One year in Japan – The Open Air Sauna (June – July 2022)

Hello everyone,

it has been several months since I have returned from Japan and I have finally decided to write this multi-part trip report, not only to give people ideas about visiting some less famous spots in the country, but also to finally get some closure on this incredible year in my life that may just never be topped. The plan is to release this report in multiple parts. These reports will include pictures, advice, interesting tidbits, personal favourites and more. I’ve travelled all over the country, from top to the very bottom and all things in between – so hope there is a city or activity that somebody has always thought about visiting or doing in here somewhere.

A short summary of how or why I decided to go to Japan for a year: pandemic was bad for mental health, job was bad, decided to quit and apply for a working holiday visa and not work a single minute while spending 7 years worth of savings like all those people in reddit stories I’ve read over the years. With that said, onward to the actual report!

**June 2022**

Flights went well, they were as empty as can be (no surprise there) and from the moment I stepped out of the plane at Narita airport to me sitting on the Skyliner, it took 30 minutes. I expected this but still, having been to Japan three times prior to this trip, it felt absolutely surreal to see at most like 100 people at the airport. It felt like a ghost town but I was also surprised to see automatic gates for customs QR codes, which made getting out of the airport even easier than in previous years.

After taking the Skyliner, I switched trains and arrived at my first place of stay, which was the Belken Hotel Kanda. Typical business hotel, small room but I think it was pretty recently opened when I got there so everything was still in great shape, no complaints from my side. If anyone ever sees this hotel and thinks about booking, I can definitely recommend it as the location is good, relatively close to the JR Kanda station and if you like all things anime – Akihabara is about 10 minutes away from here.

My second stay was in an Airbnb near Sangenjaya. Not only my first Airbnb experience but also the first time sharing a home with the family living there. I quite enjoyed being just a tad away from central Tokyo as Sangejaya is surprisingly quiet and I spent a bunch of afternoons at Setagaya park, since it was on my way back “home” and usually nice and quiet. Gotokuji temple is amazing and there are a LOT of manekineko statues around. For some stupid reason, I completely forgot to take pictures on that day but I’d say if you are ever in Shimokitazawa (which has gotten pretty popular these days) and have time to spare, I’d recommend going to Gotokuji temple.

To be honest, I spent most of June revisiting old places and trying not to die from the already humid summer. People told me June would be rainy season but in 2022, it must have rained a whole 5 days in June and the rest was just hot and humid misery. That being said, seeing all these places I have previously visited but this time without hordes of people was an entirely different experience and the more I think about it, the more I realise just how lucky I was to experience a rather “empty” Japan. I am sure I will bring this up several times throughout the multiple posts – forgive me.

So here are a couple of things I actually did do and took pictures of, the rest of my time was just me “living” and exploring.

Kyu-Furukawa Gardens are known for their roses, which were kind of past their peak at this point in time but I’d later revisit this place during the perfect time (sometimes around April/May IIRC) and the place is close to Rikugien – the far more popular and spectacular place to visit, especially during fall. If you are close-by, I’d recommend this place during Fall and Spring.

A lot of people seem to go to Odaiba but rarely do I see people mention that you can actually _walk_ across Rainbow Bridge. To get there, you would need to get to Shibaura-futo station on the Yurikamome line and then just follow Google maps to “Rainbow Bridge promenade”. Opening hours are 9am to 9pm in Summer (April – October) and 10am to 6pm in Winter (November – March) and it’s free. There are two sides you can walk – North or South. In my opinion, the best way to walk here is to take the southern route on your way to Odaiba during sunset so you can see all the lights on Odaiba and the bay turn on as you make your way there and then – after perhaps exploring some of Odaiba – walk back on the northern side since that one shows the Tokyo skyline, including Tokyo Tower at night. Do mind the last entry times/opening times though.

– [Sensoji](https://imgur.com/a/Du1ZV78)

– [Kyu-Furukawa Gardens](https://imgur.com/a/WZrtOWp)

– [Rainbow Bridge](https://imgur.com/a/dIWtp8z) (Walkway; more in future posts because I missed the night time view on my first visit)

– [Koishikawa Botanical Garden](https://imgur.com/a/VY3Eq7f)

– [Random pictures](https://imgur.com/a/3QV536A)

**July 2022**

After a month of me just wandering about and trying to acclimatise (didn’t work btw), it was time to actually get out of central Tokyo proper as I had booked an Airbnb in Machida; Tsurukawa to be exact, around 45 minutes from Shinjuku. To put things in perspective: at the time of me booking that Airbnb, it cost _700€_ for one entire month there. And this place had a bedroom, a proper kitchen and a bathroom with no shared spaces – basically a small apartment just for myself. Another bonus of being in Japan while “normal” tourism wasn’t possible – prices for accommodation were incredibly low for most of 2022.

Not only that – the host of this Airbnb was one of the kindest people I have met in my entire year! We share a love for curry – especially CoCo curry – and this would prompt him to invite me to another Airbnb host’s curry dinner twice. Well, that and two CoCo curry vists… This was among my favourite places to stay in and since I stayed in Machida for a month, it started to feel like “home”. The area was quiet, still had everything you need and there were quite a few parks/gardens (see pictures below). While I did enjoy staying in this area A LOT, I don’t think it’s worth going out of your way to go here since there isn’t too much touristy stuff to do here.

That being said – and this is for all the people eyeing summer visits to Japan – July was _brutal_. It was consistently 35°C with >90% humidity, making it feel like an oven you can’t escape from. This is also the main reason as to why I didn’t do that much outdoors. I forced myself to go out every now and then but almost always immediately regretted my decisions because of the weather.

Another thing people do not think of or fail to mention when talking about summer in Japan: if you are anywhere that is even remotely “countryside”, prepare your mosquito repellent because the mosquitos really did a number on me. Never have I had such strong reactions to mosquito bites; big red spots that were itching like crazy for days and took WEEKS to completely disappear. If you find yourself in Japan during summer (again, just don’t go to Japan in summer unless it’s Hokkaido or your only chance to go to Japan) and fall victim to mosquitos, Terra-Cortril helped a bit with the itching. You can get that in every drug store. I used “Skin Vape” as well whenever I went out and it did help, reducing the number of bites I had to 0 whenever I put it on.

I finished the month off with a daytrip to Yokohama. On one hand, it was fun, on the other… I was drenched in sweat and also stained my shirt with mapo noodle oil which probably made me look disgusting. Not my proudest day but oh well, many lessons learned. But I got some pretty good pictures from the tower, including Fuji during sunset.

– [Tsurukawa and surrounding area](https://imgur.com/a/t7YT9Jg)

– [Shikisai no Mori Yakushiike Park](https://imgur.com/a/pQCoABu)

– [Sunset Hill \(Sakuragaoka Park\)](https://imgur.com/a/Cx5dVu8)

– [Yokohama](https://imgur.com/a/jzzyNGe)

– [Food pics](https://imgur.com/a/giZkWcf)

I planned for each thread to cover 3 months but…well, this is already too long and given how eventful August was, I doubt I can fit that in here as well. August would be the first month I properly travelled around, so there’s going to be a lot more sightseeing stuff in the next post that I will surely write…soon™.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!