One year in Japan – Big news, first mistakes (September 2022)


Welp, I am unsure as to whether anyone even wants to read stuff that happened over 1 1/2 years ago at this point but because I started this travel report series, I want to finish it. My goal is to have the final one released before the end of May. Unfortunately, pictures in the albums are out of order because imgur keeps being annoying.

You can find the other three parts down below. With that said, here goes.

[Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/178mxdx/one_year_in_japan_the_open_air_sauna_june_july/)

[Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17kfjpl/one_year_in_japan_escaping_the_heat_august_2022/)

[Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17yfls8/one_year_in_japan_sapporo_my_beloved_august_22/)

**Tokyo**

I took the long way home from Sapporo to Tokyo on a 7 1/2 hours train journey. Once I arrived back in Tokyo, my Airbnb was situated in Shinjuku so I exited the station and to my surprise, I ran into a [certain](https://i.imgur.com/9A1xkj9.jpeg) content creator just outside. Pretty neat encounter! I was also immediately reminded of the fact that Hokkaido (at that time) was far nicer when it came to heat and humidity because I was sweating within minutes of getting back to Tokyo.

The plan for this month was stupid, as the title of this thread may imply. Blinded by the amazing time I had in Sapporo and a rather… optimistic Autumn foliage forecast, I already planned to get back to Sapporo in the middle of September. Before that though, I spent a few days in Tokyo and Kamakura…

I didn’t do a lot in Tokyo itself. I stayed at an Airbnb in Shin-Okubo and quickly realised that that was a mistake. Even when foreign tourism was pretty much dead, Shin-Okubo was packed. And unlike the big areas in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and the like, Shin-Okubo in particular just does not have a lot of space for pedestrians. Honestly, if you are into K-Pop and Korean pop culture, I do not know if you’d enjoy this place because it’s just so goddamn packed.

I did have some[ Korean fried chicken](https://i.imgur.com/O3P8K6J.jpeg) (of course…) at a place that was REALLY good at the time. Service was great, food was great, portions were great… all of that was gone once borders reopened. I went to the same place another two times in 2023 and the quality of everything fell off a cliff…

Speaking of open borders – the one BIG news that hit while I was taking a small break from travel in Tokyo was that Japan would open its borders to foreign tourists in mid-October again. My first reaction was “Hell yeah, my friends can visit me!” but that was quickly followed by “Oh fuck…”. This was a very selfish thing to think, but I immediately thought about how much cost and availability of accommodations would change. In hindsight, I should have probably immediately spent a bunch of time planning out months in advance but it was also somewhat difficult for me because I wanted to stay as flexible as possible. Either way – the looming return of tourism certainly did stress me out a bit because while I did have a lot of money saved up, I kind of banked on Japan not reopening until March/April. Oh well, such was life!

**[Kamakura](https://imgur.com/a/wwJdgv9)**

Somehow I have never been to Kamakura at that point in time and I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. Another one of many places I am glad to have experienced back then because now it is probably swarmed with people and having all the temples and the buddha relatively empty was amazing. I also took a bit of a hike around, visiting some more off the beaten path areas. There is a one day itinerary for Kamakura on Japan Guide and I think I basically walked to places that were on that itinerary. Once again, mosquitos struck and I had to deal with bites that itched for a solid week and red dots that did not disappear for two. So, if you plan on going to Japan in September, unless it is Hokkaido, please get yourself some mosquito repellant.

**[Sapporo 2.0](https://imgur.com/a/mth6sSn)**

Now, as the title stated, this was the first time I made a mistake and unfortunately, Sapporo was that mistake. Not only did I take the Shinkansen + LE up there, which was way more expensive than a flight, but the trip itself was just a waste because – as I should have researched far better – Autumn colours were still a while away from appearing. Moreover, the Anime Bar I mentioned in my August report was already beginning to decline. Many of the staff members I got to know stopped working there which had sort of a big impact on the atmosphere.

There were some random cosplay events during this visit where I got to take pictures of a bunch of really well done cosplays. Here’s a pretty convincing [Majima](https://i.imgur.com/oxmGJKZ.jpeg) from the Yakuza series, as an example. I also got to attend the Sapporo Rainbow Pride with the American friend I made a month prior. Overall, I just can’t look back at this trip to Sapporo too positively, because it cost a whole lot of money and most of the things that made the previous visit great were just absent. I didn’t want to just return to Tokyo again so I decided to take a trip down to Sendai and stay there for a few days so the trip back wasn’t just another shinkansen ride.

If you are ever planning to go to Sapporo but _don’t_ have any plans to stay anywhere along the route from Tokyo up to Sapporo (Sendai, Aomori, Hakodate, Noboribetsu, Toya-ko), you should take a flight. They’re usually cheaper and faster.

**Shiogama + Matsushima**

I took an early train from Sendai to Hon-Shiogama station because I wanted to check the area out and then take the boat ride to Matsushima. [Shiogama shrine](https://imgur.com/a/PjGAKru) is a short walk away from the station and it looked fantastic in Summer. Originally, I had planned to eat some seafood in the area since Shiogama is famous for having the most sushi restaurant per capita in Japan but I wasn’t really hungry at that point so I decided to take the boat ride from Shiogama to Matsushima.

Matsushima is famous for having one of the 3 great views of Japan. Dozens upon dozens of islands are dotted around the bay and the boat ride had two options, one that takes you directly to Matsushima and one that takes a little detour around a bunch of those islands. I can’t remember exactly which route it is but I do recall that it was fairly obvious when buying the tickets which course was which. I can wholeheartedly recommend the [detour](https://imgur.com/a/rJC4mx4)! Some of the little islands feel like they were manmade, their formations and holes looking like someone purposely built them that way. Once we docked at Matsushima bay, I made my way over to Zuigan-ji and Entsuin temple.

Again, the scenery in Summer is [incredible](https://imgur.com/a/n5UecAf) and the vivid green of the tree leaves and moss all over the place gave the temple grounds a really nice tone. If you want to visit Matsushima, definitely check this place out since it is basically right across the bay anyway. When I left the temple grounds, I decided to finally eat something and settled for a small [seafood](https://i.imgur.com/ZaoaP8f.jpeg) place nearby. As mentioned before, this entire area is supposed to have some fantastic seafood and the kaisendon I ordered was delicious. That being said – I am not a connoisseur so whether this was better than the one I had in Sapporo, I couldn’t tell. It’s probably all mostly a marketing thing 😛

Once I finished up with my meal, I walked across the long, red bridge connecting the bay with [Fukuurajima](https://imgur.com/a/nzMDMss) and walked a loop around it. One thing to mention is that there is a small fee to walk across the bridge. I do not remember exactly how much it was, but it couldn’t have been more than like 300 yen. This was a more quiet area with a lot of shade and a different angle to view the bay from. I was running kinda late and sun was starting to set, so I made my way back to the bay, took a few final [photos](https://imgur.com/a/1cinkTr) and had a “Man, I can’t believe I am here and looking at this.” moment where I got a bit emotional haha.

**Yamadera**

Ever since I saw this temple in a Youtube video, I wanted to visit it and the weather forecast was looking great a day before I actually went. But alas, on the day I actually took the train ride, the weather gods wanted to be a little bit nasty and made it rain! Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and perhaps it added a bit to the atmosphere. Yamadera is a temple built on a mountain side. It is quite a bit of a walk up to it but my god was it beautiful all around. You basically hike through the foresty mountainside, past a few [shrines](https://imgur.com/a/Io8GV52) (?) up to the top, through big gates and over stone steps. Had to be a bit careful since they get rather slippery when it’s raining, though. Also, the hike can get rather steep and there are a lot of steps so if you plan on going here, please keep that in mind.

That being said, the view from the top is nothing short of [breathtaking](https://imgur.com/a/C2QWM5t). My shitty Pixel 4 camera does not do this place any justice. The mountains look incredible and I suppose the rainy weather made it look more “atmospheric” (for lack of a better word) with the fog hugging the hills/mountains. This is an absolute MUST see if you are ever near Sendai or in Yamagata prefecture itself. Never got to see it in Autumn, but from the videos and pictures on the internet, it’s even better during that season.

Stayed up here for a bit, admiring the view and then headed back down slowly, got some lunch and then headed back to Sendai. I ended my stint there by splurging on some [Sendai beef](https://i.imgur.com/7eeCGH8.jpeg), which cost about 12.000 yen but was very much worth it. Not something I would order every week but I doubt I’ll be in Sendai any time soon, so I wanted to try the beef there and it didn’t disappoint.

**Summary**

That was basically it for September. When I think back and if someone asked me which month I’d do differently, I’d definitely say September. That second Sapporo trip really put an unnecessary dent into my wallet, wasn’t all that great and I would have maybe at least planned out a couple of things differently due to the borders reopening at the time. Perhaps this is reflected in this post’s quality; I put off writing this one for a while because I view it as kind of an annoying month, even if it wasn’t all _that_ bad.

But the trip to Sendai/Matsushima/Yamadera was still very much worth it and if you have any questions, go right ahead! The next report will come shortly because as I said at the start, I have been slacking lately and maybe there are still some people who are interested in reading about the rest of my “adventures”.

by Dumbidiot1323

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