Best of: Travel in Japan

As the regular reader of this blog knows, we made a point of trying to see as much of Japan as we could during our 3-year stay. Even though there are so many places worth visiting that we didn’t make it to, here’s my best-of list of the trips we did. Of course, this list is highly subjective, but maybe it can give people looking for someplace to go some ideas.

1. Best place ever: Kyoto.
   You cannot ever spend too much time in Kyoto. The temples and gardens to see are countless. Even revisiting the same places again during different seasons is beautiful. If you get to spend some time in Japan, go to Kyoto. If you get to spend some more time, go again. Whatever you do, it’s probably going to be great. Kyoto is probably my favorite place in the world.

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Island Escape to Niijima

What better way to escape the smoldering heat island that is Tokyo over the Bon holidays than spending a few days on the breezy Izu Islands? After having enjoyed both hiking and the beach life on Oshima last year, the biggest and closest by of the seven islands, we wanted to try something new this time. Also Niijima (新島), a little further out and considerably smaller, is serviced by the Jet Boat of Tokai Kisen, which makes for a smooth and fast ride. Boasting the “most beautiful beach of the Izu Islands”, it seemed a perfect match.

The famous Habushiura Beach

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Oshima Beach Life – After the Sea Has Closed

A pacific island, temperatures around 30 degrees, warm, transparent water – what else could one wish for a day at the beach? Not much, one would think. When we first arrived in Oshima, we just took our stuff and marched right off the boat in Motomachi to the nearest swimming beach indicated on the map, Kobo-hama. Maybe not the most beautiful beach ever, but there was black sand, and the water was clean. Only: there was not a soul. We shared the beach only with a big crab sitting on a log close to the waterline. Normally, one would dream of having a beach all to oneself, but here it somehow felt creepy. There had to be something wrong with it. After a while, we convinced ourselves that there was nothing wrong. It was just that the sea had already closed.

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The Volcanic Deserts of Miharayama

Would you believe that in Tokyo Prefecture, there is a place where it is so silent that no sound can be heard but the hum of a passing insect once in a while? Admittedly, I am not talking about Central Tokyo. But of the Izu Islands, the closest of which, Oshima (大島), is some 120 km away from Tokyo and can be reached by a hydrofoil jet ferry, a marvel of modern technology and comfort, in less than two hours. Knowing Japan’s geological makeup, no one will be surprised to hear that the seven Izu Islands are nothing but the tips of as many volcanoes, they are in fact part of the so-called Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc which starts up North with Mt. Fuji at a triple tectonic junction and extends as far as to the Mariana Through, the world’s deepest marine basin.

Central cone and trail head to the summit of Miharayama seen from the caldera rim. The 1986 lava flows are visible.

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