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003 The Best Backpacking Country · bit of a Rambler

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Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler.
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I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
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I know that a lot of people love the idea of traveling and they don't know exactly what
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they want to do, but everyone knows about backpacking.
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They think it's cool, but there isn't some hard and fast guide on how to backpack, which
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is how backpacking works.
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It's really difficult because depending on which country you go to, they'll have laws
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or even just cultural guidelines that won't let you camp in certain places or how do I
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get a shower?
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And is it going to be really expensive?
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Do I have to find camp grounds?
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How do I get my tent and my camping gear and accessories over there?
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How much do I have to carry?
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And so there's a lot of worries that I get questions on because I love backpacking
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and I've backpacked in every country and I've camped outside every country that I've
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visited.
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I just love being outside and I don't know, self-reliant leave, sleeping under the
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starts.
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It's fantastic.
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So I thought I would talk today about what the best country to start in for backpacking
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is because while there are no hard and fast rules concerning backpacking in general, there
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is a best backpacking country.
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And it's the best country for a few things, but Japan is absolutely the best country to
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begin backpacking in.
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And this is for a few reasons.
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People talk about how Japan is expensive, but that just isn't true.
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At least not if you're from the US.
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Its housing is almost as expensive as US housing if you're in the middle of the city.
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But other than housing in the middle of the city, everything else is cheaper than the
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US and cheaper than a lot of places, especially because Japan focuses on healthy, nourishing
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food.
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So if you go to a convenience store in Japan, you can buy good steamed rice, edamame beans,
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soy sauce steamed chicken, just very simple prepared meals, salads, small sandwiches, just
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packets of carrots and like different vegetables.
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So you can get as much rice as much vegetables and as much chicken and other meats, fish, obviously
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they're going to have salmon and salmon, row and crab right in 7/11, which are everywhere.
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You can go to Lawson, which is the Japanese convenience store of choice and everything is
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like two cents cheaper, so it doesn't matter.
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So first of all, that is food.
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If you need cheap food while you're in Japan and you're just going to backpack for a week
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to see how you like it or whatever, there are convenience stores with this healthy, cheap
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food everywhere.
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So you can buy those little Onigiri, which is the rice ball with a filling inside salmon
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row or crab or tuna or vegetables or whatever.
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They have all these different fillings inside or just a plain rice ball and those are a dollar.
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And that's a good 200 calories, like, yeah, like right there.
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It's enough to keep you going for a while and if you buy five of them, very often they
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have a buy to get one free or buy one get one free sale or just half off for a bunch of
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the stuff in there.
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And different convenience stores have different sales.
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So when I backpacked for three months in Japan, I added those convenience stores all the time.
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I never planned my meals ahead.
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I would go inside one convenience store, check the prices because at that time I was on
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zero money.
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That was my $200 a month phase of traveling and I needed inexpensive good food because I
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did not want to stop traveling.
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I just loved it so much.
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And it's cherry blossom time when I was visiting.
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So I'm just walking through cherry blossoms perpetually.
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If I saw a loss in or 7/11, I would stop in, check their deals.
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There was always something to for one sale.
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I'd spend a dollar, I'd get two little pouches of, let's say edamame and one salmon onigiri.
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And then I would just eat those as I walked to the next one and I'd check the next one.
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And I was like, I just got salmon and they were out of the owner or any.
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So I'd keep walking to a third store and you'll come across one every hour at the minimum.
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You'll, once you're in any sort of town, you'll come across 10 convenience stores of block.
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And they all have that healthy food for a very cheap price.
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So if you're going to backpack, you go to Japan, there is cheap, healthy food everywhere.
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That tastes good.
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Like the Japanese food is so good and it's so convenient and it's delicious.
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So food, not a concern and it's not going to cost you anything.
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Camping gear.
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I would recommend getting the camping gear there.
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You can bring a tent with you and I hammock camp so I just brought my hammock with me to
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every country I went to.
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But if you prefer a tent or bulkier camping accessories, you can go to any of the Japanese
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sports authorities.
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They're not called sports there.
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I can't remember.
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But if you just Google sports store or camping equipment store, there's like 100 of them in
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any city.
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So when you land, you can go straight from the airport into the city, visit any of those
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camping stores.
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They're going to have ground pads.
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They're going to have tents.
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They're going to have hammocks.
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Whatever you need to go camp, they'll have sleeping bags, whatever you need to go camping.
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You can spend definitely less than $100.
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And you will have all the camping you need to camp as long as you want to.
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And with the housing price is similar to Airbnb prices in the States, $100, that's a
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week if you get a good deal on a nice house.
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So if you backpack for more than a week, you're just saving money after that.
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I mean, and if you're going during cherry blossoms season, you're just walking through cherry blossoms.
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Every town is arranged beautifully, just melding with the nature around it.
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It's such a beautiful country to backpack in.
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That should be the next thing.
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It is a beautiful country to backpack in.
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I mentioned the cherry blossoms, but I can't.
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You can go look at the pictures on the internet, but it just doesn't do it justice and how delicately
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all the pedals whip to the ground, tumbling over each other.
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And all the Japanese people love it as much as you will when you visit.
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So in every beautiful little park with a hundred trees, there's all these Japanese people
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walking around, some of them in cosplay, most of them just taking pictures of all the cherry
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blossoms, just so into the transformation of the seasons, like this harkening of spring
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arriving.
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The bark of the tree is a very deep black and the pedals are so delicately pink and white
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and paper thin.
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So it's like one of the most beautiful environmental sites you'll ever see.
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It's just stunning and it's not in one place.
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Like I said, I'm backpacking for three months.
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I'm just walking from town to town to town.
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And sometimes two towns will be separated by, let's say, 10 kilometers and that entire 10
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kilometers will have just a line of cherry trees going all the way from one to the other.
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And they don't smell very strong, but there is a faint, pleasant perfume from the trees.
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So you smell that hint of sweetness in the air, just encouraging you to just like keep
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walking and enjoy your day.
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Look at the blue sky because it's incredibly clean.
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It's beautiful.
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The mountains and hills are absolutely beautiful.
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This all green, the forests are thick and healthy and meld seamlessly into all of the human
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habitations that are plunked down within all the foliage.
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So the entire time you are backpacking through Japan, you're never going to be like, "Oh,
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I don't like this ugly part of the," or like, "Oh, no, a desert."
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Like, no, it's all beautiful environment.
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And the cities and towns are even like charming or interesting.
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So everything you're backpacking through is constantly beautiful.
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Clean.
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It's clean.
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You have heard this.
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I'm sure a hundred times.
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It's not a lie.
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Japan is very clean.
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Their food is clean.
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Their buildings are clean like they look clean.
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There's not trash outside when you walk around in the forests or when you're walking between
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towns and there's some, but not much trash even in the densest wildest cities.
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So it's just pleasant to be there.
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It's a very easy place to backpack because it's very clean.
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Which brings us to the number one reason why this is the best country to backpack in.
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And that is the Cento, the public baths.
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Go listen to the public baths episode.
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And it's just me talking about how much I love Japanese public baths.
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Basically, you'll be able to clean yourself and importantly relax after you're clean and
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have a day at the spa.
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In every town you go through, there is going to be a public bath somewhere.
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All you have to do is learn the Japanese for public bath and you'll be able to recognize
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the sign, which is usually in Japanese there's no English writing usually.
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The Hiragana, you looks like a fish.
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So if you see a blue curtain in front of a door with what looks like a crudely drawn fish
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on it, that's the common cultural signifier for a Cento, especially for the ones that
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only cost a couple bucks.
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Let's say three bucks, you're walking through a small town.
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If you have three bucks, you can spend all day at the bath, clean yourself, relax, and
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then continue your journey.
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That is invaluable as a traveler and especially as a backpacker.
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You're outside all the time.
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It's hard work carrying everything on your back.
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You're going to get sweaty and dirty every single day.
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So to just have baths everywhere is a blessing.
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I love traveling and I love backpacking and in Cambodia and in Thailand and China, like
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in all these Portugal, Morocco, all of these countries I would backpack in and I was always
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missing something.
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I always wanted to be clean at the end of the day, but I couldn't because there just weren't
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those facilities available.
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So I would usually have an extra bottle that I would use to like wash myself or do a sort
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of sponge bath.
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So I didn't completely offend myself and everyone I walked past and I'm pretty good with
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keeping clean so I did that well, my sponge baths, but this is why Japan is the best country
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to backpack in.
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You can backpack as long as you want.
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It's culturally accepted.
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You have cheap, good food, always within arms or reach.
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You can public drink.
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That's pretty good.
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And you can clean yourself every day if you want to for a few dollars and like thoroughly
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clean yourself while your possessions are in a locker and they're not going to be messed
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with anyway.
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Japan has so many like intangible benefits and one of them is the cultural acceptance and
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understanding of the wanderer, the traveler.
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It's just sort of accepted that some people are itinerant in Japanese culture.
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Like it's not weird if you meet someone you're like, what do you do?
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They're like, oh, I just travel.
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I wander and I go to different places.
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They're not confused that somebody would want to perpetually travel.
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Maybe if you're like, oh, I've been traveling for 37 years, they're like, oh, that's kind
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of a long time.
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But the wandering itself, the traveling itself would not be strange or misunderstood as you
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needing help or you not knowing how to survive in society.
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They just get that some people are itinerant.
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So when you're traveling in Japan, people barely notice you.
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If they do, they're just like backpacker and then you keep going, it's just like if you
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were wearing a different color shirt, they just don't care.
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It's not a, it's not a culturally anomalous or worrisome or culturally odious, societally
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odious personality identifier that you choose to travel.
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So traveling is very accepted in Japan and you can just feel comfortable traveling.
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Another intangible thing is just how helpful Japanese people are.
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So if you don't know how to speak Korean, let's say, you can ask a bunch of people in
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Korea, like, can you help me?
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But after a couple of tries, they're not going to be very inclined to continue to try to
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help you.
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There are certainly helpful people in Korea.
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But they might not have infinite patience.
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Japanese people have infinite patience to help you try to communicate what you want and
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to get you what you want.
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In Japan, you can try to say something and they won't understand you and they'll ask you
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to say it again.
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And you can do that 17 times and there'll be just as polite every single time and as helpful,
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like they're trying to bridge the gap, which does not happen in a lot of places.
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If you say the wrong word in a lot of countries, then a wall shuts down and the person who
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was going to help you is not going to help you anymore.
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In Japan, every time you try, they are also trying to bridge the gap even if they don't
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understand you.
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And eventually they will because two people working together works.
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So if you need to get to a pharmacy or you need to find a public bath or whatever you
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need, as long as you ask people politely, how can I get this?
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Someone is going to help you with that.
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Help you with that.
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Somebody is going to help you with that and get you there and get you what you need or
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what you want.
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Is there a department store near here?
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I need electronics.
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My charger is broken.
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Someone will help you and they will try to help you until you receive help.
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Let's say tangible benefit in that when you ask someone, they will help you.
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But it is intangible in that the load off of your mind that you don't have to worry about
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whether you'll be able to do something in Japan because you don't know how to do it,
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just isn't there because the society is so cooperative.
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It's a cultural cooperation that is immeasurable but immeasurably valuable to have that resource,
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that cultural resource of cooperation and assistance all around.
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Another thing that is all around, which is very important to a backpacker, are bathrooms.
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Every town and city in Japan has public bathrooms around.
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You can find them on Google Maps or any map I use offline maps and they have a lot of
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the public bathrooms listed.
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Those public bathrooms are clean and there is soap and paper and if you're lucky, a handheld
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bidet, which is what I prefer to use because when you're walking, if you aren't clean, it
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shapes.
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I prefer water to clean myself.
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Public bathrooms are everywhere in Japan.
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They're very clean, very accessible and they're just great.
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I mean, it's wonderful after you've walked for five hours or like you're coming into a new
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town.
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You don't have to worry about, oh gosh, is there going to be a public bathroom?
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Like yes, you don't have to worry.
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There is going to be a public bathroom.
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Probably a block from here and there'll be another one across the street from that one
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and it's not going to be crowded and you can use it comfortably and then continue on your
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journey or go get a meal or go to the public bath or whatever you want to do next.
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Which after you've been backpacking for a few days, maybe you're like, well, I'm keeping
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myself clean every day but these clothes is getting a little funky.
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And that's another great thing about Japan.
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There are public laundrats everywhere.
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What do they call them?
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Laundromats in English.
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I know the English word.
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I'm a native English speaker.
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I just forget it because everyone calls it something different.
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So laundromats.
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There are public laundromats everywhere in Japan and I can't even remember how much they
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cost but it's not a lot.
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I'm going to say a dollar maybe but I feel like 50 cents but maybe it's a dollar.
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Let's say one to two dollars.
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I feel like I did.
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There are more expensive ones in the middle of the city.
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But for the most part you'll pay a dollar to wash everything and then 50 cents to dry
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everything.
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And they have washers and dryers.
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And even remote farming villages will usually as far as I've seen have a public laundromat
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somewhere and you can find those on Google Maps or the offline map to use.
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You can stay clean every day.
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You can eat your food and then anytime you need to wash your clothes, there is a laundromat
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inside whichever city or town you are near to.
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So even if you're camping like a couple of kilometers out and you're like, you know what?
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I'm just going to live in this forest for a week.
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Why not?
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There's good food close by.
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Maybe there's a sushi shop you like.
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You can eat food, go to the center, get clean, relax for a while.
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Then sit back and watch movies on your phone or whatever in the forest that you live in.
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And whenever you need to do laundry, walk into town and do laundry.
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If this sounds like it's coming from personal experience, it absolutely is.
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There was a great town with a really good supermarket that just had great sushi and great
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all these snacks and there was a big temple in the forest behind.
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And I just lived up in the mountains for a couple of weeks.
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I used the laundromat a few times and then it was like, that was a nice little vacation
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from walking all the time.
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And then I kept walking again after that.
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The next one is culture and you know, that's accessible in every country that you're going
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to backpack in.
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But like most things in Japan that intangible facilitation of most events applies here as
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well.
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It's just easier to do cultural things and see cultural things in Japan because their culture
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is so strong and so well integrated into every part of their life and architecture.
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So while you're walking, if you pass through a small town, there's going to be some woodcuttings
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or women doing a day where they're all wearing kimonos and taking pictures or there's just
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going to be something fundamentally Japanese going on wherever you're going through because
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they constantly need to or enjoy celebrating their culture.
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So there's always some sort of exhibition unofficial or not happening around you.
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And if there isn't some display going on that you'll see walking by, the architecture
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itself will have displays of Japanese culture built in even the way the signs are constructed.
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So it's not only a beautiful country to go to and to backpack through because all the
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trees are beautiful and all the cherry blossoms are nice and all of that and all the cities
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are well constructed.
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But it is a learning experience.
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It is a fascinating country to backpack through.
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You're walking at a pace that allows you to imbibe the sight you go by.
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If you were riding even a bicycle, but like a motorbike or a car or something like that,
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you're going too fast to see the things you're walking past.
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And in Japan, there's little things that you'll only catch if you are backpacking through.
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You know, you can make a plan and drive to spot to spot.
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But while you're backpacking, you will see things that are not in any guidebook or website
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blog list.
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One of the things that isn't all those blog lists, but it's very small, are those Pokemon
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Manhole Covers.
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And I wanted to see those and I walked to the town and there was a couple and they just
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take so much care to paint these Pokemon onto the Manhole Covers.
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And it's such a little thing, but it's a powerful demonstration of their culture.
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A huge, huge export.
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Like maybe one of their biggest exports to be honest, that little game took over the world.
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So you can visit the town that supposedly the games were based on and there are a few,
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the starter Pokemon are painted on a few of the Manhole Covers and you can walk to those
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in the town and it feels so much more significant than if you drove your car and stopped at these
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places.
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When you walk there, you earned, it makes your arrival more significant.
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You paid with the effort of your steps to arrive at this area of cultural significance that
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they have taken time to display and you're both meeting together and those little Manhole
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Covers, that's one tiny thing.
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And there's the castle, the Ega Castle, Ega is famous for ninjas.
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So you can go to ninja houses and you can see someone demonstrating a rope ladder that
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climbs into the rafters or there's an Okinawa Miyaki like these Japanese omelette places
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and it looks like it was built 300 years ago but it's a modern restaurant.
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There's just so many small, uniquely Japanese things that if you walk through a city like
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Ega, you could stay there for three months.
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You could just backpack through that city for three months and you would not run out of
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new and often profound cultural experiences to witness.
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While I've backpacked in nearly every country I've visited, in Japan I landed in Tokyo and
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my whole plan landing in Tokyo was, okay, now I'm going to walk to Osaka which was about
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350 miles or so west and there was a Japan in the middle.
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There's just a bunch of Japan in the middle.
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And if you walked straight there it would take, it looks like 5, 24 hour days of walking.
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So it would take 100 hours to walk there.
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So if you walked 8 hours a day it would still take a couple of weeks.
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Obviously that's no fun and you don't want to do that.
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I certainly didn't.
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When I travel I like to enjoy myself, take my time, be comfortable.
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So I walked northwest to the nearest city that looked cool and I had to offline maps and
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I just checked Cento.
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I checked the nearest public bath and it was in a town maybe 15 miles away and I just started
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walking.
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And by the end of that day I got to that town and I took a bath and I got some food and
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I chilled out.
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And then the next day I chose another road and I walked in that direction and I just kept
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going north and south and all directions.
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Sometimes I would go west for a day and then just go east for another one and loop all
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the way around so I could visit an interesting landmark that was on my offline maps or a Cento
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suggestion mountain.
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I climbed a lot of mountains while I was doing this.
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Or sometimes I would just take a chance and I'd see like, what's that tiny little
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path and it's like it doesn't say you should go but why don't you try climbing over this
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mountain that is it on the map between two towns.
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Japan is pretty dense so you're not going to like get lost in Japan without ever finding
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civilization or I didn't.
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I'm very comfortable hiking but it's just I just went on adventures for three months straight
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and I was also playing Pokemon Go at the time.
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So I was able to track my walks pretty regularly and I know I was getting over 20 miles a day.
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So 20 miles a day over three months.
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You know it's like 90 days so 1800 miles roughly.
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I remember at the time I did something and it turned out a little over 2000 miles in total
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because I was just walking all day.
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Now whenever I was tired I just stopped walking but there were so many amazing things to see
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in Japan and so much good food to get to and I had to get to level 40 in Pokemon Go that
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I just kept walking and the more you walk your legs rapidly adjust to backpacking they rapidly
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adjust to walking.
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If you walk five miles the first day if you walk one mile the first day you're going to
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walk to the next day you're going to walk for the day after that.
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Your legs adjust very rapidly and everyone I have ever gone backpacking with has been
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shocked at how well their legs work and how quickly their legs build up and allow them
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to continue moving even with a backpack on.
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So yeah I landed in Tokyo started walking west took random directions stopped in at restaurants
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that looked good or kiosks that were selling sushi out of you know in the exit of a town
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checked out the ceremonial gates slept under Buddhist temples prayed to forest spirits that
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I only know about from Princess Monon ok stopped in at a Japanese traditional wood painting
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museum.
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I walked all the way to the top of a mountain just on a whim that maybe this public bath
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would be nicer than the others and it was the best public bath I visited in Japan.
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That public bath is sensational and that's that one is definitely featured in the Cento
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episode and if you're curious about these public baths or want more details I go into much
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more detail about my experiences and those which are 100% positive.
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So there's a lot of urban camping and when I went to Japan in a different backpacking trip
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I actually exclusively stayed in the larger cities I think I was in Tokyo I believe that
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was my first urban camping experience in Japan.
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I just lived in the city of Tokyo camped hammock camped in different parks that weren't
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like in the middle of the city and I was never bothered because camping is legal in public
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areas as long as you aren't bothering anybody or causing a mess or anything like that.
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So I just cleanly and politely put up my hammock in a different park every day and walked
29:01
all around Tokyo for a month and just lived around the city but it is legal to camp in
29:09
public areas.
29:10
So you just find an out of the way park or if there's a forest go a couple trees in and you
29:18
can camp there.
29:20
Like don't stay there for four days and make that your house but it is legal to camp there
29:27
so it makes it so much easier at the end of the day you're tired after you've walked
29:31
to a new town and you got food and you just took your bath and you're like okay I have
29:35
to get to bed now.
29:36
In most countries I had to walk for hours sometimes like looking for the right spot to camp
29:41
no private property and no posted public property.
29:46
And this one is too wet this is too rainy like this is dirty it was difficult to find a
29:51
spot a lot of times never had that problem in Japan sometimes I would walk longer just
29:56
to find a nicer park like a bigger park with more trees because I was hammock camping but
30:02
I was never I never thought oh my god I have to go to bed now and I couldn't find a space
30:08
there's always a space in Japan to camp.
30:13
There's always some green space somewhere and I usually did it outside of the towns but
30:17
if you're inside the towns any park is fine but it's going to be more comfortable because
30:22
you're not in the town if you're right near the outskirts of the town there's a forest
30:26
there's always a forest at the outskirts of any Japanese city or town so you can set
30:32
up your tent or bedroll or hammock and legally camp there so that's another just stressor
30:41
that comes with backpacking inherently that you just don't have to worry about it's legally
30:46
and socially accepted to camp practically anywhere outside in Japan that is a public
30:51
space so just look at a spot say is that out of the way am I being polite about my use
30:58
of space am I not bothering anybody if the answer to those questions is yes then you're
31:04
good and you can camp there and no one's gonna bother you no one bothered me for the
31:09
three months I walked from Tokyo to Osaka and no one bothered me the whole time I was
31:14
urban camping in Tokyo parks in Tokyo one time in front of like a giant library in this
31:23
little cops of trees that's the other nice thing about hammock camping it's so small and
31:28
unobtrusive that maybe people would have thought it was weird that I was in a tent in front
31:33
of the library but I don't think anyone was like anyone really cared about the hammock
31:39
camping another benefit of backpacking in Japan is that you can choose your temperate zone it's
31:50
a very long country and pretty wide considering we think of it as small but I think that's only
31:56
because on a map you see it next to China which is you know as big as the US it's a huge country
32:02
so but Japan is very large and very tall vertically so if you just want to stay in the temperate zone
32:10
you just want summer all the time you go down to Okinawa and the southern islands and you can
32:16
backpack all around the island and it'll just be comfortable most of the year but Japan has a
32:22
very strong representation of all four seasons and it's very strong in the culture to celebrate
32:28
those four seasons and just by moving north or south if you visit Okinawa in March it'll basically
32:36
be temperate but if you visit like Nagano you know in March it's just going to be freezing still
32:43
like it's you can choose what your temperature is and if you backpack in the middle of a season you can
32:50
witness that change as vividly as maybe you would in New England when the the leaves change
32:58
color you get that in Japan very strongly and they have so many forests and all of their towns and
33:05
even their biggest cities are set in the middle of preserved healthy forests so if you land in
33:13
September or probably October in Tokyo everything will still be green but by the end of October
33:23
the mountains like a dozen mountains that everything you can see is bright orange and red and just
33:31
beautiful colors and if you stay another couple months you're going to see some pretty heavy
33:37
amazing snowfall so I particularly like obviously this is not the only country with seasons and even
33:47
not the only country with well-defined seasons but I like that it's very easy to go to whichever
33:54
climate you would like to in Japan and especially it's part of the Japanese culture to celebrate
34:01
celebrate the season itself celebrate the turning of seasons and the seasons as a cycle
34:07
that cycle is very important so even the seasons mean a little more because they're so strongly tied
34:15
into everything so many of their stories and movies and everything can be divided through the
34:22
seasons in which that story takes place if you watch any of the anime's like so many of them are
34:29
going to be separated into the seasons and you know the characters meet or any movie really from
34:36
Japan the characters will meet we'll just say in spring and they're young and it's exciting and they
34:45
go on an adventure and find a new lake whatever and then summer happens and they're building
34:51
you know a cabin by the lake to get ready for the autumn which is coming and then the autumn arrives
34:57
and they're trying to make sure they have enough food because they know the winters right around
35:01
the car and then winter is there and someone gets pneumonia and dies but like many of their stories
35:08
are culturally tied to the seasons so strongly and so many parts of their culture are tied to
35:14
the their food their food is very strongly seasonally cohesive so I think the seasons themselves
35:24
are another one of these great ineffables that you can appreciate in Japan as well particularly
35:32
you know what a very important thing that I didn't mention because it doesn't come to mind
35:39
automatically because it's a lack of something rather than something offered is how quiet even the
35:47
cities are I think Osaka is not as quiet as Tokyo but I've been in a lot of cities and I like urban
35:55
camping and going through cities so when I camped in Tokyo that night at like 8 p.m I thought to myself
36:05
this is the quietest city I have ever lived in and that is a huge city a huge and dense city with
36:13
like 10 million people in it but it does not feel like that as soon as you if you're not in the center
36:20
of the city and next to the highway then it just feels like a a smaller city or as soon as you're
36:27
in even the city outskirts it just feels like the suburbs of any American city or European city or
36:34
Asian city honestly it just feels small towny all of a sudden I think part of that is due to the
36:40
alleyway construction so they turn and twist a whole lot which cuts off the sound leaking out from
36:48
the main thoroughfares but also Tokyo notably has just less cars in their city per capita
36:55
like the averages one car per family per capita in most countries something like that but
37:02
Japan only has point three or Tokyo specifically only has point three so there are just fewer cars there
37:08
also much heavier regulations on speeds so everyone is driving slower and most noise pollution comes
37:16
from the sound of tires car tires rubbing against the road and spitting gravel and crunching and
37:23
everything that's a huge part of noise pollution I think it's like 70 percent it's a very high number
37:30
okay so for speeds above 30 miles per hour 80 percent of the noise from cars is coming from the tires
37:37
so by controlling the speed of cars you're controlling the amount of sound that's coming out
37:43
also I read somewhere I read some article about car manufacturers in Japan regulating the
37:50
noise allowed to escape from engines themselves and they all seemed quieter to me like when you see
37:57
a line of cars and you're in a car in that line of cars on the road it's just not very loud at
38:04
least not what I'm used to so obviously part of this is anecdotal but also it's a fact that
38:11
they designed their city to cut off the sound so that it doesn't leak from the main streets into the
38:18
side streets and alleys and all that and they have the regulation and they
38:24
heavily regulate their speeds speed limits and they enforce those regulations all of this to say that
38:34
that is a quiet city and it's very comfortable to walk around in even in the center of the city
38:40
especially if like I said if you're camping if you want to camp around 8 9 pm most of the sound
38:47
is gone because there are also not many cars as I mentioned so by night there's a third less cars
38:55
than you would hear in any city that you try to camp in and a lot of those parks are like I said
39:00
down in alley take a right and then there's a park right there so it's close it's it's less than a
39:06
quarter of a block away from the main thoroughfare but you're almost not it's almost silent in a park
39:13
so close because it's separated by you know two walls of a park and the air gap which
39:20
dampens a lot of sound so it's a fascinating city and it's very quiet and very comfortable to
39:27
camp in so if you are backpacking again all of their cities and towns are designed like that in
39:35
some way they want to make it the most comfortable for people I hear about Japan being like having
39:43
terrible noise pollution but I have never experienced that when I've gone maybe that's because I've
39:49
traveled to so many countries but it's incredibly quiet it's commonly quiet and especially for this
39:56
topic we're talking about backpacking that is crucial for you to be able to get a good night's sleep
40:03
if you're urban camping in a park like you know half a kilometer away from a thoroughfare
40:10
and it's pin drop quiet that's a lot easier than if you're in Dublin and you have to walk like three
40:16
miles outside of the city just for stuff to calm down a bit you know what's a really important one
40:22
also high-tech like technology Japan isn't a future land I was expecting more futuristic technology
40:30
when I went to Japan I'm sure there are indeed like has plenty of cool stuff behind the scenes but
40:37
when you're walking around it just feels like a cool modern city it doesn't feel like a land of
40:44
giant robots and androids which is what your lead to believe what I was led to believe from news
40:51
articles and movies this glorification of their technical prowess which is not insignificant by any
40:59
stretch of the imagination they obviously have a lot of tech it's just not right out there the nice
41:05
thing is it is under the current everywhere so any tech gadget you're looking for they have it and
41:13
they have a very well engineered version of it so I got a lot of my gadgets when I was there like a
41:21
foldable mechanical keyboard with Bluetooth connected brushed steel aluminum and it was like whatever
41:28
15 bucks it was something insignificant for the value and you're like well this is gonna last
41:33
for 10 years and it lasted actually yeah it lasted for about 10 years and then I sold it because I
41:38
didn't need it anymore but that's really nice that if your laptop battery dies or whatever anything
41:46
technological that you have to take care of which could be a problem if you're in Nairobi or if
41:54
you're in Morocco or Vietnam or Cambodia if you're in countries with a less technical presence
42:03
in the world and your laptop battery dies and you need a new one it's going to be very hard for you
42:09
to get you're going to have to order it online you have a huge shipping wait time and you have to know
42:14
exactly what you're getting and you can't like return it and there's the people around there or
42:19
India like they if it's a highly technical thing if it's not part of a phone or specifically what
42:27
they're familiar with they won't be able to help you repair it also so you have to be dependent
42:32
on yourself for repairing it in Japan if anything that works on electricity breaks there is a shop
42:40
that can fix it two blocks away you know that includes your mobile devices and your computers but
42:45
it's also like if that keyboard that Bluetooth foldable keyboard thing broke I have which of course
42:53
it never did I have zero doubt that I could have taken it to one of a dozen places within a few miles
43:03
of where I was living in Tokyo and someone could have taken it apart fixed it put it back together
43:09
and given it to me like when you walk into the tech repair shops there's like seven different
43:13
complicated devices that they're just casually throwing back together so it's just nice to be in a
43:21
a country that is so comfortable and acclimated to high technology because when you're a backpacker
43:31
high technology is important you have to have your offline maps at least need to make sure your
43:37
phone is in working order you might need expandable storage expandable storage is another one
43:43
it's hard to find expandable storage like expandable SD cards if you're not in a technically proficient
43:50
country so it's just nice to have all of that right at your fingertips in Japan pretty much anywhere
43:56
you go any decent sized city will have electronic department stores you can go to and get anything you
44:02
need accessory or device related and if you have any questions they know exactly what you're talking
44:09
about if you're in Laos and you ask for an SD card have the people are not going to know what you're
44:19
talking about and then the other half we're going to point you to a shop and that dude has like four
44:25
older ones that like are from China and you're not sure how old they are it's tricky to find
44:31
modern accessories in a lot of countries while you're traveling so you can find them in those countries
44:39
it's just again that's why I think Japan is the best backpacking country specifically because
44:45
if you need any tech oh my bluetooth headphones died i'm gonna pick one up at the next town I get into
44:51
they're right there whatever you need i was going to add connectiveness as a corollary comma but
44:57
i'll just say this real quick i haven't been to a country that is unconnected anymore 10 years ago
45:04
it was hard to have a signal in some parts of Cambodia while i was between cities
45:11
now i i am never disconnected there's always a signal somewhere and if if there isn't then walk
45:21
for an hour and you'll be near a signal like it's stunning how rapidly connectivity is taken
45:29
over the entire world but it makes sense because everyone like every single person who doesn't have
45:35
a penny to their names in every country has a smartphone so it's just the most demanded utility
45:42
so that is everywhere in every country but it is also on the list for why Japan's so great to
45:50
backpacking because you are always connected to a high speed network you know what another really
45:56
good one is ice cream and specifically ice cream vending machines now they have good ice cream
46:03
and they have vending machines but the vending machines aren't weird like you hear about most of them
46:07
just have some snacks and some soda in them but notably a long roadways especially between cities and towns
46:17
if you see a vending machine half at the time they're an ice cream specific vending machine
46:23
and they have different flavors depending on which like region you're in or which town you're in
46:29
often and there'll be like 20 flavors of cornetto style ice cream cones ready to go and there'll be
46:37
everything pistachio and butter Scotch and like swirl to cracked candy cane and just like all these
46:44
great flavors which is really fun after you've been walking for two hours and there's a little
46:50
rest stop on the side of the road go check out their ice cream vending machine there's gonna be a great
46:55
flavor that you've probably never tried before like Oreo cheesecake or I actually regular cheesecake
47:02
was one that was fantastic there was a maraschino cherry cheesecake one also but after I stumbled
47:10
on the first one because I was looking for a restroom near the rest stop and saw an ice cream vending
47:14
machine and immediately took advantage of that every time I saw a rest stop after that where every
47:20
time I saw a vending machine on the side of the road while I was walking between towns or cities I
47:26
you know veered in that direction and checked out the new flavors pistachio you do okay okay and
47:34
just like trying all the interesting new flavors so that's just that's in no other country I love
47:42
that that happens that's a great reason that this is also the best backpacking country because there
47:46
are ice cream vending machines with unique flavors dotted all over and it's high quality tasty treats
47:54
while you're backpacking through wherever you're going so I haven't mentioned everything that's
48:00
great about backpacking in Japan because it's already pretty long this is a pretty long podcast
48:06
but a bigger reason is because all of the good stuff about Japan is also in other countries I wanted
48:14
to talk about just the uniquely Japanese things that landed to it being the best backpacking country
48:21
but like connectivity great food kind people good infrastructure those are present in other countries
48:30
and they're also present in Japan so you have all the basic good things that most countries have
48:36
but then you have things that are very unique to Japan like the quiet traffic noise the ice cream
48:42
vending machines the public baths all of these very unique things but if you're wondering yes they
48:48
also have all of the benefits that you want in a country you're going to backpack in they just also
48:55
have as I've mentioned at least a dozen uniquely Japanese experiences that you'll be able to
49:04
appreciate Tokyo is seen as you know arrival to New York City or like any major metropolis it's
49:13
the most famous city in Japan it's the biggest it's so with that reputation comes a certain level of
49:22
social of high society let's say so you're going to get a lot more entrepreneurs in
49:30
Tokyo than you would in other places and a lot more accepted creative businesses than you would in
49:36
other places now these exist everywhere obviously your town has something special that you like it
49:41
but there's one bar that is um doctor who themed and cool Japan also has those and I believe because
49:52
Tokyo is so modern and exciting as a city it also has more than its fair share of those very unique
50:00
um almost personal experiences that you wouldn't expect in a major metropolis so one of my favorite
50:09
ones is this Alice in Wonderland store I believe it was called Alice on Wednesday and there's a door
50:15
man and there's a small maybe meter and a half high door maybe a four feet door and one person
50:21
goes in he opens the door one person ducks under there and goes inside he closes the door and then
50:27
you know you wait a few minutes and he'll open the door again the next person goes in so there's a
50:32
line waiting to get in and then when you get inside everything is paint like there's a mural on all
50:39
of the walls and a spiral staircase going up to the second floor which is also all painted everything
50:45
is painted and looks like the original Disney cartoon Alice in Wonderland aesthetic and they sell
50:51
bottles like blue bottles of potion that read drink me and tea sets of course and different types of tea
50:58
and everyone's addressed in madhatter garb or Alice garb it's fascinating it's a fun little shop I
51:05
love it it's like dead center in the middle of Tokyo just along the highway or along the main
51:10
the main drag and and then there's a group of people there's like a line of a dozen or two dozen
51:17
of us waiting for this ornately dressed door man to allow us into the realm of Alice there's also
51:24
martini burger which some guy from New York likes martinis and burgers and he was like you know
51:30
what I got to open with the martini burger shop shop in Tokyo and he opened up a shop called martini
51:36
burger in Tokyo and it wasn't in the center of the city as I recall it was just it was on a sloping
51:44
road down into a suburb if I remember correctly but it just felt exactly like the type of thing I
51:52
find in New York City just walking around us ultra modern focused niche very high quality
52:01
passion business like the owners passionate about what they're doing and it was great I the martinis
52:09
were good in the burgers were good so I like that you can just find that all around Japan and especially
52:18
around Tokyo particularly because of that sense of advanced culture that Japan enjoys that everyone
52:26
just thinks of it as a creative and original and exciting place where exciting things should be
52:33
happening and new ideas should be welcome and popping up here and there and they do next week flights
52:42
from Houston or 329 Cleveland 354 LA 400 and two weeks after that everything is under $350 to get to
52:53
Tokyo you will citizens enjoy 90 day visa free travel there so if you love backpacking camping
53:01
and I mean saving money while enjoying all the comforts and conveniences of modern culture
53:07
get on over there cherry blossom season right now oh that's why the prices are more expensive than
53:14
I was expecting it's cherry blossom season right now if you have any questions or comments you can
53:19
reach me a bit of a rambler at gmail.com and I will talk to you next time
53:23
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