Dear readers, I’ve just returned from a great holiday in Japan. Our semi-organised trip went roughly from the northeast to the southwest of Japan: Tokyo, Utsukushi-ga-hara-kogen, Matsumoto, Kiso, Kyoto, Nara, Kurishiki, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Sandankyo, and finally Fukuoka. Below are some of my observations about Japan.
- They say Japanese people are very polite and this is definitely true. Not only is their language very polite, Japanese has extensive ways to express politeness and formality, but also they truly are very attentive. In cafe Colorado in Tokio, I inadvertedly dropped my coffee spoon, before I could reach for it on the ground a waitress hurried to bring me a new one.
- Your basic Japanese language survival set should contain: hai (yes), ie-ie (no, optionally accompanied by crossed index fingers), konnichiwa (hello, pronounce with a prolonged waaa), arigato gozaimas (thank you), otearai wa doko deska? (where is the toilet?), wakariemasen (I don’t understand), ishi/ni/san/von (one/two/three/four), Oranda (Holland).
- Japan is a very safe country in all aspects. When you loose your wallet in Tokio, chances are high it will be returned to you. No wonder Japanese often get pickpocketed in cities that are less safe such as Amsterdam. Japan is also clear from dangerous wild animals, the only deadly animal is an insect, the millipede Parafontaria laminata. Japanese are also very clean, you’ll find no rubbish on the street. It is also safe to eat food anywhere since Japanese are very clean when handling food.
- Japanese TV is hard to understand: are you watching a game show, a soap, or a comedy? Everything looks funny, colourful and is geared towards the young. Clearly the Japanese love cooking because there are many cooking programs on television. Japan is obsessed by young people especially schoolgirls with X shaped legs. You’ll find Manga stores with cartoons of girls with big brown eyes dressed in school uniforms … or less.
- In Japan people have little privacy in their own houses, the walls are thin (wood/paper) and many generations usually live together in one house. For this reason the phenomenon Love Hotel was invented. These are cheap hotels for (un)married couples that want to make out, sometimes with thematic rooms with a large LCD TV and a big bed. These hotels are unmanned and automated to preserve the privacy of their guests.
- Finding places to eat is easy. Often pictures or dummy plastic meals are displayed outside the restaurant. However, it is sometimes difficult to link the sign to its corresponding restaurant if there are restaurants on various floors of the same building. The better traditional establishments are more hidden, they typically have a wooden door entrance with two sheets of linnen hanging on front with some Japanese characters printed on them.
- Eating in Japan is a feast because the food is truly great, especially if you love fish, for example the raw sushi and sashimi or fried octopus and shrimps. Every Japanese meal starts with a little towel to wipe your hands and a glass of cold water. Of course one eats with chopsticks. Not all restaurants serve wine, but beer (or sake) is always available. Japan is not a wine country: red wine is always served too cold. Water refills are free.
- A general rule in Japan is that you should take off your shoes when entering a room. This is especially true for wooden floors in temples, and for traditional restaurants where one sits on the floor. You can’t forget it because you will see other people’s shoes lying on the ground or standing in a special rack or set of lockers.
- At some touristic sites so called Goodwill Guides are available. They are volunteers that guide you around for free. Often they want to learn things about your country or are students trying to learn English. Very few people speak English in Japan, which really surprised me. In general students and businessman are the most likely to speak a bit of English. Older people typically ramble on in Japanese as if they don’t realise you don’t speak Japanese.
- Old people are very fit in Japan, you’ll meet heaps of them walking in the mountains. When passing they typically release an unrelentless choir of friendly konnichiwa’s. Both men and women in Japan look younger than they really are. I guess it is due to their healthier eating habits (less meat and more fish) in combination with their slender build. On average women are among the most beautiful women on earth, if you like black haired and petite.
- Eating Japanese fastfood (ramen) can be a somewhat confusing experience. One first needs to select the separate ingredients of your dish using a vending machine that produces one or more tickets. These tickets you subsequently present at the counter and after some time your food (if you pressed the right buttons …) will be brought to you. If you want quick sweets for on the road, go to the Mr. Donut restaurant chain where they serve high quality American style donuts in many flavours. I recommend the donuts with honey.
- Some typically Japanese things are: vending machines with cold and hot drinks (typically 120 Yen a drink), ornamented manhole covers, designated smoking areas (outside!), miniature trucks, temples with ponds full of koi fish, beautiful gardens, bonsai trees, Torii (traditional Japanese gate commonly found at the entry to a Shinto shrine), Onsen (hot springs for public bathing), Ryokan (traditional hotel where you sleep on a Tatami mat), Yukata (light cotton kimono), Shinkansen (the fast bullet train), 100 Yen stores where all articles on sale cost 100 Yen (actually mostly 105 Yen), and Pachinko: a very popular Japanese gambling game played with small steel balls.
- Some well known touristic highlights of Japan are: Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion in Kyoto), Fuji-san (mount Fuji), the “floating” Torii at the entrance to Miyajima Island, the peace park and museum in Hiroshima (paper cranes are sent from around the world to Hiroshima as a sign of peace), and the world’s largest wooden building at Daibutsu-den Hall (Hall of the Great Buddha) in Nara.
- Some nice urban places to visit are: the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo, the Harajuku train station on weekends where teens dress up in the latest exotic fashions, and the old town area Gion in Kyoto at night where you may catch a glimpse of a real(?) Geisha walking the small streets with wooden houses and red lanterns.
- ATM’s typically don’t work with foreign bank cards. The ones that do work you’ll find in 7-11 shops and in post offices. To my surprise Japan is not very expensive for us (Euro) europeans: prices in restaurants and for daily groceries are about half. At the time of this writing 1000 Yen is exactly 6 Euro. In Japan taxi drivers, wait staff and the like do not expect tips, and will most likely turn down anything you offer.
Entries (RSS)