Well, it’s been a whirlwind time here in Japan. I’m writing from a trendy cafe in Tokyo, craft beer in hand and jazz on the truly ostentatious sound system taking up one whole wall of the room. It’s my last night here, though by the time I get this finished and posted I’m sure I’ll already be gone. Tomorrow afternoon I’ve got a flight to Hong Kong, so let’s look back at this trip through Japan. Strap in, this is gonna be a long one with a lot of photos.

My next stop after the last post was Matsuyama, the biggest city on Shikoku. I stayed in an area called Mitsu, which I believe used to be a bustling hotspot but is now much quieter. It’s where the port is, so the seafood is extremely fresh, and it also has its own style of okonomiyaki, not too dissimilar from the style in Hiroshima. I was still sick as a dog during my time in Matsuyama so I took it very easy, with just a bit of beer from my hostel, the aforementioned delicious okonomiyaki, a day of casual strolling up to a viewpoint, and a visit to Matsuyama castle. One highlight were the kites (as in birds of prey): I don’t know if it was because of the fishing activity, the thermals from the seaside cliff, or some other reason, but there were always at least a half dozen kites circling around. They’re really beautiful animals and I spent lots of time trying to photograph them, to little avail.

On the recommendation of the guesthouse owner from Takamatsu I booked one night in Ozu, a small town a little bit west of Matsuyama. This was one of my favorite stopovers of the trip. It has a beautiful little old town with lots of narrow roads and traditional buildings, but wasn’t crowded at all. I had a really nice relaxing day just ducking in and out of all the little alleys I could find, taking pictures, strolling around. I also had one of my favorite meals in Ozu. It was at a little restaurant run by a guy in his 40s and his parents, and I got to try tai-meshi, the typical dish in the area. Tai is sea bream, and tai meshi is pieces of sea bream sashimi in a delicious gingery-wasabi sauce (if I remember correctly) which you stir a raw egg into, and then pour over rice and eat. Very, very tasty. Even better than the dinner was the company. The restaurant was owned and run by a very nice man named Aoki and his elderly parents. Aoki had spent about a year in the US when he was 25 and takes every chance he can to practice his English when foreigners come in. So not only did I have a delicious dinner, but when the other customers finished Aoki came out for a chat. He was incredibly nice and friendly and, after a couple of weeks where the most social interaction I’d had was pointing at the thing I wanted on a menu, it felt great to actually converse a little bit.

After Ozu my plan had originally been to take the ferry over to Kyushu and then go down the east coast, but I was still sick and just didn’t feel up to trying to figure that out, so I switched it up and booked a few nights in Hiroshima to basically just rest and recuperate. Hiroshima was a bit of a strange experience. I thought it was interesting and valuable to check out the museum and see some of the personal accounts of the atomic bombing, and to really consider the devastation of war on a more personal or individual level. At the same time, Hiroshima was much, much more touristy than Shikoku, and it just made me feel… off that it’s such a tourist destination, and the reason why. It’s not that anyone’s doing anything wrong in visiting, obviously, but it made me feel a bit strange all the same.

I had been waiting to see how my recovery would go in Hiroshima before deciding on my next step, and luckily I started feeling much better pretty soon after getting there. My friend Alex in Australia had recommended Yakushima and it sounded right up my alley, so since I was feeling better I skedaddled on down there. The first stop was Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, where I would catch the ferry to Yakushima. I only spent one night in Kagoshima and the highlight was Sakurajima, the big smoking volcano just off the coast. I hiked up to a viewpoint for sunset and had a great time just staring at the volcano, and the next morning I was off to the ferry.

Yakushima is a small island off the southern tip of Kyushu and one of the rainiest, and therefore mossiest, places in Japan. There’s a ring road around the outside and the middle is all just mountain and forest, with the forest getting more protected/untouched the farther inland you go. It’s famous for the beautiful forest, in particular the moss and giant cedar trees, and for the populations of monkeys and deer that hang around. Apparently as a consequence of their being isolated on a small island the monkeys and the deer have both shrunk, making them extra cute. My first day there I went for a nice long hike in the forest, which was as spectacular as advertised. The cedar trees take on fantastical shapes, with huge gnarled root systems and bulky bodies and trees growing out of stumps, all covered in various amounts of deep green moss. There are massive boulders and lots of streams and, once you’ve gotten away from the most trafficked areas, it’s an incredibly peaceful place. For my second day I booked a tour of the island so that I could check out the UNESCO world heritage protected area in the west, which is very difficult to get to using the island’s limited public transit system. The tour was, frankly, quite disappointing, but there were a couple of pronounced highlights, specifically checking out some big groups of monkeys and a couple of spectacular waterfalls.

After another quick stopover in Kagoshima I only had four nights before meeting friends in Kyoto, so I decided to do two nights in Fukuoka and two in Himeji. I didn’t do much in Fukuoka—checked out a couple of gardens, hung out in beautiful Ohori Park, went up Fukuoka tower to check out the view, had some tasty food. Himeji’s main attraction is its castle—one of only twelve (I believe) that retain their original design, and apparently the most spectacular of those twelve. The Himeji train station has a castle exit, and it’s honestly breathtaking, with the castle looming in the distance the moment you set foot outside. Visiting the castle itself was nice, though honestly I preferred wandering around the grounds and checking out the neighboring garden to the castle keep itself, probably because it was so crowded that they were limiting entries and the top floor of the castle was packed wall to wall, almost provoking an attack of claustrophobia in your not-at-all-claustrophobic correspondent. So a mixed bag.

And then! Finally! Friends! I can’t even express how good it was to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world. People often ask whether I get lonely living like this, and the answer is of course I do sometimes. The biggest thing isn’t finding people to do activities or have a laugh with though, it’s missing the people that I’m really really close to, that I can be my whole self around, that understand all my references and like to joke around the same way I do. Daniel, Jennifer, Chris, Michelle, and now baby Edith are those people (among others—don’t feel left out dear reader). Our week and a half in Kyoto was a balancing act—they understandably wanted to make the most of their trip halfway around the world and check out some sights, while I mostly just wanted to see them and avoid the crowds. Kyoto is very touristy, and we were there right as cherry blossom season was starting, so there were lots and lots of people. We still managed to fit in some fun activities though—a quick trip to see the deer in Nara, an evening light show at a temple nearby, strolling by the river, yummy food. We were a bit limited by Daniel falling deathly ill and Edith’s continuing adjustment to time zones and overstimulation and everything, but that just meant more downtime, which suited me fine. I especially relished the chance to spend some time with Edith. She’s in a bit of a shy phase so it was a slow process to gain her trust, but we spent lots of time together and by the end were doing hugs and kisses, and she even gave me the chance to change my first poopy diaper.

The time in Kyoto went by in a flash, and the next thing I knew I was holding back tears while giving Edith a hug goodbye. Next stop: Fuji. I never got a glimpse of Mt Fuji on my first trip to Japan and was really hoping to see it this time. April weather was always going to make it tricky, so I booked four nights, two in the town of Fuji and two in a tiny fishing town called Heda with views of Fuji across the bay. My Fuji peeping didn’t start out very promising—it was rainy and gloomy on my travel day, and pretty much stayed that way for my whole time in Fuji. The trip to Heda was, again, on a very rainy day. I didn’t like my chances of getting to see Fuji at all, but I did enjoy the drive in to Heda, which winds up through the mountains that were completely covered in clouds that day.

Heda turned out to be an adorable little town with incredibly fresh seafood, rows of beautiful cherry trees by the river without massive crowds, and tasty coffee at my comfortable hostel. The only question was whether I’d get a glimpse of Mt Fuji. My hostel sat right on the waterfront of a bay with a narrow opening to the northwest, so the view of Fuji required walking a ways around the bay to get to its southern and then eastern sides, peeking between each gap in the buildings to see if I could catch a glimpse. It was a somewhat cloudy day and I figured it was a lost cause, but the walk would be nice anyway. After a particularly long stretch of buildings blocking the view, I came out into a parking lot expecting more blank cloudy vistas, and BAM! There it was. The surprise added to the experience, but either way I can’t really describe what it’s like to look at Mt Fuji. It’s just mesmerizing. During my stay the bottom of the mountain was blocked by clouds, so the perfectly conical, snow covered top just floated out above the city beneath it. It dominates the vista, looming over whatever happens to be in the foreground—fishing boats, torii gates, or just an expanse of water. I spent at least an hour just admiring it from all different vantage points, and I honestly had trouble tearing myself away. This was an experience that absolutely lived up to expectations.

Having drunk my fill of Mt Fuji there was nothing left to do but head to Tokyo for my last few days in Japan. On my first day I got to meet up with my friend EB and meet her husband Taiki, which was an unexpected and very fun encounter. We strolled around the impressive buildings and even more impressive forest of Meiji shrine, and then had an awesome dinner at an izakaya they had looked up. Taiki speaks Japanese, and they’re both adventurous eaters like me, so we tried a bunch of different dishes that I never would’ve been able to otherwise. The dinner was great and the company was even better.

The next day I checked out Shinjuku Gyoen, a huge park with a greenhouse, lots of cherry trees, a traditional Japanese garden, and enough space for a good long wander. I had a great day seeing that and just strolling around. Even though it’s a crazy mega-metropolis I really like Tokyo. There’s lots going on without it being overwhelming, and there’s more of a sense of people living there and just going about their lives rather than drowning in a sea of tourists (depending on the area, obviously). The other highlight of my time in Tokyo was catching up with my friend Kieko, whom I’d met 12 years ago on my first visit when she helped me and the other guy from my hostel find our way home when we were lost in the middle of the night. It was awesome catching up and swapping stories, meeting her Brazilian boyfriend and practicing some Portuguese, eating incredibly tasty food, and going for a long sunny stroll by the river. Really the perfect capper to my time in Japan.

Next stop: Hong Kong. My flight to Bali was on Hong Kong airlines and for a negligible sum they let me extend my layover to several days, so I decided to give myself a little bit of time to see just how much dim sum I could fit into my body and to check out the megacity vs tropical mountains contrasts. We’ve time traveled since the beginning of this post—it’s now two days later, I got in last night, and I’m having a great time here. I’m staying in Kowloon, which is apparently the grittier (and cheaper—Hong Kong is very expensive) area to Hong Kong Island’s polished, business-y vibe, at least in places. Right away it was clear that there’s a different kind of energy here. While Tokyo is massive and crowded, the streets get very quiet at night. Here, on the other hand, at 11pm the streets were still chock full of people, all kinds of delicious smells, neon lights everywhere, just lots going on. I’m balancing laziness with a desire to hit all the highlights, and I’m sure either way it’ll be a great few days.