Next Stop, NAGANO

There I was, lost amid a maze of street signs I couldn’t read and a throng of cell-phone-toting businessmen in a high-rise, high-tech global capital with a taste for hot dogs. If this was downtown Tokyo, what would it be like in the provinces?

I had expected--and to a great extent found--a cutting-edge country with a worldly populace. But I also discovered that beneath the three-piece suits beat the hearts of ancient samurai. And therein lies the charm and the challenge for visitors to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Feb. 7 to 22.

Forget Japan’s infamous high prices. True, even with better exchange rates due to Asia’s recent economic woes, it can cost $200 for a cab from the airport into town. But with a rail pass, you can zip in for free on the Narita Express. And yes, you can spend $500 for a hotel room--or a dinner. But I found comfortable $60-a-night inns and business hotels with all the usual amenities including TV. I also regularly dined well for less than $20 (a cup of coffee may have been $2.50 but so was a glass of California wine). And did I mention the perennial plus for budget-watchers in Japan: no tipping anywhere.

The problems for independent travelers are language and logistics. It seemed I spent half my time figuring out where I was, where I wanted to be next and how to get there. I often had no idea what I was eating or where. (In restaurants, my first bite usually pinpointed the basic food group, but I often didn’t have a clue whether the kanji writing out front was the name of the restaurant or the plat du jour.)

Many Japanese understand some English, especially if it’s written. And when words fail--which they do frequently--the considerate citizens (where else have you seen subway commuters wearing hospital masks when they have a cold?) invariably go the extra mile, almost literally, walking bewildered foreigners to their destinations.

But the Olympics will sorely test that legendary courtesy. Workers can’t continually leave their posts to lead hordes of befuddled tourists somewhere. And though the national railroad has an English hotline, it’s only for schedule information; seat reservations have to be made in person at railroad stations. When I visited several weeks ago, I could have used an interpreter at many train stations--notably the one in the Olympic city of Nagano (pronounced NA-ga-no).

A commercial and agricultural hub 90 minutes from Tokyo via a new “super express” bullet train line, Nagano city spreads over a flat plain at the edge of the mountain ranges collectively known as the Japan Alps. The city will be the site of skating and bobsledding events, as well as opening and closing ceremonies. Buses will shuttle fans of ski jumping, slalom and other sports to venues a half an hour to an hour away--still within Nagano prefecture, but at higher elevations amid 10,000-foot peaks in the Alps.

Travelers who buy packages from Manhattan Beach-based Cartan Tours, the official U.S. ticket agent, will stay at a deluxe hotel next to a 7-Eleven in nearby Karuizawa. This resort town--also the Olympic curling venue--sits at about 3,000 feet in the foothills about 30 minutes southeast of Nagano on the Tokyo-Nagano bullet line. Two dozen daily round-trip runs are scheduled between Tokyo and Nagano (most trains have 10 or more cars and carry more than 600 passengers).

Cartan’s eight-day packages, including air fare from California, tickets to eight or nine events and lodging (including one night in Tokyo), still were available as of this writing for about $4,880 and may be the best option for most. However, travelers who want to make their own arrangements can do so, probably for much less.

I did, and my basic expenses for air fare, rail pass, lodging and breakfast--the same essentials included in Cartan’s packages--totaled about $2,800. But I’d never go again without more advance reservations, for trains, etc., via a travel agency that specializes in booking trips to the Far East.

After calls at each step of the way to hotels, and trips to train stations to check availability for various departures, I came to the conclusion that spontaneity is ill-advised in a country with almost half the population of the United States packed into an area the size of California, and where a continuous string of holidays and festivals keeps trains and hotels full year-round.

The last time the Olympics came to Japan--more than 25 years ago in Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido--few Japanese traveled within their own country, and only a rare Westerner would venture halfway around the globe to watch teenage skaters. This time, things may be different.

A rental car would provide sightseers far more flexibility than relying on public transportation, but don’t even think about it. Not only does traffic move on the left as in Britain, many streets don’t have names, let alone English translations of the kanji pictographs that are the basis of the Japanese language (which, just to further complicate things, is sometimes written horizontally, sometimes vertically).

City traffic is horrendous, putting off even the Japanese. Thus commuter parking lots at train stations are filled with bicycles, not cars. I stuck with trains, and an occasional bus if I thought it would be obvious where I wanted to get off. I took only one taxi during my two weeks in Japan, which cost about $20 for an eight-minute ride.

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How much ground can you realistically cover on an Olympic visit? Based on my admittedly short trip, I’d say this: If you have one week, be satisfied with a day or so in Tokyo. Spend the rest of the time in Nagano; the resort town of Karuizawa (European atmosphere, boutiques and a tree-shaded district of large summer homes owned by wealthy Tokyoites); and maybe one of the area’s many hot springs. (For a story on hot-springs inns, see L6). Even with two weeks, I wouldn’t try to visit more than one major city other than Tokyo (my first choice being historic Kyoto, site of last week’s United Nations conclave on global warming).

After earthquakes, fires, typhoons and World War II bombing, Japan has been left with few authentically ancient structures. But many elaborately carved-wood Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines have been repeatedly rebuilt. Renowned gardens often adjoin the revered sites.

Japan’s cities overall reflect the utilitarian architecture of the postwar 1940s and ‘50s, though there also are striking examples of original modern design, notably museums, the new Kyoto Station Building and a convention center called Tokyo Big Sight.

But more interesting than buildings are the multitude of double-take cultural incongruities that continually whipsaw a Westerner between the cosmopolitan 1990s and feudal times: the gift-shop clerk in a deluxe Tokyo hotel who puts aside the wooden abacus she’s been working on to record a purchase on the computerized cash register. The high-powered executives padding around in stocking feet in hotels and restaurants where floor-coverings are woven-straw tatami mats. The otherwise straight-laced “salarymen” donning wigs and belting out “I Did It My Way” in the popular karaoke bars.

Foreigners (gaijin), however, will find a lot of Japan’s night life elusive. Few Westerners ever see the veiled world revealed in Arthur Golden’s acclaimed new novel “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Even many music and dance clubs are behind indecipherable kanji-marked doors and below or above street level, out of sight of casual passersby.

Here, some specifics on Olympic visitors’ three most likely haunts.

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Nagano. The fact that Nagano city wasn’t even mentioned in the 1996 Frommer’s Japan guide I took on my mid-November Olympics scouting trip should have given me a clue that I wasn’t going to find a pastoral alpine village. But I hadn’t exactly pictured a gritty downtown jammed with mid-rise buildings and buses. Most stores displayed Olympic posters, though, and it felt every bit the 7- or 8-degree difference between Nagano and more temperate Tokyo. During February, Nagano temperatures hover around the freezing mark.

In an Olympics-centered building spree, Nagano has added a bobsled/luge track, two stadiums and two arenas (including one of the world’s largest covered skating rinks), plus a high-rise village to house the athletes, all on the periphery of town.

The city’s most famous draw, Zenko-ji Temple, is unusual in that it belongs to no particular Buddhist sect and has never closed its doors to women. Visitors are welcome to attend the daily sunrise service. Walking from the temple grounds, I discovered my favorite restaurant just down Chuo-dori, the main shopping street--the International Dining Bar, which had both stylish food and two delightful waiters. Several yakitori restaurants in the warren of streets around the railroad station--about a 20-minute walk from the temple--had a bonhomie atmosphere similar to that of the Japanese bistros called izakanja, where there seems to be as much yelling between waiters and cooks as you’d expect at an Olympic slalom event.

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Kyoto. The imperial capital of Japan for over 1,000 years, Kyoto still is considered its cultural and artistic center. So I was determined to work it into my schedule after Nagano. However, it requires a change of trains in Nagoya--amounting to a trip of several hours, depending on connections. This pretty much eliminates it as a base of operations for anyone planning to attend Olympics events regularly.

The only major Japanese city to escape World War II bombing, Kyoto is virtually a living museum, with an imperial palace, two imperial villas, 1,600 Buddhist temples, 270 Shinto shrines and dozens of noted gardens. On weekends, it’s jammed with families posing their children--in traditional garb instead of the usual school uniforms--in front of various religious monuments.

For all its history, Kyoto also is au courant. The soaring new glass-and-steel train station features dozens of chic shops and restaurants (where the “Western breakfast special,” amusingly, always consisted of scrambled eggs, juice, coffee--and a hot dog).

Kyoto is more manageable than Tokyo, but I still walked and walked and walked. If you have only a day or two, limit yourself to the concentration of temples, gardens, museums and shops (notably Kyoto Handicraft Center) around the east-side district of Gion. The area also is packed with appealing restaurants. I liked the Euro-Asian cuisine and classy atmosphere of Strathisla, one of several trendy restaurants in the Imagium Building, on a street with a willow-lined canal just east of the Kamo River.

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Tokyo. Japan’s frenetic capital is one of the world’s safest (vending machines that stock beer as well as soft drinks stand unvandalized on almost every street corner). But, sprawling over an area 10 times the size of Manhattan, the city can wear out the most intrepid tourist (there also are upward of 80,000 restaurants--versus 15,000 in New York). The best approach is to focus on one or two neighborhoods, depending on your interest (parks and gardens, religious shrines, entertainment, etc.).

If you’re up early in Tokyo (which most Americans are for several days because of the 14-hour time difference), visit Tsukiji Market, where the daily action starts at 3 a.m. This is one of the city’s few slice-of-life tourist attractions, bustling with chefs and shopkeepers bidding for fish just off the boats. You can breakfast on bowls of steaming noodles and the freshest sushi at numerous small hole-in-the-wall eateries. One I’m still puzzling over billed itself: “Coffee Sheep.” Did they mean Coffee Shop? Coffee Cheap? Apparently not. The sign bore a picture of a sheep.

It would remain one of many mysteries in Japan, which I left with a feeling that I had seen many things but understood little.

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Shea is Newsday’s assistant travel editor.

GUIDEBOOK / Nagano Notions

Getting there: Nonstop service from L.A. on Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Northwest, Delta, United, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air and Varig; round-trip fares begin at about $1,170 with taxes and fees.

From Tokyo to Nagano City, take the sleek new bullet train that began running in October. Trains leave from Tokyo Station once or twice an hour for the 100-minute trip; one way fare, about $67.

A Japan Rail Pass is good for several subway lines, the airport shuttle and most long-distance trains; about $235 for seven days.

Tour, travel agencies: Cartan Tours in Manhattan Beach (telephone [800] 818-1998) is the official U.S. ticket agent. Among other agencies with expertise in Japanese travel are Kintetsu International Express (tel. [800] 422-3481, ask for a “Stay and Save” brochure) and Japan Travel Bureau (tel. [212] 424-0800). Japan Airlines (tel. [800] 525-3663) and All Nippon Airways (tel. [800] 235-9262) have tour divisions that make travel arrangements.

Where to stay: The Japan National Tourist Organization offers free pocket-size directories of Welcome Inns and Japan Inn Group members, which range from business hotels to ryokan. Rates for a single room generally are $55-$75 a night.

A real find in Tokyo, and a member of both inn associations, is Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu, a few blocks from Asakusa Kannon Temple and a few minutes’ walk from the convenient Ginza subway line. To get written reservation confirmation, tel. 011-81-3-3843-2345, fax 011-81-3-3843-2348. English is spoken. Rates: about $117-$125 per couple, $67 single.

Less expensive and often more spartan than ryokan are minshuku, sort of family-run B&Bs.; There also are hostels and, recommended only for penniless backpackers, dormitory-style gaijin houses.

For more information: Japan National Tourist Organization, 624 S. Grand Ave., Suite 1611, Los Angeles, CA 90017; tel. (213) 623-1952, fax (213) 623-6301.