Japan
Drinking beer and eating frog with the son of the designer of the Nissan GTR
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 23 July 2024
Updated on 23 July 2024
The last stop was Tokyo, the ultimate culture shock. Millions of people effortlessly maneuvering from their own point A to their own point B with the same Japanese politeness and orderliness that I had experienced so far. The weather, on the other hand, was chaotic. Due to two strong typhoons passing over Japan, there was constant rain. The second typhoon came so close that entire villages just north of Tokyo were flooded, 900,000 people in Tokyo and surrounding areas had to evacuate their homes, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to adjust the travel advice for Japan. All of this put into perspective the fact that I had to see the sights under an umbrella instead of a clear blue sky.
As a conclusion, I met a guy from Tokyo whom I had met in Kyoto. He had only gone to Kyoto to drink in a hostel with foreign backpackers. Here in his hometown, he took me to two typical Japanese restaurants: one was all-you-can-eat and drink for two hours, with quail eggs and frog on the menu, and the other had a built-in BBQ in the table. It wasn‘t until the end of the fourth evening (two in Kyoto, two in Tokyo) that I found out why he was so good at going out. His father turned out to be the designer of the engine of the Nissan GTR (for non-car enthusiasts: it‘s the only supercar that has been mass-produced and is in eternal competition with the Bugatti Veyron for the fastest acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h, faster than a Ferrari or Lamborghini). This explanation was necessary to understand how bizarre it was that I was drinking beer with the Son. He said that he could never surpass his Father‘s fame, so he focused on drinking and going out instead. A better companion for my last evenings in Japan was unimaginable.
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Traveled route: Nagoya, Tokio, Mount Fuji, Japanese Alps, Takayama, Kioto, Osaka
× Drinking beer and eating frog with the son of the designer of the Nissan GTR
next country: Kyrgyzstan
Start of my 1.5 year travel around the world
Still at Amsterdam Lelylaan station, I faced my biggest challenge, almost jeopardizing my trip. I didn’t feel like carrying my public transport card around the world for a year, so I left it at home, thinking I could make the short journey to Schip
Japan
Did this story inspire you to go to Japan? Read more on what Japan has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.
