Howdy! Back in November my family and I went on a very cool trip to Japan! We spent most of the time in Kyoto, but also a few days in Tokyo. It wasn’t our first trip to Japan, but it was our first time in Kyoto, so we went to many interesting places. There are a lot of cool things about Japan, and today I’ll talk about three of them!!
1. Food
We had a lot of time to experience Japanese food, and it is very unique and interesting!
On our second night in Tokyo my mother and I went to an upscale Japanese restaurant with many courses. I was hesitant to go to such a fancy restaurant because I hardly know anything about quality food. However, the food was very good, and the chef and staff talked to us about what was in the dishes, so I enjoyed the dinner even if I probably couldn’t grasp everything about the dishes. The chef first prepared many small appetizers, and then many sushis with different fish. There were even three different types of tuna!
When we were served the sushi, we were supposed to just eat it with our hands instead of with chopsticks, which was rather surprising. Turns out that eating with hands isn’t always bad manners! He also prepared it with sauce and wasabi so we didn’t have to do anything on our own. It was a very delicious and fun meal.
My mom and I also took a Japanese cooking class since she loves cooking. While my mom is a professionally trained chef, I am not skilled at cooking in the least! However, I was surprised to find that the cooking was surprisingly not very difficult. The dishes have just a few simple ingredients and the cooking is not complicated at all, but the dishes are still delicious.
We made a “sesame tofu” (which was made of sesame paste and kudzu starch), vegetables with vinegar miso sauce, rolled egg, clear soup, sashimi, wagyu beef steak, pumpkin with sliced beef, accordion cucumber salad (the cucumbers were cut in a way that made it resemble an accordion), and vanilla ice cream with sesame powder and dark molasses.
One very interesting dish to make was the Japanese rolled omelet. It looked very difficult to make, since we had to slowly roll the egg from the pan. However, it wasn’t actually that hard to make once I tried it!
The class was very enriching, and my mom still makes some of these dishes very often at home!
2. Architecture
Japanese architecture has a very distinct and recognizable style that can be seen all over Japan in many temples and buildings.
One of the most beautiful attractions we visited was Fushimi Inari Taisha, which is a shinto shrine to Inari, the goddess of rice. There are many shrines to Inari with vermillion arches called “torii.” The torii are donated by people, and you can see written on them the name of the donor and where they are from, as well as the date when they were donated. At Fushimi Inari Taisha, there are hundreds of torii going all the way up the mountain for 5 kilometers! You can see how many people were dedicated to the temple.
You can hike along the trail as far as you want, and there are many opportunities to see a nice view of Kyoto. At the beginning of the trail, there are many people also hiking. However, as you go higher, the crowd thins out, and you can have a very peaceful experience with the surrounding nature and views!
There are also many beautiful temples, such as Kinkaku-Ji, which is covered in gold leaf and located on a lake. Such a beautiful temple was built hundreds of years ago!
At many of the places we went to, we found that often times nails or another equivalent were not used, and instead there are wooden beams that fit perfectly together, and even after this many years they still hold up!
3. Scenery
We were able to see some very beautiful views in Japan!
One amazing and unique place we went to was the bamboo forest. It was something we had never seen before, and it was fascinating to see so many bamboos densely packed together.
Some fun facts about bamboo: bamboo is actually the fastest growing plant in the world! And some bamboos have survived earthquakes of magnitude 9.0!
Outside of the bamboo forest one can hike up Arashiyama mountain, and from there there is a beautiful view of the river and mountains. We also were there during the fall season, so there were many trees with different colors.
Side note: we experienced a small earthquake while in Tokyo! It was in the middle of the night, and I sort of felt it in my dream but kept sleeping. However, my mom woke me up and we both did the duck and cover thing that they teach in school. It had been a while since I last felt an earthquake, so that was pretty cool.
Overall, Japan is a very interesting place with a very distinct culture. Even in our second visit we learned many new and surprising things, and we were very exited visiting many beautiful attractions. Japan is definitely a place on must visit.
Japan looks beautiful. Can I ask, what was the name of the red tunnel that you have a photo of? Thank you again for the very informative blog!
The red tunnel is simply a small part of Fushimi Inari Taisha. If you take a photo at one of the straight parts, it looks just like a red tunnel! Thanks for reading!
DUDDEE the bamboo forest looks amazing!! I’m going to Japan this winter break I wanna visit that mountain so bad ;;
If you’re visiting Kyoto, the bamboo forest and mountain are definitely places to visit!