My favourite place in Japan

I was recently asked, “what is your favourite thing about Japan?”. Easy if you have the time, because I could drone endlessly on all sorts of things that I adore about that wonderful island, it’s people and it’s culture. But I was in the middle of an interview (!), so I had to try and narrow it down. o.O I had my favourites, but one thing that I couldn’t really decide on was my favourite place in Japan.

I haven’t been around Japan much yet, although in the short time I was there I managed to visit a number of places. I’ve conqured the Tokyo tower, sailed to Miyajima (on a ferry ^_^), paid my respects at Hiroshima, joined in local matsuri in Himeji, played funky music in Kobe, climbed half of Mt. Fuji without seeing it (damn fog!), taken in the ancient culture in Kyoto and explored the wonders of Osaka. I still have lots more I would like to do, hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to find new places and new people.

Trying to decide on one single factor, is a pretty tall task. The closest answer I could come up with is Kansai.

My favourite place in all of Japan is the Kansai Region.

The reason? For one, I lived for a while in Takarazuka, Hyougo. I spent a lot of time around the southern Kansai area and got used to a lot of the customs and language. The whole area is a lot more, how should I say, rustic than the Kanto region. Some people love the big cities like Tokyo and Yokohama, but I like it a little more scaled down. Alright, you’ve got Osaka on your doorstop, but it’s a step down from Tokyo, that’s for sure.

Kobe has a fantastic music scene, including a lot of buskers and street musicians. There’s a place outside one of the stations that a lot of bands gather round (a friend told me the name of it translated into breast mountain, or something like that, due the fact that there’s a lot of these mounds coming out of the ground where the bands play. Anyone confirm or correct this?). Live music houses are a dime a dozen and there’s a great atmosphere.

Osaka is the poor man’s Tokyo if you will. It’s similar, but a little smaller and a little less crowded (although that’s an understatement, most of Japan is pretty crowded!). Lots of good entertainment here, and lots of foreigner friendly places. Some good eating too; lots of variety in the restaurants as well as the infamous Osaka-yaki style of okonomiyaki. Takoyaki came from here (as well as a lot of other good street food). Osaka also has a fantastic aquarium, and Disneyland Japan is only a train ride away ( ^ _ ^ ).

And of course Kyoto is not so far away. You get access to a lot of traditional Japanese culture from the Kansai region. All the famous temples and shrines, Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji, Ryouan-ji. There is Nara, with the temples and the statues of Buddah, and of course, there is Himeji, with the mighty Himeji-jo.

There’s so much to choose from, it’s hard to make one of them your favourite. If you live in the east of Japan, I recommend taking a trip over to see the Kansai region, if only to soak up a minuscule amount of the life there.

So everyone reading, where is your favourite place in the Kansai region?