Minakami: Wet and Wild

Ski slopes at Tanigawa

Located just north of Tokyo, Gunma prefecture is largely known for its mountainous scenery and plentiful hot spring. While Kusatsu (also in Gunma) may be one of Japan’s most famous hot spring towns, head further north to Minakami Onsen if you prefer add outdoor adventure to your usual soak.

MINAKAMI ONSEN’S OUTDOOR BUFFET
Minakami has, in recent years, invented itself as more than just another hot spring destination. In winter, hot spring visitor arrivals peak, and the ski slopes nearby fill up with skiers of every level of ability. When the snow melts, springtime brings with it more than just the cherry blossom season.

Sliding down a waterfall

Thanks to its rugged mountains,  deep canyons and fast flowing rivers, you can add whitewater rafting, canyoning and caving to the list of activities. A number of adventure operators offer these tours in spring and summer, with the level of excitement peaking in spring when the meltwater turns up the notch on the thrill quotient.

Plenty of gorges are carved through this mountainous terrain, creating perfect environments for canyoning. Fox Canyons is perhaps the most popular itinerary, where you get to slip, jump and slide on natural waterfalls and long water chutes. It’s like a water theme park without the screaming kids and long queues.

Raging rapids at Tonegawa River

Classic whitewater rafting trips are also possible, with Class IV rapids happening in early spring, mellowing out by late summer.

Caving trips take you into the bowels of Minakami’s mountains, where you negotiate narrow tunnels and crevices via fixed ropes or by crawling on your belly, giving a new meaning to the word ‘claustrophobia’.

Of course, there are limitless hiking opportunities in the mountains. Mt. Tanigawa is one of Japan’s top 100 famous peaks, and plenty of hikers come here to tick it off their lists. The climb can essentially start from the Doai Railway Station: at 70m underground (which is a feat of engineering in itself), it takes about 10 minutes to negotiate the 486 steps.

Dam (replica) Curries

POST ADVENTURE
If all that climbing, sliding, paddling and swimming gets you all achy, just take your pick at one of dozens of hot spring resorts that line the Tonegawa river. There is even a pet-friendly hot spring hotel that has a bath specially for dogs!

To replenish your energy, take a walk around the quaint small town and sample a number of desserts. An unofficial ‘dessert trail’ takes you past a number of sweet offerings, whether you’re into western desserts (ie. custard pudding) or Japanese classics (ie. red-bean buns).

For a quirky main meal, try the ‘Dam Curry’ – which is basically rice served with curry sauce. The secret, however, is not in the sauce – it’s in the presentation.

Home on the (Mountain) Range: Gokayama

Ainokura village in Gokayama in winter

Mention ‘traditional Japan’, and images of geishas and samurais come to mind. While there’s not much scope these days to step into the shoes of a geisha or a samurai, you can still experience the traditional way of life in the mountain villages of Gokayama.

Ainokura from the viewpoint

GOKAYAMA
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Gokayama (meaning ’5 valleys’) is actually a collection of traditional villages that dot the picturesque – and remote – mountainous landscape of Toyama. The only access is by road; the nearest train station and airport are hours away.

These cutesy thatch-roofed farmhouses have stood here for hundreds of years, which in itself is a feat, considering there isn’t a single nail used in their construction, and the walls are paper-thin. Visiting them will really make you feel as if you’ve been transported back in time.

Due to the legendarily heavy snowfall in the region, these thatched roofs are built at a 60º angle so that they wouldn’t collapse from the weight of the snow. Thanks to the shape, these farmhouses are romantically called ‘gassho-zukuri’, or ‘hands in prayer’.

A typical Gokayama farmhouse

FEELS LIKE HOME?
The largest of the Gokayama villages is Ainokura, which consists of about 20 gassho-zukuri farmhouses. The best way to appreciate the village in its entirety is to trudge up a small hill to the designated viewpoint to get an aerial view.

Some of the houses have been converted into museums and B&Bs, while the rest are a collection of private houses (most residents are descendants of the original owners). While it’s tempting, you shouldn’t try and peek into the private houses (even though there is no lock on their paper-sliding front doors).

A better option is to spend a night in one of these designated B&B (minshuku) farmhouses, where you’ll get to experience an authentic traditional lifestyle, including waking at 6am to the sounds of a local folk song, Mugiya Bushi, through the village PA system.

A B&B in Ainokura

Lots of visitors overnight here from spring through autumn, but come the cold snowy winter, you’ll likely have the village to yourself. This is partially thanks to the fact that the houses remain pretty much unchanged since they were built – the walls are still paper thin, there are no real doors (only paper sliding-doors) between ‘rooms’, and there is no central heating or double glazing.

A classic irori with fresh trout

You can forget about Wifi or even an internet connection. Your mobile phone might not work here either. However, there is electricity (the only modern addition), and with that comes the quintessential Japanese addition to any home: electric bidet toilets with seat warmers!

However, the charm of spending the night at a gassho-zukuri isn’t in its creature comforts.

THINGS TO SEE AND DO
Around the village, you can pop into the museum or grab coffee from the village shop. In winter, you can see plenty of villagers on top of their snow-caked roofs. They’re not the local CCTV – they’re actually shovelling snow off their rooftops.

Come dinnertime, you’d better be hungry, because a grand feast will take place on the floor around the fireplace (irori). Fresh river fish, local tofu and mountain vegetables are just some of the items on the menu. Each person has their ozen (a small personal floor table), but the sheer number of dishes means that your dinner will also be spread around you on the floor.

Click to see a Kokiriko dance

There might also be a bowl of communal kotsuzake (sake flavoured with grilled mountain trout).

After dinner, there might even be entertainment in the form of a local dance called the kokiriko, which involves an instrument called the sasara – it’s a row of loud wooden clappers designed to rattle for your glutton-hazed attention (and possibly scare little children). The performers are local villagers who are passionate about reviving their age-old traditions.

SLEEP TIGHT
In a traditional village, communal bath houses are the way to go – and after a short stroll and a hot dip at a nearby bath house (sorry, no en suites here!), you’ll be ready for bed.

Heating comes in the form of a gas heater and a little hot coal satchel called a mametan anko, which you hold on for dear warmth under your futon. As you lie in bed staring at the ceiling, you can marvel at its unique no-nail construction. While the top floors are where the owners live today (it’s off limits to guests), silkworms used to occupy the space centuries ago when Japan was a major silk exporter.

As you lull yourself to sleep in this serene setting, don’t be alarmed by things that go whump in the night – it’s just the snow falling off the rooftops.

Yokohama: Journey to the Past

Forget quaint houses with thatched roofs and paper sliding doors, or multi-tiered temples with cherry tree gardens. Yokohama does not shout ‘Japan’ from the get-go, even when the city was founded as a port town way back in 1859.

Yokohama's modern skyline

THE WORLD COMES TO YOKOHAMA
The first thing that strikes you about Yokohama is that it’s very international – sure, it’s got international brands and companies and skyscrapers, but it’s more than that. Look closer at the city’s mishmash of architecture and you’ll see a European influence here, and Chinese influence there.

Along Bashamichi Street

The entire civic centre is chock-a-block with grand European-style buildings embellished with ionic columns, corniches, plasterwork and statues. Unlike neighbouring Tokyo’s skyscrapers, most buildings here don’t top more than several storeys high, and is reminiscent more of European cities than a Japanese metropolis (Yokohama is Japan’s second largest city).

It’s not so much a journey to the West as it is a journey to the past.

Head towards Yamate (nicknamed ‘The Bluff’ in its heyday) and you’ll see more Western influence in the various ostentatious European and American-style houses from the early 20th century. The area used to house foreign dignitaries and traders, and is today still a prime area for Yokohama’s expats.

An American Victorian-style house in Yamate

More foreign influence can be seen in Chinatown (Motomachi Chukagai) – which happens to be one of the world’s largest. As you’d expect, gaudy colours and plenty of steamed buns are on offer here.

Get your fortunes here

You can also have a go at trying a variety of ramen, or noodles (another Chinese influence), at the kitschy 1950s-themed Shinyokohama Raumen Museum, or simply invent your own flavours at the decidedly modern Cup Noodles Museum.

JAPAN IN YOKOHAMA
If you want quaint houses with thatched roofs and paper sliding doors, or multi-tiered temples with cherry tree gardens, you can also find them in Yokohama. You just have to travel outside the city centre to Sankeien.

As you enter the gates, you’re greeted by a classic multi-tiered temple that towers over a row of trees. Here, a line of precision-trimmed bushes and trees lead you into the Inner Garden, which was once the private sanctum of the owner who was a prominent businessman from Yokohama.

The Inner Garden is the true gem of Sankeien, as it contains a unique collection of houses of feudal lords and merchants that date from the Edo period.

A feudal lord home

Here, you’ll find cute little thatched-roof tea huts with mud walls, or grand samurai houses with painted sliding doors. All of these are laid out in a classic Japanese-style garden replete with koi ponds, arched bridges and perfectly-manicured bonsai trees. And yes, there are cherry trees too. If you want to see classic Japan from samurai movies, this is the place to be.

When Sankeien first opened to the public in 1904, it had a seafront location and gave visitors an air of serenity. Today, the park still imparts that ambience. The only difference is that it now abuts a busy highway (beyond which is reclaimed land) – a stark reminder that brings you back to present-day Yokohama.

Wanko Soba: Nonstop Noodles

Nonstop noodle topup

It all starts off innocently enough. Tiny bowls of noodles, miniature dishes of condiments, little cups of tea. In attendance are hungry salarymen, eager tourists and a few determined fellows flopped in the back. If you’re wondering why diners here have a more determined look than at normal restaurants, it’s because the objective at this restaurant is to eat as many bowls of soba noodles as possible.

Chirpy waitresses bounce around the tatami-floored room with trayloads of lacquer soup bowls, filled with precisely one mouthful of grey-green soba noodles each. After your bowl is slurped without a trace of noodles left, the waitress cheers hai don don or hei jan jan, and your bowl’s immediately topped up.

You’ll soon fall into rhythm as the waitress continues to shuttle trays loaded with a tower of bowls. In between bowls, you empty the soba yu (soba water) into a basin on the table and the waitress refills yet more noodles into your open bowl over and over until it begins to feel like Groundhog Day.

The bowls keep coming...

With your belly distended and energy sapped, all you have to do to end this Chinese water torture is to slam the lid on your completely empty bowl.

Sounds easy, but the waitresses are ninja-fast, and if she manages to get the noodles into your bowl before you can put a lid on it, you’ve got to finish it. And you can’t end your session until there is no trace of anything edible in your bowl. But, open to check, and the Ninja will try to top you up.

The locals have  perfected a way of ending their rounds – they basically distract the waitresses (“Look! My friend is choking!”) and then calmly slide the lids onto their bowls.

The wanko soba experience is a specialty of Morioka City (located in Iwate prefecture in Japan), where eating is transformed into a sort of competition, and it has now become a ritual for visitors who come here to try and eat 100 bowls. Most women can put away about 60 bowls, and most men about 85. Eat 100 bowls, and you walk away with a plaque from the restaurant, as well as the associated bragging rights. The record currently belongs to a petite, 40-something local woman, who ate almost 500 bowls.

If being weighed down with noodles is too much for you, try Morioka’s other main dish: the reimen. It’s soupy noodles disguised as a fruit bowl; which is to say, noodles served hot or cold in a fresh watermelon broth. To add to the strangeness, it’s served with kimchi.

Guess the number of bowls?

Japan’s Wild West: Yonaguni Island

Somewhere way south of Japan lies Okinawa, which is not just a prefecture, but a collection of islands that are scattered all the way towards Taiwan. The furthest flung island is Yonaguni, which is actually closer to Taiwan than it is to mainland Japan. With its isolation, you get what you’d expect: a small town feel and a dwindling population. To add to the frontier feel, there are no hospitals, banks, high school or even book stores.

Windmill at Agarizaki on the east coast

Despite this, Yonaguni is famous for a lot of things. For divers, it’s the underwater ruins and hammerhead sharks. For photographers, it’s the dramatic cliffs and rock formations. For the average Japanese, this tiny island is Japan’s blue marlin capital.

A typical old house on the island

I Got Me A Marlin!
Being so close to the cold underwater currents, fishermen here haul the largest catch of blue marlin (or kajiki) in Japan, making this tiny island the country’s authority on the big fish. If you’re not convinced, there is even a large blue marlin statue at Cape Irizake on the westernmost tip of the island. Not surprisingly, you can dine on everything marlin here – from marlin sashimi to marlin hotpot and everything in between.

All this, of course, is perfectly washed down with locally distilled awamori, which is a clear but potent rice-based liquor. There are 3 local distilleries where you can try some on a brewery tour. Better yet, head to any of the izakaya (bars) and meet the locals over a drink or five, maybe over some karaoke, and you’ll get to see how the friendly islanders spend their free time.

Is it Mu, an alien ship, or just a rock?

Diving for Atlantis
Perhaps one of the most controversial subjects on Yonaguni is one that’s buried underwater. Just offshore lies what is reputed to be Japan’s ‘Atlantis’, and a debate is ongoing to confirm whether it’s an underwater archeological ruin (some consider it the lost Continent of Mu), a natural phenomenon or alien artefacts. The latter might have more to do with the locals having lived in isolation for a tad too long.

Experienced divers can confirm the fact with their own eyes, as dive operators on the island regularly take visitors down to see this rocky platform with its angular blocks and stair-like structure, and some strange scribblings on its walls. Even if you’re not a diver, you can have a peek at it in complete dryness (and relative seasickness) from a glass-bottomed boat.

One of many cliffs along the coast

If you’re an advanced diver, this is one of the best places in the region to see hundreds of hammerhead sharks as they cruise along the underwater currents in winter. This is in addition to other big fish like trevally, sailfish, barracuda and tuna – which coincidentally reels in plenty of deep-sea fishing enthusiasts.

Home on the Rock
The island’s coastline is littered with dramatic rock formations; the most famous of which is the Tatigamiiwa that lies erect on the southeast tip of the island like a rock-hard phallus, hence its translation Standing (or rather, ‘Erect’) God Rock.

As you approach Yonaguni by air, you’ll notice that it is one large rocky outcrop surrounded by cliffs; some of which were execution sites during the Ryukyu Kingdom to control the population. Today, the island’s rolling grassy headlands are where you can find the island’s unique animal which was bred in isolation for hundreds of years: the Yonaguni horse. Only about 1m high, there are 2 free-roaming herds around – to see these tame beasties you just have to follow the dung trail.

Yonaguni horses grazing along the coast

Another famous hairy critter here is the Atlas moth. There is a rather large Atlas Moth Museum on the island, were you can see other local insects and critters, except – ironically – a live adult Atlas moth.

Sugar and Salt
As with most Okinawan islands, Yonaguni is famous for it is kokutou (brown sugar), which is produced locally and typically eaten on its own as a dessert. It also happens to be a popular souvenir, along with local large-grain salt.

However, nothing says Okinawa more than a bottle of local awamori, which you can savour as you watch Japan’s last sunset from Kuburabari cliff.

A great place to see Tatigamiiwa