2022
Ninja, Samurai, Shrine, Kimono, Onsen, Sushi, Ramen and Anime are among words that are crossing my mind when thinking about JAPAN.
Elements that I can't find at my home country and should make me curious about this Sakura country.
Visiting Japan is one of my biggest dreams in life. My dream came true. It is still my dream, though, to visit Japan again and again.
I think I am deeply in love with the land of the rising sun, its people, culture, and sceneries. Let's take a look at what I got.
The Japanese
They are so helpful, efficient, friendly and tough!
It is a 233-meter mountain with hundreds of stairs to climb on to reach its top.
The foot of the mountain was crowded with people started walking the flat path before meeting with hundreds of stairs.
The numbers of people kept decreasing as I climbed higher and not many people could reach the top of the mountain.
Even the ones who reached it were wet of sweat and having panting breath. Including me :-).
Not with this 93-year old man and his daughter. They are humble and friendly, and we decided to capture the moment!
His stamina reflects his dietary habit, lifestyle, and mindset. He taught me to live a purposeful and vibrant life.
I stayed at the same hostel with a family from Yamanashi. They stayed just next to my room.
The lady smiled and bowed a little when I walked passing her room and a kind of invited me to have a chit chat with.
One of the men even showed his exciting expression when noticing that brought a Japanese camera, Canon G7x Mark II.
The Yamanashi family came to Kyoto to take care of their culinary business and there we met.
It was not long for us to get close. They can’t speak English and I can’t speak Japanese.
Can you imagine in what language do we speak to each other? We spoke with facial expressions and body language.
It was fun, though! And we didn’t forget to capture the funny moment.
After that I also met with many other cheerful and kind local people, but not as surprising and touching as this one.
How can I forget this innocent-looking young man. He is a cable-car officer who sang for us.
He sang our national athem as soon as he knew where we came from.
I grabbed my camera fast to record him singing our “Indonesia Raya”!
It seems he admires my country as great as I admire his country. What a cross-cultural experience!
His touching action did not stop there. This time we also spoke to each other using body languages.
He asked me to open my palm and put a seed on it. Then, he asked me to raise my palm.
I was a bit confused about what he liked me to do. But my confusion soon came to an end when
within seconds a bird flying down to my palm and ate the seed!
He taught me a balance of nature where human can live with trees and birds side by side.
Arigato, sensei!
How can I not love the people. I feel honored to cross paths with those kind and honest people.
The Food
They are carefully made and beautifully engraved. Taste good too!
I stumbled upon an eating hut in the middle of lust green surrounding of Nara.
To me, it looks like a scene from a movie where a wandering ronin finds a place to rest and eat.
Don’t you think so?
I entered the hut and found a well-designed room.
The owner welcomed us and brought us a menu.
Soon I ordered Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) and Udon.
The food was presented in small portion (Japanese eat small portions) on red trays.
Not only looked good, the food tasted as good!
I also met with the chef in person and had the chance to take a picture with him.
Trying new foods is one of the things I like the most when visiting foreign lands as foods reflect local people’s culture and way of life.
Here are many other new foods I tasted during my visit:
The Scenery
Every inch is so clean and outstandingly beautiful.
I was impressed with this small station on my way to Kinosaki. It was so clean with scenic background.
Japan also has well-arraged gardens. And look at the Koi fishes! They are so big and vibrant.
There are also cable cars to reach mountaineous areas where grand shrines and temples are usually located on.
And the one with the eggs, it is a tamago egg shop where we can buy and deep-boiled the eggs into the Onsen water.
I visited 9 cities during this trip. I planned the trip with the help of travel sites and Google Maps.
Google Maps helped a lot with the routes, transportation schedule, and train ticket prices.
Japan is a country with a complex transportation system and without Google Maps I would had got lost!
