The Japanese transit system is a modern wonder that makes other cities look like the town of Bedrock. And by transit system I really mean the trains. There. Enough said. Jump on a train.
I cannot overstate the relative pleasure and comfort of traveling by train in Japan. The sardine-can rush-hour journeys are not enjoyable, but getting from A to B in no time at all makes it worth it. I'm going to have you jumping on a train a lot.
Changing trains can be a daunting experience the first time, but trains run frequently for the most part, so take your time buying your ticket, finding your platform, etc. and you'll be fine. There are plenty of helpful signs posted at most stations, so when in doubt, look around or look up. If you do these two things, you'll never get (completely) lost while on the rail network itself.
Buses are also convenient but at times less fun. A lot of Kyoto outings will tempt you with direct bus trips to temple such-and-such, but Kyoto City traffic and the constant stopping can make you appreciate the joys of walking. Many Japanese buses don't have much in the way of leg room, and despite being a modestly not-short-not-tall 5'11", I'm sometimes scared I'll kneecap myself if the bus goes over a bump. Though I like big butts and I cannot lie, I'd be lying if I said your long legs and fat ass won't prevent anybody else from sitting next to you on a two-person seat.
Taxis. I used to think taxis were expensive when I first came to Japan, but on a sweltering hot day a taxi can start to look mighty good. If you are traveling with a couple of friends, a taxi can be comparable in price to public transportation for shorter trips. I definitely don't recommend taking a taxi from one end of a city to the other, but if you're in, say, northern Kyoto City wanting to visit a site in the East, you might feel refreshed after a cab trip rather than drained by another slow-moving bus. This is particularly the case in the middle of summer.
As for cars, motorbikes, and bicycles, these can be impractical or unnecessary for the short-term traveler, though they can be a lot of fun. If you really enjoy one of these methods of transportation, by all means look into it, but I apologize that I don't have the space to discuss them in detail here.
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master Lists
Osaka: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
Hyogo: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html
Kyoto: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-c-master-list-kyoto.html
Shiga: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-d-master-list-shiga.html
Nara: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-e-master-list-nara.html
Mie: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-f-master-list-mie.html
Wakayama: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html
Friday, July 31, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
2. Municipal Divisions and a Few Naming Conventions
You will likely be associating a sightseeing spot with the general area and the name of its closest train station, but knowing the municipal division of the place you're going to might give you an idea of its size and where it's located in respect to other areas.
Japan is split up into prefectures; a prefecture being like a state or a province. Usually it is not difficult or overly time consuming to travel to a neighboring prefecture when going from hub to hub. For example, you can travel to Kyoto Station from Osaka Station in 30 minutes, and from Tennoji Station (another station hub in Osaka City) to Nara Station in 35 minutes. No sweat, right?
The next designation is city or shi. Cities are usually determined by population, and so aren't necessarily geographically vast (with some exceptions). The next division is town, cho or machi, small enough to be the last element on a person's address. Then there is village, or mura. A cho or town is often part of a larger city, but a village designation can indicate a lower population (too small to be a town) and that you are out in the countryside.
When a city is sufficiently large in geographical size and population, it may be split into ku, or wards. Such a city with wards is known as a designated city. If you hear something about a ward, you can understand it to be smaller than a city, but larger than a town. Osaka City, Kyoto City, Kobe City and my old haunt Sakai City are all examples of designated cities with wards. Tokyo is doing its own thing. It used to have an area known as Tokyo City, but when the entire prefecture was renamed the "Tokyo Metropolis," Tokyo City was split into "special wards" and these function the same as cities. Ward up.
A less common designation in place of a city is a district, or gun. This is usually a rural area.
Japanese people also use city, town and village in the same way we do to describe the character of a location (e.g. Amerika Mura/America Village), and it's not always obvious to the foreign traveler whether the title is indicating a municipal designation or a stretch of road or something else. Really it's only an issue when you try to look something up.
Places are often named after a nearby geographical feature. Common ones are yama or san/zan, mountain; oka, hill; hara or bara, field; ta or da, rice field; ike, pond; ji or tera/dera, temple; and kawa or gawa, river. Some locations are now devoid of the feature that gave them their name, but many still exist. God knows there are mountains in Japan, but a mountain needn't be of a certain elevation for locals back in the day to decide it was a mountain.
English naming is usually in the vein of the "ATM machine" so it's the Yodogawa River not the Yodo River... though the convention is sometimes broken. English spelling can also differ depending of the system of romanization used. If you see a flat line above a vowel, make that vowel sound a touch longer when you say it.
Oh yes, and there are almost no street names to help you out. Getting around is very much a case of maps and landmarks.
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master Lists
Osaka: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
Hyogo: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html
Kyoto: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-c-master-list-kyoto.html
Shiga: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-d-master-list-shiga.html
Nara: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-e-master-list-nara.html
Mie: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-f-master-list-mie.html
Wakayama: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html
Japan is split up into prefectures; a prefecture being like a state or a province. Usually it is not difficult or overly time consuming to travel to a neighboring prefecture when going from hub to hub. For example, you can travel to Kyoto Station from Osaka Station in 30 minutes, and from Tennoji Station (another station hub in Osaka City) to Nara Station in 35 minutes. No sweat, right?
The next designation is city or shi. Cities are usually determined by population, and so aren't necessarily geographically vast (with some exceptions). The next division is town, cho or machi, small enough to be the last element on a person's address. Then there is village, or mura. A cho or town is often part of a larger city, but a village designation can indicate a lower population (too small to be a town) and that you are out in the countryside.
When a city is sufficiently large in geographical size and population, it may be split into ku, or wards. Such a city with wards is known as a designated city. If you hear something about a ward, you can understand it to be smaller than a city, but larger than a town. Osaka City, Kyoto City, Kobe City and my old haunt Sakai City are all examples of designated cities with wards. Tokyo is doing its own thing. It used to have an area known as Tokyo City, but when the entire prefecture was renamed the "Tokyo Metropolis," Tokyo City was split into "special wards" and these function the same as cities. Ward up.
A less common designation in place of a city is a district, or gun. This is usually a rural area.
Japanese people also use city, town and village in the same way we do to describe the character of a location (e.g. Amerika Mura/America Village), and it's not always obvious to the foreign traveler whether the title is indicating a municipal designation or a stretch of road or something else. Really it's only an issue when you try to look something up.
Places are often named after a nearby geographical feature. Common ones are yama or san/zan, mountain; oka, hill; hara or bara, field; ta or da, rice field; ike, pond; ji or tera/dera, temple; and kawa or gawa, river. Some locations are now devoid of the feature that gave them their name, but many still exist. God knows there are mountains in Japan, but a mountain needn't be of a certain elevation for locals back in the day to decide it was a mountain.
English naming is usually in the vein of the "ATM machine" so it's the Yodogawa River not the Yodo River... though the convention is sometimes broken. English spelling can also differ depending of the system of romanization used. If you see a flat line above a vowel, make that vowel sound a touch longer when you say it.
Oh yes, and there are almost no street names to help you out. Getting around is very much a case of maps and landmarks.
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master Lists
Osaka: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
Hyogo: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html
Kyoto: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-c-master-list-kyoto.html
Shiga: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-d-master-list-shiga.html
Nara: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-e-master-list-nara.html
Mie: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-f-master-list-mie.html
Wakayama: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html
Monday, July 27, 2015
1. Yokai Tourism Japan
This blog has been created for people interested in visiting sites associated with Yokai: Japanese supernatural beings and other spooky phenomena. As this is a niche hobby, I'm going to assume that people clicking in already know something about Yokai and would like to see their old haunts, but either don't know where to find them, or are new to Japan and need help getting around. Tourists are very welcome here and I hope I can in some small way give your trip a little extra "kick"!
Japan is a culturally vast country though, and I need to narrow my scope a bit. Most people when they come to Japan-- to see Japan, will hit the Kanto Region (Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures) and the Kansai Region (Osaka and its surrounding prefectures). As I happen to live in Osaka, this blog is going to be very Kansai-centric, using Osaka as a convenient travel hub. For those not familiar with Japan, Kansai includes Nara and Kyoto Prefectures (amongst others), so we will not be short on historically significant sites to explore.
Unfortunately, much Yokai-related phenomena does not always occur in the most popular or picturesque locations. The Kansai Region bloomed over many hundreds of years from what is considered to be the "Cradle of Japanese Civilization," and over time expansion has eroded and built around (and often over) many important sites. Rashomon, the great southern gate of the old capital of present-day Kyoto, and famously in the Akira Kurosawa movie of the same name, is now a stone marker in a nondescript children's playground. Yet the gate appears in more than one Yokai legend, so a determined visitor to the site is required to pack (besides a bucket and spade in the case of Rashomon) an extra supply of imagination.
Luckily, not all Yokai haunts are as stripped of content as to make detouring to them a complete waste of time. However, to make this blog as accessible as possible, I'm going to include the popular and well-known tourist sites that are in the same area, on the same train line, or as a last resort, in the same general direction. Even this won't always be possible, but for the very dedicated or the Japan resident like myself who doesn't have to worry about time, they will hopefully provide a novel outing. Just remember to always have your imagination at the ready!
I'm going to start my blog with a few getting-around posts, and also a master list of sightseeing spots that I will update as often as I can. Each listed item will contain enough basic info that an independent traveler with the Internet should be able to find the location by themselves. As I progress, each item will become a separate entry with more detailed information on how to get there.
If you have a request, a suggestion, or have a trip to Japan planned soon and need some info about a sightseeing spot, feel free to send me an e-mail. If you're Japanese and have a local folktale to share and a sightseeing spot to go with it, I would love to hear from you too. Nihongo de douzo!
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master Lists
Osaka: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
Hyogo: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html
Kyoto: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-c-master-list-kyoto.html
Shiga: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-d-master-list-shiga.html
Nara: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-e-master-list-nara.html
Mie: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-f-master-list-mie.html
Wakayama: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html
Japan is a culturally vast country though, and I need to narrow my scope a bit. Most people when they come to Japan-- to see Japan, will hit the Kanto Region (Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures) and the Kansai Region (Osaka and its surrounding prefectures). As I happen to live in Osaka, this blog is going to be very Kansai-centric, using Osaka as a convenient travel hub. For those not familiar with Japan, Kansai includes Nara and Kyoto Prefectures (amongst others), so we will not be short on historically significant sites to explore.
Unfortunately, much Yokai-related phenomena does not always occur in the most popular or picturesque locations. The Kansai Region bloomed over many hundreds of years from what is considered to be the "Cradle of Japanese Civilization," and over time expansion has eroded and built around (and often over) many important sites. Rashomon, the great southern gate of the old capital of present-day Kyoto, and famously in the Akira Kurosawa movie of the same name, is now a stone marker in a nondescript children's playground. Yet the gate appears in more than one Yokai legend, so a determined visitor to the site is required to pack (besides a bucket and spade in the case of Rashomon) an extra supply of imagination.
Luckily, not all Yokai haunts are as stripped of content as to make detouring to them a complete waste of time. However, to make this blog as accessible as possible, I'm going to include the popular and well-known tourist sites that are in the same area, on the same train line, or as a last resort, in the same general direction. Even this won't always be possible, but for the very dedicated or the Japan resident like myself who doesn't have to worry about time, they will hopefully provide a novel outing. Just remember to always have your imagination at the ready!
I'm going to start my blog with a few getting-around posts, and also a master list of sightseeing spots that I will update as often as I can. Each listed item will contain enough basic info that an independent traveler with the Internet should be able to find the location by themselves. As I progress, each item will become a separate entry with more detailed information on how to get there.
If you have a request, a suggestion, or have a trip to Japan planned soon and need some info about a sightseeing spot, feel free to send me an e-mail. If you're Japanese and have a local folktale to share and a sightseeing spot to go with it, I would love to hear from you too. Nihongo de douzo!
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/
The Master Lists
Osaka: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-the-master-list-osaka.html
Hyogo: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html
Kyoto: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-c-master-list-kyoto.html
Shiga: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-d-master-list-shiga.html
Nara: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-e-master-list-nara.html
Mie: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-f-master-list-mie.html
Wakayama: http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html
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