A Land of Contradictions ; Less-Visited Islands of Japan Undrape Mix of Traditional, Modern Ways

Summary

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I had heard the rumors. "Japan is soooo expensive." "Hotel rooms are no more than shoe boxes." "My sister's cousin's ex-wife spent $53 for an egg, a piece of toast and a cup of coffee."

Were these true tales of traveling to the Land of the Rising Sun or mostly urban legend, related by Americans afraid to leave their hotels? It was time for me to take the plunge, and I did, but into a Japan rarely seen by Western travelers: the islands of Shodoshima, Shikoku and Kyushu.

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A Land of Contradictions ; Less-Visited Islands of Japan Undrape Mix of Traditional, Modern Ways

Japan is full of contradictions: In one block, you can find antique tea cups worth $100,000 next to vending machines filled with a sports-drink concoction called Pocari Sweat that tastes like a cross between Gatorade and tonic water.

I spotted my guide, Ken Takenaga, at Tokyo's Narita Airport by his mustache, a rare thing in Japan. "Japan is a country of contradictions," Mr. Takenaga said. "It is either modern, or it is ancient. Japanese are born Shinto, married in Christian style because of the beautiful white gowns, and die as Buddhists. We make sure someone is right."

After checking into the Meridien Hotel, we took the subway to have dinner in an alley filled with yakitori restaurants below the elevated tracks of the bullet train. Red paper lanterns advertising each establishment's fare swung in the evening breeze above swarms of Japanese salarymen drinking beer and sake and making a dinner of sushi, grilled veggies, chicken and fish.

Many of these eateries are just a counter with a couple of stools, others have a handful of...

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