1. Eat Sushi (回転寿司)
If you have the money to splash, you can choose the very high end sushi shop with minimum expenditure around 30000 yen per person (RM1200 / USD 380). If on budget, one can choose the conveyor belt sushi shop (of course, there are expensive type too). I prefer the 105 yen per plate type shop, one can eat until very full without worrying about the bill. Once, I went to a not so cheap conveyor belt sushi shop (the price range from 105 yen to 1005 yen per plate), I kept counting how much I have eaten, so it minus out the joy of eating.
2. Speak Japanese
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. So, in Japan, one can try to speak Japanese. Even a simple Arigatougozaimasu ありがとうございます (thank you very much) will make people happy.
3. Take the trains
Japan is one of the countries with many types of trains. Bullet trains (新幹線), superexpress (超特急), express (特急), kaisoku (快速), normal (普通), steam locomotives and some themed train ride. The most significant is the bullet train / Shinkansen, one can feel the speed and it is relatively stable compared to normal train. The only down side was it was so expensive!
However, if one travel in Japan with JR pass, one can take the Shinkansen as many times as one like. The 7 days pass cost around 38000 yen only, although cannot take ‘Nozomi’ and ‘Mizuho’ with that JR pass, one can choose from ‘Hikari’, ‘Sakura’, ‘Kodama’’ and ‘Tsubame’.
I had tried all the shinkansen mentioned above either during travels or business trips. All rides were nice. However, in terms of appearances, ‘Hikari’ and ‘Kodama’ were not so beautiful. Probably they were quite old already. In terms of toilet, I must say this, ‘Tsubame’ (Kumamoto – Hakata) has the most spacious toilet, very comfortable! The seats were nice and a lot of foot space too, even for the non-reserved seats. Hahaha, anyway, I never take reserved seat. It is a bit more expensive.
Other than that, the super express trains are not bad too!
4. Wear Kimono着物 / Yukata 浴衣
Kimono is Japan traditional wear. There are many Kimono rental shops around famous tourist attractions. It was very expensive to own a set of Kimono and all the related accessories. However, Yukata is cheaper to own. During summer, especially fireworks time, a lot of girls will wear Yukata with obi. It was a display of colours. The female Yukata is colourful and the choices are a lot, visit malls or supermarkets during summer time, one can see many beautiful Yukata on sale. The male Yukata mostly are in pale colours, blue, black, chocolate and not so many patterns compared to the female one.
5. Watch Hanabi 花火大会
Speaking about Hanabi (fireworks display), there are many Hanabi in Japan during summer. From July to September, almost every week, there will be Hanabi, it is more frequent during August. The Hanabi is a 30 minutes long fireworks display, very amazing! So far, I have been to two Hanabi, one in Arao and another in Kokura.
http://hanabi.walkerplus.com/kaisai/ (the calendar of Japan Hanabi)
6. Visit Maid café / Butler café
I have never visit these themed café. It was more popular in Tokyo. I think it was difficult to find one in Kyushu. Anyway, my friends in Tokyo had visited both maid café and butler café. They said that it was kind of fun. My gal friends were pampered and treated like a princess in a butler café, all were given a crown and if requested, the ‘butler’ will give a ‘princess hug’! My friends said that all the butlers were very mouth watering too!
7. Hanami 花見
If you visit Japan during sakura (cherry blossom 桜) season, you are in luck. Sakura is big in Japan, almost every streets have sakura tree from Hokkaido (north) to Okinawa (south). There are many types of sakura, personally I like the red one. However, the most common one is white sakura.
Hana 花 means flower in Japanese. While mi 見 means see in Japanese. Hanami 花見 is picnic under a blooming sakura tree with friends and families. It is not only a gathering to view flowers, it was a symbol for all things are not permanent, and we should appreciate while it still lasts. Actually, before sakura season, it would be ume season 梅 (plum flower). After 2 sakura seasons in Japan, I still cannot differentiate between ume and sakura. My friend told me that Ume flowers are more fragrant than sakura. However, I couldn’t smell that too.
8. Bath in Onsen 温泉
There are many hot springs in Japan and Japanese love their hot springs (onsen 温泉), you can find it in every prefectures and cities. Some companies even provide home delivery service for hot spring water. Onsen is dip in a hot spring pool naked after bath. There are pools for male only, female only and mix. However, in the mix onsen, most probably you can only find old men there. If there is any girl, high chances that she is accompanied by boy friend or husband for cover. One of my male friends said that, “I will never let my girlfriend / wife go into the mix onsen!” Many shared his sentiment.
One thing though, onsen is so not suitable during summer, but it feels good during winter, spring and autumn, especially during winter for outdoor onsen, imagine this, the snow falls on your body while you dip in a hot onsen water, it is so 気持ちいい.
9. Visit local festival お祭り
There are many festivals in Japan. Some small, some big. There will be stalls selling fried foods, barbequed meat, yakisoba, takoyaki, gold fish (not for eaten), toy, etc. You can find the information on the local government websites. There will be parades, people dressed in traditional gears and so on. This will make you understand more about Japanese culture.
10. Go for a class on Tea Ceremony
Others like watch sumo wrestling and sing karaoke are not bad too. However, playing in pachinko is not so good because it is a type of gambling.
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