@duggan — japan

Japan May 2025 – Hokkaido and Kyushu

2025-06-03T13:56:04.000Z

First few weeks of our Japan trip were fantastic. Despite some minor confusion over our visa length on entry^[1], we had a great start in Sapporo, with nice weather and friendly people.

In our first two days, two different people stopped to talk to us, one older gent just to ask where we were from and if we were enjoying our visit, and another young chap from a local college who wanted to practice his English. He was doing this almost daily with different strangers who looked like they might speak English in the park! Impressive.

We were also lucky that cherry blossoms were still in bloom in and around Sapporo!

I was also introduced to what has been my favourite beer of the trip so far, Sapporo Classic! Unfortunately I found out only after we flew down to Kagoshima that this beer is only sold in Hokkaido. Sayonara, Sapporo Classic. You were taken from us too soon 🥲.

Since I'm writing this while staying in Hakata, it feels sacrilegious to say this, but the best ramen I've had on this trip was a place we randomly walked into on our first day in Sapporo, Yoshiyama Shouten in Tanukikoji.

Notes:

1. Don't put 90 days into the electronic visa system – apparently the boundary checks are for < 90days, not <= 90 days 😅

Goodbye Hokkaido, next stop... Okinawa?

2025-04-03T10:45:48.000Z

We've been going over the pros and cons of the current route, and have decided that the V-shaped travel route is not our best option.

Discussed in my previous post, the V-shaped route was intended to start us in cherry-blossom season, take us down to Osaka for a few weeks, then Yakushima, and then slowly back up north. On further examination there are a few of problems with this.

First, we're planning to spend our initial week or so in Hokkaido, which actually leaves us with maybe ten days to get down to Osaka. That's a lot of interesting territory to cover in only a week! Also, while we'll be in Osaka itself for a couple of weeks, Ash will be preoccupied with exam preparation, leaving me exploring Osaka largely by myself.
After Osaka, the plan would be to head to Yakushima, then back up to continue the rest of the trip.

So, new plan!^{(Until the next plan)}

Hokkaido → Kagoshima → Okinawa Image credit: JNTO.

We'll still start with a week or so in Hokkaido, visiting Lake Toya, Hakodate, and renting a car for a day trip to Matsumae a bit further down the coast. This part of the trip is strongly influenced by a lovely Japan Guide video on a two day trip from Sapporo to Hakodate.

Matsumae Castle, Hokkaido. Image credit: JNTO.

Hakodate, Hokkaido. Image credit: JNTO.

Once we've completed our mini Hokkaido tour, we'll head back up to Sapporo, catch a flight to Kagoshima (flights are inexpensive), spend a few days there, then take a short ferry to Yakushima island for four days of hiking around the forest island that inspired Princess Mononoke.

Ferries and car rental for regional islands aren't really available through the usual providers you might use, like booking.com, etc, but honestly not that difficult to figure out.

For car rental we're using Yakushima NAVI (personally I am very much looking forward to my first time driving a keicar), and you can book a hydrofoil to/from Yakushima with Toppy & Rocket.

Kei car! Photo By Tokumeigakarinoaoshima - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85137674

When we wave goodbye to Yakushima, we'll make our way towards Okinawa to camp out for Ash's exams for a couple of weeks. Once the exams are over, our travel arrangements will be a lot more flexible, and we can stick around, fly, or ferry our way back to Kyūshū.

We actually originally planned to start our trip in Okinawa and work north, but were drawn to Hokkaido by the chance of catching cherry blossom season.

#Kyūshū

With a more relaxed itinerary, it will be nice to have the option of dropping into Aso-Kuju National Park on our way up towards Fukuoka.

Aso-Kuju National Park. Image credit: JNTO.

One of the things I'm most looking forward to about Fukuoka is the chance to visit the home of tonkotsu ramen, where the talented Cork chef Takashi Miyazaki hails from.

The only wrinkle in the south-to-north itinerary is that it sort of coincides with tsuyu (rainy season):

Region	Start	End
Okinawa	May 8	June 23
Southern Kyushu	May 29	July 13
Shikoku	June 4	July 17
Kansai (incl. Kyoto)	June 6	July 19
Kanto (incl. Tokyo)	June 8	July 20
Northern Tohoku	June 12	July 27

Realistically though there's no way to avoid rainy season when traveling during the summer months. Plus, coming from Ireland, we are no strangers to rain 😅 Warm rain even sounds like an upgrade!

Since regional flights appear to be relatively inexpensive, it may even just make more sense for us to hop around a bit more rather than trying to make everything fit into train journeys. The more I see of Hokkaido through various YouTube videos the more time I want to spend there. We'll definitely have to head back there when the weather is warming up.

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Preparing for the Japan trip

2025-04-11T21:23:51.000Z

As I wrote about in February, Ash and I are traveling to Japan for three months (May → August). It's a trip I've always wanted to take, and since I'm between work engagements I've been taking some time to prepare.

Three months is a long time to spend in a country you've never visited, and I'm going to go over a few ways we've been preparing.

#Skipping the detailed itinerary

We've decided that a detailed itinerary does not make sense over a three month period. This runs counter to a lot of Japan travel advice that I've read or watched, but it seems likely that this advice is geared towards people who have a two week trip and want to squeeze in as many highlights as possible.

If you read reddit, or travel blogs, or watch various YouTube videos, much of the prevailing advice on traveling to Japan is to book everything from accommodation to events months ahead. Ghibli Park sells out months in advance, accommodation can be hard to find during peak season, special discounts are only available months in advance, etc.

Historically, this is not how Ash and I have enjoyed traveling. Sure, there are one or two things that we'll plan in advance for, but otherwise we'll be happy to go off the beaten path rather than queue for the most popular attractions.

An itinerary so long and detailed would become a straitjacket, sucking all the fun and serendipity out of the trip. We want to have the flexibility to allow for chance and discovery. No matter how much research we could do ahead of time, once we're on the ground we will undoubtedly start to find people, places, and opportunities that no amount of preparation could account for. We spent some time figuring out the high level shape of our trip, with a handful of specifics planned, then will handle the rest as we go.

We're prepared to camp or even head to another country for a bit if the relaxed plan isn't working out. I doubt it will come to that, but it's been a relief to realize that ultimately we can just peace out and go somewhere else if it's not working 🙂

The only specific dates we've nailed down so far are flights and accommodation around our first week upon landing in Japan, and then later a few weeks accommodation in Osaka around Ash's exams.

That doesn't mean we're going unprepared, though. I've gotten an International Driving Permit, have been learning Japanese, and roughly sketched out what the trip might look like, as well as booking a few key accommodations and event tickets (e.g., Expo 2025 in Osaka).

The general idea is a sort of V-shaped itinerary (below), in which we start in the north (Sapporo, Hokkaido) during spring, head down to Osaka for a bit, then proceed to Yakushima, maybe Okinawa, and then make our way north to Hokkaido again as the summer heats up. This really depends on how we're feeling about the weather – I think I'm relatively comfortable in high heat and humidity, but we'll adjust our plans as needed.

It's a bit odd maybe, but Japan's public transport infrastructure is what has made it possible to even consider a zigzagging plan like this. This is not how I would travel around South Africa, for example – you'd be driving and flying everywhere.

Given the season, duration, and availability of public transport, this seems like a plan that will let us visit a lot of places, as well as make return trips or catch things we may have missed on the southward leg.

We're starting off in Hokkaido, since it turns out the dates we booked to arrive coincide with the peak of the cherry blossom season there! Map via japan.travel.

We also want to do some hiking – maybe the Kumano Kodo, though there's no shortage of places to walk – and even camping if the opportunity arises!

#Researching a trip in 2025

In terms of research, I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos. Like, a lot. There are a ton of recent and detailed guides put out by a variety of native Japanese, as well as foreigners who have been living in Japan for years. Back when I first considered a Japan trip the best option was an infrequently updated Lonely Planet guide. I was fishing around for a while looking for that guide again before I realized that it was the year 2025 and I was being a moron.

Something else I learned is that the Japan Rail Pass, which used to be practically a no-brainer for foreign travellers, is less of a no-brainer now since price increases in 2023:

For most first-timers to Japan, whether the JR Pass is for you is quite a simple question to answer. It usually boils down to whether you’re traveling to another major city after going from Tokyo to Kyoto via the Shinkansen (bullet train).
In other words, you need to be taking at least three Shinkansen rides in a 7-day window.

Frankly, the Japan Rail Pass probably didn't even make sense for our trip before the price changes. Three months slowly meandering around the entire country is not what it was designed for.

Just to call out some of the YouTube channels I found most useful:

Kensho Quest – detailed and up to date information on the practicalities of traveling to Japan, from what to pack, how to get around, and what to expect by season.
Toshi Guide – (maybe unintentionally?) hilarious with lots of dramatic stock footage, Toshi gets into the details of how travel to Japan is changing over the last couple of years, as well as specific details on things like smoking bans in Osaka, improving border control, and avoiding tourist traps and scams.
Japan Guide – wonderful mini travel documentaries in which someone takes a short trip to some part of Japan, showing some highlights and transport options. Great inspiration for places to visit.
Mrs. Eats – intentionally hilarious insights from a Japanese woman on Japanese culture, and nerdy things to do when in Japan.
Japan By Food – so many amazing looking restaurants to visit everywhere 🤤
Shohei Kondo – Shohei reviews and critiques the videos that various gaijin (foreigner) influencers produce about Japan. Really great to have another perspective on popular TikTok and YouTube videos that otherwise might have you worried about visiting Japan.

#Backpack or suitcase? 🎒か🧳？

Both of us like traveling light. For me there's a Tetris-y, technical optimization element to it – I like to pack as much flexibility as possible into as few grams and items as possible. For example, making sure most devices are USB-C, or using my laptop as a battery pack instead of bringing a separate power bank.
Ash is the true backpacker type – by which I mean she'd happily throw a toothbrush, change of clothes, and running shoes into a rucksack and traipse around India for a month.

We'll both have real-life things to accomplish during this trip – Ash will be doing exams, and I'll be coding, writing, and keeping up with Japanese study.

At the moment, backpack is winning out. We'll be moving around a lot, and ideally to less-traveled places, which means relying on takuhaibin seems awkward. Plus, if we're wrong it seems easier to bump up to a suitcase trip than it would be to downsize to a backpack trip.

#Learning Japanese 🇯🇵の📚

Ash is a bit too busy doing concurrent qualifications in both art and quantum physics (😵‍💫) to also learn a language, so I'll be the one attempting to learn enough of the language to be polite and navigate food, transport and accommodation.

While years of watching anime has given me a smattering of vocabulary and some familiarity with pronunciation, it's a whole other thing to converse in real time, read, and parse numbers.

I've been attending a weekly class in Portobello, which has been an excellent starting point, and is a good place for practicing and keeping me accountable.

I'm using Pimsleur's Japanese audiobooks to drum in sentence construction. I'm not sure these are as well known as I thought they were (maybe it's a bit old-school and expensive in 2025), but I've found them a good accompaniment to the regular classes. Sitting there for 30 minutes each day trying to build sentences before the recorded response kicks in has been a great motivator.

I'm also using Anki, which I'd heard of but never used before. I'm using a premade "deck" of 1500 basic vocabulary words to try and boost my vocabulary at the same time as maybe helping me parse signage, documents, etc. while I'm in Japan.

Including hiragana/katakana practice and other comprehension exercises, all of this adds up to a couple of hours day of deliberative effort. Hopefully it pays off.

I can imagine a version of this whole thing that is more targeted at my specific requirements, i.e., navigation, food, transport, and accommodation, but I'm willing to press on in the hopes that it will leave me with some basic level of preparation that I can improve upon when I'm actually in Japan.

Traveling to Japan for three months because life's too short

2025-02-10T16:49:16.000Z

I've been fascinated by Japan since I was a teenager. Thanks to Hayao Miyazaki (among others) the food, landscape, and architecture all exist in some dreamy, liminal space in my mind alongside wood sprites and lost civilizations.

Maybe it sounds daft, but the idea of actually visiting the country always seemed like it would break the spell somehow? Like anywhere, Japan has crime, social problems, bad weather, and if I go, me.

Same sad you.

That said, I've had a plan (concepts of a plan 👐) to visit for years. I've recently dug out an old copy of Rough Guide to Tokyo that dates from 2011, which was the first time I started vaguely planning to go.

However, that was also the year I started working for Engine Yard, which changed the entire trajectory of my career. This was a huge deal for me, but Engine Yard landing in Dublin was also a big deal for the local startup community – Silicon Republic had an article in 2013 that gives a bit of a retrospective.

Plans to visit Japan went on the back burner.

#Fast forward a few years

Speaking of back burners, in 2019, I was burning out at my job. This was well past Engine Yard, which I had left in 2014. Our startup had been acquired, and corporate bureaucracy was slowly draining away my will over the subsequent three year earn-out. There were plenty of smart and thoughtful people around, but somehow I felt like I was getting stupider.

The work was the most mind numbing drudgery. I had begun to hate writing software, and was terrified that if I didn't leave, I might never recover my enthusiasm.

Then sometime in early 2020 I read a series of blog posts by someone who had cycled the length of Japan, and it rekindled those old plans, but now on a grander scale. This was something I could aim for – I was going to cycle the entire length of Japan.

Clearly this was a huge "my life is derailing, I must escape" signal, but my girlfriend was having a similar crisis and so we agreed on the broad strokes of a New Zealand / Japan cycling tour, taking six months or so to do the whole thing. We both had enough savings to take an extended break from work. I started cycling training in earnest.

On March 1st 2020, I handed in my notice – this was going to be the year I did Japan.

RTÉ News from March 19th, 2020.

As COVID-19 wore on, it became increasingly clear that there would be no Japan trip. I finished out my notice period, and it would be almost a year before I felt like I could write code again professionally. I spent the intervening time doing not very much – I exercised, lost weight, went for long rambles in the Phoenix Park. Visited South Africa while there were still travel restrictions – that was memorable – had to get "war zone" travel insurance as it was the only option that would provide cover during the pandemic.

While I was in South Africa in 2021, David Coallier called and asked me to join as CTO of his new company, Clearword. I was ready to let go of Japan – I didn't want to spend another year on the sidelines, and so I joined David on what ended up being the most interesting and, hilariously, least personally remunerative startup we've done together. We had customers. We talked to them. We zeroed in on a niche. It felt really close to being something – but it never quite got there.

So it goes.

#2025, the year we make contact

And so here we are, in 2025. I am unemployed but am not immediately looking for work.

Emotionally though, things could not be more different.

I was disappointed about Clearword, but the writing had been on the wall for a while, and I came to terms with it months ago. I'll write that all down another time, but the gist is that I am feeling ready to start something new.

I am also turning 40 this year. Life moves pretty fast, and while I feel fitter and healthier today than I did ten years ago, I have to acknowledge that time is passing, and if I put this off now I may not have the opportunity again for a long time. And it's not just my own calendar that has to line up, but that of my girlfriend.

I also no longer feel the need to find myself by cycling the length of a country I've never even been to. I don't need a grand goal. I am going instead to soak in it. To be in the place and take it as it is. I want to do it peacefully and respectfully.

There are places I want to visit, of course – Yakushima island, the inspiration for the ethereal scenery of Princess Mononoke being top of my list.

Photo by Takeshi Kuboki, via Flickr.

Climbing Mount Fuji seems like it would be neat, if it works out, but mostly we both want to go off the beaten path, and avoid bustling around in crowds gawping at geishas, etc.

So – flights are booked. We are going for three months, start of May to start of August. We've booked our flights to arrive in Seoul rather than flying directly to Japan, as it gives us some options on whether we want to go north or south to start (regional flights from Seoul are relatively cheap). North, to Hokkaido, is sort of appealing with the chance of catching the sakura blossoms, but Yakushima is in the south, and it will be better to do that before summer gets into full swing.

In the mean time, I am attending evening classes in the city to learn hopefully enough Japanese to get by. Thanks to years watching anime, I have a surprising amount of vocab floating around in my head, if not all of the practical variety. This week I managed to write out my basic hiragana table from memory, which feels impressive, yet is just the tip of the iceberg.

Three months sounds like a long time, but anyone I've spoken to tells me however long they spent, it wasn't enough. We'll be traveling light and keeping our plans loose, and we are going to have some adventures.

Can't wait. 🇯🇵

Sources

Yakushima photo by Takeshi Kuboki, via Flickr.