These things can all be true simultaneously: travel can be boring, exciting, mundane, eye-opening, pedestrian, exhilarating, frustrating and fulfilling. Whether it's for business or pleasure, a familiar destination or a new one, the act of going beyond your usual four walls to someplace else offers an opportunity to see the world from a different angle. And if you are as fortunate as we were to go on holiday to a completely new place, and try and immerse yourself in all that it has to offer, you get all these things in spades. Below in no particular order are a few random impressions from a recent foray to Japan, where we were lucky enough to be able to spend a few weeks traveling and seeing and eating.
A sense of Zen. According to the 2022 edition of the Religion Yearbook by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, about 48% of Japanese are Shinto, 46% practice Buddhism, with the remainder practicing Christianity, and various other religions. And so perhaps it's no surprise that shrines and temples are ubiquitous. But it's not just the big, well-known ones like the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto or Meiji Jingu in Tokyo. If you walk the cities and towns, you find one on virtually every block or so. Sometimes it's just a small statue and a few candles, other times a carefully curated structure and small garden tucked behind an office building. But there are countless places as you move around for quiet and reflection.
Liquid/paper. Walking big cities and small towns you notice an almost complete absence of litter. The weird corollary is that there are almost no trash cans. It seems that whatever detritus people create they take with them and dispose of in homes or offices. Almost the only receptacles you see are for empty bottles and cans located next to the countless vending machines which seem to be on almost every block. Beyond just water, they dispense hot and cold tea and coffee in cans, soup, hot sauce and more. You could probably live out of Japanese vending machines if you had enough change.
Blossoms everywhere. We never planned it, but wound up there at the height of cherry blossom season, which occurred early this year. The trees are everywhere in the cities and countryside, and are augmented by azaleas, chrysanthemums and a riot of other flowers. They offered a welcome dose of color to the otherwise mostly monochromatic buildings, and paired with the traditional gabled roofs provided that quintessential Japanese visage.
What did I just eat? As with many places, the local cuisine is worth sampling if you are adventurous. We had sushi of course. But beyond that there's shabu shabu, tempura, yakatori, yuba, matcha, soba, unagi, red-bean donuts and more. There are multi-course meals from the formal kaiseki to the family-style obanzai, and the food courts in department stores are as large and diverse as any Whole Foods. Or you can just hang out in an izakaya, a kind of local pub, and order a bit of anything. We ate it all. Well, almost: we didn't make it through the chicken hearts.
Crowd controlled. Walk up to any intersection and people are waiting patiently for the light to change. No one, and I mean no one, crosses until the light turns green. Even if there is no traffic anywhere, no one moves off the curb. Do so, and you all but hear audible gasps - but no one follows you. You quickly learn to join the crowds and wait for the correct time to cross.
Not as lost in translation. Unlike in most of Europe, where even unfamiliar words and names can be at least read and puzzled out, signs in Japan are in Kanji, making them indecipherable to those not fluent. Additionally, most restaurants have solid fronts without windows, and might even be on the second and third floors of buildings. Twenty years ago when I was there, this made it all but impossible to wander and make any informed choices about eating out. However, with the benefit of Google Translate and Google Maps, it is far more possible to find a place and to read a menu. More than once we were able to confirm an establishment not by its sign but by the color of its awning, and to read a menu with daily specials that would otherwise have remained a mystery.
Bits and pieces. No one eats and walks. Businessmen dress like it's the 1960s: dark suits, white shirts, dark ties. Those that have a few words in English are happy to use them, and pleased as punch when you tell them how well they speak. Rest rooms are ubiquitous, well maintained, clean and free, but without any way to dry your hands: most people carry small towels in their bags. Between 7-11's, Lawson and FamilyMarts, you never need to go more than a block without hitting a convenience store. Cash is often the preferred or only way to transact business. For all its density, the country and its people are very quiet, polite and measured.
In all, a welcoming place that's more than just a little foreign. But if you're willing to give it a go, you'll find an amazing place chock full of sights: take a look and judge for yourself. And the bathroom thing? Except for the towels, we have a lot to learn.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford loves to travel to new places. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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