It’s been half a month since I came back from my trip to Japan. Perhaps it’s time to write something about it before my memories starts to wear off. Like I always said, I love travelling. What a wonderful way it is to break off the routines, to explore the world, and to experience something fresh new. To a Chinese, Japan is a mythical place that could easily inspire emotions, love or hate, or both at the same time. To visit it in a time when Sakura had so fell and still long way to go before the leaves turn red, we went majorly for its culture, which rooted in China but has diversified so much over the long history. It is the second time that we have been to Japan. The last time was more than a few years ago when we went there for an 8 days’ package tour. Honestly there wasn’t much left from that trip. Now, after already transitioning from a tourist, who contented with seeing what is expected to see, into a traveler, who likes to see what comes to see and likes to feel like a local, this time I prefer DIY, definitely a DIY tour.

A DIY tour usually involves a lot of planning, reservations, and researches in advance. We were a group of six, four adults and two kids. None of the others had the least interests in trip preparation. They either eyed me in a rather innocent way and said: “You lead, we’ll follow.” or had a mysterious faith in “Let’s free style”. Given no other options, I had to take fully responsible for this trip. The forehead work sometimes was annoyingly detailed, and you had to take everything into consideration. But it was worth it. I had learned a lot during this period. I even read some books about Japanese history and I found its Warring States Period rather enchanting. So many interesting people and stories emerged from that troubled times. The planning period was almost as interesting as the trip itself. It’s like somehow that I had managed to prolong this trip in an unexpected way.

Here are some useful trip tips:

Hotel or Guest house? The thing that had troubled me the most was where to stay. In Japan, even some so-called five star hotels have rather small rooms. Double-beds usually means two 1.1*2.0 meters bed. Last time my son was just 6 years old, we could manage to make do with it. However, now he was already 10 years old, which ruled out most of the standard rooms. I made reservations almost two months in advance and still I found that most of the triple beds had been fully booked.  Finally, I turned my eyes to Guest houses, like Airbnb, and the result was rather satisfactory. We chose two guest houses to stay, one in Osaka, one in Hiroshima. Both apartment has three bedrooms (two of them are Japanese), one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom, small but fully equipped. The bathroom is a bit small, but at only half cost of the hotel, we couldn’t expect more.  Besides, it’s a great opportunity to experience like the local. After this trip, we almost fell in love with futons, ---the great way of sleeping.

Transportation: The difficult but most important part for a DIY tour in Japan is to straighten its complex transportation system out. Japan has the most complicate and powerful public transportation system that I’ve never seen. The system of railways and subways is like a giant spider web, reaching to almost every corner of its cities. Time had long past when we’d looked in awe at those high buildings in foreign countries and felt inferior. However, I do realize that we still have some way to go in face of Japanese Public Transportation Systems.  In every station, many trains arrive and leave by few minutes, by multiple routes, but always on time. So for the travelers, it is the best way to travel in Japan. No traffic jams, no delays, and it can take you to almost any place you want.