20 Years Resident vs. First Timer: Thoughts on Japan, Kyoto, and Hiroshima #travel #japantravel

20 Years Resident vs. First Timer: Thoughts on Japan, Kyoto, and Hiroshima #travel #japantravel

What is good everyone? Welcome to the channel. My name is Paul. I make videos about Japanese society, life, and culture from the viewpoint of a long-term foreign resident. I’ve been here for 20 years, but over the past 4 days, I’ve had the privilege to go back into tourist mode because my good friend Patrick is here from the US, his first time to come to Japan. And I thought we would do a debriefing of our experience being tourists, me being a tourist again in the country and his first time. But first, you need to know two things about Patrick. The first is that he has no particular interest in Japan. He doesn’t like anime. He hasn’t really studied in depth the culture or the history. He didn’t come here to buy electronics or anything that the usual reasons why tourists come here. Mostly because I’ve just been needling him for the past few years to come visit me. Like, you need to come to Japan and see me finally. And he did. And so we spent two days in Kyoto and two days in Hiroshima. And now we’re back here in Tokyo filming in his hotel room at the moment. The second thing you need to know about him is he’s a bit of a snob, which in a good way, in a charming way, just that he knows what he likes and doesn’t like and what he puts up with and doesn’t put up with. But what else should we know about you? That’s about it. That’s about it. Good intro. That’s a good introduction. Okay. Um, well, you currently are of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, I live in Minneapolis and I flew to Chicago and then flew here. Yeah. And my luggage got lost on the way. Managed to lose your luggage. Uh, should we shout out the airline that lost your luggage? No. We will not be united in our thinking about that. Okay. Well, h so I want to ask you because you came here without any particular interest. You know, so many tourists come here and like we got to go to Akihabara and and buy anime and game goods or we have to go to Kyoto and see this temple and we have to do this that or we have to find these products while we’re in Japan or eat this food. Coming here with no preconception or really a care of what you were going to do when you were here, you kind of let me lead the way in a number of uh for most of it actually. What are the memories you’re actually going to take back with you? Like what do you think is going to stand out to you most from the trip that we’ve done? Um I think the time that we spent in Kyoto was um amazing. That’s clearly the sort of historic center perhaps of Japan. It seems I mean we’re looking literally looking out over the street of Tokyo and it is it looks like any big city like you know New York or LA. Mhm. Um but Kyoto was not that way. Like Kyoto was very um clearly lots of historic districts and temples and shrines on every corner. Um it’s like if you go to the Midwest there’s a Lutheran church on every corner. There was a Temple shrine. on every corner. Um, and going up to the uh sacred mountain at and Dakuji, right? It seems there’s a sacred mountain also on every corner. Yeah. Um, so that sacred mountain was bigger than the other sacred mountains we climbed up. Um, and that was great to go up there because there were fewer tourists. Mhm. because I’ve been to Kyoto enough times and I’m not one to fight crowds and you aren’t either. You wanted to What’s been nice about this trip is that Patrick here enjoys a slower pace of travel. So, it wasn’t like we have to rush from this that to the other thing, especially since you didn’t have any specific destinations in mind to begin with. So, he allowed me to take him to some of the places that I wanted to go and hadn’t yet been to. And one of them was Endakuji which is on Mount He which is like the most sacred like mountain uh in Kyoto. And the monastery/temples that are built up there are probably most famous for having been completely destroyed by the warlord Oda Nobunaga. And so what is there is actually all remade in the past few centuries. Um because they were destroyed in like 600 years ago or so. some brand new. Yeah. For for Kyoto anyway, it’s pretty brand new. And what was really interesting for me is after we toured a little bit of the complex, you wanted to sit down in the sort of visitors center and just read about Buddhism. So why why did you decide like I I just need to learn more about this now? Uh that was an interesting place because of the synratism. So the mixture of Shinto and Buddhism Mhm. which are so um outside the conception I think of the western religious mind right that trying to sort out those pieces requires some reading. Yeah. It’s something I remember very well trying to parse in my mind when I first came to Japan because you know if you’re Christian you you’re only Christian. If you’re if you’re Muslim you’re only Muslim. If you’re Jewish, you’re Jewish. You don’t this this concept of like I’m kind of Shinto and kind of Buddhist and then kind of Japanese like it becomes a cultural thing rather than a religious thing. It’s it’s really foreign. It still doesn’t make sense to me, right? But it’s but it’s amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing to see. And the fact that I mean you go to all these famous temples in Kyoto, for example, and there’s going to be aspects of Shinto there. There will be like a Shinto Tori gate somewhere on the grounds of the temple. And what would the equivalent be? Like go to a a Lutheran church and there’s uh like Islamic icon iconography like you know you wouldn’t see that. Right. Right. Right. The the mixture of those I think is that that’s hard for the western mind to get its head around. Okay. So what else? Um, what are the other memories you’re going to take with you? Um, it’s really hot here. We’re here in August and it’s hot, hot, humid. So humid. I think I came at the most humid time ever of the year. Yes. When we checked into the hotel in Kyoto, the the woman who I think was the owner told us that um we were lucky enough to be here during the hottest week of the year so far. That’s not to say there won’t be a hotter week later, but up until I mean it’s what is it? August 25th today, correct? So, it’s hot. We checked in on the 21st. So, that was the hottest week of the year. Lucky us. Right. I think also the other thing that um is an interesting thought which I will need to chew on some more is the degree to which uh World War II sort of touches everything still whether known or unknown. Right? So the degree to which I think the question sort of is Japan an Asian country built in the image of America. Okay. Could you can you give some specific examples of what? Well, I mean like looking right now over Tokyo, everything I see is modern, right? There’s no like medieval quarter of the city or nothing looks particularly Japanese except maybe the neon on the buildings because like you have restaurants way up on the sixth floor. That’s how they have to advertise. But I think that was an interesting question when we went to uh Hiroshima particularly. You know everything was destroyed in World War II and then rebuilt. Um, I guess for lack of a better term, kind of on a short leash from America. Yeah. Um, and so there’s a lot of fingerprints of the United States still, it seems. Sure. Absolutely. On everything. Okay. Um, mentioning Hiroshima, what else? Uh well, you mentioned Kyoto specifically the the sacred mountain and how there’s a sacred mountain everywhere. What is the There’s also a sacred deer. Sacred deer. Can have a conversation with the sacred deer. I think by the by the end of our our travels, everything we were doing was the sacred. Yeah, we were the sacred cab. Yeah, the sacred ferry. Uh um this is a sacred video we’re taking right now. Mhm. Was there any particular thing that you found like to be the opposite of what you expected? Like I thought Japan would be this, but it wasn’t. Like the food is a learning curve. Okay, we’ll put it that way. I mean, if you love seafood, right, you’re you’re in paradise, right? Well, it was funny. the first meal we had together in Kyoto, you afterwards you came out and said, “I think that’s the most seafood I’ve had in the entire year in that one meal.” Yeah, absolutely, 100%. Um, we had some sushi today for lunch that was excellent. Um, there have been some other things that I’m that uh I was like that I’m not touching that with a 10ft pole. Like the whole fish like the entire fish, head, tail, everything where Yes. And you ate the whole fish like it was nothing. It was delicious. Thank you for giving me yours. Crunchy. What was the best thing you ate here? You think? What was the best thing? I think the prawns I had yesterday for lunch. Okay. Yeah, we were on Miaima yesterday, which is a sacred island. Sacred Island. Take the sacred ferry to the sacred deer. Uh were they sacred fried shrimp? Yeah, they were. It was a sacred lunch. Sacred. Okay. Um yeah that gosh for that I mean the the shrine was pretty yeah it was amazing and watching the there were Shinto ceremonies purification ceremonies going on there yesterday and that was super interesting to watch. Yeah we actually blacked out in that regard that they had ceremonies going on while we were there and while we were in Kyoto we happened across a monk chanting in the temple and we were the only ones there. I mean, there was no one else at this temple while we were there and we had it to ourselves. Um, which is, you know, everyone talks about Kyoto being completely overouristed and I’ve said this again and again on the channel, but it entirely depends on where you go. You can find amazing historic beautiful spots to go in Kyoto where, like we were, you might be the only people there. It’s just that everyone kind of has this golden path that they have to take and they have to go to these same places and everyone talks about Kyoto being super crowded. I think I didn’t think it was that crowded. Yeah, cuz I was taking him where there’s no crowds. Um the only place where it’s a mad house was Kyoto station which was that’s just unavoidable, right? Any any other impressions you want to bring up? The um number of things that are cute is um unbelievable. Everything happens to be cute. Every placard, every uh safety sign, safety sign, every turn left here only. Everything is cute. Yeah. And we talked a little bit about um partially I wonder if some of that is a reaction to the history of Japan. Mhm. Um in the last 80 years, which wasn’t always cute, right? Um, and so part of the I mean even to the point where uh teenage girls are dressed up um to look like sort of like anime Yeah. characters in a way that is sort of odd um but also very cute, right? Everything’s cute. So the the possibility is reactionary to right the the rough reconstruction end of the war and now we’re we have we have to go a completely different far more innocent path right or at least look that way. Yeah. Yeah. And certainly Japan has uh been very adept at projecting that image out into the world too. Right. Right. Any particular advice you would give to visitors coming to Japan for their first time, especially if they don’t know what to expect? When you book your flight, you need to book your room on as soon as you get off the flight at the airport. That was a great decision. I loved that decision because I was so tired when I got off my flight and I just walked right into my hotel, checked in. It was 9:30 at night, went to bed. I think that helped with the jet lag. I still had jet lag, but I think that mitigated it. Yeah. You didn’t you didn’t try to get on a train and go somewhere else. After a 13-our flight, you want easy hotel at the airport. Yeah. First night, 100%. Okay. Anything else? Um, don’t eat fish heads. Eat fish heads. Be adventurous. Okay. At the end of it all, I really want to say a huge thank you to you for allowing me to put on the hat of guide for Oh, yeah. It was great. You did a great job. Thank you so much. And uh, you know, for putting up with the choices I made cuz I kind of dragged you to things um that I hope in the end you enjoyed. You’ll get my bill later. Okay. For being on your channel. All right, sounds good. Uh, please let us know in the comments below if you have any questions for what we’ve talked about today or if you’re wondering where else we went in Kyoto and Hiroshima, what kind of experience we had there. Comment below. Or if you are a resident and you have certain recommendations you would make for people who are coming to Japan for their first trip ever, let us know in the comments as well. If you’ve made it to the part of the video where you are now and you still haven’t liked or subscribed, you have to do that, right? That would be cute. Very cute. Thank you so much, Patrick, for agreeing to do a video in addition to trooping around with me. Happy to do it. Cheers. Thank you so much. And we’ll catch you on the next one. Peace.

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