«» Travel Notes 022: Overwhelmed by Kindness
Looking back at my Central Japan circuit: Nagoya > Matsumoto > Takayama > Toyama > Tateyama > Kurobe > Shirakawa
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It was my first morning in Japan, and I felt sick.
I felt cold despite having already maxed out the aircon at 31 degrees.
Maybe it was because of the cold wind and rain from last night’s walk—I expected to reach Nagoya with summer temperatures, so I only had on a light jacket and a pair of shorts. Maybe I was suffering something similar to the altitude sickness I get when I summit mountains. Or maybe it was because my first full meal of the day came at 2 PM, and even then, it was made of three cold onigiris and two chicken yakitoris from Family Mart. Or maybe it was because I washed my apple in the airplane restroom before eating it.
I heated some water.
Our plan for the day was to take the 9 AM Chuo-Oito line train bound for Matsumoto, which I read was a “fabulous mid-sized city” and “an excellent place to spend at least a full day, if not two.” Within Matsumoto, Joanne and I were looking forward to lunch in Doon Shokudo, which was supposed to be “a freakishly delicious south Indian restaurant… run by the nicest Indian husband and Japanese wife team you’ll ever find.” Then on the way back to Nagoya, we wanted to stop at Nakatsugawa and the beautiful postal town of Magome.
Instead, at 9 AM, I drank my hot water and puked.
Luckily, Joanne had some Paracetamol on her, so I took one before returning to bed.
I felt better when I woke up at around 11 AM, so we decided to give our plan a try. We would hopefully at least reach Matsumoto.
We had lunch in a quaint train station cafe served by cancer survivors. I ordered soup because I didn’t think I could handle anything heavier. Only one waiter could speak English, so we defaulted to her for all questions and requests. Everyone was so pleasant you could see smiles in their eyes.
When we arrived in Matsumoto at 4:30 PM, we were initially surprised to find ourselves the only ones walking on the street, then later disappointed to find all the shops closed, including Doon Shokudo (no wonder we were alone walking). Well, we continued to walk around anyway because Matsumoto absolutely lived up to its status as a “fabulous mid-sized city.” We visited Matsumoto Castle before having a simple dinner of white rice and grilled mackerel back at the station.
On the 7:07 PM train back to Nagoya, I puked again (grilled mackerel was not simple enough, it seems). I felt cold, so I put on my gloves.
I didn’t only feel terrible physically, I felt guilty too because it seemed because of my stomach, we lost a full day in Japan in terms of sightseeing and food tasting.
The next day, we waited for Joanne’s brother, Jason, in another cafe (whenever I entered a cafe, I couldn't help but picture Mitsuha from Kimi No Nawa squealing CAFEEE as she ate in her very first cafe).
If the day before, our plan was to explore stops along the Chuo-Oito line (yellow), then our plan for the rest of the trip was to explore stops along the parallel Tokaido-Takayama line (green), starting with the wooden merchant houses of Takayama, followed by the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, and ending with the Gassho-Zukuri farmhouses of Shirakawa (not directly on the JR lines but accessible by bus from Takayama). To do this, we booked a 5-Day JR Pass to ride an unlimited number of trains along the route.
Jason booked his flight from Manila to Nagoya two days after ours, so we made sure to wait for him before doing the Alpine Route, which we were expecting to be the highlight of our trip (our first time seeing snow!!!).
It was around 3 PM already when Jason reached us, so we took the 4:03 PM train bound for Takayama, which I can only describe as an experience in itself. I was expecting to sleep on the 2 hours 42 minutes commute, but it was too exciting looking out our windows to follow the Hida River as it snaked through Central Japan’s countryside.
I was feeling better too! The Paracetamol and the puking from yesterday seemed to have helped. For dinner, we ate in a Mexican restaurant near us which received rave reviews.
However, I don’t think I should have tested my body with a greasy Hida Beef burger. Later that night, I graced the toiled seven times between 11 PM and 7 AM. Guess I wasn’t as okay as I thought. Bless the Lord, I was in Japan, though. I don’t think I’ve appreciated Japanese toilets and their heated seats, background rainfall music, and built-in bidet just as much as on this night.
If you see pudding, it is… Interesting.
This was the reply we got from our concierge when we asked her what food we should look out for in Takayama’s famous Sanmachi Street. It took a while for her to find the word “interesting” in her vocabulary, but by Japanese standards, her English was superb. In fact, it surprised me to observe how little English the Japanese spoke. Later, in a tofu restaurant along Sanmachi Street, we would be served by two waiters who could only ask Where are you from? and Water? The language barrier would eventually cost us 1000 yen as our waiters couldn’t understand our order, but I am getting ahead of myself.
After consulting with our concierge for our itinerary, we borrowed the hotel’s bicycles and went out for Sanmachi Street, an Edo-period street lined with traditional merchant houses, restaurants, shops & breweries.
Ultimately, we walked more than we biked because the shops and food looked so interesting. Stomach pain wasn’t enough to stop me from trying Hida Beef sushi, snow-like custard pudding (as recommended), and some filling Agedashi Tofu.
From here, we visited Hida no Sato, “an open-air museum of close to 30 old farmhouses illustrating the traditional architectural styles of the mountainous regions of Japan.”
We returned to our hotel with lots of nice pictures and very happy stomachs (I needed the toilet only once, and that was it! I’d like to think it was the tofu, haha), but let me tell you what made the greatest impression on me. The drivers. Biking around Takayama, it was hard not to notice how cars would deliberately stop and let you cross. No one beeped at me either when I was riding slow or when I would stop to take pictures. It’s possible this is the case because Takayama is a heavy tourist destination. I noticed the same later in Toyama, and in retrospect, I noticed the same in Nagoya and Matsumoto too. Drivers would stop and wait for you even if you hadn’t left your side of the sidewalk; they waited for you even if it took you 10 seconds to haul your luggage across the street. Pedestrians always had the right of way.
Okokokokok. Our taxi driver spoke limited English, but after some aid from Google Translate and Google Maps, we finally got him to locate our Airbnb in Toyama. The ride was short and pleasant. Our driver knew the area well, and he was very kind. He kept talking to us even if he knew we couldn’t understand his Japanese.
This kindness would be replicated many times over during our stay in Toyama; it was incredible. Here’s a short list of things that happened to us within 12 hours of arriving in the city:
Our Airbnb has a small elevator, which we had to take to reach our room on the 3rd floor. We didn’t all fit in our huge bags, so the Airbnb owner let us proceed. I was expecting her to follow us on the next elevator, but when we reached the 3rd floor, she was already there! Apparently, she ran up the stairs while we were in the elevator.
We had dinner in Wawaroi, a restaurant overflowing with a hip crowd of locals but a restaurant with no English-speaking servers and no English menu. The ordering process turned into a 30-minute Google Translate dialogue, with the waiters even sharing their Instagram so we could look at their food in pictures. Until now, I don’t know how or why they were so patient.
The next morning, we boarded a tram for the first time. There was only one other man on the platform, and he must have noticed our confusion because he came up to us and explained everything about the tram’s operations. That may not seem like a big deal, but there was a way he entertained our questions that felt so patient and kind. He spoke amazingly fluent English too!
It’s possible all this kindness was experienced within a bubble of the tourism and service industry. We’re tourists so, of course, they will treat us kindly. Maybe.
Or maybe Japan, like Germany, can be considered a high-trust society, and this strong presence of trust allows kindness to surface in greater abundance.
Walking around Toyama, we noticed houses did not have gates, sidewalks simply led to front doors. This can be an imperfect example, but I thought it was interesting.
In Shirakawa, we ate in a Gassho-style farmhouse turned curry restaurant. The owner noticed the family sitting next to us had a plate of rice left with no more curry sauce, so he offered to refill their plate with a fresh serving of curry.
Our hotel, Travelodge, offers guests an express checkout option, where you can return your room key and go. They don’t even bother to check if you returned the correct number of keys or if your room is in order.
While eating in Yoshinoya, I was handing my miso soup to Joanne when I clumsily spilled it all over the table. Luckily, no one got wet, but the waiters were quick to act in getting us some tissue to clean up. Afterward, they gave us a new bowl of soup to replace the one I had spilled.
I’m not sure if these acts of kindness are normal, but I can’t help but be overwhelmed by awe and gratitude. I’m including pictures of the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Trail and of Shirakawa because that is what I have on my phone. I wish I could share with you pictures too of the acts of kindness above, but they happen so spontaneously that their significance becomes obvious only after they’ve occurred.
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