Umeda Sky Building Osaka (August 2010)
“So how is Canada?”
“Uh… Toronto is quite good…”
I’ve had this conversation in some form or other countless times since I landed in Japan three years ago. Anyone who’s visited Japan knows that Japanese people are naturally curious about your home country or will often ask for recommendations upon planning a trip there. When they directed their curiosity towards me, however, I found myself at a loss.
“Where do you recommend going in Canada?”
“I hear BC is nice. I think you can see the aurora in the north. Anne of Green Gables takes place in PEI… maybe?”
You see, before I came to Japan I was utterly uninterested in travelling (especially my own country, yuck!). Though my friends would go on about their amazing Eurotrips and getaways to the Caribbean, I scoffed in secret, deploring such wastes of money. Seeing the world just didn’t seem worth it, and the whole cult of ‘investing in experience’ was a first class ticket to financial woe in my mind.
But I did want to see what all the fuss was about. And after deciding that a PhD and a life of academia wasn’t for me after finishing my Master’s, moving to Japan seemed like the quickest way to jump into the deep end. So I applied to JET.
As a cultural ambassador of Canada, though, I must say that I was not the best candidate (and remain as such). Though I seemed to make it through the “what three things would you bring to Japan to represent Canada?” question I was expecting in the interview, I was a bit stumped when I was asked about the only part of Canada I did claim to have some familiarity with.
“What would you tell your young students to get them interested in Toronto?”
“Hmm… let’s see… um…well, you see…. we’re quite multicultural. And uh… the TTC… yeah that always seems to be solid. It’s steady, that TTC is.”
Yes, I extolled the virtues TTC in my JET interview. Luckily the interviewer saw the potential beyond the horrible answers I provided and I got shortlisted. (After teaching elementary and junior high school kids for three years, it is now painfully obvious how boring multiculturalism and the TTC would be to them in an English class).
After a thirteen some odd hour flight to Tokyo, leaving my camera on the plane (doh!) and being jetlagged as hell, I was packed onto a bus and arrived at the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku. Despite my bad fortune and fatigue, I was absolutely high on life when I first walked out of the hotel and saw the bright lights of Tokyo. While some rested up for the upcoming orientation, I couldn’t stop myself from going out, exploring and saying “cool!” to everything I saw, from pachinko parlors to street hustlers to conveyor belt sushi.
If you listen close, you could hear the distinct “cool, cool, cool!” from a Japan neophyte, Tokyo (August 2010)
I finally understood.
There is something mystifying about traveling that opens your mind in a way that a mere written description never can. There is something irreplaceable about being physically present somewhere that a picture can never bring to life. There is something wonderfully dynamic about the myriad situations you encounter that a linear video does not do justice to.
And it was in that jarring experience that I made a goal. Unlike my twenty-four years in Canada, when I say “I lived in Japan,” I am really going to mean it. I am going to be able to tell you all about it. I am going to be able to recommend tonnes of sites to visit, places to eat and things to do. I am really going to live here.
So I decided that I would visit every prefecture in Japan. And I am happy to report that exactly three years later, on August 1st, 2013, I arrived in Yamanashi Prefecture, my forty-seventh and final prefecture of Japan.
I decided to collect figures from each prefecture I went to.
Here is my collection of 47. Can you recognize any of them?
The journey was an unforgettable one. It involved enough adventure and confusion to fill a book, and I loved it all. In fact, the experience was so inspiring that a few short days after I completed my circuit, I decided that I’m going to do it again!
The requirements for my quest were simple: stay at least one night in each prefecture (I didn’t just ‘pass through’ any of them), try to see a few famous sites (or experience a local festival) and eat the local cuisine if I could. Some prefectures were much easier to fill a schedule up than others (Kyoto vs. Saga; Tokyo vs. Yamagata), but I did manage to feel the special charm of each place I visited.
Practically-speaking, I usually opted to save time over money, and often used the shinkanesen and express trains. I would make the money up by staying for free using couchsurfing(.org) or hostels where I could. But, in general, my philosophy was “money replenishes quicker than nenkyuu.”
I also did many areas in clusters and either linked vacation days up with national holidays or strung them together over long periods (like seasonal breaks). For example, I did the entirety of Kansai one winter break, Kyuushuu in a spring break, Touhoku in the summer, etc. I quickly found out that the ideal travel situation for me was with one partner, so I usually dragged a buddy along for each regional adventure.
The biggest piece of advice I could give to anyone wanting to complete a similar journey is simply to stick to your goal. Be consistent. You will most likely not be able to do everything you want in one go, but consistently getting out there is paramount to finishing your quest. One strategy I adopted in this regard was to get out of my own prefecture at least once a month. This sub-goal almost forced me to keep my goal in constant focus and kept the spirit of travel alive and well in me.
I also met so many wonderful people along the way, and I proud to say that I now know someone living in every prefecture in Japan (this will make it even easier to do it all again!). Wonderful people like Masashi, a 69-year old Japanese widower in Kyoto Prefecture who moved from Nagasaki as a child during the events of World War II. He used to travel with his wife around the world until she passed away, and now he hosts people from around the world to bring the international to him. He cooked my friend and I dishes he learned how to make from cooking classes in Malaysia, took us to the wild monkey-filled Arashiyama, and we even got to meet his adorable grandkids.
Masashi, his son, and his grandchildren, Kyoto (December 2010)
Or the Fujita family in Yamaguchi Prefecture who barely spoke any English but agreed to host us after their son told us to stay with them even though he was out of the country. The mother picked fresh vegetables from their countryside garden and made us delicious homemade breakfasts and dinners. In exchange, we taught them card games like signal, spoons and ‘bullshit’ (which they seemed to particularly like). They drove us around Yamaguchi prefecture, allowing us to see sites otherwise unreachable by train lines.
Or Takaaki, a 54-year old Japanese indigo artist in Akita Prefecture. Takaaki told us about his exhibits in Paris, Italy and America, and showed us some of the pieces he was working on. He cooked us a lovely smorgasbord of local Akita dishes which we never really would have known about reading a travel brochure. We went to the mesmerizing Kanto Matsuri together, where dozens of teams hoist bundles of lanterns up in the air and gradually extend them higher and higher with bamboo poles until they topple down into the streets. After our bellies were full from the meal and our sense of excitement satiated from the festival, we climbed up on his roof and looked up at the sparkling night sky, spotting more shooting stars than I have ever seen.
There have been too many awesome people to go on about here, but suffice it to say, there are opportunities to have unforgettable meetings in every pocket of Japan. An amazing, unique experience is always available to those who are open to it. You just have to stay receptive.
I now especially enjoy meeting new Japanese people and asking where they’re from.
“I’m from Shimane. You’ve probably never heard of it.”
“Actually, I’ve been there!”
“ええええ！”
But even more than this, I enjoy meeting people abroad when they ask where I’m from.
“I’m from Canada, but I live in Japan.”
Miyajima, Hiroshima (November 2011)
Text and photos by Thomas Simmons
Thomas is about to begin his fourth year as an ALT in Kagawa Prefecture.