Of course, it helped that Sayuri’s saga was made up. There may not be enough information out there to write a book about Yuki without filling in the cracks with fiction, but there can be no doubt that she led an interesting life. Morgan Oyuki created scandal and captured the headlines throughout her life and, incredibly, her presence alone may have saved Kyoto from the atomic bomb.

The Cure for a Broken Heart: 40,000 Yen

It was 1902, and George Morgan had just had his heart broken. His fiancee had split, so he took a trip to Japan to get over his feelings. George’s father was a rich man named George Morgan, and his mother was the sister of a considerably richer man, the famous banker J.P. Morgan. Yes, you may find it a bit creepy that both of his parents were born with the last name Morgan, but they were apparently unrelated. I’m skeptical.

Anyway, George was looking for something to cure his broken heart, and he found it: A Gion district geisha named Yuki Kato. He courted her for years, seeing her and asking her to marry him and visiting Kyoto as often as he could. She constantly refused, and something of a love triangle developed between her, George, and Yuki’s young lover Kawamura. The newspapers picked up on the story, and the scandal began.

Eventually, Kawamura moved away (maybe to avoid being drawn further into a scandalous story) and Yuki agreed to marry George Morgan. At this point, 40,000 yen, a tremendous amount of money back then, changed hands, and different stories give different reasons. Some say Yuki asked for the money in return for marriage, an old-school bride price situation, and others say the money was spent to release Yuki from her geisha contract. Whatever it was, George paid 40,000 yen or more to marry Yuki Kato, and this scandalous piece of news kept the Japanese newspapers talking for decades. January 20th, the anniversary of George Morgan and Yuki Kato’s marriage, is “Marry Into Money Day” to this day in Japan. It’s not a public holiday or anything, but it’s real.

With this marriage, the “Japanese Cinderella” story was born, and Yuki Kato became Morgan Oyuki. She left Japan with George, and visited America with him for a while. They found that the United States wasn’t quite ready to accept George’s young, recently geisha wife, so they left for France, where they would stay for the next decade.

In 1915, George Morgan was trying to return to France from America, as he’d done dozens of times. Due to the onset of World War I, this was no longer a simple process. To stay safe from German submarines, he took a ship to Gibraltar at the south tip of Spain, then had to travel overland the rest of the way to France. He would never make it. He died of a heart attack, and Morgan Oyuki was now a widow.

Mixed Narratives

At this point, the narratives split. Some accounts say that Oyuki left for New York, where three decades of Madame Butterfly performances had apparently now made the upper class more amenable to having a former geisha around. Wikipedia even claims that it was the Morgans who brought her there, but it cites a book that’s talking about something entirely different.

What’s wrong with that story? Oyuki hadn’t been welcome in New York about ten years earlier, and she probably knew English about as well as I know Tagalog. She learned French and spoke French so often that she was only an awkward Japanese speaker when she returned to Kyoto decades later.

Using Yuki’s letters and journals, Japanese writer Sumi Kosakai discovered what is probably the real story: Yuki stayed in France, living with a French ex-legionnaire who had been sending her love letters for some time. He would die a few decades later, and she would finally decide to return home.

Regardless of which story you believe, Oyuki returned to Kyoto in 1938, where she’d remain until her death in 1963. The Japanese media still wasn’t tired of talking about her, and every couple of years another novel or play based on her life would start the whole conversation over again. A 1947 issue of TIME Magazine details a particularly successful book about Oyuki which had been serialized over 260 installments in three different newspapers. Mademoiselle Yuki had never spoken with the author and refused to see him. The author had simply decided to fill in the cracks with fiction.

Box Office, Bombs

A movie director by the name of Masahiro Makino had a theory about Yuki. He said that it was his father, Shouzou Makino, who originally advised Yuki Kato to ask for an enormous amount of money to be wed. Makino says his father also met Yuki in France later on and tried to arrange a meeting between her and her former lover Kawamura, only to have Kawamura die along the way.

Masahiro Makino theorized that the Morgan family knew that Yuki had returned to Kyoto, and so they had the city stricken from the shortlist of potential atomic bomb targets (yes, this list definitely existed, and yes, Kyoto was originally on it).

It’s not by any means impossible that the Morgan family called off the dogs on Kyoto. If Lieutenant General Leslie Groves’ book about his experience leading the Manhattan Project is to be believed, it was Secretary of War Henry Stimson who adamantly took Kyoto off the bombing targets list. There have been a number of rumors as to why Stimson did this: Some say he thought it would be against the rules of war to bomb such a historic city. Some sources say Stimson rejected Kyoto because he had honeymooned there (embarrassingly, this may be the most well-supported story out there in historical sources).

But, if you’re willing to delve a little further into conspiracy theory, Stimson had also been a partner and close friend of J.P. Morgan’s personal attorney Elihu Root, and he was certainly well-acquainted with the surviving Morgan family. If the Morgans were aware that Oyuki was in Kyoto, which they probably were, and the Morgans still had the ear of Stimson, which they probably did, then Makino’s atomic bomb theory isn’t the wildest theory you’ll ever hear. But, to my knowledge, there’s no documentation or proof of this justification for saving Kyoto, and there’s been plenty written on the subject, even if it is a little inconclusive.

Finally, An Eyewitness Account

Despite all the scandal, the hoopla, and the “Japanese Cinderella” name tag, there is at least one source which claims Morgan Oyuki lived her last few decades simply, without the money and the drama associated with her earlier years. In a letter to TIME Magazine, a man who’d met Oyuki wrote in to protest at their typically scandal-filled report of her life:

Sir:

Your article about Mrs. George Morgan [TIME, Dec. 22] and the accompanying cut is both conceived and written in extraordinarily poor taste. Your willingness to accept the evidence of a cheap Japanese novelist is right in keeping with the tradition of yellow journalism.

At the request of her niece, Mrs. Sarah Morgan Gardner of Princeton, I located Mrs. Morgan in Kyoto in May of 1946 while serving in Japan with the Marine Corps. I found her through the St. Francis Xavier Church missionaries in that city, men who willingly testified to her devotion to the church and to the hardships she had suffered in Japan as the widow of an American. Mrs. Morgan herself, a charming elderly lady, who seemed more Occidental than Japanese, was overjoyed to hear news of her American relations, who are all devoted to her and have made every effort to see that she is taken care of. Far from being a rich woman, as intimated in your article, all her income is frozen in the United States.

Articles such as yours can do little else than make life more uncomfortable for people who are unable to answer them.

ROBERT W. LOCKE Princeton, N.J.

The TIME editor shrugged off the complaint with a bit of snark:

TIME trusts that its other readers were not equally offended by this story of Madame-Butterfly-with-a-difference. — ED.

To be fair, with the exception of suggesting that Yuki was still rich, TIME didn’t say much that wasn’t true.

Yuki Kato’s story has continued to inspire talk and rumors and novels and plays. Just last year, a new play called “Morgan O-Yuki: The Geisha of the Gilded Age” was put on at Ventfort Hall in Massachusetts, a mansion built by George Morgan’s parents. Fictionalized or not, her “Japanese Cinderella” story keeps echoing on through the decades, and who’s to say it ever has to stop?

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sources:

• TIME Magazine, the 12/22/1947, 1/19/1948, and 5/31/1963 issues.
• Women of the Pleasure Quarters by Lesley Downer, pp. 186-192.
• The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient by Sheridan Prasso, pp. 48-9.
• Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project by Leslie Groves, pp. 275-6.
• History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II by Murray N. Rothbard, p. 422.
• “What Future For Japan?”: U.S. Wartime Planning for the Postwar Era, 1942-1945 by Rudolf V.A. Janssens, p. 317.
• http://blog.goo.ne.jp/amachan_001/e/7f27c0a4e762b5f8416f1b77310fa70d
• http://www.joho-kyoto.or.jp/~wazaden/english/hito/morgan_e.html
• http://www.yorozubp.com/2011/2011/07/post-9.html
• http://uncoveringjapan.com/2013/09/25/good-eats-gogyo-kyoto/
• http://boardingarea.com/pointsmilesandmartinis/2013/09/how-a-ho…
• http://www.kyozei.or.jp/news/93/93-3.html
• http://www.nnh.to/01/20.html

The Kyoto Prize was established in 1985 by Kazuo Inamori, a successful businessman and philanthropist who was inspired by the Nobel Foundation’s goal of honoring significant contributions to humanity. In developing the prize he consulted closely with the Nobel Foundation to be sure that the Kyoto Prize would complement — and not rival or attempt to overshadow—the Nobel Prize. Thus the Kyoto Prize recognizes achievements in the general fields of Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy*, and the cash prizes are somewhat smaller.

When Inamori developed his philosophy for the Kyoto Prize, he wrote that:

“Those worthy of the Kyoto Prize will be people who have… worked humbly and devotedly, sparing no effort to seek perfection in their chosen professions. They will be individuals who are sensitive to their own human fallibility and who thereby hold a deeply rooted reverence for excellence. Their achievements will have contributed substantially to the cultural, scientific, and spiritual betterment of mankind. Perhaps most importantly, they will be people who have sincerely aspired through the fruits of their labors to bring true happiness to humanity.”

The contributions that the winners of the Kyoto prize have made to our world and society are too many to go over them all, at this point. But, in order to teach you more about the Kyoto Prize and the people involved with it, I’d like to tell you the story of two men: One who created the Kyoto Prize (Kazuo Inamori) and one who won it (statistician Akaike Hirotsugu). Both of these men embodied the ethos of the Kyoto Prize and coincidentally had very interesting lives.

September 1, 1939 (Beginning of World War II)

Hirotsugu:

Our story begins in 1939, with the advent of World War II. Twelve-year-old Akaike Hirotsugu, the youngest son of a silkworm farmer from Shizuoka, would soon enter the Naval Academy in Etajima, Hiroshima. His uncle was a Navy pilot.

Inamori:

Halfway across the country, in Kagoshima, seven-year-old Kazuo Inamori was in his second year of elementary school.

September 1, 1949

Hirotsugu:

Hirotsugu just barely missed the war—it ended the year before his class would graduate. It was a shock to realize they would not follow their upperclassmen into battle and death. Instead, as the Imperial Navy was disbanded and the Academy closed, the headmaster of the Naval Academy told his former students their new job was to live and focus on rebuilding their devastated country.

While reading a mathematics book that had belonged to his late uncle, Hirotsugu decided to focus on mathematics. Under the old education system, he was forced to enroll in high school and only recently graduated. He entered the Mathematics Department of the University of Tokyo.

Inamori:

Kazuo’s home was destroyed in an air raid near the end of the war, on top of which he was soon bedridden with tuberculosis. A neighbor gave him a religious book to read, which comforted him and gave him a sense of purpose. In 1949, Kazuo was still in high school. He was actually rejected from the top school in the area, and would continue to be rejected when he applied for top universities.

September 1, 1959

Hirotsugu:

At Todai, Hirotsugu disdained the heavy focus on theory and instead taught himself probability and statistics. He joined the Institute of Statistical Mathematics after graduating in 1952. His first major success called upon his roots farming silkworms to help Akinori Shimazaki find a way to continuously spin thread from multiple silkworm cocoons without leaving gaps when a cocoon ran out. His technique, called a “gap process”, helped predict when the ends of the cocoon would drop. Shimazaki was so successful in implementing this technique that he was awarded Japan’s first doctorate in sericulture (silk agriculture) engineering.

Inamori:

Kazuo graduated from the engineering department of Kagoshima University in 1955 and joined an insulator manufacturing company, but he quit last year over a disagreement with the technology director. He just started his own company, Kyoto Ceramic Ltd, at the ripe old age of 27. He would soon struggle with collective bargaining demands from his workers, and develop the company motto: 敬天愛人 (Respect the Divine and Love People).

September 1, 1969

Hirotsugu:

Early in the decade, Hirotsugu and his friends started a statistics study group for fun. While obviously a barrel of laughs, it had the added benefit of giving him industrial contacts. He recently had success developing a kiln controller for manufacturing cement. The only problem was, his partners at the factory wouldn’t leave him alone! Only a statistician could reliably choose the correct statistical models for the controller.

Hirotsugu knew he needed to come up with a standard procedure for deciding on a model, which even a non-statistician could use. But if he did so, it was inevitable that the procedure would not always give the best result. As he thought about this conundrum, he recalled his recent experiences as a visiting professor at Princeton and Stanford. “People in the US,” he would later explain, “are pragmatic in the sense that if they can get a reasonable result, they think it’s okay. So… I decided if I could produce a fairly reasonable answer, then that would be sufficient.” His development of the Final Prediction Error would allow the engineers at the cement factory to adjust their models without his help.

Inamori:

Kazuo, meanwhile, was quite busy himself. As an upstart youngster from a less than prestigious school, establishing himself in Japan had been a struggle. Like Sony and Honda before him, he turned to the USA. His first overseas business trip was in 1962, and after accepting a large order of ceramic casings for computer chips from IBM, he just established a Kyocera International office in the United States.

September 1, 1979

Hirotsugu:

At the beginning of the decade, Hirotsugu had an epiphany. On the train on his way into work, he suddenly realized that he could adapt his solution at the cement factory to pretty much all statistics everywhere**. He called this new tool An Information Criterion, or AIC, with every expectation of future generations refining the theory and developing a BIC, a DIC, and so on. Last year he created BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion) himself. This year he’s been busy studying a thermal power plant.

Inamori:

Kazuo continued to grow Kyoto Ceramics (Kyocera), which was now listed on several stock exchanges. After the Oil Crises of 1973, he convinced Panasonic (then called Matsushita Electric Industrial), Sharp Corp., and others to establish a joint venture called Japan Solar Energy Corp.

September 1, 1989

Hirotsugu:

This was the Hirotsugu’s third year as the Director General of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. Although this kept him pretty busy, he still managed to publish an impressive amount of research.

Inamori:

Now officially called Kyocera, Kyoto Limited kept growing. Kazuo started a school for business owners called Seiwajuku in 1982, but apparently felt this was not enough. In 1984 he founded the non-profit Inamori Foundation with his own money. In consultation with the Nobel Foundation, he also established the Kyoto Prize.

In addition to all this philanthropy, Kazuo got into the cell phone business two years previous, creating a new company called DDI.

September 1, 1999

Hirotsugu:

Hirotsugu retired five years previous, and has since been working on his golf swing. Within two years he would publish an analysis of it.

Inamori:

DDI, now called KDDI, was a phenomenal success. As the leader of two multimillion dollar companies, Kazuo was considered one of the greatest businessmen to come out of the post-war era. Four years previous, he “retired” and entered the Buddhist priesthood. To no one’s surprise, however, he continued to be involved as “chairman emeritus”, and even met with the future president of China.

September 1, 2009

Hirotsugu:

In 2006, Hirotsugu Akaike—already declared Second Class Order of the Sacred Treasure—was presented with the Kyoto Prize in Mathematical Sciences for his work with AIC. Here is the text of his commemorative lecture. Among the honors he received throughout his lifetime were the Asahi Prize and the Purple Ribbon Medal, two of the highest honors in Japan. He died of pneumonia in August of 2009.

Inamori:

Kazuo established academies and research centers at Kagoshima, Kyushu, Kyoto, and Case Western Universities. He received honorary degrees from Kyushu and Case Western. This year he would receive the “Entrepreneur for the World” Award in Lyons, France.

2014

Left: Hirotsugu. Right: Inamori.

If you’ve ever studied engineering, natural, or social sciences, chances are you had to take a statistics class. And if you ever took a statistics class, you are almost guaranteed to have come across AIC (now known as Akaike’s Information Criterion). Its creator overcame severe depression in the years after WWII by watching a goldfish swim freely in a pond, and realized that “respecting [his] own and others’ lives was the basis of morality”. What do you think? Did he meet Kazuo’s criteria for the prize?

As for Kazuo, he is still alive and very active. You might argue (and some have) that it was ego, and not humanitarianism, that led him to try to create a prize equal to the Nobel. I encourage you to look him up and decide for yourself. But you should also look up this year’s Kyoto Prize winners and see if they aren’t just as worthy of honor as a Nobel laureate.

Sources:

• Akaike: Akaike, H., “A new look at the statistical model identification,” Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on , vol.19, no.6, pp.716,723, Dec 1974 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1100705&isnumber=24140
• Akaike, H., “Golf Swing Motion Analysis: An Experiment on the Use of Verbal Analysis in Statistical Reasoning”, Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 53, no. 1 pp. 1-10, Mar 2001
• Findley, David F., Emanuel Parzen, “A Conversation with Hirotsugu Akaike”, Statistical Science, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 104—117, Feb 1995 http://projecteuclid.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/euclid.ss/1177010133.
• Tong, H., “Professor Hirotsugu Akaike, 1927-2009”, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), vol. 173 no. 2, pp. 451-454, Apr 2010
• Inamori: Friedman, Y. “Case studies in innovation: What enables outstanding achievements?”, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 95-97, Apr 2010.
• http://global.kyocera.com/inamori/history/index.html
• “INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: Eyes on Higher Things And on the Bottom Line; Not the Usual Retirement Ahead For a Master of Corporate Zen.” The New York Times, April 2, 1997 , Wednesday, Late Edition – Final

*(Within these fields, one of four categories is honored on a rotating basis: Electronics, Biotechnology, Materials Science and Engineering, and Information Science for Advanced Technology; Biological Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Life Sciences for Basic Science; and Music, Arts, Theater, and Thought and Ethics for Arts and Philosophy.)

*An attempt to explain: When you measure the different factors that might help explain a particular result (for instance, calories consumed, exercise, and height might all help explain your weight), sometimes not all of the variables are important. Keeping unimportant variables in a statistical model can even make important variables seem less important than they really are. Model selection is when you analyze statistical models that use different mixes of the variables and decide which model gives the best explanation for your results. Many scientists, engineers, statisticians, and other researchers choose their model by finding the model with the lowest AIC (or its cousin, BIC).

The two spheres are often portrayed as heavily contrasting or even conflicting and both are also involved in stereotyping of each other. I’ve lived in Osaka for a year and am living in Tokyo right now and sometimes I question – are they really that different in the end?

Having experienced both, I want to go through some of the alleged differences between the two, questioning the “accepted wisdom” to see how much wisdom there really is.

But First, Some History

Kinkakuji in Kyoto

Let’s start with the basics. Now Tokyo is (obviously) the economic and political capital of Japan with a metropolitan population of around 30-35 million. The Kansai bloc of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe and surrounding cities has around half that at 17 million.

But it didn’t use to be this way. Tokyo (and wider Kanto) only became a political center in Japan after the Kamakura shogunate and the shift in power from the imperial court (in Kyoto) to the warrior classes. Even then, Edo (present day Tokyo) during the Edo shogunate was only one of the “three capitals” (三都) of Japan: Edo being the seat of power of the Shogunate, Kyoto being that of the Imperial Court and Osaka the center of commerce.

Perhaps you can now see how this rivalry began getting so serious.

Cultural Differences

Guess whether this is Osaka or Tokyo

When you compare the Kansai and Kanto regions, you get the sense that culturally, things are quite different. Of course, television, stereotypes, and more help to perpetuate this, but there are some reasons why the two regions have long been considered the center of two distinct cultural spheres, even to this day. The most basic being:

• The sides which people stand on the escalators – Osaka on the right, Tokyo on the left.
• Food – Osaka is famed for its Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki, Kyoto for traditional Japanese sweets, and Tokyo for Monjayaki.
• Prices – Most things, especially rent but not really for transport, are cheaper in Osaka
• Society – Western Japan including Kansai still has significant problems with dowa (burakumin) discrimination. Kansai (especially Osaka) is often associated with the Yakuza

Other stuff can be googled. What I really want to focus on is the dialect and the stereotypes of the people, so we’re going to move on to that.

The Dialect

Nande da yo just can’t compare

I’m going to go on a rant here. For anyone who thinks that the Kansai dialect (Kansai-ben) is “not Japanese” or is “wrong”.

KANSAI-BEN IS JAPANESE IN THE SAME WAY AS KANTO-BEN IS.

You got me? Let me say that again.

KANSAI-BEN IS JAPANESE IN THE SAME WAY AS KANTO-BEN IS.

Heck if it wasn’t for the Kansai dialect, there would be no keigo (honorific speech) in Kanto-ben. The dialect of Kanto borrowed the honorific patterns of Kansai-ben because it did not have any keigo in the first place.

But anyway, there’s a lot of variations even within Kansai-ben but these are the rough traits.

• Differences in words: Honma in place of Honto, Oru instead of Iru, Akan instead of Dame etc.
• Sound differences: Tendency to pronounce “s” as “h” eg. “san” becoming “han” etc.
• Stress pattern differences: eg. “Hashi” with the stress on the first syllable means “bridge” in Kansai and “Chopsticks” in Tokyo. “Hashi” with the stress on the second syllable is the opposite.

There is significant variety even within Kansai-ben though. The list above is in reference to Osaka-ben, or the accent most stereotyped as being “Kansai-ben.” Kyoto-ben (especially geisha-speak) may be different even though it’s also considered Kansai-ben.

If you’d like to dive even deeper into Kansai-ben, Wikipedia seems to have a lot to say about it.

The People

Then we come to the people – and the various stereotypes about them.

“Kansai=interesting people”

Downtown – One of the many famous Kansai comedy duos

The whole of the Japanese media is full of this. Television is awash with Kansai comedians doing their acts in Kansai-ben. The fact that the most famous comedy company (Yoshimoto Kogyo) is headquartered in Kansai also reinforces this.

Kansai people are often seen to be “talkative” and “with a good sense of humour.” Other stereotypes include how Kansai people ignore red traffic lights, are far more honest, individualistic and “go along with their honne （本音で生きる) ie. ignoring social rules when they want to.

Kyoto people in general are viewed to be more refined because, well, it’s Kyoto. Osaka people, due to its association with business, are sometimes viewed as business oriented, greeting each other with Moukarimakka/儲かりまっか (Are you earning well?).

“Tokyo = Evil”

I exaggerate but a minority of Kansai people do say this. Most of it is more out of rivalry rather than actual dislike or malice I think, though. The Tokyo-is-evil stereotype is nowhere as strong as the Kansai-has-interesting-people stereotype. Tokyo is after all considered to be the “standard”; Kansai is the “outlier” from standard Japanese culture.

Anyway, I’ve heard quite a few half-joking comments about “cold Tokyo people” (冷たい東京人). When I told people that I was moving over to Tokyo. For example, a few (and certainly not a majority) came and warned me about Tokyo. I’ve even seen quite a few “❤ Osaka / F*** Tokyo” T-shirts being worn around before.

While a majority do just make passing comments about the topic, there are however a few people who have a very strong sense of Kansai-pride (surprisingly strong amongst some non-Japanese foreigners) and by extension sometimes also have a strong dislike of Tokyo.

But Are We Really So Different?

Osaka’s Tsutenkaku Skyscraper

To be frank, I think the whole Kansai-Kanto differences thing is a bit overblown.

Certainly some truth to it, sure. For example, Tokyo trains tend to be really quiet – the only people talking tend to be foreigners and high school girls. People even stare at you when you talk in a reasonably audible voice. From my own experience, Kansai trains, especially the Osaka municipal subways, are much livelier.

In addition, yes the Kansai people I’ve met do generally tend to be chattier than the Tokyo people that I’ve met. And their sense of humor also tends to be stronger too. Though perhaps that’s because as a foreigner who actually has lived in Kansai (and who uses Kansai-ben) we tend to gel better.

However, nobody has ever used Moukarimakka on me, nor have I ever heard it used in my presence. Perhaps the older generation still uses it to each other but the younger folks certainly do not.

The “Tokyo is evil” or “Kansai is better” perception is something that I definitely cannot abide with. On the one hand, a portion of the foreigners living in Tokyo just don’t like Tokyo. It’s not rare that I hear the someone saying “if only it were somewhere else in Japan”. And since Kansai is the most obvious alternative, you sometimes see some foreigner Kansai worship.

Plus, I’ve also had arguments with other foreigners in Kansai during trips back there who are very keen on bashing Tokyo. Usually it’s because it’s too crowded / it’s colder than Kansai / it’s more expensive / traveling time is longer / the drinks are weaker / the people smile less etc. All of which of course fall somewhere into the Kansai-Kanto differences stereotypes.

Kobe seaside

Both I think are being too extreme. True enough, if you dislike crowds then Shibuya and Shinjuku may drive you insane. And yes, because rents are higher commuting time may be higher since people’s houses are further away (the farther away you are from Tokyo, the cheaper your rent is probably going to be).

But this idea that Kansai people are easier to socialize with and that Tokyoites are cold seems suspect to me. After all, I know plenty of people who had the full cultural shock and gaijin social isolation in Kansai even though they were supposed to be surrounded by “warm, friendly Kansai-jin”.

Doesn’t their sense of humor help to get to know them though? Well, this is just my observation, but let’s just assume, as it is commonly, that Japanese people tend to avoid serious topics in favor of safe ones – social harmony needs to be kept. In Kanto, the conversation may descend into awkward silence before someone tries to change the topic. In Kansai however, humor may be used (rather skillfully) to change the topic before the awkwardness.

The latter may be good and all and give a few good laughs. But the point is the same – topics are still kept safe, opinions kept silent and conversation safely shallow. Entertaining is not the same as personable.

There is also a view that since there are far more foreigners in Tokyo and the surrounding areas, Tokyoites are far more used to foreigners than Kansai people, excluding Kyoto people who are used to tourists. This is just an opinion (I don’t know of any evidence for or against it). But what is true is that quite a few of my friends do feel more “stared at” in Osaka than in Tokyo.

Kansai ♥ Kanto

The Torii “Tunnel” of Fushimi in Kyoto

While it may sound like I’m thrashing Kansai above, I’m not. I do genuinely like the place having lived there for a year.

I do think that the “Tokyo-bashing Kansai pride” and the “It Would Be Better Over There” views need to be taken down a few notches. It seems to me that these are extremely misleading and exaggerate the differences between the two. No matter how different the histories etc. are, Kansai is part of Japan – the similarities are probably more than the differences.

But anyway, just as an ending note I’d just like to say that Tokyo is not the whole of Japan. There’s many other parts of Japan, such as the Kansai region, which are very worth visiting or even staying in. So if you’re heading over to Japan or in Tokyo right now, consider taking a trip over to Kansai – there’s really a lot to see.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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I’ll break this up into a two week stint, so that way you can remove things as necessary.

Things To Know

There are a few important things to know that have nothing to do with the actual places. They are:

The Route

Whether you stay for one week or one-point-five weeks or two weeks, the general route stays the same. You’ll do Tokyo area, then Kyoto, then Nara, then Koya, and then back to Tokyo. Throughout the route, I’ll mark things as “optional” as well. If you’re only staying a week, I’d recommend cutting out these things (unless you really want to go to them, then cut something else out). If you’re staying for two weeks, you should be able to go to all of these places, and maybe even diverge off to other places. In fact, I highly encourage this! Go where you want – this route is merely a suggestion.

Also keep in mind that I’m just going to be providing locations. You’ll have to do your own research as to how to get to them. Google and Google Maps helps a lot with this. I believe in you.

JR Pass

Whether you stay a week or two weeks, I’d recommend getting the JR Pass. This is like a magical golden ticket that gives you unlimited JR train rides (bullet train too) to anywhere around Japan. Not all things are free (for example, non JR trains as well as most subways), but if you take three rides on the Shinkansen that will usually make it worthwhile. You can get a JR Pass at jrpass.com (where I got my last one). Just be sure to take into account the time change when you schedule your ticket dates. Going to Japan involves traveling through both space and time.

Finding Places To Stay

I don’t really cover places to stay in this article, just the places to go to. Finding someplace to stay is up to you, though there are plenty of resources out there that will help you. I recommend hostels for adventurers / students / people with no money (they’re fun, cheap, and way less sketchy than other hostels I’ve been to). Guest houses are also great if you can find them. They tend to be a little cheaper than hotels, but the food / environments are a lot more interesting.

Packing

Since this is a pretty standard trip, most of the places are going to be pretty bag friendly. I wouldn’t bring a ton (lots of hotels have washing machines too), and would definitely recommend a backpack or something with wheels. Don’t make the mistake of bringing something you’re not comfortable carrying up and down long flights of stairs. You will run into a lot of these getting on and off trains, so if your biceps are tiny, only pack whatever you can lift (preferably less). Also, bring a lightweight duffel bag (or you can buy one) for the optional shopping you can do at the end of your trip.

That being said, let’s get started! You have some traveling to plan.

Day 1: Fly Into Tokyo

Flying into Tokyo isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either. Depending on where you’re coming from, you may also be terribly jet lagged. If that’s you and you’re on the 2-week schedule, you get an extra day to take it easy in Tokyo. Nice. If that’s not you, you better be ready to go. No rest for the weary. After getting to the airport, you’ll need to go pick up your JR Pass (should be included with your ticket). If your flight comes in too late (and the ticket place is closed) I’d recommend shelling out the $30 or so to go into Tokyo without the JR Pass and get it the next day in the city.

Optional: You can also pick up a 3g hotspot / internet dongle for your computer if you’d like. Finding free wifi in Japan is a huge pain, and getting one of these will pay for itself if you need to do a lot of work, or something.

Once you’ve gotten your ticket, hop on the JR Narita Express (NEX) to Tokyo. When you get to Tokyo, check into wherever you’re staying and scope things out. It’s probably evening by now anyways, so do your best to unjetlag yourself and go to bed so you can wake up early.

Day 2, 3, & 4: Tokyo

*If you’re only staying for one week, cut out days 3 and 4 and then skip to Day 7. Alternatively, you could skip Day 2 as well and choose to do Day 5 or Day 6 (then your Tokyo time will be your shopping time on your way back). If you don’t really care about big cities like Tokyo, skipping this section won’t be too bad! :)

For the first few days, you’ll be exploring Tokyo. So many people. So many things. Hopefully by the end of your Tokyo time you’ll feel so tired of it you want to go somewhere nice and peaceful (don’t worry, you will!). There are various areas of Tokyo worth visiting, and they’re all quite easy to get to via the subway system. As long as you’re not hitting it during rush hour, you’ll probably have a great time scooting around. Since there are so many different tastes out there, I thought I’d list out the main places worth visiting in Tokyo, and then you can pick and choose what you like. I’ll even sort them by areas.

Central Tokyo

Akihabara: This area is famous for its electronic shops and otaku culture. So, if you’re into either of these, this is a fun place to be. Make sure you look up, too. Lots of multi-story buildings filled with all kinds of weird things. You can spend a while walking around here.

Northern Tokyo:

Asakusa: Asakusa has the feeling of an “old” Tokyo, I think. You can visit the Sensoji (famous Buddhist Temple) and Asakusa Shrine or hit up some of the various shopping lanes.

Ueno Park: Ueno Park is probably one of Japan’s most well known parks. Besides being parkish, it’s full of museums, shrines, temples, as well as the Ueno Zoo. Definitely the kind of place you fancier folks will enjoy. You can spend a whole day here, if you’re into this kind of thing.

Roppongi Hills: Want to see Tokyo from somewhere up high? Come to Roppongi Hills. You can go up into the Mori tower and look down on all those tiny people. Pro Tip: They don’t like it when you try to throw pennies off the observation deck. Also worth noting is the Mori Art Museum.

Kappabashi: Do you know how a lot of Japanese food places have fake foods outside showing you what the food looks like? There’s a chance they got it at Kappabashi, the kitchen capital of Tokyo. You can buy things for your restaurant, but the best part is the fake food, I think. It’s surprisingly expensive, too.

Western Tokyo

Shibuya: Shibuya is just a ward of Tokyo, but it’s particularly known for all its fashion and culture. A lot of shopping can be found here, but there’s also the Hachiko Dog Statue as well. Scope it out but come back in the “shopping days” at the end of your trip.

Love Hotel Hill: Technically this is part of Shibuya, but it’s worth noting on its own. This is just an area with a lot of love hotels. Pro tip: They won’t let three people in at a time, so if you want to check one out as a group, you’ll have to break up into pairs or bring a body pillow.

Shinjuku: Shinjuku’s kind of the party district, though that may be because of Kabukicho (northeast of Shinjuku Station) which is Tokyo’s big red light district. If you’re into nightclubs, bars, pachinko, neon, and other *ahem* things, this will be a place you’ll enjoy.

Harajuku: Love crazy outfits? You’ll fit in right here. Harajuku is home to Tokyo’s teen fashion and cosplay (if you visit on a Sunday). There’s also plenty of shopping and crepe stands as well (yum).

Meiji Shrine & Yoyogi Park: These two places are pretty close to each other, so I’m putting them together here too. It’s also a good place to go from Harajuku, since you’ll use the same train station. The Meiji Shrine is just one of many shrines in Japan, but it’s particularly interesting if you’re into modern Japanese history. Yoyogi Park, on the other hand, is just a really big park. Both are nice, though, if you’re looking to get out of the cement jungle known as Tokyo.

Day 5: Monkey Park, Jigokudani

Have you heard of those Japanese monkeys that hang out in the hot springs? This is one of those places, though depending on the time of year, they may not be spending too much time in the hot springs. I like this place in Winter, but other times are good as well. Summer means baby monkeys, after all. To get here, you’ll have to go North of Tokyo to Nagano (Shinkansen it!). From Nagano Station, take Nagano Dentetsu to Yudanaka. From there, you can take a bus to the Kanbayashi Onsen, which has the entrance to the Jigokudani Yaen-Koen. It’ll be a 30+ minute walk (depending on how much you stop) to get to the actual monkey area, though you may start seeing monkeys before then if you’re lucky. Check out the livecam, too!

If you’re going to Jigokudani, I’d maybe recommend heading up here at the end of Day 4 and staying the night in Nagano. There’s some interesting things up there too (that’s where they did the Winter Olympics in 1998!), so feel free to head up a bit earlier and check things out. Then, the next morning (Day 5) you can head out bright and early to Jigokudani and take your time with the monkeys and possibly hit the onsen. It’s a nice place. Then, you can head on back to Tokyo the same night.

Day 6: Toshogu Shrine, Nikko

Nikko is the mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Basically, he and his relatives ruled over Japan as Shogun for 250 years (until the Meiji Restoration). That means he got a pretty sweet shrine. There are over a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings here, and it’s in a very beautiful setting. Need some peace from Tokyo? You’ll for sure get it here.

This can be a day trip (it’s really close to Tokyo) with some extra time left over. I’d recommend coming here, then either checking out other things in this area or heading straight to Tokyo in the afternoon or evening. Just be sure to give yourself 3-4 hours to travel, so don’t leave too late from here. Another option would be to leave the morning of Day 7 and get to Kyoto in the late morning or early afternoon. It’s totally up to you.

Day 7 & 8: Kyoto

*If you’re on the 1-week plan, skip day 8 and go to Nara instead.

Kyoto’s going to be your shrine and temple time here in Japan. Since it was the place where the emperor lived for over a thousand years, it’s full of cool, historical things. Take your pick and enjoy. Also be sure to just walk around at random. You’ll run into so many temple, castles, and shrines just by accident. It doesn’t hurt to explore, some. Oh, and bring your walking shoes. Things are about to get… walky.

Central Kyoto

Nijo Castle: This was where Tokugawa Ieyasu lived (remember his shrine, up above?). Later it switched to an imperial palace (after the Shogunate went down), and then later opened to the public. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is supposedly a big deal.

Kyoto Imperial Palace: When the Shogunate was in power, this is where the imperial family lived. You can even take tours in English, here.

Northern Kyoto

Kinkakuji: Also known as the golden pavilion, this is a building covered in gold.

Western Kyoto

Kokedera: Also known as Saihoji, this is another UNESCO World Heritage Site (way to go, Kyoto). This temple is mainly known for its moss, and apparently has over 120 different varieties.

Southern Kyoto

Fushimi Inari Shrine: This shrine is known for its thousand torii gates. They’re bright orange and absolutely incredible to walk through. Highly recommended.

Eastern Kyoto

Kiyomizudera: One of the must sees, I think (and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site). This temple is high up on a hill and has a balcony that offers an awesome view.

Higashiyama District: You’ll run into this on your way up to Kiyomizudera, actually. Think of this area as a “historic shopping district.” Kind of touristy, but a lot of fun nonetheless. Grab something to take home!

Sanjusangendo: The building itself it’s amazing, but the inside is pretty remarkable. There are 1001 statues of Kannon in here, which is… well… kinda remarkable.

Gion: Like Geisha? this is Kyoto’s Geisha District. You will have to try pretty hard to get in to see a geiko, though, but good luck trying (hint: apparently some travel agencies will hook you up if you’ve got the yen).

Day 9: Nara

You can leave the morning of Day 9 or leave the evening of Day 10 and spend the night in Nara. Either is fine. You can even spend the night in Nara on Day 9 as well then move on early in the morning of Day 10. It all depends on how much you like temples and Deer.

While there’s some neat temples, shrines, castles, and other similar things here in Nara, I’d say you’re coming for deer. The deer here are pretty tame and will actually attack you if you have food (kinda fun to run from deer). Don’t worry, they have their horns cut off, though (it’s a religious thing), so you won’t be stabbed through, most likely.

Places you’ll want to go in Nara:

• Todaiji Temple: Largest wooden structure in the world with Japan’s largest Buddha statues inside. Basically, think super sized. Definitely one of the best places to visit in Nara.
• Nara Park: Has a lot of deer. Go buy deer food, the deer will thank you.
• Kofukuji Temple: Basically a big temple. Very pretty, though.
• Nara National Museum: If you’re interested in Japanese Buddhist Art, this will be a fun place for you. The building is also surrounded by ferocious, wild deer.

Consider this a day to walk around but not as much as when you were in Kyoto. Nara’s a lot like Kyoto in a lot of ways, though, so I’d recommend mainly hitting up the deer and then hitting up Todaiji Temple. Depending on how worn out you are on temples, though, you can stay here longer or shorter, deciding where you stay this night based off of that.

Day 10: Mt. Koya aka Koyasan

You’ll want to make sure you leave early this day, whether you’re leaving from Kyoto or Nara. You have a ways to go to get to Koya-san, quite possibly one of the most beautiful places in Japan (just my opinion).

There are a hundred temples here, many of which you can stay the night at. When you spend the night, you get the best vegetarian meal you’ve ever had (guaranteed), a room to stay in, and even the option to wake up (really) early to go watch the monks do their morning rituals. It’s so peaceful, a lot of fun, and one of my favorite places on earth. You’ll want to go to the Koyasan website for more information on lodging.

I’d recommend getting here as early as you can on Day 10, dropping off your things at the place you’re staying, then just walk around. You’ll be able to fill a good amount of time just exploring. The best place to walk, though? Probably the giant cemetery, which also happens to be the largest in Japan. Although some may find a graveyard creepy, it really is quite peaceful.

This, I think, will be one of your best days in Japan, so don’t skimp out on it if possible! Just be sure to get back to your temple in time for dinner.

Day 11: Travel Day / Osaka / Fuji

*If you’re on the 1-week schedule, you’ll need to get back to Tokyo. You’re running out of days.

Day 11 is mostly travel. You’ll want to leave Koya either late morning or early afternoon, depending on where you’re going next. If you like shopping a lot, you’ll want to get back to Tokyo on this day.

If you don’t need the extra time, consider stopping in Osaka (it’s on the way from Koyasan). You can visit the Glico Man, Osaka Tower, play some Pachinko, and eat some Takoyaki / Okonomiyaki (both famous in Osaka). It’s a bit different than Tokyo, but it’s still a big city. I’ll leave this one up to you, though. Osaka’s a lot of fun to just walk around and check out, though.

Alternatively, you could stop at Mt. Fuji on the way back too. I recommend the amusement park Fuji-Q Highland over climbing the mountain itself (it looks better from afar, you’ll have to trust me on this one) if you do this. Definitely don’t miss the horror house there, it’s top notch.

Whatever you end up doing, you’re reaching the end of your trip. Just make sure you’re back in Tokyo in time to do your shopping before you get on the airplane to leave. Of course, if you don’t shop, then you have more time to go to more places. If you do shop, get back to Tokyo.

Day 12 & 13: Shopping In Tokyo / Last Minute Visits

Hopefully you scoped out all the places you wanted to shop at, because this is your shopping time. Get the things you want for yourself and for your friends / relatives. Fill up that duffel bag you brought / bought and have fun. This is also a good time to just go around to the places you missed.

Either way, it’s good to be back in Tokyo a day or two before your flight leaves, that way you won’t miss your flight (unless you want to “accidentally” miss it, wink wink nudge nudge).

Day 14: Go Home

Hope you had fun in Japan. This is only your first trip, though. Now that you’ve gotten all the normal / main stuff out of the way, your next trip can be filled with strange, exciting places. Be sure to check out TofuguTV for some of those, and keep reading Tofugu for more in the future. There are certainly many, many “off-the-beaten-track” locations worth visiting, but we’ll save that for next time!

They look like they belong together, no?

I got to stay in some pretty sweet places while shooting TofuguTV stuff, but I gotta say this was one of the coolest. I stayed in two capsule hotels. One sucked, and one was awesome. This is the awesome one. It was like Steve Jobs decided to stop making iPhones and iPads, and open a hotel chain. He’d say things like “This capsule hotel is our thinnest ever.” Or just plain stick with “Staying here is magical.” And I gotta say, it kind of was magical.

Capsule Hotel “9h”

9h (ナインアワーズ) Capsule Hotel is a very modern twist on the normally grungy, tiny, not-all-that-great capsule hotel scene going on in Japan. If I were a drunk salaryman looking for a place to stay for a few hours between overtime shifts (or between my binge drinking and my overtime shift) I’d stay here over anywhere else. It’s convenient, it’s clean, and it just feels good being here.

Taken by Gakuranman from Gakuranman.com (awesome blog! Go take a look).

Just like a lot of capsule hotels, you pay by the hour. Depending on when you’re there, it can be either 900 yen (base fee) + 300 yen/hour, or 900 yen base fee + 400 yen/hour. If you stay for around 9 hours (that’s 30 minutes of getting ready to sleep, 8 hours of sleeping, and then 30 minutes to get ready to go) then you’re probably going to pay around $50-$60, which isn’t all that bad if you compare it to most hotels (though a lot of hostels will be cheaper, just not as cool).

Everything is streamlined really well, though. You go inside, take off your shoes (and put them in a locker), go shower / wash up, go to your capsule to sleep, wake up, wash up, then check out. It’s all rather easy and simple, and there are signs all over the floors telling you what to do (whew).

By Gakuranman

After you’ve washed up and checked in, you go to your capsule to sleep. In this particular capsule hotel, there are men’s and women’s floors (though lots of capsule hotels don’t allow women). You can see which capsules are being occupied (below) by the slippers and whether or not the shade is drawn (looks like this room is pretty full).

Me and the The Gakuranman stayed here together. You can see how there’s two slippers nearby because we’re sleeping in the same capsule no slippers too close to each other because we were staying in capsules that weren’t the same capsules.

You’re given all the things you need to sleep, too. You get a toothbrush, towels, and even sleeping clothes (which, sadly, aren’t black turtle necks and jeans) that are really nice (I wish I could’ve bought a set). You even get some 9h branded water. That’s how hardcore they are here.

They do not bill you by the hour for water, thankfully

Some futuristic PJs

Private showers that lead into the public bath (i.e. after you take a shower you keep on going through the shower to the bath – it’s awesome!)

There’s even 9h branded shampoo, conditioner, and soap

Wake-Up Alarm System

Gakuranman looking to see how late it was. Time to go Haikyoing!

One of my favorite things is the alarm system. Since it’d wake everyone up if you had sound alarms (bleep bleep bleeeep!) 9h came up with a cool solution…. they us light to wake you up. Like a big old flash of light. You can see this happening in the video below:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWKxBCMwwkY']

Totally didn’t wake me up because I suck at waking up to any kind of alarm, but still pretty sweet nonetheless. I’m sure normal people wake up to it.

You Should Go

Click on the map to see this in Google Maps

It was a lot of fun and worth experiencing! If you’re visiting Japan, chances are you’ll head to Kyoto (at least if you’re doing touristy things), so you might as well hit it up. Right next to an ampm, too, and ampm in Japan is awesome (in America not so much)! Hope you enjoy!

P.S. Think capsule hotels are too small? Follow Tofugu on Twitter.

P.P.S. Think capsule hotels are way too big? Then you should Like Tofugu on Facebook.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen a Japanese address written down somewhere before, but if you have, you’ll know that they’re about as long as writing an essay, and perhaps take an equal amount of analytical thinking. If you’ve never run into the concept of a Japanese address, it’s about as opposite as you can get from an American address. I’m not saying that’s bad… just completely different. Thank goodness for GPS, on both accounts. I can barely get around San Francisco, let alone Tokyo.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1zh49J5rsg']

Watch the first half (or so) of this video. Derek Sivers (hoopy frood who knows where his towel’s at) does a great job explaining the idea of Japanese addresses and how they work, on a basic level. On a more complicated level, it goes something like this.

The first thing to know: Japanese address system is based on areas. These areas are divided from big to small, which go something like this. It’s a lot like a funnel, really.

1. Prefecture (県)

• There are exceptions to this, though. 都 (to) for Tokyo,  道 (dō) for Hokkaidō and 府 (fu) for the two urban prefectures of Osaka and Kyoto.

2. Municipality.

• Large cities use 市 (shi)
• Special wards can use 区 (ku)
• Smaller municipalities include the district 郡 (gun) followed by the town 町 (chō / machi) or village 村 (mura / son).

3. Location within the municipality

• Many cities have wards 区 (ku)
• Wards can be divided up into 町 (chō / machi) or village 村 (mura / son)
• Towns may be subdivided into even smaller parts too.

4. City District: 丁目 (chōme)

• Usually assigned based on the order or proximity to the center of the municipality.

5. City block: 番地 (banchi)

• Also assigned based on the order or proximity to the center of the municipality.

6. House Number: 号 (gō)

• Based on when the house / building was built or assigned in clockwise order around the city block.

7. Apartment number may be added if the house number refers to an apartment building.

The postal code, which is indicated by a 〒 symbol, goes on top of the address. If you see this symbol on a metal box, it’s a good bet you can put your mail in there.

Here’s an example of an address ripped right off of the good folks at Wikipedia.

〒100-8799
東京都千代田区丸の内二丁目7番2号
東京中央郵便局

〒100-8799 (postal code)
Tōkyō-to (prefecture exception “to” for Tokyo)
Chiyoda-ku (the ward)
Marunouchi ni-chōme (city district)
nana-ban (city block)
ni-gō (house number)
Tōkyō Chūō Yūbin-kyoku(name of the place, in this case the “Tokyo Central Post Office”)

Kyoto and Sapporo, The Postal Rebels

Kyoto and Sapporo (up in Hokkaido) do something a little different, though the “official” addressing systems still work. Kyoto has many little chōs going on, often with the same names within the same Ward (which makes it tough on the postal folk). So, to combat this, they have an unofficial (though it is supported by the post office) system that’s based off of street names. This system takes an intersection (two crossing streets) and then additional information on whether the building is north, south, east, or west of this intersection. Yes, this does mean that buildings can have multiple addresses, depending on which intersection was chosen. Sapporo’s system is based on a quadrants set up in the center by two intersecting roads. Blocks are then named based off of how far away they are from the center, which can get kind of weird the farther you are away from the sweet spot.

In the end, the Japanese address system totally makes sense, despite being nearly our complete opposite. Personally, I’d just get a GPS and have it tell me where to go. Or, better yet, get lost. So much more potential for adventure. Well, if you ever get yourself a Japanese pen pal or long-distance language partner (and not one of those new-fangled e-mail ones), hopefully this’ll come in handy!

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