Calvino Travels

Mt. Fuji from Lake Ashi You are a traveller. You are sitting in a hot spring bath in Hakone-Yumoto, Japan. Once your skin starts to blister from the heat, you climb from the bath, feeling free and unembarrassed about your naked state among the many bare bodies that surround you. It’s raining and slowly growing dark. You step with wet feet out into the open air, feeling the freezing rain distantly on your too-hot skin. It splashes off, leaving only a thin curl of steam floating away. You are in an onsen, a traditional Japanese bathhouse with a set of basic rules. People are separated by gender, you have to be naked, and you take in a small towel which must not touch the water in the pool. Tenzan Onsen costs ¥1,200 - that’s just £9. The pools are built of natural stone and wood, and there is a freezing cold bath in the centre which you use to cool down between sessions. You cycle through a state of hot and cool for about an hour and a half. When you leave your skin is still red,...

Snow on Kyoto You are a traveller. You are queuing to take a photograph at Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine in Kyoto, Japan. Tens of tourists are lined up outside the very first vermilion coloured gate. It’s one of thousands of  gates that loop up to Mt. Inari and back and there is plenty of time to take a photograph, but your companions don’t realise this. The bearded one is fiddling with settings on his camera. The curly haired one is zhuzh-ing her hair for a closeup. Torii at Fushimi Inari-taisha As you walk around the shrine you notice several visitors wearing kimonos. There are a bunch of kimono rental shops around Kyoto. Japanese visitors dress up in richly coloured and intricately fitted kimonos and walk around the old streets and ancient shrines, stumbling awkwardly in wooden clog sandals on the cobbled walkways. At Kiyomizu-dera You walk through gate after gate at Fushimi Inari-taisha. Later you learn that these gates are called torii, they mark the e...

Takayama You are a traveller. You drag yourself around Shin-Osaka station with heavy feet. You haven't slept well, troubled by a snorer in your dorm room, and you’re carrying 25kg of baggage on your chest and back. It feels like wading through water. Your companions are lagging behind, bickering about which direction to walk in. But you know where to go. When you finally lead them to the gates, the bearded one is desperately fiddling with the zips on his puffer jacket to retrieve a Japan Rail pass. The curly-haired one is watching him, patience running thin, anger simmering and about to boil. Shinkansen The tension all fades as soon as you see the bullet train poke it's long nose along the track. The Shinkansen takes you to Kyoto in about 15 minutes. You don't stop there, changing at Nagoya and riding through to Takayama, a sprawling city nestled in between snowy mountains. You head out for a walk around a local park, nervously eyeing signs that read ...

Dōtonbori, Osaka You are a traveller. You are waiting for your companions to figure out the rail system at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan. You decide  not to help them. It's too much fun to watch them struggle. The curly haired one is searching one of three train maps she has acquired while the bearded one is staring slack-jawed at the array of Japanese machines, signs and lights around you. Dōtonbori , Osaka Eventually the pair of them figure it out. You head to your hostel in the Higashishinsaibashi district in Osaka. You spend the rest of the evening wandering around the streets of Dōtonbori, an old district teeming with street food vendors running alongside a canal. The streetlights, neon signs and billboards glitter off the canal, turning the city lights upside down in liquid motion. Dōtonbori canal Occasionally you look at some of the food vendors in a vain attempt to find a vegetarian meal for your two companions. There are a lot of c...