Japan

Visited: September 2007, July 2023

Duration of visit: 25 days

Capital city: Tokyo

Population: 125 million (2023)

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

• Arriving at the airport and immediately getting in touch with Japanese culture.
• Amazed by Tokyo – the biggest and the most spectacular city in the world: attractions, people, food, music, transport, engineering solutions, cars, etc.
• The mix of tradition and modern in the old capital Kyoto – geishas, temples, ryokan.
• Tasting varieties of Japanese food on markets, restaurants, homemade and small places only known to locals.
• Japanese tradition and technology – kimonos, Shinkansen, karaoke, geishas.
• Reflecting the atomic bombs impact in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Being guest at my friend Tomohito parents’ house near Hashimoto.
• Night out in a tofu specialized restaurant.
• A special gift to my Japanese friend – a helicopter flight over Yokohama.
• Spectacular festival with a race of naked buttocks pushing heavy floats in Fukuoka.

Japan was simply too expensive for my budget while exploring the Asian continent at the beginning of the century and was not part of the Asian Big Tour from Australia, through Southeast Asia and China to India. Nevertheless, Japan was always very high on my bucket list.

The ideal opportunity to visit the country of Samurais occurred during a three-week break in 2007, while I was living and working in London. Residing in one of the most expensive cities in the world and earning a decent salary, made my first travel to Japan much more affordable.

Despite high expectations and a long wait, Japan exceeded all my expectations, and immediately ranked at the top of my list of the most popular destinations in the world. Over a decade later, I probably passed this enthusiasm and excitement on to my children, who more than anything wanted to visit the Land of the Rising Sun, sushi, and the perfect combination of tradition and modernity.

I arranged a surprise journey to Japan as a reward for them, complementing our travels to Australia and South Korea during the summer of 2023. The kids didn’t know that we were travelling to Japan until we reached the boarding area at Seoul airport, where an airline representative asked how long we planned to stay in Japan.

Since me and my partner had already visited Japan before, the planning of activities, attractions, food and destinations were almost completely in kids’ hands. Instead of classical sights, we were focused more on modern contemporary attractions.

Despite the fact that Japan is considered a relatively expensive country, with effective planning and efficient time management, it can be an affordable travel destination. In the last decade, when prices in Europe have been rocketing and the yean persistently devaluating, Japan has become even more accessible.

Japan emerges as my preferred destination among all the countries I have visited, and articulating the reasons for this is not particularly difficult. A unique combination of food, kind and honest people, technological solutions, high quality products and services are perfectly incorporated in hundreds of years of tradition.

Additionally, the honor of genuine friendship with the Japanese has elevated the entire experience to another level.