Hi, peeps! I hope you enjoyed the last article on my Japan food recommendations. As promised, here's one on place recommendations! Japan has so many unforgettable tourist spots to offer, but I was only there for two weeks and I tried to cater everything towards my family's interests and things they're familiar with. As a result, the usual skiing and hot spring activities were excluded from this trip - both of which I recommend since Japan is the perfect place for those if you're into that sort of stuff - and since we came around winter, a lot of the pretty spring places were omitted from this article too. Regardless, here are my recommendations!
Again, disclaimer: Not in any particular order.
Asahiyama Zoo
Asahikawa
Chances are, if you have a 9gag account or just keep up with your internet things in general, you've seen the video of adorable penguins parading down a snow-laden path. That video, ladies and gentlemen, was taken in this exact place that I am about to recommend to you. Behold Asahiyama Zoo's penguin parade!
It takes about two hours to get to Asahikawa from Sapporo and we were almost late to the penguin's parade showing which starts at 11 a.m.. We made it, fortunately, but had we not, there's another session at 3 p.m. just before they close. There was a huge crowd with people hailing from all over Japan and the rest of the world and it's pretty hard to find a good viewing spot so make sure to come early if you're coming for the morning session!
Other than the penguins, Asahiyama Zoo made for a very fun memory as it was my first time as an adult playing with snow and having snow-fights, and there was this adorable little boy that we got acquainted with. The entire zoo was covered in a thick layer of snow and the white made everything so beautiful. I'm not a fan of winter, but I definitely recommend winter in Japan for its beautiful scenery.
Nara Park
Nara
Also another famous tourist spot, Nara Park is approximately an hour away from Osaka and you should definitely visit simply for the experience of deer biting at your skirt for deer crackers. The park is huge, with plenty of historical sites such as the Tōdai-ji temple, and massive, muscular deer. I've always assumed deer are shy, elusive animals, but there were more deer than people scattered throughout and they bow back when you bow to them! Also, have you seen a galloping deer? It's a must-see, it's hilarious!
The place itself would honestly have been so beautiful in fall or spring, but we came in winter so there wasn't much to see other than old buildings, excuse my uncultured-ness. We quickly left after roaming around for an hour or two, but before we left I bought kakinoha-zushi from the souvenir shop. Kakinoha-zushi is a Nara specialty and is sushi wrapped in persimmon leaf. I first saw it in an extremely popular Japanese morning drama Goshisousan and was really curious because of the nature of its preparation. Here's my verdict, though: dry and salty - would not recommend.
Yodobashi Camera
Akihabara, Tokyo
Ah, Akihabara... Those familiar with Japanese entertainment might know Akihabara from Japan's top girl group AKB48, but I, for one, know Akihabara as Tokyo's tech mecca. Upon exiting the train station, you are immediately greeted with tall buildings, and they're not office buildings either. That's right, they're electronics stores such as Yodobashi and BIC, spanning seven to eight floors, each floor dedicated to home appliances, cameras, gadgets and other fun stuff. The thing to be most excited for, though, is they have a floor dedicated to toys and games!
Now, it's not like I was deprived of games and joy when I was a child, why am I so excited about toys and games? Well, when you see products that are so expensive to get elsewhere, maybe your eyes will light up like mine did. Big toy brands like nanoblock and Sylvanian Families are expensive anywhere else but Japan, so my mum and I went ham on the toys. Not only that, they have a pretty complete collection of all things Pokémon and Nintendo - tell me you're not excited by now.
Akihabara as a whole is exciting. You'll find trucks with vocaloid characters just blaring music and arcades within five metres of each other. I recommend you come at night to enjoy the city lights!
Make Sushi Art in An Expert's Kitchen
Tokyo
So, this isn't exactly a place (and you'll find the last recommendation isn't a place either), rather an Airbnb experience I booked for my mum and I. The session started with our lovely host Kayo and her extremely-young-looking-but-is-actually-eighty mother-in-law serving us hot green tea to warm ourselves up. Then Kayo proceeded to teach us a few simple terms in Japanese such as "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and "gochisousama deshita". With that out of the way, we began cooking, or should I say, assembling. The end results were these beautiful window pane sushi and adorable Santa Claus sushi.
Afterwards came the fun part. Next was a crash course in Japanese cuisine. Kayo introduced us to miso soup, pressed sushi, katsuobushi and bonito, dango and my favourite, natto. The couple hours we had together felt short and the atmosphere was lively between the other ladies in the room. Overall, it was such a good experience I have to recommend it to my fellow travellers.
Book here: https://www.airbnb.com.au/experiences/72978
Tokyo Metro - The Underground Mysteries
Tokyo
This final one I didn't experience for myself, but I thought it was a fun thing to share seeing as I haven't seen many people talk about it in my research. I first found out about it from one of the participants of the Airbnb Experience mentioned above and when I first heard of it I was intrigued by the premise. So, "Tokyo Metro - The Underground Mysteries" is an event currently in its fifth year aiming to create a 'real-life' game involving the Tokyo metro system.
For 2200 yen, a player is given a 24-hour metro ticket and a puzzle-solving kit. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and now you kind of have to since you paid for it), is to solve puzzles hidden within Tokyo Metro and Tokyo city itself both online and offline. It's much like an escape room experience, but in the open, and very much encourages people to explore the city like Pokémon Go.
I encourage you to give it a try if you're travelling with friends between October and February to get to know the beautiful chaos that is the city of Tokyo.
You can have a little taste here: https://realdgame.jp/chikanazo/5/en/index.html
And I'll end this article with a shot of the mountain ranges taken on the shinkansen. Japan is truly a wonderful place to visit and I cannot stress enough that Japan has so much more to offer than the things mentioned in this article. That's it for now, I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed revisiting memories while writing this. Happy travels!
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