the fried chicken at pretty much any gas station will blow your mind. takeaway joints are god tier. the trains and buses all arrive and depart on time down to the second.
i did 6 weeks in rural Kyushu (the southernmost of the 4 home islands, and already pretty damn rural). supposedly the most traditional nihon move is to do a mountain day hike to a shinto shrine and then onsen (the hot water bathhouses). onsen building and operation is heavily subsidized, so they are everywhere and crazy cheap. around where i was it was like 3 USD to soak as long as you wanted.
i did a foil boat trip to Yakushima, which is this island south of Kyushu. like half the island is a UNESCO World Heritage site for being a temperate rainforest. there are trees there that are like 5000+ years old (Jomon-sugi) and there are day hiking trails that go through places that inspired miyazaki in his rendering of the sacred forest in Mononoke.
anyway, the food there is incredible at all levels. i wish one of their convenience stores was on my block. cash is king. international ATMs are at most post offices. if you're looking for nicknacks to bring back to people, go to a 99 yen shop. also, their 5 yen coins are cool looking.
the fried chicken at pretty much any gas station will blow your mind. takeaway joints are god tier. the trains and buses all arrive and depart on time down to the second.
i did 6 weeks in rural Kyushu (the southernmost of the 4 home islands, and already pretty damn rural). supposedly the most traditional nihon move is to do a mountain day hike to a shinto shrine and then onsen (the hot water bathhouses). onsen building and operation is heavily subsidized, so they are everywhere and crazy cheap. around where i was it was like 3 USD to soak as long as you wanted.
i did a foil boat trip to Yakushima, which is this island south of Kyushu. like half the island is a UNESCO World Heritage site for being a temperate rainforest. there are trees there that are like 5000+ years old (Jomon-sugi) and there are day hiking trails that go through places that inspired miyazaki in his rendering of the sacred forest in Mononoke.
anyway, the food there is incredible at all levels. i wish one of their convenience stores was on my block. cash is king. international ATMs are at most post offices. if you're looking for nicknacks to bring back to people, go to a 99 yen shop. also, their 5 yen coins are cool looking.