The officer checked that the sheet of paper was all good and then asked us where we were headed in Japan, probably a standard question. At first it was a bit hard to understand him as he was speaking English in a heavy, heavy accent, but when I started to speak to him in the best Japanese that I could he also started to speak Japanese. Oh boy was it so much easier to communicate with him in Japanese. He was quite surprised at my skills of Japanese, praised me and laughed at how he didn't quite at first believe that I have never studied Japanese nor have I ever been in the country before. 

The train ride to Nagoya

When we were cleared to go, we started to look for the train that would take us from the airport, which is on an island by the way, to the mainland and to Nagoya's city center, where the train station would be. It wasn't all too hard to find the right place and to buy the tickets from the counter. So from the airport we made our way to Nagoya's center by train. The station we arrived at was large to say at least. It took us a few moments of confusion to find the right place to go to change our railway passes. As a side note it took us about two hours of waiting in line before we made it to the counter to change them, not fun at all. With the pass we got on a train for Kyoto, which was our planned destination. Using the railway-system is very simple and it doesn't take too long to figure it out. 

Unfortunately I'm not a big traveler, since I get sick on transportation most of the time. Needless to say after being awake for more than 24-hours straight, after flying on two planes, which one of  had some nasty turbulence, not eating much during all that time and after already taking one train ride, I was pretty damn sick by the time we reached Kyoto. No joke, I was gagging through the rest of the evening. Getting on a taxi was a bit of a struggle; the first taxi was too small to fit all of our luggage into, and the second taxi-driver had no idea where he was supposed to drive us. Again knowing Japanese came in handy, since the driver wasn't able to read from the map where he was supposed to go (Latin letters) so I explained to him what area the hotel was supposed to be at. He then called the hotel number and asked for detailed instructions and after he verified the location with me the trouble was over. It took a while to get to the hotel but as soon as we were there it was a huge relief.

View from our Kyoto hotel's window

Our hotel room

The hotel itself wasn't terribly big, but it was very nice and comfortable. The room was neat and not too crowded. The staff wasn't very skilled in English but my mother, who also isn't all that skilled in English (sorry mom, you know it's true) was able to manage just fine and relay everything necessary to the staff. The hotel was located near some big temples and not quite in the center of the city, but within a very reasonable distance from the center. 

 We spent two nights in Kyoto and while we were there we saw some temples and the Kyoto's imperial palace. I got to taste takoyaki and dango's while we were there.

From Kyoto we made our way to Tokyo via Shinkansen (bullet train). The distance between the cities is something like 500 km according to my knowledge (which isn't always reliable, so don't take my word for it) and the train ride took only a bit over two hours. We did catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji on our way to the big (enormous, ridiculously huge, way too big to comprehend) city, Tokyo. The weather in Tokyo was much, much warmer in Nagoya, where having a trench coat wasn't too much at all. In Tokyo a skirt, stockings, a tank top and a sheer blouse were too much. 

I'm not going to sugarcoat it; our hotel in Tokyo was not good. The room was TINY, the bathroom drapes smelled so bad (I'm known to have quite a strong sense of smell) they made me want to puke and we had one bed, as big as my own at home. Although, I do have to admit we were pretty close to everything, so the price in relation to the location of the hotel was appropriate, I guess... Our hotel was in Chuo-city and Ginza was just about a five to ten minutes walk away. The main train station was about a seven minute walk from the hotel and there were Family Marts, Lawsons and other 24/7 stores at a short distance. 

Sexy outfits from the hotel

In Tokyo we saw Shibuya (very briefly), Harajuku and also Akihabara, Ginza was the place we most frequently visited since it was very close to the hotel. Again I have to tell you that the public-transportation system in Japan, especially in Tokyo is extremely effective and easy to use. And if you get lost, which we did when we first arrived in the city and were trying to find a hotel, someone is bound to come and ask you if you're okay. Shout out to the woman who was on her way to work, who stopped to help us and even called the hotel for us so we found the right place! 

I didn't buy ANYTHING from Harajuku, Shibuya or Akihabara, even though I was more than prepared to spent all the money I had taken with me to Japan. The reason why I didn't buy anything was definitely not because there wasn't anything to buy or that there were no options as to what you could buy, no. The reason was the exact opposite; there was way too much of everything. I tend to be the type of person who has a hard time deciding what to buy and if I can't make a decision I usually just don't buy anything, which is what happened in Japan. I bought shoes from Ginza, that's all that I bought on the entire trip if we don't include the little things I bought from the airport's duty-free shops. The price-range for things is much the same as it is Finland if not more expensive, naturally depending on what you want to buy and where you're going to buy it from. From example Ginza is an extremely expensive part of Tokyo and most of the shops in the center of Ginza district carry high-end brands like Luis Vuitton, Prada, or Chanel. 

After two nights in Tokyo we left via another Shinkansen back to Nagoya, where we stayed at a airport hotel. The next morning we hopped on a plane back to Finland and we flew over the Kara and Barents sea, with gorgeous views through out most of the flight. In Helsinki we got on another plane which took us back to Oulu. Dad picked us up from the airport and here we are. Back home again. 

 Am I so fulfilled with that trip that I'm not planning on going back to Japan? Hell no. I've already started to consider going back there hopefully within five years from now. I saw a lot, but there is still so much more to see. Much more things I want to try out.

But to sum it up a little bit here's my advise to you, if you're ever planning on going to Japan!

1. You absolutely CAN manage there with only English. It might be a bit challenging at times, but it's not impossible AT ALL. Do I recommend learning Japanese before you go there? Absolutely. A little Japanese can take you a long way and most of all the locals will sincerely appreciate it. It does make things much easier.

2. DO NOT think that you will be able to go there for anything less than a week and see everything. No, you can't. It's impossible, seriously, no. Definitely do not try to go to more than one city in a week or less. We made that mistake and honestly I do feel a bit disappointed of how little we got to see there since we were in a rush all the time. One city is more than enough entertainment for at least a week. Anything more than one city in a week, and you'll just rush through everything and you don't really get to see much. Next time I'm going to Japan I plan to go there for at least a week, preferably longer than that.

3. The price-tags won't exactly make you sigh in relief of how inexpensive things are. Japan is a pricey country, but you are paying for quality (at least in my opinion). A good tip that I learned when it comes to eating out is to follow where the salary-men and office-women are going. Usually they go to reasonably priced restaurants with good food. 

4. Think carefully about what you need with you, paying in mind when you're packing that as far as I'm aware the customs are very tight in Japan. Do some research about what you can and cannot bring with you, for example some over the counter medicine is not allowed there, so look things up before you go. You do not want to get in trouble at the customs even though the people there are extremely kind. 

5. Manners. Being a foreigner will excuse you from a lot, but knowing your manners and a bit about the culture there won't hurt. The people in Japan are ridiculously well mannered, they are very kind and I'm sure that they'd like to be treated in the same way.

6. GET THE RAILWAY PASS if you're planning on travelling to mare than one city. It'll be worth he money. The cost of going from Kyoto to Tokyo via Shinkansen costs more than 10 000 yen (I think the price is more than 100€ in total without the pass). The railway pass paid itself back more than once and it was very easy to use, also you always get reserved seats on a train. GET IT! 

That's all I have to share with you guys about my trip there. It was a beautiful country and I'm certainly planning on going there again! I have quite a bit of video footage from the trip (mostly us walking around) and I'm going to try to make a single video out of those at some point and then post it for you guys to see. 

I'm gonna start preparing for the entrance exams to Oulu's university in the following days and I'll try to study quite intensely all the way to the exams which are on the 19th and 20th of May. So there's about a month of studying ahead of me and on top of that I have a job interview on Wednesday. I had to do some small changes to my hair to make it more appropriate for applying to jobs, so I'll show you my new haircut and color next week. 

I'll try to update regularly through this month even with the studying and stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shortage of posts. 

See you next week!! <3