It Was a One Long Hot Summer
Letters from Japan, October 2023 - fall colors, why we travel, love letter to Kyoto and more.
Good afternoon,
It is finally only 26°C in Tokyo, and the humidity level is down to 40 %. Walking outside no longer feels like the bravest act of my day. A quick trip to a grocery store is just one of the mundane daily tasks and does not carry the same level of thrill as walking in a rainforest. So I can safely say that, after three months, we are in the clear.
Summers in Japan, particularly in its big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, are brutal. When I first moved to Japan, one wise person told me that I should forget all I knew about the beloved summer season. “In Japan, summers are for work”, he said, “the kind that can only be performed indoors”. At the time, it did not sound like bad news. Despite hailing from Turkey - a peninsula enjoying extensive coastlines along the Black, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas - I have never been much of a summer person. Unlike fall or winter, I always found summer to be a very commanding season that always requires cheerful mood and does not give you much room to feel any way you like. Melancholy in the summer feels like a crime, not a mood.
But maybe not so much in Japan. In early June, the entire country (except for Hokkaido) enters the rainy season, which lasts until late July. It is nothing like the monsoon season in Southeast Asia when the daily weather forecast promises (and often delivers) a mixture of sunny skies (with beautiful rainbows) and downpours. It is a grim, persistent rain, and, there are, definitely, no rainbows. So instead of the cheesy cheerfulness that summers in my home country impose on us, melancholy, anger, and boredom are all acceptable and, to some extent, expected summer moods in Japan.
Then comes the "real summer", aka the survival season, when there is no room for any kind of feeling. Your sole purpose is to stay alive. After a long break of six years, I started a new full-time job in Tokyo this summer - a new work, new environment, new colleagues, and all the usual challenges that come with it. But with the humidity levels averaging between 75 to 85 % all through August and September, the most (and possibly the only) difficult part of adapting to my new job was making it to work alive every morning. It was that bad.
The fall season is almost upon us
But now the marvelous fall season is upon us. In my opinion, this is the best season to visit Japan. Typhoon season is almost over, humidity is gone, a light sweater is good enough on most days, and, more importantly, the fall foliage is about to color up the entire country.
If you are planning a fall trip to Japan, I recently wrote about some of my favorite fall foliage destinations in Japan - Fall Colors in Japan.
Japan Rail Pass price increase
For those planning a trip to Japan, the biggest travel news is probably the steep price increase for the popular Japan Rail Pass, which allows visitors unlimited rides (for one, two, or three weeks) on all Shinkansen lines throughout the country. As of October 1st, the price of the 7-day pass has increased from 29,000 Japanese Yen to 50,000 Japanese Yen. You can review the new price table at the official JR Pass site.
Before the updated prices, just one round-trip between Tokyo and Kyoto justified the price of a one-week pass. Now, it is a whole different story. If you only plan to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and one of the other usual suspects (like Hakone) during your trip, investing in a JR Pass may not be the best option. However, some alternatives may still help you to reduce your travel expenses (including regional train passes and air passes for remote destinations like Hokkaido and Okinawa). I recently listed some of my tips on how to reduce your travel expenses in Japan (but please read at your own risk, I am notoriously terrible at budgeting).
In praise of touristy destinations
Japan is full of “off-the-beaten-path”, “underrated”, and “hidden” destinations. But Kyoto is sure not one of those. Kyoto is the poster child for “over-touristy destinations” not only for Japan but for the world, along with Paris, Rome, Venice, Thai Islands, you name it.
In August, after a long break of three years, I visited Kyoto not only once but twice. It was after a fairly challenging period in my life when I waited for three months for my new visa to be able to start my new full-time job. With a lot of time on my hands, I deeply questioned whether living in a foreign country where you need explicit approval just to exist was worth all the trouble, and more specifically if Japan was worth it. I still do not know. But after all that questioning, which eventually led to emotional detachment from this unique country that I call home, I had to do something to revive that initial excitement that brought me to Japan. Kyoto, mon amour, was a safe bet. It was the first place I visited in Japan during my first trip in 2012, and I have not stopped loving it ever since.
My trip to Kyoto made me think about all those “over-touristy” destinations and our obsession with the off-the-beaten-path places. Hence another new post - “Should you visit Kyoto? Yes, you should even visit Paris” and also the eternal question of “Why do we travel?”. And another one where I listed some of my favorite places in Kyoto.
Solo hikes
Although I chose to spend the three months following my big hiking trip to New Zealand in complete agony, first due to the Turkish elections and then the visa anxiety, as soon as the visa issue was cleared up (unfortunately, the president issue remains), I visited Sadogashima Island off the coast of Niigata. It turned out to be a wonderful place that I am sure that I will revisit. I wrote about the island traverse hike that I did in Sadogashima, which was full of surprises - picturesque huts, beautiful ponds, and some strange things (such as military zones).
Another recent hike was in Kamikochi in Nagano where I hiked the famous Karasawa Cirque Route. Kamikochi is probably one of the most picturesque hiking destinations in Japan. It is also a (black) bear territory. Recently, there was a non-fatal (unprovoked) attack on a solo hiker, and some of the campsites and trails are now off-limits for, likely, the rest of the season. If you are courageous enough to go, here is my Karasawa Cirque post.
That is all for the autumn issue of my newsletter. Now that I moved my newsletter to Substack (which is, honestly, much more fun to use than my previous newsletter service provider), I am considering turning these letters into monthly series (and maybe not send emails but just post here).
I hope all is well in your part of the world. As always, I would be very happy to hear back from you (by email or in the comments section below). If you are also a Substack user, I also turned on the chat function here to discuss any Japan travel-related questions you may have.
Until next time.
Love,
Burcu
Amazing color in your pictures!
Wonderful piece of writing!