Journey to Japan, September to October – Episode 1: Oslo to Kurashiki
[Music] 2023 was the year that Japan finally reopened her borders after having kept them shut throughout the whole Corona scare. So, like everybody else, my wife and I and my two best friends decided it was time to go back. [Music] What you heard there was a neighbor greeting the new year. What you’re seeing are the completely illegal fireworks above Oslo this year. Last year, we celebrated down in those crowds, but my wife did not appreciate it. [Music] Sadly, January is only the beginning of a long and bitter winter in Norway, and we won’t be able to go before midepptember. So, please watch some snow and suffer the weight with me as I tell you about where we’re headed. I’m a grown man of 32 by now. But when I was 16, I went on exchange to Japan and ended up in a familyrun Buddhist temple in a very rural town called Kasaoka. Since then, I’ve managed to stay in touch, learn some Japanese, and even have my wife virtually adopted by that host family of mine. In fact, it has been made abundantly clear to me on more than one occasion that should we split up, it is my wife who will remain the daughter of the family, whilst my lot may be unaccounted for. At any rate, Kasaoka is where we’ll go first, and my host family has told me they will be renting a large car to drive us all around in. We’ll be staying at the temple to be pampered and fed for a week and then travel north towards Osaka and later to Tokyo. Ah, seems like spring has come at last. Look, there’s flowers. If by any chance you intend to visit Norway, I recommend being here for the 17th of May. That’s when we celebrate our constitution. And there will be parades and games everywhere. Here are some sights and sounds from this year’s parades in the town of Frederickstar. are not [Music] Keep [Music] fight. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] The youngsters in red and blue jumpsuits are this year’s high school graduates. They’re handing out fake business cards that kids like to collect. They’re usually covered in obscene jokes and fake phone numbers. Might make a good souvenir. There goes a Christian parade. [Music] And here come the Satanists. Later, a nearby building burned. I wonder which of the two groups were responsible. I’m sorry if it’s too much Norway and too little Japan so far in this video, but we had a whole summer to wait through. And what a wonderful summer it was [Music] Welcome, or should I say Yokoso, to Japan. Just kidding. Still Norway. This is the Oslo Harbor. And these are floating sauners. They’re very popular for ice bathing in the winter, and they can be equipped with a motor to propel them out into the fjord. Recently, someone in such a sauna rescued two people from drowning after they drove their Tesla into the sea. We still had lots of time to prepare for our journey, and that was lucky because I struggled to find a good solution for the big camera. I intended to bring the camera, which was another very fancy gift from my host family, is pretty huge and weighs several kilos. So, I knew it would strain my neck badly if I carried it in a shoulder sling for a month. And there was no way I wasn’t bringing it to shoot pictures with my host father again. So, here’s a product which became the almost perfect solution. I don’t know what it is called, but it’s a full metal clasp which attaches to your belt and allows you to slide the camera into a lock. That way, you can carry it around on your hip like a photography cowboy. That turned out to not be the proper way to secure it. Make sure you clasp it through the strap and around the front flap so there is no way your pretty camera slides smashing to the ground. I’ll give you a little spoiler and reveal that the worrisome part turned out to be my leather belt which stretched badly in the course of our trip. Properly secured, it does work surprisingly well. I can even sit down comfortably while having a long all metal zoom lens equipped. This is looking pretty ridiculous, of course, but I’m impressed it can handle over 4 kilos of equipment like this. And with that, it was off to my grandparents cabin for some family photography. I needed to get into the groove again. By the way, doesn’t this remind you of that car scene in Spirited Away? When I got back, I tried printing some of the photos in a large format, too. I was pretty happy with the results. To get practice shooting something a bit more difficult and unruly, I went to a park where there was a public cart race going on. Together with one of the friends I’m bringing to Japan, we shot a lot of action shots and had a great time. Here are some of the results. [Music] [Music] Towards the end of summer, we were beginning to feel it in our bones, and we could almost imagine ourselves on board any plane we spotted in the sky. [Music] And at long last, the day was at hand. [Music] We met up with our two friends at the airport and immediately began playing around with the little video camera I had also brought along. It was a used Osmo Pocket One, which I had gotten very cheap. I had not had time to learn how to use it properly, so it would be a learning experience. [Music] But hopefully it will yield steadier footage than the phone camera stuff you just suffered through. It can also do fun things like time lapses. This could come in handy. We will be traveling from Okyama, where Kasaoka lies, up through Osaka and then to Tokyo. But that’s just the gist of it. Along the way, we intend to visit Kurashiki, Onomichi, Miaima, Hiroshima, Coobe, Kyoto, Universal Studios Japan, the Osaka Aquarium, and more. Pretty insane. But we have a full month together, and I think it may just be possible. Our first flight takes us to Helsinki. From there, we’re going to Haneda Airport in Japan, where we’ll transfer to a domestic flight down to Okyama. This is going to be a long ride. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Wow. [Music] Heat. [Music] Oh, love it. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hello. [Music] The lights from cities below at night was mesmerizing. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to record it for you. What was not so cool was the new route we were flying. Due to the war in Ukraine, we were taking a wide birth around Russia, which added many hours to the total. Morning arrived with immigration forms and breakfast. It was the most two out of 10 meal I had ever had. In fact, let’s censor that too. The view, however, 10 out of 10. [Music] Then we saw Mount Fuji. There was no mistaking it. We were finally in Japan. [Music] I realize not everyone is as fond of plane rides as I am as my friends both slept through this. Nevertheless, I do feel the need to include a bit of this footage. I mean, just look at those clouds. [Music] Capping crew landing in 10 minutes. You said you can [Music] Here we go. You want to get [Music] Oh, [Music] she don’t [Music] Haneta airport is for some reason less popular than Narita despite Being closer to the actual city of Tokyo, it stands on so-called reclaimed land, which means it’s literally a fake island built in the Tokyo Bay. Welcome to Tokyo. Please remain seated and keep your safety belt fastened until the captain signs off. We had to board a bus to get to the domestic area of the airport. It went on for a while and even took us through a tunnel. Now things were beginning to look properly Japanese. We could hardly see any foreigners here apart from our little group. And this is as Japanese as it gets. Here it is customary to buy a local snack for friends and colleagues whenever you travel somewhere. This stand has special gift snacks just for your pets. I want to introduce you to a selection of the products offered on the domestic flight. This here is a comb with which you can rake both your hair and your face. This is a pocket translator which appears in Doran, a comic which has remained popular since 1969. Doran is a robot cat from the future who has all kinds of almost magical future tech devices such as an automatic translator. Next up, devices for measuring distances and trajectories on the golf course. Isn’t this basically cheating? Here’s one that really caught my eye. This is official fashion merch designed by the airline based on the actual cabin crew outfits. And if you thought that was a bit maniac, have a look at this. This is aircraft perfume. With it, you can carry the smell of an air ride anywhere you go. At long last, Okayama. This boy is Mataro, the peach boy from an old Japanese fairy tale which has been chosen as the prefectures mascot. [Music] This is an antique music box with swappable discs, kind of like an early CD player. The temple is old and crammed full of interesting relics. And this is the room my friends will be sleeping in. [Music] But not for long. They’ve had a hard journey, but it’s time to wake them up. [Music] My mind is beyond blown. Luckily, the artist journey and sleep deprivation hadn’t broken their spirits. Yeah. [Music] For breakfast, we went out for ramen. Each area in Japan is known for their own variant, and the Kasa ochre edition had recently been featured on TV. What followed was a sudden influx in customers, and we had to get there early to avoid the lunch queue. This is Kasa down here. I will show you around town in the next episode, but before that, there’s somewhere else we want to go. I’ll give you a little montage of views around the temple for now. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] These black walls are interesting. Each drawer has a name tag. They contain the dust and bones after all the previous ancestors who ran this temple. [Music] [Applause] This is a ginko tree. It can supposedly live forever and isn’t actually related to any tree. This is a joro spider. There is a female monster with the same name in old legends. The smaller one up in the corner is the male. [Applause] It feels weirdly nostalgic to be back in this room, which I used to share with my host brother back in the day. The beams under the ceiling reveal this as part of the original temple structure dating back several hundred years. [Music] Over in the corner, there’s a small desk where you can do your homework. There’s a little detail to this desk which I’d like to show you. This wooden insert was made by my host father. It is an old Japanese technique for sealing cracks to stop it from breaking up completely. Back in the day, all Japanese furniture was made without the use of nails. Our first day trip goes to Kurashiki. It is one of the towns which survived the Second World War fire bombing, and it still has a lot of preserved buildings dating back from before the war. We are a proper tourist troop, each with our backpacks and massive cameras. This is my first time experiencing Japan as a tourist as opposed to a student or worker, so I fully embrace it. My wife would have preferred to stand out less. [Music] These are called Tory gates. They mark the resting place of a spirit in the Shinto religion and can be found in every nook and cranny, even in between and on top of skyscrapers. Shinto is not the same religion as Buddhism and the Buddhist temples are instead often marked with a swastika. [Music] I may not have paid enough attention, but this is actually the first time I see someone in a wheelchair in Japan, and I have lived here for over 3 years. It’s not easy to get around through cramped streets and numerous rampless stairs. So, I can’t imagine it’s easy being wheelchair bound in this country. [Music] Kurashiki is definitely a very touristy destination with souvenir shops lining the streets. However, it has a very nice and calm atmosphere and it is almost exclusively visited by domestic tourists, so it’s still a bit of a hidden gem. [Music] Everything. [Music] Apart from us, we saw one white guy possibly here with his Japanese wife. We also noticed a single Chinese couple who were talking to the young man pulling their rickshaw using voice translation. And then there was us. And I certainly did my share to make sure our presence didn’t go unnoticed. [Laughter] moment hold. [Music] This shop sold all kinds of little things made out of recycled tatami mats. [Music] You ready to blow more than the mama? [Music] This is my host father berating me for filming inside the store. I made a show of putting the camera away for a little while. This is some sort of purple sweet potato dessert. I didn’t end up trying it, though. Here’s an old style mailbox. And these are retro robot toys which used to be very popular in the 50s and 60s. Kurashiki is a river town and is famous for denim textile production. Therefore, many stores here sell denim goods. They claim this particular shade of blue is only made here. Wow. There’s no go till die. While we were inside the store, the weather changed on us. A typhoon was on the way. Soon it was raining. This boat is used during festivals when masked on or Japanese trolls if you like sail down the river in it playing drums. The water came in fast. Today, the only drum beats are of thunder and rain. Along with everyone else, we take cover under the roofing jutting out from the Riverside coffee shops. The shops themselves are full. However, it turned out to be a pretty nice opportunity for a photo shoot. This woman seemed more than a little pleased to be dragged around in the rain by some poor soaked guy. Later, we go to pick up my host mother. We are driving to a restaurant which is special in the sense that they have a lot of pre-made dishes that you can choose from. These are made continuously one by one, so they’re all fresh and hot. [Music] [Music] [Music] Despite being a place where you choose dishes, we leave actual choosing to my host parents. We end up trying a lot of delicious and interesting food. Pickled turnips with grapes, lotus root, asparagus, and zucchini topped with parmesan cheese. Here is some sort of deep fried chicken. These are purple potatoes sprinkled with small fish. [Music] And here it is, the promised octopus. [Music] No. Oh [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]
Skip to 16:40 if you don’t care about Norway or plane rides 😉
An autumn voyage to Japan. Some faffing about in Norway (Oslo and Fredrikstad) first, then off to Tokyo Haneda Airport, with a swap over to a domestic flight down to Okayama.
We’re going back to Kasaoka, where I was at homestay in a Japanese buddhist temple in highschool. Soon after arriving, we take a little daytrip to Kurashiki.
Next episode: We go to Onomichi, one of the most pittoresque little port towns in Japan. It featured in a Yakuza game one of my friends is a big fan of!
Mostly a photojourney, as we all like photography and Japan is so ☆aesthetic★~~
Bring your camera and tag along!
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Music license: Kevin McCloud
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