Glimpses of Japan

 Back in August, I hiked Mt. Fuji for the first time with my friends. Mt. Fuji is probably the mountain I’ve seen the most - it’s apparent from various places in the greater Kanto area.  I was fortunate that I was able to hike in nice weather. The forecast did not look good until two days before the planned day, which made me worry, and I wasn’t sure if I could go until the day before. As a result, we could enjoy hiking in beautiful weather, which turned out to be one of the best hiking experiences ever.  The hiking route was well-maintained with many signs, and every restroom was clean, as it’s a world heritage. I was surprised to see some mountain huts even sell clothes! I stayed at the closest mountain hut from the summit, called the eighth station Tomoe-kan. Although it was mostly cloudy, I could see the sunrise and hike around the Ohachi-Meguri trail to the highest point in Japan, Kengamine.  Day1 We arrived at the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station around 11:00 AM wi...

As practicing hiking as my hobby, Mt. Nabewari was one of my top-list of trails that I had been willing to visit someday. Mt. Nabewari is not famous for its trails nor shrines; it's known for a hot bowl of udon noodles served at the rest house at the peak of the mountain. I waited until the beginning of December to fully enjoy a warm bowl of udon and leeches. Tanzawa Mountain Range, which includes Mt. Nabewari, is a habitat of leeches, and I heard many people bit by leeches during summer.  So I decided to hike Mt. Nabewari on the first Saturday in December 2020. The weather forecast was sunny, but it turned out to be rain, which made it a tough hike.  I left my house at 4:40 AM to catch the earliest bus from Odakyu Line Shibusawa Station to Okura Bus Stop. Okura Bus Stop is the most common bus stop to hike Mt. Nabewari.  There is a building with a shop, benches, and restrooms near the bus stop where hikers can prepare to start hiking. You can also submit hiking registrati...

I visited the National Museum of Japanese History on November 28, 2020. It's a huge museum of Japanese history that houses and displays 200,000 artifacts focused on history and culture in Japan. The most interesting part about this museum is that it's focused on culture (folklore) in Japan; I feel some cultural anthropological viewpoint here.  The huge museum consists of 6 galleries, each having different themes. I visited the museum for the first time to see their special exhibition, " Gender in Japanese History ."  The special exhibition focused on different times in history and explained how female was presented in each time. It might be surprising to some people to learn that women had quite a power in the Japanese culture in political, financial, family, etc., point of views. Many females had power in feudal times, supporting her husband samurais to govern their areas. Females had taken a lot of part in farming, too. They lost much power after the Meiji Period, a...

I recently visited an exhibition "Landscape of Japan’s Food Culture—Tradition of Eating-out" at the National Museum of Japanese History .  Although the exhibition was not significant, it was interesting to learn some facts about Japanese culture regarding eating-out. I never had an opportunity to see Japanese eating-out culture in such a way.  I became interested in one book that was interested related to this exhibition, " Culture and History of Lunch in Japan (日本人のひるめし) ." The book is not translated into English, so the title is my translation. Forgive me if it's not accurate.  The book turned out to be super interesting with lots of findings. I had never thought about our lunch culture. As the author pointed out, lunch is the least valued meal of the day in Japan. On the other hand, breakfast is the least valued meal in Europe as the origin of the word breakfast means to "break" "fast" between dinner and lunch on the day after.  The author...

Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery is a Japanese whisky distillery located in Hokkaido. It’s the home to Nikka Whisky, which is one of the oldest and biggest producers of Japanese whisky. I visited the distillery in 2017 summer and had an amazing time at their museums, whisky bars, and the tour. The entrance of Yoichi Distillery looked like a European castle. The distillery was established in 1934 as a “dream place” to create whisky to the father of Japanese whisky Masataka Taketsuru. He looked all over Japan for the perfect place to create his dream whisky. Yoichi was a perfect place, having the similar climate to Scotland. Getting around the distillery You can choose to participate in the guided distillery tour or just walk freely. The guided tour is conducted in Japanese only, but it includes opportunities to visit tour participants-limited sights, too. If you are walking freely, they have a guidance smartphone app to help you find the way. They also have multilingual pamphlets....