Visit Kansai, Visit Japan

A friend posted on facebook her intention to visit Japan and Korea, and I offered some accommodation suggestions and asked if she would be visiting Kansai.

Her reply, though not surprising, unfortunately summed up perfectly the general – and grossly inaccurate - perception most have of Japan and Kansai:

“Is it worth a visit?”

Everyone thinks of Tokyo when Japan is spoken of, while others wax lyrical over the ‘wonders’ of Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku – it’s now time to set the record straight:

Kansai is the best place to be for a one-stop, catch-all visit to Japan.

In Kansai, you can visit two ancient capital cities (Nara and Kyoto) and a port city (Kobe) within an hour’s train ride from a bustling, vibrant and exciting city (Osaka).

Tokyo doesn’t offer any of much of those; a visit to Tokyo is very much a visit to a modern global city. Also, Tokyo is a big city and travelling within it will already take 20-45mins (due to its size and horrible subway connections) – Akihabara, for example, is 10 stations away from Shibuya, and the Yamanote Loop Line is not a small loop at all.

To elaborate slightly:

Nara was the first capital city, established 1000 years ago, and is home to freely roaming deer and the largest Buddha statue in Japan:

Todaiji, where the largest Buddha statue in Japan is housed, and the deer which you can touch and feed.

Kyoto was the capital before Tokyo and is the best place to visit for traditional Japanese houses, temples and shrines, as most of its buildings escaped bombings during WWII, unlike most cities in the rest of Japan.

Above: everyday items and gifts made from kimono material

Below: The Fushimi Inari Shrine, location of the famous scene in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’

Kobe is a charming, walkable city – it also has more sights, better architecture and a stronger European influence than Yokohama.

The Kobe Port Tower and the museum to its right (above); Kobe has a ferris wheel (below) and a Chinatown too.

And Osaka? Osakans are the most flamboyant among all Japanese – this city is the place to be for crazy fashion and Japanese funk. It’s small and compact, making it easy to explore. Osaka is also known as “the kitchen of Japan” – the food is more delicious and slightly cheaper than in Tokyo. With its proximity to all of the above, its attraction as a base from which to explore the rest couldn’t be clearer.

Osaka is also where you get okonomiyaki, a ‘pancake’ of cooked cabbage, egg, seafood/meat eaten with a sweet-salty sauce with bonito flakes.

You get a theme park – Universal Studios Japan – right in the city too; Tokyo Disneyland is actually in neighbouring Chiba prefecture.

Considering the above, how can anyone not consider visiting Kansai??