A Geek in Japan

Random Japanese curiosities

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date November 22, 2016
3 Comments on Random Japanese curiosities

I share here a series of pictures that I took randomly. These are details of Japan that I personally find interesting. I think there are some hints in them about this culture that can’t be explained in words.

Ear cleaning and massage advertisement

Diagram showing how a port is protected from tsunamis

Advertisement offering trunk room space to store things that you can’t fit in your apartment. This is very normal in Tokyo where living space is very limited.

Poster by the Japanese Government to increase awareness of the “limits” of the Japanese territory. Notice the Senkaku islands in the South and the northern territories disputed with Russia.

Wilkinson cool hipster

Oden being sold in a vending machine.

A door that opens using the energy generated with the user’s footstep energy.

Street that is acting as a firebreak

Temple offering fortune in English, Korean and Chinese

Campaign to increase awareness that drinking water is a healthy. “Drinking lots of water is healthy”

Found at the entrance of Condomania. A Condom store located in Harajuku.

Beautiful Japan JapaneseCulture

Bathing in a free access rotenburo

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date November 10, 2016

Rotenburo 露天風呂 are outdoor hot-spring water baths. Usually, you pay an entrance that will give you access to the bathing area. An onsen 温泉 (Hot-spring) dedicated business, a hotel or a ryokan are most of the times managing the baths. But if you go to remote areas, sometimes you can find baths in the wild where you can just get naked and soak in warm water for free. Bathing in onsen waters is one of my favorite things to do in Japan, especially after a nice hike.

This is the exact google maps location (Shin hotaka yu, 新穂高の湯) (Gifu Prefecture) of the bath we found.

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Beautiful Japan JapanGuide

Japanese Alps hiking

On our third day we drove one hour to the East from Takayama and found ourselves in a valley that reminded me of Switzerland. The first western explorers, after the Meiji opening of Japan, found the mountains of the Hida range that divide Gifu and Nagano prefecture to be utterly similar to the European Alps and decided to name them Japanese Alps. The name stuck with the Japanese people and now the the Hida, Kiso and Akaishi mountains are all officially called Japanese Alps.

We arrived at the Shinhotaka ropeway and parked our car before nine in the morning. We were almost alone, surrounded by nature and the sound of the water hiting the rocky river. But suddenly, three buses filled with old Japanese people (probably retired) arrived and we found ourselves queuing in order to ride the Shinhotaka Ropeway. I’ll never get used to queuing in Japan, there always queues even in remote places where you would not expect it 🙂

The views from the top of the Shinhotaka Ropeway are astounding, pure nature beauty. From there, we started walking up into the mountains following a beginners route called Nishihodoku (西穂独標): Shinhotaka Ropeway ― Nishiho Mountain Cottage ― Maruyama (丸山) ― Nishihodoku. There was no snow at this time of the year and it was a very easy hike that we enjoyed very much. But beware, in winter it can be a very dangerous area: more details about the difficulty of Hotaka hiking routes.

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