1400 km Through Japan On A Shinkansen

I met a random guy in Medellin, Colombia back in March 2022 on my first nomad journey. We chatted briefly about skiing and realized we shared similar interests. 6 months later I was in Thailand and heard the news of Japan opening up to tourists post-pandemic. So I reached out to the mentioned guy, just to find out if he is crazy enough to come travel, ski & work with me from Japan in January. (Not so) surprisingly, he agreed. So in January of the following, we met up in Tokyo on what was going to be some of the most intense work & travel trips I've ever done.

Bullet Trains in Japan

So to give you a quick idea & to break your beliefs early - shinkanzen are late. To my surprise quite often. Despite it being widely known for its usual punctuality they do arrive late. Or I may have been greatly unlucky as the average delay is just 1.6 minutes per train(2023). Oh damn, what would European railways give for such stats!

Despite occasional delays, I think Shiknhanzen may be the best transportation method I have experienced in Japan, Asia, and possibly the entire world. You are just seated on a spacious, quiet train that roams at a speed of 285 km/h (177 mph). Not too bad eh? The views from the train are incredible and I consider traveling by train one of the best ways to "get to see" the country - whether it crosses the mountains, shores of sea or lakes, or through the cities - the views are always impeccable.

Travel on Shinkhanzen is relatively affordable - given how much time & money would it cost you to drive or fly amongst the places. The Japan Rail Pass has current rates for 2025 stand at $331 for 7 days or $530 for 14 days in standard class.

The pass covers all 46 prefectures of Japan's mainland - Honshu. Our attempts to get to Hokkaido on a JR pass fell short as no service train would be able to take us to Sapporo. This pass is truly helpful for digital nomads who wish to combine work with exploration- and make more of their stay on the main island of Japan.

We have been able to main cities like Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto - but also made it to small villages of Hakone or Kawaguchiko and spent time in, my personal favorite, Nagano.

Tourist Hot Spots + Unexpected Gems

As with many places, January is a month when many people try and escape the winter for the sunlight and sunshine. As I wrote here. But there is another group - people who deliberately want to spend time in cold, snowy areas. So was this our case? Our initial plan was to come to Japan to ski in the magical deep powder of Hokkaido - but I will talk more about some other time. And so about Tokyo.

As it was the first time exploring Nippon for both of us - we agreed to go and visit also places that we otherwise wouldn't have done so.

And so we planned an itinerary as you can see below.

After a first couple of days in Tokyo and ticking off some "must-see" places - we set off (on a bus sadly, as it was really hard to find a train connection) to the majestic Fuji mountain. The initial plan was to climb the mountain itself but it was closed for the season. So our steps led to the village of Fujikawaguchiko and replaced it with a sunrise, a 17km long trail run that allowed us not only to see the sunrise from the shore of a lake right in front of a Fuji Mountain but also provided us with some fascinating early-morning colors with views from the famous pagodas. We celebrated it by having the freshest of the fresh barbecues you can imagine, with fish caught from a small lake right in front of the establishments and a charcoal so dark I had to beat the dust out of my hoodie after the meal. Simply exquisite.

After a short time in Fujikawaguchiko - we took a bus back to Tokyo and left for Hakone - oops, no proper connection between Hakone & Kawaguchiko, which was sort of a letdown. And so was partially Hakone itself. While I do not doubt that this onsen-paradise can be the right spot for many people - I did not particularly fall in love with it. Cold January with no snow cover could have helped it!

After a short stint & a hike which offered us almost no views, slightly disappointed we went on to board more delayed, but comfortable bullet trains. This time, the destinations were the secondary cities of Japan, Osaka & Kyoto. Throughout this speed run of 2 weeks through Honshu - we have decided to stick to a scheme that at the end of every week and every weekend - we would move places.

So we spend Mon-Fri in Tokyo. Then explored Fuji & Hakone. The week after we spent Mon - Fri working from Kyoto, then the next weekend in Osaka with a day trip to Nara & then headed to Nagano for the last working week - which has somehow become my favorite. Both Tokyo and Osaka are phenomenal.

Kyoto truly is a one-of-a-kind place. The history can be felt at every corner, making you feel the importance and incredible growth of Japan, spanning not centuries - but millennia.

Osaka on the other side gives an incredibly modern, capitalistic & fast-paced feeling. We have had limited time in the town and I would certainly like to come back to explore more of its parts - but it felt vastly different to Kyoto and Tokyo. Some Japanese people I know say people from Osaka are extremely opinionated - perhaps that is the reason I liked it so much!

Nara was a lovely day trip & we got to feed the deer - as that's the reason for many travelers.

The last part of our train-hopping journey was Nagano, a mid-big town in the Hakuba region, mostly known for its access to the Japanese Alps and skiing. To me, Nagano has always been memorized through the Winter Olympic Games in 1998 and its hockey tournament - the tournament of the century. Our "brothers" from Czechia won it while Slovaks suffered heavy defeats - something we have been reminded of plenty of times.

Somehow - Nagano felt to me the most real. The first thing when I think of Nagano is not the red-faced monkeys, which are btw absolutely awesome, but rather a hike back from that place where we ended up going through some of the poorest parts of Nagano. Seeing people in their day-to-day lives, but being kind towards strangers. Seeing William attempting to speak Japanese, drinking Yebisu and saké, walking in the early morning through the temple parts of Nagano, and not seeing any other foreigner in sight. I often feel exploration or a feeling of it is widely distant to today's travel. However, Nagano somehow gave me that feeling.

Japan - Digital Nomad Destination & Local Connections

Due to multiple reasons - an aging population, repopulating rural areas & bringing more visitors - Japan is starting to position itself as a digital nomad destination. From Colive Fukuoka to the pop-up coliving edition of the famous Alt_ coliving - there are more and more upcoming nomad initiatives in Japan. No such things were happening there in January 2023, on our train-hopping odyssey. And to be fair - I'm kind of happy about it! It has given me the feeling of what Japan truly feels like. One thing I have wished we were able to though, was to forge and create more connections with locals.

This has proven to be the biggest challenge of the entire trip. While I acknowledged the pace of the travel was high and while trying to combine actual work with exploration of new places - it was incredibly challenging to create any friendships with people in general, let alone with locals whose language we didn't speak. Well, William claims he does but in the end, our communication with any Japanese person ended up being writing paper messages to each other & translating through Google.

Japan is a unique place. The kindness, hospitality & feeling locals give you - despite not sharing a common language - is hard to find anywhere else in the world.

It's one of those places, where you realize, that you may have been doing things a certain way all your life - only to come here and learn they have been doing it in a whole different way, for decades.

Like not hanging your coat on a hanger but opening up your seat to store it inside :)

💪 If this newsletter brings you value - please share it with your friends.