The sun shines brightly as the young adult lies on his back in the courtyard of a Shinto shrine in Kyoto. He is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but the shirt is pulled up to his chest. On his bare abdomen rests a gigantic, long daikon radish balanced by a couple of large strips of radish peel cut from the radish; the radish is topped by a shiny, red apple. Samurai Joe, our silver-haired guide who has appeared in around 150 movies due to his swordsmanship and who celebrated his 96th birthday the day before our tour, kneels beside the young adult. His right hand wrapped around the handle of his sheathed katana, Samurai Joe focuses on the produce and directs a single word at me. “Ready?” I make sure my phone is recording and respond, “Ready!” The sword is quickly pulled from its sheath! A samurai yell goes up! The blade of the katana reigns down on the apple and the radish! Each rolls off the young adult's trunk in 2 pieces. The young adult looks at his unharmed abdomen, flashes a large smile, laughs repeatedly, and says, “That was cool! That was cool!” Samurai Joe shows that the katana cannot cut through the radish peels he used to balance the radish. The young adult, still on his back, flashes another smile at Samurai Joe, says “Now I fall apart,” closes his eyes and goes limp, feigning death.
The Travelers
Despite my declaration last year that the window for the young adult and I to travel together was closing, we did indeed travel again in May. I am a professional in my early 50’s; the young adult is a 22-year-old student (yay… he’s in school!). We are not related but have known each other for around 10 years and had traveled to 10 countries together over the 3 years prior to this trip. He has a strong interest in Asian culture in general and Japanese culture in particular. I’m more of a Europe guy, but the more I read about Japan, the more excited I became about the trip. As noted in prior trip reports, the young adult has also faced more adversity in his life than any young child/teen/young adult should ever face, yet he remains funny, kind, bright, and eager to share his life.
The Itinerary
The top thing on the young adult’s list of things to see in Japan was… Shiroyama. Not a typical top choice. I had to ask what that is. It is the mountain where Saigō Takamori led 500 sword-armed samurai against 30,000 rifle-armed Japanese Imperial troops in 1877 to conclude the last samurai uprising. Spoiler alert: the samurai lost. Saigō is the historical figure on whom the movie The Last Samurai is very, very, very loosely based. The young adult knew about the Battle of Shiroyama because of his interest in military history, not because of the movie. The final itinerary was Kagoshima in southern Kyushu (where Shiroyama is located) x 4 nights, Kyoto x 5 nights, and Tokyo x 6 nights. Samurai Joe said he was “jealous” of our itinerary because (1) Saigō Takamori was part of it and (2) because of our long-ish stays at each stop.
Kagoshima
The young adult and I were on the second day of two touring with our guide Yaron, an Israeli native who moved to Japan to sell trinkets after his mandatory military service, fell in love with a Japanese woman, married her, and stayed in Japan. At one stop, the young adult asked a detailed question about something we saw in nature. Yaron replied, “No guest has every asked me that.” At another stop, the young adult asked about some small detail he spotted as we wandered in a museum (as he did multiple times the day prior). It’s one of the things I enjoy about traveling with the young adult; he sees things others do not notice. Yaron looked at the young adult and once again said, “No one has ever asked me that.” He added, “You’re smart. Really smart.”