A bowl of scrumptious Hitsumabushi (unagi)

That first bite of hitsumabushi—a thick, sticky, sweet, and slightly savory taste hitting my tongue all at once—was the opening salvo in a series of delightful new experiences I would accumulate on my return to the Land of the Rising Sun.

This specialty dish of Nagoya’s, our entry point into Japan’s central region, was my first taste of grilled eel, and I enjoyed it so much that I wondered why I’d been avoiding eating eel all my life. Little did I know that this moment of ‘firsts’ would become a recurring theme throughout the journey.

Belden Yniguez of JNTO at Legoland Japan

A Theme Park Built of Colorful Blocks

As the starting point of a history and craft tour sponsored by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture was an interesting choice due to where our guides Marika and Akane first took our group. Not a quaint village built in traditional Japanese architecture or a famous brewery known for its fine spirits—these would come later—but a global attraction one might find elsewhere in the world: Legoland. Our tour guides from Wondertrunk & Co. knew what they were doing though because this version of Legoland was wholly Japanese and a must-visit on the first leg of the trip.

I lamented that we didn’t get to spend a night at the Legoland Hotel as I had enjoyed the tour of its facilities. The themed guestrooms were a real treat to see, mostly for their combination of playful aesthetics and comfortable accommodations.

The theme park beside the hotel was a fun jaunt as well. We got to see how Legos were made at the factory, traversed through sprawling Lego versions of famous Japanese cities, took a submarine adventure amongst colorful fishes, and even rode on a fast-paced dragon.

Today, I still recall that last attraction with fondness as my companion sitting next to me had never ridden a roller coaster before. She held my arm and screamed at the top of her lungs during the high-speed twirls and turns. It was another moment of firsts for both of us.

Nipponia Mino

Comfort and Luxury Steeped in Tradition

It was almost sundown by the time we left Nagoya and took that hour-long drive to Gifu Prefecture and into the city of Mino where our first night’s lodging was located. We arrived at the Udatsu Historical District under the cover of darkness so I didn’t get to see the town’s famous sights until the next morning.

But the Nipponia Mino where we would be staying was pretty much the cultural immersion I’d been hoping for. A large, old house and its four storehouses had been renovated into a luxury hotel that retained much of its precious Japanese architecture, including an iron vault door that served as an entrance for one of the guest rooms.

During the tour of Nipponia Mino’s facilities, one of our two hosts, Takiue-San, shared some of the hotel’s history with us; from the varied architectural quirks of each guest room to the story of Saijiro Matsuhisa, a prominent merchant of traditional Japanese paper called washi whose family originally owned the property that is now public land being rented by Nipponia.

Interestingly, my room came with two indoor gardens, a sitting room, a dining room, an office study, and a second-floor bedroom which, despite the modern amenities like central heating and smart toilets, retained that authentic atmosphere of a traditional Japanese-style house. Moreover, as I explored my lodgings for the first time—pristine shoji doors on one side of a long wooden hallway and a calming indoor garden on the other—I momentarily wondered if I hadn’t accidentally found myself transported back in time to experience how the old Mino merchants once lived in luxury.

Dinner at Kappou Asadaya two blocks away from Nipponia Mino was a scrumptious affair. We were treated to a traditional Japanese multi-course meal called a Kaiseki which culminated in a hotpot dish of Hida beef tenderloin strips that I devoured with gusto alongside premium sake from a 270-year-old local brewery we would visit the next day.

The Town of Udatsu

Eager to see the local sights, I woke up at the crack of dawn and had time to jog and explore the Mino historical district hours before my companions would. My run took me across a wide street lined with wooden buildings on either side. I would later learn from our guide that these were the famous Udatsu-style houses that had been built during Japan’s Edo and Meiji eras. According to the local guide, Hasebe-san, the udatsu—raised walls built on either end of a building—were meant to prevent the spread of fire from neighboring houses.

“There were four big fires in Mino City, with the last one burning three-fourths of the town,” Hasebe-san told us as she steered our party around the district. “They built the udatsu and made the road wider to prevent this from happening again. She also explained that only rich households could afford udatsu, which meant this once-lively merchant district known for the washi paper used in lanterns and shoji doors must have flourished back in the Edo period.

One of our highlights on the Mino tour was a visit to the Mino History Museum, which treated us to a glimpse of merchant life in rural Japan. The museum had an inner garden famous for a stone basin that produced a relaxing sound whenever water was poured into it to trickle down to its metal base.

The picturesque scenery of Shirakawa-go, places worth visiting at this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A UNESCO World Heritage Wonder

In the afternoon, a light rainfall accompanied our arrival to the north of Gifu which served to accentuate the beauty of the picturesque landscape of the surrounding valley.

Atop the Shiroyama Viewpoint, I witnessed a breathtaking sight; a hundred well-preserved domiciles with thatched roofs scattered across a valley of rice paddies nestled deep in the surrounding mountains. These gasshō-zukuri houses whose grand roofs resembled hands clasped in prayer were the highlight of Shirakawa-go, a charming village of historical significance ripe for exploration.

It was my first time visiting a UNESCO world heritage site, and that sense of wanderlust I experienced on first seeing Shirakawa-go from an elevated vantage point remained with me as we walked its quaint streets and took in the gorgeous rural scenery, while our local guide, Ayumi-san, shared the village’s history with us.

“The residents of Shirokawa-go weren’t just farmers. They used to make gunpowder,” Ayumi-san explained.

A visit to the Kanda family house, one of the larger gasshō-zukuri houses, gave us a glimpse of rural Japanese living along with remnants of the gunpowder-making facilities that Ayumi-san previously mentioned. The fourth-floor attic where the silkworm farms were stored was also where I learned more about the building’s unique architecture. Naturally curving wooden beams called chonobari were joined together like building blocks and secured with hemp rope rather than nails. Ayumi-san explained that this made the structure more flexible in receiving and dispersing loads of snow falling on its roof.

Whiskey brewing at Wakatsura Sake Brewery and Saburomaru Distillery

The Taste of Fine Spirits

It was late afternoon when we left Shirakawa-go for the neighboring prefecture of Toyama. Our next stop was the Wakatsuru Sake Brewery and Saburomaru Distillery in the town of Tonami.

We arrived at the Saburomaru just before closing time and were invited to sample the brewery’s fine selections of spirits before the tour. The others were eager to taste the sake, but I gravitated toward the whisky on display. I relished the strong fruity, smoky flavor of the single malt samplings.

As a whisky enthusiast, the factory tour was one of my most anticipated highlights of the trip, and I wasn’t disappointed. Apart from a look into their long history as one of Japan’s top breweries, the Wakatsuru team introduced us to the company’s original ingredients and techniques, as well as their recent innovations in brewing technology that have made their brand world famous.

From clockwise top: A rainbow above the 12-year-old Rakudo- An art hotel, delectable sea bream dish, and Maruyama (mushroom) dish from Rakudo-An's restaurant, the exterior grounds of
Kokutai-ji.

Old Farm House Turned Art Hotel

I imagined nothing could top our lodgings in Mino, but Rakudo-An was a gorgeous contender for my affection. Surrounded by rice paddies on three sides, this 120-year-old farmhouse turned art hotel had a minimalist design that did well to preserve its rustic architecture while showing off vibrant examples of folk art and local gastronomy.

Our welcome to Rakudo-An included a tea ceremony hosted by a local tea master. It was an interactive experience where we were given a brief course on tea ceremony etiquette while learning to enjoy the serene atmosphere invoked by sipping tea the proper way while in the comfortable space of Rakudo-An’s lobby.

As for the accommodations, Rakudo-An had only three rooms available, although each one seemed to possess its unique vibe and flavor. The hotel manager, Hayashiguchi-san, enjoyed telling us of the origins of each room’s exclusive furniture—the tables, chairs, and afghan rugs originating from outside Japan—with the artwork adorning the walls showcasing the talents of celebrated Japanese artists.

Speaking of local gastronomy, dinner at Rakudo-An’s restaurant was a meal of firsts too. We were treated to a delightful nine-course dinner of farm-to-table delicacies headlined by two dishes whose main ingredients I’d never thought to taste before. These were turtle and rabbit. They both tasted delicious, of course, although I was admittedly surprised that rabbit had a soft, tender taste when I assumed it would be gamey. To this day, the taste of rabbit remains foremost in my mind as a dish I’d want to try again.

Finding Zen

The start of our 3rd day found our group walking the path up to a 13th-century Buddhist temple in the neighboring town of Takaoka. Unlike more famous temples such as Senso-ji in Tokyo or Kinkakuji in Kyoto—which are usually full to bursting with tourists we were the only guests to arrive in Kokutai-ji that morning, and the quiet and tranquil atmosphere was a welcome blessing for us city folk who were continuing to enjoy the countryside scenery.

Kokutai-ji wasn’t a very large temple, but its exterior grounds and structures were well preserved ancient Japanese architecture that provided many spots for solemn contemplation or social media selfies, depending on one’s preferences. I found the large indoor rock garden to be particularly beautiful, although we didn’t get to tour Kokutai-ji completely because the main purpose of our visit was to experience Zen meditation.

Fujiki-San explaining Zazen to beginners

The temple’s monks gave us a crash course on zazen while improving our posture and breathing. Truthfully, meditating began as an uncomfortable experience, and I was the first among my group to ask our teacher Fujiki-san to hit me twice on the back so I could alter my posture. This helped me relax, allowing me to finally focus on meditating and, surprisingly, to feel calmer afterward.

Fifteen minutes of meditation might not have been enough to properly grasp zazen, but I was intrigued by the practice, and I’ve begun to add Zen meditation to my morning rituals since returning from Japan. This visit to Kokutai-ji was a truly worthwhile experience of firsts.

The Art of Metal Crafting

Takaoka City is well known for its traditional craftsmanship, with the legacy of its world-renowned artisans dating back to Japan’s Edo period when the local daimyo from the Maeda clan invited craftsmen from neighboring towns to migrate to the city and help it flourish. And, as our tour of the city continued, visiting various crafting workshops and stores along historical city streets, I noticed that Takaoka retained much of its traditional charm and culture even in the modern age. It was an observation made more apparent at our next highlight—the Nousaku headquarters, a world-renowned representative of Japanese crafts.

Apart from the factory tour, which was an insightful peek into the artistry and dedication poured into the crafting of their brass and bronze products, our group was also allowed to craft our very own sake cups.

Nousaku's staff teaching guests how to craft their own tin sake cups

The metal crafting began with a sand mold. It was a fun, slightly grueling, and altogether messy challenge. The sleeves of my jacket were caked in red sand, but seeing that completed mold—how it didn’t crack and kept its shape after we were finished—was worth the effort I put into making it. Afterward, we watched as the Nousaku staff poured molten tin into our molds, and I was giddy with anticipation for the finished product. Our sake cups came out looking well-made, and we finished it off by engraving our creations with our initials. Learning about the casting craft firsthand was an enjoyable experience and another first for me, which is why I was glad for our visit to Nousaku.

Beautiful geisha in traditional kimonos

A Geisha Experience

The next leg of our tour was in Kanazawa City (Ishikawa Prefecture) where the culture of Ozakishi-asobi—a long-standing tradition of maiko, skilled in the art of Japanese music and dance, interacted with guests to enliven a party—hinted at an experience to remember. We dropped our suitcases, freshened up at the Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, and then made our way to dinner to bolster our stomachs with good food to prepare us for a night of revelries.

Our arrival at a local teahouse district later that night was met with welcoming smiles from beautiful women in traditional kimonos carrying those colorful paper parasols whose pint-sized versions one usually only saw in cocktails. It was my first time meeting a geisha, and so my greeting was very reserved. I didn’t need to feel embarrassed though because they were excellent hosts, offering us a good conversation with one hand and copious amounts of alcohol with the other.

Pretty soon, our lively table was treated to a performance worthy of the tales one often hears about a geisha’s talents. With song and dance and the strum of a shamisen, I felt my spirits soaring and my feet tapping to the beat, and soon enough I was up on stage and learning to play the drum with my friend Belden. More drinks were poured, toasts were exchanged, and at the end of the night, we parted ways with our beautiful hosts with joyful smiles and glad hearts.

A wonderfully painted kimono from Kaga Yuzen Maida

The Makings of a Kimono

After a wonderful night at a geisha teahouse, it was natural for our group to be interested in the kimonos our hosts wore, their painting-like patterns with realistic flower motifs that caught one’s attention through beautiful coloring and depiction. I would find out the next morning that this style of kimono was called Kaga yuzen, a 400-year-old tradition of kimono design produced around Kanazawa characterized by five basic colors of indigo, grass, crimson, ocher, and ancient purple. Our group was also lucky to meet one of the foremost designing firms in this industry, the Kaga Yuzen Maida.

Mr. Yoshi Maida, the second generation designer who inherited the shop from his father, was happy to give us a tour of the company’s handmade kimono studio. Behind the main shop, we got to meet several of the shokunin (artisans) who painstakingly traced, glued, inked, painted, and dyed the designs Maida-san creates onto several long bundles of silk before they were washed and then dried. In the olden days, these two steps of kimono crafting were done by the riverside, but today, Kaga Yuzen Maida uses a back warehouse and proper climate control techniques to simulate an artificial river for the washing and drying processes.

Of the 12 steps required to create a kimono, I only witnessed six. However, each process was carefully and masterfully done, which made the high prices of these authentic kimonos—which I later learned went as high as 2,000,000 Yen—seem a reasonable value for such masterpieces.

I assumed this meant kimono designing was a burgeoning industry, but Maida-san revealed that this wasn’t necessarily the case. “The number of young hires is declining because people tend not to wear kimonos these days,” he admitted. Witnessing one of my female companions get dressed in one of Kaga Yuzen Maida’s attractive kimonos—a white silk piece with a blue floral design evoking a feeling of winter—with the kimono complimenting her beauty, I thought it was a shame people didn’t want to wear this style of clothing all the time.

A Mastery of Bamboo Craftsmanship

After a morning of authentic Japanese fashion, we had lunch at the café of Kanazawa’s 21st Century Museum of Modern Art. I regretted how we didn’t get to tour it afterward because many of the displays we did glimpse on our way out were captivating, demanding more than a second’s worth of glimpses. However, we were pressed for time and the next highlight of the Kanazawa tour was already waiting for us.

Chifuyu Enomoto is one of Japan’s top bamboo craftsmen who welcomed us into his home for a tour of his workshop. The intricate patterns and rich details of the bamboo vases on display there showed off the masterful craftsmanship that Enomoto-san had been cultivating for many years and made him famous.

Enomoto-san is also a proficient teacher who taught us about various bamboo types used in his products and then instructed our group of newbie crafters on how to weave bowls made from bamboo strips. It was another fun experience of firsts, one that evoked memories of days spent in Home Economics classes making wooden jewelry boxes. The difference was that this time my teacher was a master craftsman.

The lively streets of Tokyo

The Heart Yearns for Tokyo

Our journey would culminate in a post-pandemic Tokyo, arguably still the most famous destination for Filipino travelers. We left Kanazawa that afternoon and took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) through an hour-and-a-half-long ride across scenic Japanese countryside while our anticipation for seeing Japan’s capital continued to build up.
It was our fourth and last night in Japan, so my companions were eager to witness the local tourist scene. After dinner at an underground sushi restaurant called Imayoshi, we greeted my old friend Hachiko at his home outside Shibuya Station. Then, we walked the iconic Shibuya Crossing, which was once again teeming with people. In fact, if it weren’t for the masks people wore, I might have thought that the pandemic hardly touched the city.

Our group split up afterward so others could enjoy some shopping, while some of us grabbed a bite to eat at Ichiran, a famous ramen chain with restaurants all over the city. It was past midnight by the time we finished our ramen, but we weren’t willing to return to our hotel yet. So, I and three companions walked the streets of Ginza District, and, although the luxury stores were all closed, the festive holiday lights twinkling at us from both sides of Ginza’s wide street made it a worthwhile stroll.

Ironically, we would return to Ginza the next day to see the Art Aquarium Museum at Mitsukoshi Ginza. Located inside the mall’s 8th floor, the museum boasted a colorful collection of goldfish art whose light, sound, and scent effects evoked an inspiring atmosphere among the exhibits.

Our final stop on the history and craft tour was the new Mizuno Some Koujo store located at the Hiburo Okuroji complex in Hibiya, a former 100-year-old railroad viaduct turned shopping center with a beautiful brick arch ceiling that was just a ten-minute walk from Ginza. Mizuno Some Koujo was my first indigo dyeing experience that was made even more interesting because the experts there taught us the Japanese method of dyeing.

Nearly three years after COVID-19 infected the world, Japan seemed to have returned to its former self as one of the world’s top travel destinations, and we at asianTraveler were only too eager to show up for a tour that would take us through Nagoya, Gifu, Toyama, Kanazawa—historical destinations which were little known to many of our readers—and a revisit of Tokyo that would provide many charming, cultural experiences and picturesque vistas that required a faithful retelling. I can only hope we did them justice.

Journey to the East