2 months in japan

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: 2 months in japan 🇯🇵 

the only thing i was dead set on doing before embarking on my gap year was traveling around japan. it finally happened this spring while the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and i’m confident that this will be one of the best experiences of my life even when i look back on it decades into the future. 🌸 

i spent 7-ish weeks in japan, exploring 13 different prefectures from rural shizuoka to bustling tokyo. very briefly, my itinerary looked like this (* = solo):

1*) landing in tokyo ~3 days → explored asakusa & roppongi neighbourhoods
2*) hiroshima ~2 days → immersed myself in the history & visited miyajima island
3*) osaka ~6 days → stayed in the kitakagawa neighbourhood, hopped around different tourist attractions & made day-trips to nara + kyoto
4) tea farm internship in shizuoka ~3 weeks → harvested tea & worked on the farm’s website in exchange for free housing + food
5) kyoto ~5 days → a whole lot of shopping, eating & exploring
6) kumano kodo hike ~4 days → hiked the iseji trail for 4 days, passing coastal towns and beaches along the way
7) back to tokyo ~11 days → venturing to a new neighbourhood every day

i ended up actually spending more time in the countryside than urban japan and i developed a profound love for japan’s rural landscape, more-so than the big cities. 🏙️ infrastructure is still impressively maintained even when you explore beyond larger cities, which probably contributed to my appreciation — there was no problem at all with road quality, water/plumbing, cellular reception, and there was even access to public transportation and convenience stores. that plus beautiful scenery and mountains you can’t see in the city? bliss.

not to mention, the countryside is pretty much devoid of other tourists, making for an even more pleasant experience. the setoya area in fujieda, shizuoka was tranquil. tokyo and kyoto had their own charm with the tourist attractions that we all flock to, but setoya’s vibe was the best of this trip. even in the larger cities, i made it a point to avoid tourist overload. looking back now, those days spent away from crowded areas were the best (staying in the kitakagawa neighbourhood in osaka, the tea farm, kumano kodo hike, cafés hidden away from main roads, and more).

japan is extremely dense with tourists, and takes away from enjoying a lot of what japan has to offer. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 doing a little extra research goes a long way — i can only recall 2-3 days out of the entire trip where we were bombarded with tourists from all directions (that too, we were expecting it). my strategy is grouping the mega-touristy activities all together in one day, and exploring hidden gems otherwise.

as always, here are some rapid fire highlights from japan:

• checking out the completely empty senso-ji shrine lit up at night

• seeing the itsukushima shrine on miyajima island in hiroshima

• wandering around osaka’s hidden gem of a neighbourhood (kitakagawa) with a paper map in hand 🗾 

• getting an osaka amazing pass, best value to explore osaka in its entirety

• collecting so many free postcards in an old apartment complex remodelled into a collection of small art exhibits 

• of course, café hopping (will probably write a post on my favourites eats from this trip)

• exploring setoya like little kids on an adventure

• laying by the river with sun, snacks, friends, and my kindle

• seeing mt. fuji on our day trip to fuji city 🗻 

• all of my bookoff super bazaar trips (best thrift store ever.)

• marveling at the clusters of pink cherry blossoms overtaking fujieda’s mountains

• michiyo-san’s stellar cooking at the tea farm

• macho bar. no further explanation.

• hiking the fushimi inari shrine both at night and early morning (it was practically empty!)

• renting a kimono & visiting the kyoto botanical gardens 👘 

• eating fruit animals at the cozy sawano café in kyoto

• sipping tea and eating dango at kazariya teahouse

• literally getting attacked by a hawk (it was pretty funny)

• staying at ryokans with an ocean view every night of the kumano kodo hike

• falling in love with onsens

• every single visit to a tsutaya bookstore branch

• exploring my favourite tokyo neighbourhoods: nakameguro, ginza, asakusa & harajuku

• katarina & victoria joining us, turning our group of 3 (philip, sachi & i) into 5!

• playing soccer and laughing so hard at a park near our hostel but then getting a noise complain at midnight

• day-trip to zushi beach 🏖️ 

• going to kcon japan

coming home feels bittersweet. don’t get me wrong, i’ve definitely missed my friends and family to pieces, but this also marks my gap year coming to an end. traveling and adventuring around the world has undoubtedly been the the best period of my life, and i will miss the sheer autonomy and joy i’ve been able to experience every single day once i begin my undergrad at unc-chapel hill in august.

i’m sure i’ll be able to sprinkle in some adventure here and there. ;)

btw, the post is delayed today because jet lag completely kicked my ass. 😭 

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