Japan - Vending Machines

[robin3mj]

One of the more arresting photo collections I've seen in a while.
I'm not a city person but a Japan trip is very high on my list - a few days in Tokyo then onward to Hokkaido would really interest me.
These photos only drive the urge further.





https://eijiohashi.com/en/work/roadside-lights-i

https://eijiohashi.com/en/work/roadside-lights-ii

https://eijiohashi.com/en/work/roadsidelights%E2%85%A2

https://eijiohashi.com/en/work/roadsidelights%E2%85%A3

https://eijiohashi.com/en/work/roads...ghts-%E2%85%A4

[j44ke]

Nice.

Hokkaido is miles and miles of empty roads.



And some of the best food ever in the middle of nowhere.



Just so long as you get some distance on Sapporo. The further north you go the better.

[Ras72]

Interesting you start this thread. I just purchased tickets for Osaka. Spending 8 days over the Christmas holidays.
Struggling with a defined itinerary. The more I research the more the country opens up to all the amazing places. Realization is setting in that 8 days will not be enough time.
Short list: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Takefu, maybe Tokyo...
I'm learning December is a good time to view Mt Fuji.

[echappist]

Interesting you start this thread. I just purchased tickets for Osaka. Spending 8 days over the Christmas holidays.
Struggling with a defined itinerary. The more I research the more the country opens up to all the amazing places. Realization is setting in that 8 days will not be enough time.
Short list: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Takefu, maybe Tokyo...
I'm learning December is a good time to view Mt Fuji.

We have local experts who frequent this forum, and one of them even wrote a book about where to eat in Kyoto.

Few things I'd like to do knowing what I know now:
-If you like jazz, in Osaka there's a café called Brooklyn Parlor where live jazz is played
-If you like whiskey, right outside of Kyoto (and accessible by train) is the Yamazaki Distillery
-One could cycle along Lake Biwa
-Himeji Castle or Hikone Castle
-Fill your luggage with wagashi
-Try to find secure reservation for kaiseki

All of these above for Kansai region alone.

[vertical_doug]

Interesting you start this thread. I just purchased tickets for Osaka. Spending 8 days over the Christmas holidays.
Struggling with a defined itinerary. The more I research the more the country opens up to all the amazing places. Realization is setting in that 8 days will not be enough time.
Short list: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Takefu, maybe Tokyo...
I'm learning December is a good time to view Mt Fuji.

If you are there on Dec 31/Jan1, be in Kyoto for New Year's Eve. There is a Buddhist ceremony when they ring the Bells 108x for cleanse you of earthly defilements. No matter where you are in the city, you can hear the bells. Most start ringing right at Midnight or slightly before. Chion-in temple has the largest bell, but I think that one gets very crowded. We'd start walking down Shijo-dori across the river and up into temples round 10 or so. It is very different.

The other place I'd consider is Mt. Koya on New Year's eve. It is the center of Shingon Buddhism. I do not know how crowded it gets on the eve and even if you can get reservations at a hotel.

I think hearing Joya-no-kane (除夜の鐘 ) is one of the great sounds of Japan.

After the Buddhist temples, you can visit a Shinto Shrine for Hatsumode and buy some amulets for good fortune in the upcoming year. It will be easier to do both the Joya-no-Kane and Hatsumode in Kyoto.

This year is the dragon, next year is the snake. You can buy a little clay snake figurine for a keep sake.

[72gmc]

With 8 days, I’d be looking at an itinerary within a reasonable orbit of Osaka. Kyoto for sure. Hiroshima. I’d look into Kobe and Nara because I haven’t been there. I bet you could do a lot by staying in Osaka and using trains, though I love Kyoto and would at least look at two nights’ accommodation there.

[vertical_doug]

With 8 days, I’d be looking at an itinerary within a reasonable orbit of Osaka. Kyoto for sure. Hiroshima. I’d look into Kobe and Nara because I haven’t been there. I bet you could do a lot by staying in Osaka and using trains, though I love Kyoto and would at least look at two nights’ accommodation there.

Depending on where you are staying in Osaka, it is super quick to Kyoto. From Umeda, you can take a Hankyu express train which is 44 minutes. Yodoyabashi , you can take Keihan. Both are about 50 minutes and 400 yen $2.75 Or you can go from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto by bullet train which takes 15 minutes, but then you need to go to Shin-Osaka station so all in you don't really save any time versus the express trains. I believe there is 24 hr train service on New Years eve although the trip after a long night back to Osaka will be brutal.

I went to school in Osaka for a year. Kobe-Osaka-Kyoto is just a huge mega city. We biked to Nara all the time. It's just a little farther.

For Lake Biwa, here is just a curiosity. The NHK Documentary 72 hrs went to a memorial bench to film everyone that comes there over 72 hours.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/4026213/

Documentary 72 Hours is a great show on NHK.

[echappist]

Just so long as you get some distance on Sapporo. The further north you go the better.

Is that udon or ramen? Looks good regardless.

[j44ke]

Is that udon or ramen? Looks good regardless.

Udon - buckwheat. Hand cut. Only thing they made. Husband and wife ran the shop. Interior looked like this:

[72gmc]

Udon - buckwheat. Hand cut. Only thing they made. Husband and wife ran the shop.

A member of my team just returned from 2 weeks in Japan, and went to a similar shop for ramen. She had to show up midday, get a ticket, and come back 5 hours later to be seated.

[j44ke]

Kyoto is amazing.

Visit Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. Read about Emperor Yoshimasa. He built the Silver Pavilion. Or had it built. The book isn't amazing, but it does provide a historical context and shows how the ideas that began in that era - the ones privileged by the Emperor's attention to them - shaped culture afterwards in Japan.

[72gmc]

Time for me to sit down with Tokyo on Foot again (not my blog but decent visuals of the book). Aside from our personal photo album, it remains my favorite book on Japan.

Screenshot 2024-11-08 at 10.22.08.jpg

[vertical_doug]

Nice.




Just so long as you get some distance on Sapporo. The further north you go the better.

Although your chopsticks are not vertical in the bowl, it is never a good idea to stick your chopsticks in a bowl of food. Chopstick etiquette in Japan is a tricky thing. You can google to figure out the do's and don't. I still get scolded if I use my chopsticks to pull a small dish towards me on the table which is my one bad habit.

[j44ke]

Although your chopsticks are not vertical in the bowl, it is never a good idea to stick your chopsticks in a bowl of food. Chopstick etiquette in Japan is a tricky thing. You can google to figure out the do's and don't. I still get scolded if I use my chopsticks to pull a small dish towards me on the table which is my one bad habit.

We tried. After this we got caught in a torrential downpour and covered with road grime like coal dust, so when we got to our inn, we stripped to our bike shorts before going in. Fortunately our innkeeper greeted us with bathrobes. His wife was laughing. As were we. Rooms had sort of a modular sauna-shower-bath. So many knobs on the wall but we figured it out. Usual tourists were skiers, so there was a washer and dryer in each room, which I guess skiers use a lot. Definitely came in handy.

[Mabouya]

Hokkaido is miles and miles of empty roads.

Just for kicks I've done some time poking around on Google StreetView looking at roads out in the Japanese countryside, and a huge % of the parts I found (choosing totally randomly, with no other criteria than "not zooming in to the middle of a city" look like INCREDIBLE riding. And perhaps this is probably cultural stereotyping, but I bet the drivers, when you do come across them, are polite.

[holliscx]

My brother lived in Tokyo for > 10 years. I probably flew over about 13 times because he worked for an airline and I could fly standby. I never looked at vending machines the same when he told me that some sold young girls used panties. It's a bit of an urban legend but there's truth behind it. I was a big fan of Georgia canned coffee. It was fun trying to find my favorite one bopping around. But my bro lived in Shimokitazawa and later Ebisu which has a nice frame named after it.



Niseko is special. You haven't skied powder until you've skied or better snowboarded Niseko. The pow pow is legendary. Low elevation, near the sea, slopeside ramen. Hokkaido is peak Japan

[holliscx]

Another Japan peculiarity that might be worth taking a peek at are love hotels

[j44ke]

Just for kicks I've done some time poking around on Google StreetView looking at roads out in the Japanese countryside, and a huge % of the parts I found (choosing totally randomly, with no other criteria than "not zooming in to the middle of a city" look like INCREDIBLE riding. And perhaps this is probably cultural stereotyping, but I bet the drivers, when you do come across them, are polite.

Japan has its busy thoroughfares and drivers who go fast and close, so you need to be alert just like everywhere else. Strangely the fastest and closest driving are the customized micro-vans with neon illuminated under-carriages. And then there are the long haul trucks with double trailers. And the infinite tunnels that are often wet with narrow edges and can be - even in summer - freezing cold. My one tip for cycling in the Japanese countryside is to bring excellent front & rear lights, just because of the tunnels. Plus everyone drives on the wrong side of the road there, so people from our neck of the woods have to pay attention, especially (in my case) while turning left.

But yeah, there were days when we saw maybe single digit numbers of cars and many lovely looking abandoned homes in beautiful countryside.