25 Things Nobody Tells You About Japan

Abroad in Japan

In this episode of 'Abroad in Japan,' host Chris Broad shares 25 candid, opinionated insights about traveling in Japan, ranging from favorit

Key takeaways

• Lawson convenience stores have surpassed Family Mart in quality with innovative snacks like kariagakun chicken nuggets.
• The best view of Mount Fuji is from the Izu Peninsula or Shizuoka coastline, not tourist-heavy spots like Lake Kawaguchi.

Main topics

• Convenience store culture in Japan
• Hidden travel destinations beyond Tokyo and Kyoto

Notable quotes

"If you disagree with me, I'm gonna bite you like a fucking rabid dog."

Conclusion

Chris Broad wraps up the episode with a mix of humor, personal anecdotes, and

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Wow. Hello and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably the best way of learning about life in Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm your host, Chris Broad, and Pete Donaldson is away on holiday. As to where, we're not quite sure. Probably a former Soviet Republic. We'll find out next week when he returns. But today, given I've got no friends, I thought I'd do this podcast solely. Not only that, but in a few weeks' time, I've got a book coming out, Journey Across Japan Adventures. off the beaten path here it is in all its glory if you're listening you can hear me hitting the 450 page book it's really quite weighty i only got this like last week and i've been flicking through and it's quite good i'm definitely not biased but i think a lot of people are confused about Speaker 1 (0:46) what the book is. And it's two things. It's a quick guide for those of you coming to Japan wanting to know what to eat, see, do in each of every one of Japan's 47 prefectures. But above all, it is like a collection of, I think, probably like a hundred different stories of my own personal travels, mishaps, ups and downs of traveling around Japan. I want people to be able to sit in a chair. and escape the absolute horror show that is the internet. I think books are, have never been more important, to be honest, than now. It's nice to just sit in a chair, read a book, and escape. But certainly those of you traveling to Japan who want ideas off the beaten path, hidden places, places that aren't just Kyoto and Tokyo, like this is the book for you. And the book that I wish I'd had all those years ago when I first landed. Speaker 1 (1:32) in the country. I think there's a discount on Amazon in a few different places if you check it out now. I'll link it below in the description box. But thank you in advance to everybody that's got it. Thank you to everybody that's going to buy it. And I think the same week this comes out, Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, is releasing a book. And I'm going head to head with him for the top spot. So yeah, please help us get the bestseller status. Speaker 1 (1:58) That would be cool. Now, my good friend, Mr. SeadogVA, once told me the secret to podcasting success. And that is, when you have an opinion about something, you must commit to it 100%. No matter how trivial or menial the opinion is, dogmatically believe in it. And the people will follow, like sheep. He said something like that. And I took that to heart. That's quite good advice. People don't like wishy-washy, umming and ahhing nonsense. We want opinions. We want facts. Well... Speaker 1 (2:25) There's very different things, but we want opinions hard opinions about things So I've got 25 questions here that you should know the answer to before traveling to Japan And I'm going to give you my answers to such questions, and I'm going to commit to them And if you disagree with me, I'm gonna bite you like a fucking rabid dog So without further ado question number one if you could choose only one convenience store in Japan Which would it be and why? Speaker 1 (2:50) You know what? Five or six years ago, you know I would have said Family Mart, just solely for Family Mart fried chicken. But then I don't know what happened. Somebody in Lawson went, wait a minute, it's time we upped our game. And they went and made the best original product range in any convenience store. Snacks, crisps, confectionery. Lawson do it better than anyone. I don't know how they did it. They must have rehauled the whole range. But whether it's myself, Connor, literally anyone I know, we all make a beeline. Speaker 1 (3:19) for Lawson these days, we're on a cyclothon, that's the only convenience store we get excited about. They've got a trump card, kariagakun, which is like chicken nuggets, they're different flavours, you've got spicy, you've got cheese, you've got soy sauce, and that's less greasy than Family Mart fried chicken, and a lot more fun to try all different flavours. So I've gone on Family Mart chicken, the days are over, it's kariagakun all the way, chicken boy, it can't be beat. Number two. Speaker 1 (3:45) Where is the best view of Mount Fuji? I think the obvious answer is somewhere like Lake Kawaguchi, right? And Lake Kawaguchi is brilliant, and it's really nice to cycle around, hop on a bike, go around it. But the thing about Kawaguchi is it's sort of like 500 or 600 metres up Mount Fuji, I think. It's kind of up it a fair way. And so you can't really appreciate the scale of the mountain as you can when you're a bit further away. So the best place to see Fuji is actually the Izu Peninsula. Speaker 1 (4:13) or certainly along the coastline of Shizuoka where you can kind of see the mountain from sea level and like in the most recent video with Natsuki we actually tried to see Fuji from like a hill and we couldn't see it because there were clouds and then we looked above the fucking clouds and you could see the summit of Fuji like protruding above and I didn't know it was that I just I know it's four kilometers high but my god to look up that high and see it it was insane and uh yeah I think to see Fuji at its best you need to be like Speaker 1 (4:42) 25 to 30 kilometers away from it and for my money, Izu is where it's at. Number three, what's your favorite thing to do when visiting a new Japanese town? I kind of like to find out what the famous local dish is, the meibutsu, and actually in the book, every single prefecture, it's listed what the famous food is that you've got to try. And obviously, you know the markets like Nishiki Market in Kyoto, which, while a bit touristy, is very good. You get decent sake for 100 yen. Just avoid the Wagyu because it's not really Wagyu. It's filth and cheap rubbish branded as Wagyu. And I've still not forgotten that after two years after I went there. But there's Omichou Market in Kanazawa that's great. But just go to the market and you'll get a sense of what makes that town unique and what makes that town special. But the best market in Japan, hands down in my opinion, is Hachinohe Morning Market. Speaker 1 (5:34) It's called the Tatehanna Wharf Morning Market. You've got to get up at 5 a.m., unfortunately, to enjoy it, which takes some of the magic out, shall we say. But at that market, it's just an incredible experience, especially if you go in winter or like autumn, winter, early spring, because it's freezing. You go in and you've got like the steam coming off of coffee and cooking fried chicken because there's a weird fried chicken stall there. You've got like all this steam rising over the crowd and the smell of all these different foods and it's yeah with the Siberian wind blowing and all the food and everything. It's a really cool vibe. Number four. What is the most overrated place in Japan? You know, I'm not sure anywhere is sort of truly overrated because even somewhere like Akihabara, it's super like cliche to go there. But the first time you go. Speaker 1 (6:23) Or even now, it's still kind of cool to go to Akihabara and look around. Oh yeah, Harajuku. I hate Harajuku. There you go. But that wasn't the question, was it? The question is what's the most overrated place? Yeah, Harajuku. There you go. Doesn't help the last time I went to Harajuku, we ate some rainbow cheese, which felt like the absolute bastardization of all that is good and all that is cheese. That's disgusting. Number five. Speaker 1 (6:49) If you were robbing a bank in Japan, where would you hide? Where would you go? There are three like isolated places in Japan that kind of stand out above all else historically. There's Tadami in Fukushima, which is so isolated, I still haven't been there. The second place is Iya Valley in Tokushima, which is home to Scarecrow Village. And the third