JAPAN as a solo female traveller

JAPAN as a solo female traveller

Hello. Thank you so much for watching. I’m really excited to make this video. It’s going to be about the time that I spent working and traveling in Japan. I used Sichuan Airlines, which was basically just the cheapest flight. It’s a Chinese airline, so I had to transfer through Sichuan, Changdu in China. Japan is just such an unbelievable country. I think it’s a country that has a very unique culture and that’s why it’s drawn a lot of foreigners to the country in recent years. Firstly, I’m going to talk about Tokyo because, you know, I mean, Tokyo is just like a really big, busy city. Doesn’t have any traditional buildings because they were all bombed, I believe, during World War II, which is really sad. Tokyo is basically just like a concrete utopia. However, I feel like Tokyo is the kind of city where you can find anything and everyone, and there’s a lot of different fun activities to do. It is really expensive, though, so I don’t recommend spending a long time in Tokyo. I literally spent just like a few days there to get to know the vibe of the city. One thing I will say though is it is unbelievable how spatially aware and how considerate Japanese people are. Even in busy cities like Tokyo, even when I was on the subway during rush hours or you’re walking through the streets, people always are really careful not to bump into you and to make room for you, which I think is a really amazing thing about Japan. I’m going to talk more about the culture in Japan and like my experience of Japanese culture as a foreigner later on probably towards the end of the video. Honestly, in Tokyo, I mostly just spent time in the city center. I didn’t really go to a lot of things like I was just there for a few days. So went to Shibuya obviously, which is just like the tourist capital of Tokyo. It was really fun to just like play being a typical tourist for a few days. That was kind of nice. Yeah, like I said, Tokyo is pretty expensive, so just be like careful with your money. Even staying in a hostel, the cheapest hostel was like €30 a night, which by my standards is quite expensive. So, be aware of that. I got to play gacha or gata gacha, I think it’s called in Japanese. You get this plastic ball with this little toy. Kind of reminded me of like a McDonald’s Happy Meal. Just this little center here. It was next to Shibuya. I can’t remember the name of it. I think it’s called 109 center. I don’t know. I’ll put it on the screen. But yeah, just all this really cool art on the walls and you can go up to the top and they have a rooftop bar and a lot of anime and manga stores. The rooftop bar you can get really good view of Shabuya. This was my first time having sushi in Japan which was actually in like a really small local restaurant in Yokohama which is really close to Tokyo and that was super nice. Also, some shots of all of the tofu variety. And honestly, just by looking at the shelf, it made me want to stay in Japan longer because I’m obsessed with tofu. This is also my first time trying natto. So, natto, it’s like a fermented soybean, which is really popular amongst Japanese people. I still don’t really know if I like it or not. I kind of have a lovehate relationship with it. I feel like Japanese cuisine is amazing. I love Japanese food and it’s so diverse in like tastes and textures, but I guess for Western people it can be a bit strange because there’s a lot of fermented foods, but a lot of the foods in Japan are fermented, which is really healthy and good for your stomach. And I really felt that being in Japan. My stomach felt so much better than it did before, which is so funny. A lot of the foods contain a lot of seafood ingredients and have a flavor that’s called umami. So, this tastes really good, but it’s just a bit foreign and different for Westerners. So, that takes a little bit of getting used to. A room. [Music] After spending time in Tokyo, I decided to go somewhere a little bit local to get an Airbnb to do my work. And obviously, Tokyo is way too expensive for that. So, I headed to Saitama. Saitama is a prefecture next to Tokyo. And I stayed in this local place called Matobba just for a few days to do some tutoring and get some work done, which was really nice. Just kind of like a residential area. And after I finished my tutoring and my work, I headed to Kawaguay. And Kawaguay is so cute. If you’re going to Tokyo, I really recommend taking even just like a day or two days out for this adorable city. I felt like it was quite touristy, but more touristy amongst local Japanese people. I went there on a day that was a national holiday. So, you know, it was mostly just local Japanese people out for the day. I’m not even going to attempt to say it in Japanese cuz I’ll just butcher the pronunciation. So, I’ll put it on the screen. and it’s all like old-fashioned wooden Japanese architecture and yeah, it’s just so beautiful. There’s also a lot of people that are wearing kimonos and there’s a lot of shrines there, a lot of traditional clothes and a lot of traditional buildings. So, if you want to go somewhere that feels a little bit more traditional, but that’s relatively close to Tokyo, I really recommend Kawiguay. There’s also these fortune messages that you can get from these boxes in the shrines. I think you just put like a few hundred yen or something in the box and then you can take one. Obviously, it was written in this like archaic Japanese and my Japanese friend kindly tried to translate it for me and it was really cute. But yeah, I really recommend these shrines. Obviously, you’re going to find shrines all over Japan. But I felt like Kawiguay was quite special because as I mentioned a lot of local people were wearing kimonos and were clearly like really passionate about the local culture. So it was really nice to see that and be in that environment. So after Saitama, I headed to Osaka, another really popular city in Japan. I think that Osaka is really fun and there’s a lot to do there. I mean, it’s kind of a different vibe to Tokyo. It’s another busy city, but I feel like people are a little bit more chill and a bit less hectic. People also tend to cycle a lot in Osaka. There’s a mix of traditional buildings and also modern buildings. And then I also stayed in an Airbnb that was sort of like a traditional Japanese house. And they even had like a kotatu little table you see here covered by the blanket. And they had traditional Japanese futons. And that was a really nice experience tutoring there for a few days. So I mean Osaka is a big city and there’s a lot that you can see. Doi is kind of like the most popular district amongst foreigners I guess. It’s just like this huge mall kind of thing with like a lot of places to eat street food to try pakoyaki which is a popular Japanese street food. It’s basically like fried squid. It’s really really popular and a lot of people love it. But as I mentioned before I’m not great with seafood. So I did try it. I was also lucky enough to be able to meet up for a couple of days with one of my really good students and friends. He showed me a lot of cool local places because he’s from a city close by to Osaka. Okay, tell the people on YouTube why is this so famous? I don’t know. I don’t know. Terrible Japanese. There’s also this adorable hosen. I think it’s called Hosenji Temple which I went to at nighttime and that’s close to Dothani. Taurus. Woohoo! Yummy! [Music] Wa! Whoa! Whoa! I’m trying for the YouTube channel. Oh my god. Now I can’t get it. You said it. [Music] So embarrassing. Fishy fishy Japan. Woo. [Music] Some other highlights included going to this Japanese cat cafe, which is really nice. I actually made a short about this, but the editing was like really really bad. So, I’m going to talk about it again here. So, the difference with the Japanese cat cafes in comparison to European countries anyway are that it’s not actually a c a cafe per se. Like, you don’t get food or drink. You literally just sit down on the floor and interact with the cats and just hang out with them for as long as you want, which I think is so nice because your focus is just entirely on the cats. And the cats are really friendly because obviously all your focus is on them. So, they seem to really like people and they seem to be really well taken care of, which made me really happy to see. So, yeah, it was a really nice setting. I’m really grateful to my friend and student for showing me this cat cafe. I’m going to put the name up on the screen, but it was in sort of a suburb of Osaka. Actually, I think it’s even like a city close by to Osaka, but my friend brought me there, so I’m actually not sure where it is exactly. Another highlight was going to Team Lab. So, Team Lab is sort of like this popular museum. I think it’s in other countries as well as Japan where engineers and artists work together to create this interactive art which I think this one was outdoors but there’s other ones that are inside. The one that’s really famous is actually in Tokyo and I really annoyed of myself that I didn’t go there because I’ve heard really good things about it. So if you go to Tokyo definitely check the one out there. But we went to this one in Osaka which was outdoors and kind of like a botanical garden theme just with all these light projections and yeah it was beautiful. It was a really fun experience and some of the exhibits are super interactive and you can like run through them. It’s just kind of like a playground for adults in a way I would say. [Music] I also went to the Osaka Castle which is super nice. I didn’t go inside because it’s expensive and like you know, but if you walk around outside in the park, it’s super cool. You can get a good view of the castle and a good view of the city. It was a really chill way to spend a morning before I started working. [Music] [Applause] I love you. I also went to the Osaka Museum of History, which I highly recommend. Even if you’re not big into museums, I think that it’s really worth going to this one. And it didn’t cost that much. It was just like a few hundred yen. So, yeah, I think it’s worth it. And again, you can also get a good view of the city from the Museum of History. [Music] One of my highlights from Japan was definitely this day trip to Nara Prefecture and Uji. Uji is a small city that’s in Kyoto Prefecture. I unfortunately didn’t have a chance to go to Kyoto, which is kind of one of the popular cities for temples and older buildings in Japan, but I did get to go to Uji for half a day. And I think you could definitely spend longer in N and Uji, but I just went for a day trip. So, these are the infamous N deer in N Park. And they’re kind of infamous because they literally like I don’t want to say attack people, but they’re kind of intense. Like you’re going to see the video of them kind of like grabbing at me. Especially if you buy some cookies from the sellers there or some food to feed them. They get really intense. I feel like they have this whole gang thing going where it’s kind of strategic. Like one of them will bite you so that you drop the food and then the other one will grab it and then like run away. Um, but yeah, they are really cute and it was really funny, especially I mean Japanese politeness in general, but especially the fact that like cars would be stopping for them to cross the road and everything. And they literally just run wild, which I think is really cool. I love seeing animals in situations like this, even though they’re a little bit intense. It’s nice to see them free that they can just like walk around and wander around. No one’s forcing them inside a cage or a pen or something like that. I mean, I don’t know if they always do that. I don’t know if they just live in the park naturally or I don’t know if someone takes care of them or like puts them inside at night. But yeah, such a good experience. Like highly recommend if you’re in Osaka or Kyoto to go to Nara, even if it’s just for a day trip. Oh, hey. No, no, stop biting. They’re biting my ass. [Music] Hey, you got one already. You’re biting my ass. Oh, you Yeah. Yeah. Oh, hi. Oh, that one was cute. I’m going to have a lot. No, not for you. Hey. Okay. All gone. Finish. You hungry. Another [Music] [Music] highlight was Toaji Temple. If I’m pronouncing that correctly, I’m not sure. And we also went to a shrine that was in Nada, which was super cute. This temple in particular is famous for the really big Buddha statues. So, it’s quite popular, I suppose, for people to worship, foreigners and locals. And yeah, it was a really nice experience. Thank you. Like I mentioned earlier in the video, a lot of shrines have these little fortune telling activities where you can pick up a piece of paper that tells you your fortune or something. And this one had a super cool one that my friend/ student showed me where you put like the you put like a piece of paper on the ice and then you wait until the ice melts and then it shows you the fortune. So I thought that was pretty cool. Nothing. Wa. That’s really cool. Oh, good fortune. Good fortune. Yeah, good fortune. [Music] Hello. [Laughter] Like, see me. I’m here. For the second half of the day, we got the train to Uji, like I mentioned, which is in Kyoto Prefecture. And yeah, when you first get off the train, you just see this cute little village. Well, I suppose it’s more like a town. And this bridge is apparently the second oldest bridge in Japan. Um, I was told that by a few people, so I don’t know. Kind of a random fact, but I thought that that was sort of cool. I really like the the color palette of Uji, like the dark water and the gray stones and statues and the sort of like traditional Japanese architecture. A lot of dark foresty nature as well. They also have a few UNESCO World Heritage sites which we went to. But the highlight of Uji was definitely the matcha making class that we did. Uji is kind of like the matcha center of Japan as far as I know. I believe it’s Uji and Shizuoka, the prefecture where Man Fuji is located. Unfortunately, I do not have a chance to go there. I would love to go there in future. A matcha fiend. I love matcha so much. I’m literally addicted to it and even more so after visiting Japan. So, it was really cool to get to make the matcha and to see how it’s produced. Yay. [Music] [Music] No And this [Music] more traditional they used more stones like that. end like that. Why is it called in English? Uh in Japanese house. I’m weak. Yeah. Come on. Oh, do it again. Take a better one. Okay. Okay. Take a bit of a Okay. like a local person and I’m like filming in their windows, you know. Uhhuh. Oh, look at this guy. So the first one was Uji Gami Shrine World Heritage site which I believe was completely free to enter. And the second one was Biojoin Temple World Heritage site if I’m pronouncing that correctly which was roughly like 5 USD or something like that to go inside. But it’s genuinely worth it. Most temples in Japan, you don’t have to pay to go inside, but because it’s a world heritage site and it’s really touristy, I guess you have to pay for that reason. They also have a museum inside that was really cool, but I wasn’t allowed to film in there. And I’m also so glad we went inside because we got to see the most adorable Sheba dogs. Look at this little tree. [Music] It’s like the matcha capital of Japan. After Osaka, the next prefecture I went to was Kagawa, which is actually Japan’s smallest perfeure and I feel like it’s so underrated to be honest. It’s on an island called Shikoku Island which is just off the coast of of I believe southeast Japan if my geography is correct. And first of all I just want to give a shout out to the places that I stayed in because they were amazing. There’s these two hostels called Couttorii Hostel. There’s one location in Takamatsu and then there’s one location in Kotira both of which are cities on the island of Shikoku. And these are basically like these huge co-working hosts, especially the one in Cothira is huge. So the second video is the co-working space in Kotira. It’s like this entire top floor. I think it was like a bit over 20 USD a night, which for a Japanese hostel is a good price compared to some of the other ones I got, especially considering you get the co-working space and they have a shared kitchen and everything like that. And also the beds were so big and really comfortable. So firstly, I went to Takamatsu, which is a port city in Kagawa Prefecture. And like I mentioned, I stayed at that hostel. A few castles and a few different places to go. I think the coolest thing is that it’s right by the port. So if you want to go to the small islands off the coast of Shikoku, like Naoshima or Tashima. I only went to Nosima, unfortunately. You can do so really easily from Takamatsu. So, I think Takamatsu is a really good base to have if you’re working like I was or if you just want to hang out. [Music] One of the really nice things about Kagawa as a perfeure and Shikoku Island in general is that there is a lot more nature. So you can see here even these cities like Takamatsu Sanuki and other smaller places everything is just surrounded by mountains and actually really random but I found this gorgeous Japanese garden in Takamatsu just in the middle of the city really close to the co-working hostel which I thought was absolutely beautiful. These actually aren’t cherry blossoms. This was before the cherry blossoms or the famous sakuras came into full bloom. I believe that these are plum trees and apricot trees. But yeah, just this gorgeous little garden. It was so nice. I spent like an afternoon walking around there before work and it was just so calming and peaceful. I was basically meditating in there and there were a lot of local people there and some people even wearing kimonos and things like that. So, I don’t know if it’s more of a traditional area or they were just wearing them. And they also have a lot of fish and some other animals. just one of those really wholesome places where I felt like it was kind of a nice moment to take a break and reflect and meditate and just feel grateful for this beautiful place that I was in because I think sometimes when you’re on the go constantly especially if you’re working while you’re traveling sometimes you you forget you know you forget to just like take a moment to breathe in the natural beauty and to feel really grateful Oh, right. Other highlights of Takamatsu are that there’s a lot of vintage shops and secondhand shops, which was super random, but really cool. I also met some Japanese people in a bar, and literally I have no Japanese, and they barely had any English, but we still kind of had a good time together, I guess. They taught me how to play some Japanese game. I honestly completely forget the name of this, but it was a lot of fun. I was terrible at it, though, and they were all laughing at me. To tutor, I found an Airbnb in a really small city called Sanuki, which is just about an hour by train away from Takamatsu. And you have to go by the sea. And even the train journey itself was beautiful, close to this river. And the view from the apartment was really nice. Like the whole city is just surrounded by mountains. You can see the sea like I mentioned. So that was a nice place to just tutor and focus on work for a few days. And without a doubt, my highlight of Kagawa was going to Naima. So Naosima is known in Japan for being sort of like an art museum on an island, which is difficult to explain, but you’ll see it from the videos. So basically, you get the ferry there from the Takamatsu port. I think it took I don’t know, an hour, an hour and 30 minutes or something. It wasn’t too long. And basically, this island has a lot of different modern art. Now, I love art, but in general, I’m not big into modern art or abstract art, but it was still really cool to get to appreciate. And the views from Naoshima were absolutely beautiful. I’m just going to put some videos here so you can see. But yeah, I rented a bike from one of the bike stores there and just drove around the island for the day. I remember I was completely exhausted that day because I got up really early to go to the island and then that night I was tutoring. So, yeah, I was exhausted, but it was totally worth it. And yeah, a lot of modern art, especially by a famous Japanese artist. And as you cycle around the island, I think it’s cool because some parts of the island have this dark green color palette, it kind of reminds me of uji, traditional Japanese architecture. [Music] The only art museum I actually went into was Chichu Art Museum because Chichu, it’s kind of a famous art museum. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to take videos inside, so I wasn’t able to film anything. I just took some videos of the outside, this sort of brutalistic architecture, which I thought was pretty cool. I think Chuchu is great if you’re into modern art, but as I said, modern art in general isn’t really my style, so I think I probably didn’t appreciate it as most people would. I found it a little underwhelming and disappointing, especially given the price of the ticket. But that’s just my personal opinion. Like some people love Chichu and yeah, if you’re into art, I definitely recommend it. So after Naosima, I headed to Kotira, which I mentioned a town, I guess, or a really small city. I would say it’s more of a town and you just go through the countryside. Gorgeous views of Shikoku and Kagawa. I stayed there in that other hostel that I mentioned, the really nice co-working one. I think the nicest thing about Kotira is the shrine and there’s loads of steps to get to the top. You have to walk quite a bit, but once you get up there, the view is just stunning. Um, I really recommend it. I don’t know what I Kota also has a beautiful theater. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was there. There weren’t any shows on, but if you’re interested in theater, particularly the Japanese theater, Kapuki, I’m pretty sure it’s called, you might want to check it out. However, I was kind of glad that I walked up the hill to see the theater even though it was closed because I found this cute little forest walk and I just went on a wander through there which was so peaceful and so calming. The staple Japanese food in Kagawa Perfecture is udon noodle in the cutest little restaurant in Kotira. I actually don’t remember the name, so I’m going to search it and put it on the screen. But it was so nice. I had tofu udon and miso soup and it was amazing. Highly recommend. Yeah, please don’t laugh at me using the chopsticks. I was still learning at that point. I’m a lot better now, I promise. [Music] So last but not least, I got the bus from Takamatsu to Hiroshima Perfeure. And personally, Hiroshima was actually my favorite perfeure. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any other cities outside of Hiroshima. Originally, I really wanted to go to Onamichi, but as I’m going to round up a little bit of my conclusion, Japan was quite expensive. Actually, more expensive than I was expecting given my usual budget for traveling. So unfortunately I kind of had to leave at that point. But if I had had more time I would have loved to go to Onamichi or some other cities like I know that there is an island close to Hiroshima which with this beautiful shrine. I I don’t know. I’ve just seen a lot of pictures of it. But yeah, Hiroshima itself was amazing. I feel like this is a perfect city if you’re interested in history particularly the history of Japan and the atomic bomb. So it’s kind of a sad visit at the same time but it’s really educational and yeah I highly recommend it. I personally think that it’s a mustsea. I mean, that’s just my opinion, but yeah, it was really impactful and just in general, I think it’s a really nice city, even besides the history element. So, I basically spent like a couple of days going to as many of the museums as I could. There’s so many history museums there about the atomic bomb. So, I would say maybe take them in small doses because some of them can be quite sad. The first one was an elementary school that was sadly bombed during the atomic bombing. So I went there first and in the same day I also went to the peace memorial park and the atomic bomb dome and river and I also went to the atomic bomb ruins exhibition hall. So all of these ones were free. The only one that I believe I had to pay for was the East Memorial Museum itself which wasn’t that expensive. It was a couple of dollars and you just had to book the tickets online. And there was also the peace memorial hall for victims. [Music] I think another highlight of Hiroshima for me anyway was definitely the food. So, Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki. I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. Which is basically like a Japanese pancake where it’s just layers of different stuff. It’s kind of like a crap ingredient with egg on top with noodles or ramen on top. I think I had tuna on mine and it was really cool cuz you can watch them make it in front of you. It was delicious. And of course, the sake is also amazing. [Music] Okay. While I was in Japan, I only got the Shinkansen or the bullet train one time. I’ve actually had quite a lot of questions from people about this. Um, I’m not sure if many people know this, but the Shinkansen tickets are really expensive. Like I got the Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Fukuoka or Hakata because I was going from Fukuoka to South Korea. At least $80 or something. Yeah, it was a lot. Shinkansen are really expensive. So if you want to get them a lot in Japan, that’s going to take up a lot of your budget. That was the only time I got one. I just got it. It’s kind of like my last harrah like for a treat, you know. But in general, I definitely wouldn’t travel around on the Shinkansen if you’re on a budget. To wrap up the video, I just want to talk about some of the interesting things about Japan or the things that I really liked personally. So, the first thing is how safe Japan is. So, this is something people talk about a lot. I was able to walk alone at night, like literally all the time on my own, you know, even in busy cities like Osaka and Tokyo. You can also just like leave your laptop literally anywhere. I also saw this happen. This was actually when I first got to Japan. I was going from Chiba to Tokyo, I think. And on this train, you can see someone forgot their phone on the chair and literally nobody touched it. A little girl picked it up to give it to the conductor and apart from that, no one touched it, which is just amazing because I know that there’s a lot of Tik Toks and videos that have gone viral about like people doing these social experiments in Japan where they leave their phone or their laptop somewhere or their wallet and they just show that like literally no one will take it. So, that’s a really cool thing about Japan. Also, the convenience in Japan is just unbelievable. Like, this is literally a vending machine for fast food. I saw that in Fukuoka when I first got there. The toilets, that’s another thing. Japanese toilets are really cool. They have a lot of buttons on them. I also saw these in some other parts of Eastern Asia, like in South Korea, but they’re not so common in South Korea, just like some special toilets have them, but they’re really common place in Japan. So, they have a sound you can put on for privacy, so no one can hear you. They have a bedet. They have a function to wash yourself. And even there’s public toilets literally everywhere. And they’re open all of the time. And they’re super clean. One thing I do want to mention is that groceries are really expensive in Japan. I found the same to be in South Korea as well. So, I did cook from home a lot when I was in Airbnbs and things like that. But, you can also, if you really needed to, live off of the convenience stores and like all of the takeaway places. One of the interesting things about Japan is that they do have certain restaurants that you can go to where they have like privacy coverings. So, there’s like these little windows that block you from the person next to you. This isn’t every single restaurant in Japan. A lot of people have said that to me. People see videos of this and they think that that’s just like every single restaurant. It’s not every single restaurant. You can go to more social restaurants. But if you want to be alone or you want to have privacy with your friend or your group, you can go to those restaurants. Another great thing about Japan, like I just mentioned, is the convenience stores. And a lot of the convenience stores, there’s places to sit. You can heat up your food. You can even like charge your phone. There’s free Wi-Fi. There’s there’s so much. And the food is great in the convenience stores also. So, I think that kind of sums up my time in Japan. Yeah, I really hope you enjoyed this video. I know that Japan has a very unique culture and it’s a country a lot of people have become interested in, particularly in recent years. I can definitely understand why. If I’m being totally honest, I think Japan wouldn’t be a place I would want to live. It was a great place for me to travel to and to experience such a different culture. It was very educational and eye opening for me and I would love to go back to Japan again for a short period of time or for a vacation but I was in Japan for I think it was around 6 weeks. It could have been even closer to 2 months and I personally felt like that was too much for me. While it’s an amazing culture, you know, everyone is so kind and polite and it’s very safe and I felt, you know, really secure there in a lot of ways. I also felt uncomfortable in other ways in that I felt like I couldn’t always be myself. And there’s a lot of social rules in Japan, like specific cultural things that you need to follow if you want to respect the culture, which of course you always should. Like I always say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. But over time, that can get a little bit draining and tiring, especially if you’re working there and spending more time in local areas like I was, rather than just being there on a vacation. So, as amazing as Japan is, do take into account that you probably will experience a level of culture shock. I’ve traveled to so many places and I’ve never experienced culture shock to the extent that I experienced it when I got to Japan. So, just keep that in mind. But in general, I think it’s a really cool country. It’s definitely worth visiting. [Music]

00:00 Tokyo
02:33 Japanese food
04:24 Saitama
06:53 Osaka
15:06 Nara and Uji (daytrip)
26:13 Kagawa and Naoshima island
36:10 Hiroshima
39:25 Using Shinkansen (Bullet/High speed train)
40:03 Safety and convenience
42:35 Feelings on Japanese culture and culture shock