Japan - First Impressions (Blog: December 2015)
It has been a
while since I updated my blog and how time flies when having fun! I am still in Japan, currently in Tokyo and looking for a teaching job. I've had a few responses but nothing tangible
yet!
Japan is a very nice
place to visit, full of cultural wonders. The first thing that I noticed immediately after arriving by boat from South Korea is how much people constantly smile and laugh! People are so
friendly, polite and very helpful! It seems that a lot of the things I heard about Japan are very true. Most of these points could apply to most places I have been to in Asia. But what stands out
in Japan is how courteous people are and how tidy the country is.
- You don't tend to see people arguing,
raising their voice, using foul language or being disorderly (even the drunk ones throwing up in the corner do so very quietly!); Crime is almost non-existent
- The food is amazingly nice; Especially the
sushi!
- You never ever see any rubbish on the
streets anywhere in Japan! Ironically, you never see any dust bins on the streets either! I'm always having to take my rubbish home!
- It is a 24 hour place! Just like South
Korea, People are out and businesses are open 24 hours a day in most cities I have been to so far!
- It's a crowded place! Tokyo is the biggest
metropolitan area in the world with 36 million people. In contrast to China where I thought was going to be crowded but found most places to be quite the opposite! I remember going around in
China thinking how big and spacious the roads and public places were and wondering where the 1.3 billion people were! But China is a huge place (bigger than America) and the population is spread
out across its numerous big cities. Japan has a much higher population density! The crowds were in my face from the minute I got off the boat, the roads are small, the accommodations are compact;
It is very impressive how skillfully they utilise their limited amount of space. Which is probably one of the most impressive aspects of life that is unique to Japan. And having grown up in the
crowded parts of London, I am feeling at home and enjoying it here!
- There are a lot of rules that foreigners
find strange to get used to; They never cross the street until the green-man comes on!; Must take shoes off when going into a house, hotel, hostel; Must wear special slippers when going into the
bathrooms but must never wear them outside bathrooms; Have to get used to sitting on the floor; SIM cards and most internet cafes are not available to foreigners; Blowing your nose in public is
rude; Eating in public is rude except ice cream; Tipping at restaurants and bars can be seen as insulting; When having a drink with friends, pouring your own drink is considered rude; These are
the few I managed to remember for now!
There are a lot of foreigners in Japan. The
largest western groups are Brazilians and Americans. The connection with Latin America goes back over 100 years when there was a mass migration of Japanese farmers to Latin America enticed by
good pay on the South American plantations. Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. There has also been similar migrations to America and with the number of American
military bases around the country, it accounts for the large numbers of Americans here. But still in most places, I have gone for days without seeing a single foreign face. What I find
interesting is how the Japanese never seem to be surprised to see a foreign face. The same was also true in South Korea. People don't tend to stare at a foreign face at all. It immediately makes
one realise that these are very westernised countries with a lot of shared and common cultures with the western world. Which seems to be a world apart from my experiences in China. Having
achieved a near semi-celebrity status everywhere I went in China, I was now finding it strange to sit in a train full of oriental people without anyone staring at me! May be I should start break
dancing to get some attention :-)
Most people I ask for directions and
guidance respond in English (about 8/10). A few times I've had people walking 5-10 mins out of their way to show me directions which I found to be extremely courteous but felt very awkward
to accept. The ones that don't speak English would help by throwing some English words in between their Japanese sentences so I can understand the gist of what they are telling me - it usually
works! I've had lengthy conversations with taxi drivers, train passengers and tour guides using this style of communication, fully catching each other's drift - if you get my drift?! What
linguists claim might make some sense after all - apparently only 7% of human communication is verbal! The rest is tone, facial expression and body language. Ok, 7% might be an exaggeration
and wouldn't fancy my chances of survival in some parts of South America by relying on sign language alone. But this experience has certainly started to give me the confidence in communicating
with others who don't speak my language by using all of my 5 senses and not just words.
There are always constant reminders that
Japan is one of the most affected countries by natural disasters! A major typhoon battered the east coast about 2 weeks ago and 400,000 people were evacuated; A huge volcano erupted 4 weeks ago
in Southern Japan; There were 3 earthquakes in the last month. The largest was a 5.3 on the Richter scale in the Tokyo area, thankfully with no serious casualties. I was in Kyoto when that
happened and luckily I still haven't experienced an earthquake tremor yet - fingers crossed! There were 73 big and small tremors in total this past year alone in the whole of Japan! People keep
assuring me that it's not that terrifying and I will get used to it in no time!
So far my itinerary has taken me from
Fukuoka to Kitakyushu, Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Iga city, Nagoya, Fuji and Tokyo. If you were pressed for time when visiting Japan, Kyoto is by far the best place to find the essence of the
Japanese culture and tradition. It is packed with old temples, traditional gardens, palaces, tea houses, old architectures, old narrow streets and lots of people walking around wearing
kimonos!
And of-course, there is only one cool way to
travel in Japan - by the Shiskansen Bullet Train. It flies at over 300Km/hr and I never seem to get bored of using it! Especially the part when it tilts going around bends - the view out to one
side of the train is straight down at the ground while on the opposite side it's straight up into the blue sky! Just like being in a bobsleigh! But apart from the unusual view out of the windows,
you don't actually feel anything abnormal (as all the forces are perfectly in balance - engineering speak!). In October 2014 they celebrated its 50th year of service without a single fatal
incident. It never stops to amaze me how they keep them running without any hiccups, given the constant occurrence of natural disasters they have to live with. For a total cost of about £150 over
800 miles from Fukuoka to Tokyo, it is not a bad deal at all!
Surprisingly enough, Japan is
not an expensive place to travel in, by western standards! This is contrary to the scare stories I had heard from travellers who had been here before! Those stories were actually true about
10 years ago. But the Japanese economy has been going through a rough time over the last 20 years with a series of recession, deflation and currency devaluations which has made the cost of living
a lot cheaper. Outside of Tokyo and Kyoto, one can get a single bedroom accommodation for as low as £10 per night and meals from a reasonably good local cafe or noodle bar
can be as cheap as £2.50. In Tokyo and Kyoto food is about 20% more expensive and you get a capsule hotel or bunk bed from
around £10 per
night. A 40 minute journey on the Tokyo metro within Tokyo costs about 70p
to £1. By Asian standards, Japan is still a very expensive country to travel in. But compared to other western
countries it is not. Food, transport and accommodation are definitely cheaper here than in America.
