Tokyo
When my parents came to see me for twenty days in Seoul, we wanted to travel and take advantage of our proximity to Japan to go there for my birthday. We spent ten days divided between Tokyo and Kyoto in order to discover both the highly developed capital and a more cultural city.
Tokyo is a giant city where one circulates mainly by subway between the various districts. Temples, parks, shopping areas, and busy areas are all within minutes of public transportation from each other. They are all different and represent a particular aspect of Japanese culture.
My recommendations:
- Attend a sumo fight if you go there during the season and take the meal trays (bento) as the Japanese do.
- Go greet Hachiko in Shibuya and have a coffee in one of the cafes overlooking the famous pedestrian crossing.
- Go to Meiji Park and reproduce the rituals of the Japanese.
PS: Traveling in Japan is easy, as there are many airports, stations with very high speed trains and many night buses. But all of them have a fairly significant cost. If you are embarking on a long tour of Japan, it is worth taking the JR Pass for trains which allows you to make several stops over a chosen duration. If you only make one or two stopovers, night buses will be more economical and just as comfortable.
Kyoto
Kyoto is a very different city from Tokyo. It is a quieter, more relaxing and peaceful city. The city offers a real immersion in older Japanese culture. You can visit many Buddhist temples, imperial palaces and gardens, but also observe the geishas in their "natural environment".
Note that Japan in January is very cold. We experienced snow throughout our stay and it was quite tiring. During the stay, we obviously went to see the Fushimi Inari , with its famous orange portals, we visited ancient palaces, but the most interesting, we went to see a Japanese theater (of course all in Japanese). Sitting on cushions on the floor, the costumes, makeup and dances were extraordinary, even if I did not understand everything about its somewhat eccentric story.
My recommendations:
- Visit the Fushimi Inari-taisha Shinto shrine and walk between the orange arches.
- Admire the cherry blossoms in Arashiyama and you might meet some monkeys there ...
- Go to Gion , this fairly old district and try to see geishas in the streets.
- But also visit temples (Ginkaku-ji) markets (Nishiki) and see Japanese plays.
