Emma & Ben… Far From Home

9th – 14th May 2017

According to STA Travel and a variety of travel guides and blogs, Japan would be the most expensive destination on our trip – by some distance. Because of this, we planned to limit ourselves to 2 weeks here. In the end, it wasn’t as costly as we thought; we spent more per week in both New Zealand and Canada. We really wished we had stayed longer; we absolutely loved Japan.

We landed in Osaka late on the 9th May, and arrived at our hostel just before midnight. We had booked a private room rather than a dorm (although it had bunk beds), with a shared bathroom, consisting of a shower and the most hi-tech toilet I’ve ever seen in my life. This turned out to be the norm for Japan; not content with a simple flush lever, most toilets come with a heated seat and a panel of buttons which do everything from activating water jets to making little flushing sounds.

I wasn’t quite brave enough to press all the buttons 

On our first full day, we headed for Osaka Castle to get a taste of the history of Japan. It turned out the castle was actually a reconstruction, so not so historical as we had hoped. However, it was still pretty cool to look at, we got a good view of Osaka from the top and we learned a little about Japanese history. 

From the castle, we headed to the city centre. We stopped for a drink at an ‘Owl Cafe’, which is a place you can stop for a coffee, whilst enjoying the opportunity to pet the owls that live there. There are lots of these types of cafe all over Japan; we also saw cat, dog and hedgehog cafes whilst we were there.

The owls were very cute. We were told we could stroke them, but only their beaks. To be honest, this was one of the last places I wanted my fingers; some of the beaks looked absolutely lethal.

Luckily we managed to keep all our fingers

The owls were all chained to a post; I asked the assistant how often they got to fly around.

“Errrrr…. sometimes they get taken to another place where they can fly.”

It was wholly unconvincing, and made us worry about the animal welfare standards. But as I said; the owls were very cute.

The rest of the day was spent wondering around the city and trying some Japanese food. The first dish we tried was ramen.

The ramen restaurant was recommended in a travel guide. Like a lot of things we did in Japan, at first we didn’t really know what the hell was going on. It wasn’t really clear how you ordered food; after watching some locals, we realised you paid for food at a vending machine, which gave you a ticket stub. The ticket is then given to the cooks, who would then prepare your food for you.

Later on that day, we also tried okonomiyaki (a savoury pancake thing, which we liked) and takoyaki (fried batter containing balls of octopus, which we didn’t buy again).

Despite our paranoia that Japan was going to completely empty our bank accounts, we couldn’t resist going to Universal Studios whilst we were there. There was only one reason for this; here we would find the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Anyone who knows Emma and I will know we are big fans of both the books and the films. Like in Orlando, The Wizarding World contained a replica of both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade; it was nothing short of incredible. We felt like we had been transported into the films (despite the hundreds of Japanese tourists dressed like Minions walking about).

Inside Hogwarts, there was a 4-D ride, which is quite honestly one of the best roller coasters I’ve ever been on in my life. The visual effects, combined with the movements of the roller coaster, made it feel like you were flying alongside Harry on his broomstick. I had no idea what Harry was saying, as Daniel Radcliffe was talking Japanese, but it was still amazing. Em had to close her eyes when Aragog and his mates appeared, but bravely faced the dementors without even flinching. We came out blown away by what we had seen… if feeling a little bit motion sick.

From Osaka, we travelled to Hiroshima. Normally, we don’t like travel days, but this was different… we were going to go by one of the famed bullet trains! We activated our Japan Rail Pass (which you have to apply for before you arrive in the country) and booked seats on the train. As we kind of expected, it was absolutely bang on time and was a very smooth and pleasant journey. I never felt like we were going that fast, but we covered several hundred kilometres in a couple of hours, so it must have been going at a pretty decent speed.

In Hiroshima, our first stop was the Peace Park, created in the space below which the atomic bomb was detonated in 1945. 

The museum described the reasons why Hiroshima was chosen as a target, the detonation of the bomb, the immediate effects of the blast as well as the long lasting effects of the radiation on those exposed to but not killed by the initial blast. It made the prospect of a nuclear war quite terrifying.

The most moving part of the museum told the story of Sadako Sasaki. She was a girl who was diagnosed with leukemia, caused by the radiation from the bomb. Whilst in hospital, she heard an old Japanese legend; if someone folded 1000 paper cranes, they would be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live. Sadly, despite folding as many cranes as she could, she passed away before she could finish. Her friends decided to finish for her; the crane has now become a symbol of peace, and thousands of cranes are folded and donated to the museum from all over the world every year.

On the second day, we decided to head to Miyajima, an island just off the mainland. At the train station, everyone else in Hiroshima seemed to be heading somewhere else; the baseball game. The station was a sea of red; with men, women and children all decked out in the colours of the beloved local team, the Hiroshima Carps. The Japanese really go for it when it comes to supporting their team. I was surprised to see grown men sporting the cap, shirt, shorts and socks of their side. In Britain, men usually stop wearing full kits at about the age of 12, for fear of ridicule from their mates (the correct term I believe is “full kit w*nker”). In the end, I couldn’t resist buying a cap and t-shirt as a souvenir, although of course I won’t wear them at the same time.

Miyajima Island was a a lovely little seaside town; the Japanese equivalent of somewhere like Dartmouth. We went to see the famous shrine gate, before getting a cable car up the top of the mountain. 

We walked from the cable car to the summit, which offered spectacular views over the peninsula. It was a bit of effort to get there, but definitely worth it. 

(Posted by Ben)