REFERENCE
Japan by train, places list
๐ TL;DR / Quick Summary <div style="background: rgba(0,0,0,0.3); border: 1px dashed rgba(255,255,255,0.2); padding: 15px; border-radius: 8px; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.7); margin-bottom: 30px;"> A list of places and one question beside each. No dates, no route, no prices. Started on 10 February 2024 on a wet Saturday, the same afternoon I wrote โญ Three weeks in Japan by train, and added to whenever a film or a book put a place in my head. Nothing is ticked, because I have not been to ๐ Japan. That is the point of the list. </div>
๐ ๏ธ Instructions / Core Material
- Tokyo. Could I spend three days in one neighbourhood and not see a single famous thing?
- The public toilets of Shibuya, the ones in ๐ฟ Perfect Days. Is it strange to cross the world to look at somebody's workplace? Probably. Still on the list.
- A ramen counter with eight seats, anywhere. Is it as serious as ๐ฟ Tampopo says, or as funny?
- Yokohama, the port. Can you get close enough to watch a ship being worked, and would Jonas forgive the afternoon?
- Matsumoto. A black wooden castle with the Alps behind it: is one castle enough?
- The old post road between Magome and Tsumago. About eight kilometres through the woods between two towns. Is that a morning or a day at my pace?
- Takayama. Carpenters' town. What does Jonas do when every building is a joint he wants to draw?
- Kanazawa. The garden and the fish market. Which one in the morning?
- Kyoto. Everybody goes. What is the earliest train, and is the answer to go in the rain?
- Naoshima. Concrete museums on a small island in the Inland Sea. Do we stay the night, or is the last ferry part of it?
- Onomichi. A hillside port with a cycle route across the bridges. Would I really cycle seventy kilometres, or am I a person who likes the idea?
- Hiroshima and Miyajima. How long do you need to stand still for?
- A night at an old inn with a hot spring. Am I able to do nothing for a whole evening? See July.
Questions that belong to the whole trip
- Three weeks: is that five places properly or thirteen badly?
- A rail pass or tickets as we go?
- Autumn. Which half?
- Does the sushi counter from ๐ฟ Jiro Dreams of Sushi belong on a list made by somebody saving four months of expenses? No. Crossed out in my head.
โ ๏ธ Key Warnings / Constraints
- No dates on purpose. A date would turn this into a plan, and a plan would need a spreadsheet, and I know how that ends.
- It only happens if the sabbatical fund stretches. On 29 December I added nothing to the list and moved it one folder closer in my head.
- Places only from things I have read or watched, never from a top-ten page.
๐ Related Entities & Resources
- โญ Three weeks in Japan by train: the wish this list belongs to.
- ๐ Japan: the country note, for the facts.
- ๐ฟ Jiro Dreams of Sushi, ๐ฟ Perfect Days and ๐ฟ Tampopo: the films that put places on it.