Japan, Post Eleven

Impressions of Japan

I think what I carried away with me from Japan were the impressions of friendliness, cleanliness, honor, and beauty. Everywhere we went, people were friendly and helpful. For example, I ventured alone into a huge shopping mall in Yokohama. I had a map of the mall, but ran into a "you can't get there from here" situation in which I could not figure out which elevator or escalator would take me to a shop I wanted to visit.


I began asking people if they spoke English, and very quickly a young man said, "My wife." He then led me to where his wife was shopping while pushing their baby in a stroller. Her English was good, yet she could not describe the complicated route from where we were to the store I wanted to go to.

So, the couple dropped what they were doing and took me up an escalator and across a bridge to an elevator that took us to a section where three stores were in a cluster disconnected from the rest of the mall except by that circuitous route. That kind of courtesy and helpfulness is typical of what I experienced everywhere in Japan.


Cleanliness is inherent to the Japanese character. You simply don't see clutter, litter, or trash anywhere. As foreigners, we tried hard not to violate Japanese custom, taking our shoes off before entering homes or temples (in one temple I was actually given a little paper cap to go over the bottom of my cane), and being careful not to litter or clutter.

Japan is also a very safe country. Not only do you feel safe wandering alone, but your property is not only safe from theft, it is even safe from your own carelessness. In our tour group were a couple traveling with their teenage son. The night we arrived, jetlagged, the boy left the family's iPhone on the sink in the airport men's room. At the introductory meeting at the hotel, the parents were very much upset with their son for losing it.

But the next day the phone was restored to them at the hotel. Someone found it and turned it in. Someone else managed to find identification on it, and somehow they found the address of the hotel where we were staying. In virtually any other country, that family would never have seen the phone again. In Japan, obviously more than one person put time into tracing the owners and restoring it to them.

Finally, I carry with me how beautiful everything is in Japan, from food to gardens to architecture. Clearly it is a country of people who appreciate beauty, and make the effort to surround themselves with it.

Here are some photos that didn't fit into my blog posts. Enjoy!



















Next week: a guest post from Geezer-Chick, with photos of the most beautiful carousel I've ever seen.

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Learn to Speak Japanese

How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Post Ten

Animals in Japan

I love animals, especially dogs and cats. The Japanese have pets just as we do--but tourists rarely see them. Nowhere did I see stray dogs in the streets, such as most other countries have.

Cats are good luck in Japan. The beckoning cat in the photo at the top of this post is seen everywhere in every size. He can be found in versions supposed to bring wealth, health, and a happy family. Don't confuse him with Hello Kitty, who is also everywhere at the moment, but is just a current commercial fad.


The old traditional beckoning cat may have been based on actual cats--like this plump and cheery fellow who greeted us one day.


The famous Japanese koi (carp) are found in every lake and pond, and even in one of our hotel lobbies. People feed them, and they perform a feeding frenzy every time, no matter how many tourists have already fed them that day.


One of the places we visited was the island of Nara, where deer run free and beg from the tourists. One deer came up behind one of our group and stole a map of the island out of his back pocket.


The deer wander all over the island, and there is an abundance of wildlife in every park all over the country. They make just another aspect of the beauty of Japan.



__________________________________

Learn to Speak Japanese

How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Part Nine

Japanese Temples, Part Two

The three major religions in Japan are Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism, although the latter is far more a philosophy than a religion. Other religions are also common, including Christianity--but the Japanese rarely belong to only one religion. In fact, most Japanese will claim that they are not religious at all, and a few minutes later stop to pray at an office shrine.


Here is a Bahaii temple, one of the many other religions represented in Japan.

We learned that since WWII the Japanese have become smitten with the Christian wedding ceremony, so frequently people who continue practicing Shinto and Buddhism (almost everyone practices both) get married in a Christian church. That's the best example I know to show that the Japanese have a very different attitude toward religion from that of westerners.


Because there are no funerals in Shinto, Buddhism provides them. No one seems bothered by the difference between the importance of ancestors--implying that their spirits remain in shrines or around the family home in some kind of conscious awareness and individuality--and the Buddhist belief in reincarnation.

To my knowledge, the Japanese attitude toward religion is unique, and I don't think westerners will ever really understand it.



__________________________________

Learn to Speak Japanese

How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Part Eight

Japanese Temples, Part One

Japan is a land of many religions, although the three primary ones are Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Most Japanese participate in more than one.


There are Shinto shrines everywhere, little shrines in homes and offices, and in the streets and countryside, where people stop to offer prayers about any problem in their lives.


Torii, the gates of Shinto temples, are found in the streets, marking the way to the nearest temple, where anyone is welcome. One place we visited is called "Thousand Torii," a thousand gates.


Anyone who shows proper respect is welcome in a Shinto temple. Before entering, you remove your shoes and wash your hands and face at the fountain always provided. Inside you invoke the various gods, or kami, like the fox god. Shinto is all about life--it marks the stages in a person's life from childhood to old age, but there are no Shinto funerals. It is believed that the dead would pollute the temples ... even though some people become kami after death.

For funerals, the Japanese turn to Buddhism. More about that next week.
__________________________________

Learn to Speak Japanese

How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Part Seven

Japanese Castles

Japan was first united under a single ruler almost two thousand years ago, and the first recorded ruler was a woman, Himiko. That information, however, comes from Chinese travelers to Japan in the second or third century. Japanese history traditionally begins with the first emperor, Jimmu, a descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Be that as it may, Japan has had the same royal family for over 1500 years. Rarely have they held real power--through most of Japan's history they have been accorded great respect, but various warlords have fought over the real political power.

The most famous warriors were the samurai--the military class who were hired as mercenaries when the Fujiwara government collapsed in the eleventh century--and the shoguns, who became powerful in the 14th century.


I must admit to not being as familiar with Japanese history as I might be, so even as I enjoyed the beauty of the castles we visited I did not have people and events in my head to connect them to as I do when I visit castles in Europe. The castle you see here is Himeji, generally considered to be the most beautiful castle in Japan.


Castles, as opposed to palaces, are fortresses whose primary function is defense. Some castles house leaders' families, while others are simply garrisons for soldiers. In Europe, castles are combinations of purely utilitarian defensive areas, design unaffected by esthetics, and areas designed to house and delight the families of the rulers who live there. In Japan, no part of a castle is utilitarian ugly--all parts are beautiful and esthetically balanced.


As you see here, Japanese castles have in common with European castles that they are usually built on hilltops, for defense purposes. One of the things we learned about Japanese castles is that the architecture on the inside does not match the architecture on the outside: the exterior hides the fact that there is one more story on the inside than is evident from the outside, masking whichever floor housed the family.

Another difference between European and Japanese castles is that Japanese castles are completely finished on the inside, with wooden floors and paneling. European castles tend to be mostly bare stone, with rooms for family hung with tapestries to lend color and cut the cold. Narrow stone spiral staircases are found in the walls, difficult to climb but easy to defend. Japanese castles have wooden staircases inside the rooms--but some of them are on ropes, so they can be hauled up from above. Different methods to achieve the same purpose of defense against intruders.
__________________________________

Learn to Speak Japanese

How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Post Five

Japanese Technology

Japan is known the world over for its cutting edge technology, yet the rice paddies of the country's premier crop are tended by hand. They have trains that travel 200 mph, and robots that handed out the Hugos at the World Science Fiction Convention. But then there are the toilets....

Every culture in the world is a study in contradictions. This week I'm going to tell you about some contradictions I experienced in Japan--I'm sure if I had been able to stay longer I would have encountered many more.


No visit to Japan would be complete without a trip on the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train. If I remember correctly, our trip was from Osaka to Hiroshima (more about Hiroshima next week). The trains are super-sleek and very comfortable, but as they have little luggage room our suitcases were sent ahead by coach and we took only our carry-ons.

Our tour guide purchased our tickets and herded us to the area on the platform where the doors of the car we had reservations for would open. Another contradiction: the driver, not a computer, runs the Shinkansen, and is responsible for stopping the train at the right place on the platform within centimeters. We took a mid-morning train heading away from Tokyo, so there was no mob of commuters to deal with, but there were still plenty of people taking the train along with us.




The ride is exceptionally smooth. At times we were going close to 200mph, yet there was no sense of excessive speed. We traveled through beautiful mountains--not surprising, as Japan's islands are actually mountaintops poking up through the ocean. 90% of the population lives on 10% of the land, as much of the land is practically vertical. Every valley, though, has villages, towns, or cities, and rice paddies are squeezed into every available spot, including what look like the yards of the houses.


If you are traveling on the Shinkansen, you are moving between major cities--the local trains to smaller towns are not Bullet Trains. On the Shinkansen, a LED sign indicates each stop in both Japanese and English, making it easy for tourists to know where to get off.


I love trains. I truly wish that the United States had not let our passenger railroads deteriorate--I would just love to go down to the station here in Murray, hop on a train, nap my way to Nashville instead of doing a hard 2-hour drive, do my business, and hop on another train home. That's what you do in most of the rest of the world, but not in the middle of the U.S. Here the old station house is used only for storage, and the trains that regularly rumble through are freight trains.

Anyway, I enjoyed the trip on the Shinkansen, which provides a transition to the second contradiction in this post: Japanese toilets. Each car of the Bullet Train has two toilets. No, not men and women, but Western and Japanese. The Western toilet is just what Americans and Europeans are accustomed to, as obviously are most Japanese today. So-called Japanese toilets, though, are the norm in public places--my guess is that they continue to build them even on new, modern trains and in the most modern buildings because they are easy to clean.


A "Japanese" toilet is for all practical purposes a hole in the floor. The Japanese ones are plumbed, and they flush, something not true everywhere in the world, for I have encountered this type of toilet in France, Greece, India, and Nepal as well. Most in Japan are sparkling clean, and I never encountered a public toilet of either type in the disgusting condition sometimes encountered in other parts of the world (including places in the U.S.) I assume men have little trouble with Japanese toilets, as they all brag that their accuracy is such that they can write their names in the snow. There are also plenty of ordinary urinals available for them, often pretty much right out in public, which is how I know. But for a woman it's a balancing act. Fortunately, I learned to do that balancing act years ago on a trip to Greece, a western country with very few western toilets available for public use.

Why do I say "fortunately"? Because when you are on tour you inevitably must use public toilets, and in a Japanese women's facility in a tourist area there are typically several Japanese toilets and one western one. Being older and, on the trip to Japan, still recovering from major surgery, I was slower than the other women at most things. Knowing how to use a hole in the floor, though, meant that I was in and out of one of the Japanese toilets while most of the other women on our tour were still lined up to use the only western one.

Tip to any woman traveling to a country where she expects to have to use "squat" toilets with any frequency: if the culture permits, wear skirts instead of trousers. In hot weather, skirts are cooler than trousers, and more modest than shorts. I'm not talking about miniskirts, of course.

Also, in Japan and anywhere else including the U.S., women should carry a day's supply of toilet paper. Any time you visit places with lots of tourists, they are likely to run out. In a handful of places in Japan, you have to purchase toilet paper from a vending machine, as it is not provided free of charge.


Now, the final contradiction for this post: Japan also has the highest tech toilets in the world--so high tech that it's difficult to figure out how to use them. I'm told that about three-quarters of Japanese homes are now equipped with toilets that spray massaging warm water, or act as bidets, spray perfume--or even play music! We had only one such toilet in a hotel on our trip--but as all the instructions were in Japanese we had all sorts of weird things happening before we figured out which button flushed it!

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How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

Japan, Post Two

Aug. 19-21, 2007--Part One


Japan blog posts begin here.

In early June of 2007 I had major surgery, but I was determined to go to Japan in August, and I did. I bought a walking stick, expecting that medieval monuments in Japan would be like medieval monuments in Europe: not handicap friendly. I was right. But with my stick I was able to go anywhere I wanted.


I didn't buy an orthopedic cane for the trip, because I needed something lightweight, collapsible, and versatile. My solution was a monopod intended as a camera support:

Davis & Sanford TRAILBLAZRV Trailblazer Monopod

I recommend this monopod for any traveler who needs support climbing stairs, walking over uneven ground, or hiking outdoors. It collapses to go through the airport security scanner (I called the airline for instructions and was told to carry it on the plane, not put it in checked baggage), is lightweight but sturdy, and is cheap. It expands to staff length, which is great for climbing hills and long shallow steps, or to regular cane length for city streets and buildings. Add a loop handle (I found that a leather shoelace made a perfect one), and you can hang it from your wrist when you need to use both hands for something. And, of course, if you need to steady your camera, unscrew the top of the handle and there is the screw that fits into the bottom of your camera.


My flight to Japan was the longest trip I had made up to that point. By the time we changed planes in Tokyo, I was exhausted. I met Linda, my roommate for the trip, at the Tokyo airport, and we were on the same flight to Osaka. The travel gods blessed us, for on the plane from Tokyo to Osaka we were put in business class. Each seat was a separate pod that reclined. There was the usual little TV screen, a desktop for food tray or computer, etc., but I didn't have time to play with them. The seat fully reclined, like a recliner, and hardly had I stretched out on it than I was sound asleep.


We were met at the Osaka airport and taken to our hotel, where we met out tour guide, a lovely older Japanese woman. She took us to dinner at a yakatori restaurant (grilled food), which was very good. The only problem for me was one I had not anticipated: it was a strictly sit-on-the-floor place, something I just cannot do--it plain hurts. After trying every possible position, and having my hips still screaming in agony, I was forced to stand for the last third of the meal. But the food was excellent--I really had very little trouble finding excellent food in Japan.


But the experience worried me--was I going to have this problem of not being able to sit on the floor every time we went to a Japanese restaurant? As it turned out, it never happened again. Most Japanese restaurants have a choice between eastern and western style seating, while western restaurants--which are everywhere--have only western style seating. Also, I am now amazed that that first restaurant did not have a low chair available for people who can't kneel or sit cross-legged. After that I was offered such chairs several times, including in a private home.

Back at the hotel we met up for the first time with Japanese customs even in western-style hotels. We always had two single beds and a bedstand with clock-radio just as in American hotels. Of course there was a TV. But there were no dressers, nothing with drawers. Instead there was a closet with built-in shelves. AND, every hotel provided either pajamas or sleeping robe, as well as slippers! It was summer, so they were lightweight cotton, but they were all very nice, and it meant that I at least didn't have to worry about clean nightwear for the trip.

I'll tell you more next week.
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How to import a car from Japan. Click here.

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.

This series of posts on my trip to Japan begins here.

The journal of my trip to India and Nepal begins here.

The series of posts on my trip to Italy begins here.

Geezer-Chick's guest blog on York, England is here.

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the author of this blog has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.