Thursday, February 25, 2010

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!

__________________________________

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.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Japan, Post Four


Japan Aug. 21-22 - More About Food

One of the discoveries I make while traveling is food I've never heard of before--the dishes that don't get exported, that don't show up in ethnic restaurants in the U.S.

One of the Japanese meals I enjoyed most was okonomiyaki, sometimes called Japanese pizza, although it's more like crepes or pancakes that are savory, not sweet. We had Osaka-style okonomiyaki ("yaki" means grilled, by the way), and after we got home I found a recipe here that approaches what we had. If you decide to try making it, be sure to either get some Japanese mayonnaise or make your own with egg and oil in a blender with spices, using mild rice vinegar--the Japanese version is neither sour nor bitter, in fact is almost sweet.

None of us had ever heard of this dish, but we were up for adventure when our guide asked if we would like to try it. We were staying in Kurashiki, which is not a big tourist place but has an area of theaters, arcades, and restaurants, where our guide took us. We went upstairs to a sort of food court where there were half a dozen of what I can only describe as okonomiyaki bars. We sat at stools before a counter that was part of the grill. The cook took our orders and built our stack up back on the common part of the grill while we watched. When it was finished he slid it over to the customer who had ordered it and provided us with little shovel-like utensils to cut and eat it with.

This is one of those dishes that honestly doesn't taste like anything you're familiar with, in spite of having recognizable ingredients. I suppose you either like it or you don't. I liked it.

Then there was the vinegar ice cream. That's right--dessert for one of our meals was a choice between something on my allergy list--I don't remember what--and vinegar ice cream, so despite the gasps of my fellow tourists, I ordered it. Everyone had to taste it, and then be amazed that I ate it. It's certainly not going to be one of my favorite foods, but again it was made with mild rice vinegar, not our harsh American stuff. It's akin to lemonade in its mix of sweet, sour, and cold, and more like sherbet than ice cream. On a hot August day it's refreshing.


The Japanese like ice cream. One place we stopped for a snack was a very elegant ice cream parlor called Dessert Forest.

But most often we got ice cream out of vending machines. There are vending machines everywhere, they all work, and they are all stocked. None of us lost any money in the machines the entire trip. I remember one hot afternoon, when we had been wandering about a beautiful and popular parklike preserved medieval village, we stopped in a rest area lined with vending machines. It was relatively late in the day, yet when I put my coins into a machine I not only got the strawberry ice cream I wanted, but it was still frozen rock hard.


Vending machines also dispense beer, wine, liquor, soft drinks of every brand imaginable, bottled water, candy, cigarettes, trinkets, toiletries, and perfume. No one worries about children getting alcoholic beverages or cigarettes from the machines--families are small, and Japanese children are well supervised throughout the day. Few mothers work, and where they do there are grandparents nearby or even in the home. Families are close, and older people are revered. There are no retirement homes; people are cared for by their children and grandchildren.

The one meal each day that I didn't eat traditional Japanese food was breakfast. Every hotel provided both western and Japanese food at breakfast time--and I noticed that the Japanese were as likely to choose the cereal or bacon and eggs with juice as the non-Japanese tourists were. A few of our group ate the pickles and fermented beans, but watching how few Japanese ate them I got the impression (just my impression, you understand) that the Japanese have adopted western habits for the first meal of the day.

The rest of the day, though, we ate Japanese food and enjoyed it thoroughly, even the bento boxes purchased at rest stops. I should mention those rest stops. On the main highways there were the same kind of large establishments with food courts that you see in the U.S. and Europe. We could get cooked food or prepared bento boxes, plastic boxes of compartments with meat or fish, rice, various vegetables, Japanese pickles (which are sweet and spicy instead of sour), and some kind of cookie or other slightly sweet dessert. There are so many compartments of small servings that if you don't like one or two of them you will still have plenty to eat.

In the rest stops there are also, of course, rest rooms--but I think I will save a discussion of Japanese toilets for next week's blog entry.
__________________________________

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.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Japan, Post Three


Japan, August 19-21, Part 2, Japanese Food

A handful of meals were included in the tour, but for most of them we were on our own. You know all those stories you hear about how hideously expensive restaurant meals are in Japan? We very quickly found out where they come from. We stayed at very nice western-style hotels, where all the staff spoke English. I imagine many tourists are simply afraid to step outside alone, especially after dark, and so are stranded at the hideously overpriced hotel restaurants. Truly, except for a couple of times when we were provided with coupons, we never ate anything in the hotel restaurants other than the breakfasts that came with our rooms.

Linda and I were not afraid to go out--Japan is incredibly safe--and we found that if we wandered down any street we easily found reasonably-priced restaurants. Complete meals--soup, entree with rice and veggies, tea--ran the equivalent of $10-$12. We ate Japanese food most of the time--there was plenty of variety. I never had to eat sushi, although it was available for those who wanted it. I'm a hot food person, so I enjoyed noodle bowls with beef, pork, or chicken, or delicious pork cutlets, various stir-fries--there is no problem at all finding great food at reasonable prices.

Leaving the western-style hotels, though, means venturing out where waiters and waitresses don't speak English. But the Japanese want the tourist trade, so in the fast-food places (oh, yes, Japan has plenty of their own as well as MacDonald's, KFC, et al.) they have photos of the dishes on the menus and on the walls, so we could just point to what we wanted. But we preferred the less plastic places, even though they displayed plastic food!

In the slightly more upscale Japanese restaurants (but certainly not elegant dining places), the windows display extremely realistic plastic models of the meals to be had inside, each one numbered. You decide what you want, go in, and tell the waitress the number.


We had several elegant meals as part of the tour, usually served in a hotel ballroom set up for us. One evening, though, we went out to an upscale restaurant to sample Kobe beef. I'm sure you've heard about the famous Kobe cattle raised with music and massage, supposed to provide the best beef in the world. Gourmets can go right ahead and call me a heretic: I don't like Kobe beef.

The meal we had that night was fun--we were brought a variety of veggies and paper-thin slices of beef, and cooked them ourselves in hot pots built into our tables. I can't have sesame oil, so there was broth in my pot, and that turned out to be a good thing. You see, Kobe beef is the world's tenderest because it is so marbled with fat that it is pale pink instead of red. It's greasy, and doesn't have much beef taste. Cooked in broth, the texture was, well, lardish.

Perhaps it crisps up like bacon when cooked in oil--but then we don't deep-fry bacon, do we?

Okay, I'm not a gourmet. I don't like pate, oysters, or other expensive, exclusive food (though I love a good steak or prime rib). So you can take my apathy toward Kobe beef as just not having an educated palate. I guess I'm a peasant at heart, no matter what country I'm in.

More on food next week.

__________________________________

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.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

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.
__________________________________

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.