Holiday in Japan (13): reflections
How to summarise such an exciting and varied holiday?
We all agreed that the highlight of our trip had been the day viewing the majestic Mount Fuji. Often the sight of the volcano is hazy or poor or simply impossible. We could not have had better weather and clearer views. For me, the other highlight was the time at the two magnificent temples in Kyoto.
Overall, we had seen Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and ancient castles, gardens and bamboo forest, huge railway stations and amazing shopping malls. We had visited a peace museum, a railway museum and a folk village, and we had experienced a miso factory, a tea ceremony and a sake brewery.
Travelling by bullet train was a wonderful experience and trying Japanese food was fun.
Four long flights, seven hotels, a different language, a different script, a different culture, different food – Japan can be a disorientating experience, but such a thrilling one.
Quite simply, Japan is another world. Everything is neat and orderly and works. There is no litter and no graffiti. There are vending machines everywhere selling everything. There is WiFi everywhere.
The Shinkansen (bullet train) system is a marvel of engineering – very fast, very punctual and very comfortable (although with no catering facilities).
For all its embracing of technology, Japan used to be be a cash-based society, but clearly the Covid pandemic has changed that because I was able to use my debit card almost everywhere and never obtained any local currency throughout my holiday.
Japan is a conformist society. Nobody crosses a road unless they have a green light even if there is no traffic. Everything is automated with screens everywhere. Japanese timekeeping is ultra precise. Service is excellent, people are polite, there is no tipping in Japan.
Japan is an easy country for English speakers to visit because – at least in the major cities and transportation centres – so much signage is in English and instructions for things like coffee machines have an English option. There are public toilets everywhere and they are always clean, sometimes even with fresh flowers. All the toilets in the hotels have heated seats and bidet functions.
If I was the Emperor of Japan, the one thing I would change is the toilet paper and the tissue paper – it is ridiculously thin.
How to characterise Japanese society?
Japan has a fascinating history, stunning terrain and thrilling cities, but it is a seriously odd nation for foreigners to understand. The language is inaccessible and the people reserved, so that it is hard to make a connection. Everything is so ordered that it begins to feel regimented.
There is a sense of being in a theme park: everything is so clean, everyone is so polite, the advertisements are frequently so garish. There is a feel of infantilism: young women often dress like girls, women of all ages like to don a kimono, and women especially seem to giggle and smile excessively.
It is a land of obsessions: an obsession with samurai and shoguns (with no reference to the murderous 20th century), an obsession with bizarre foods (such as bits of meat and various seafoods), an obsession with certain forms of entertainment (anime comics and films, electronic games, figurines of fighting characters), and an obsession with cats (think of the brand Hello Kitty).
And always there is that sense of conformity: at school, at work and at leisure, people do not like to stand out and bully or intimidate those that do, foreigners are tolerated but not really accepted, and so few Japanese have ever left the country or even own a passport.
For the 265 years of the Edo period, Japan was cut off from the world. It is an open country now – but on its own terms, determined to stay different and even aloof and with minimal immigration and work permits.
I thoroughly enjoyed my second visit to Japan, but I could never live there: my height, my extroversion and my love of desserts mean than I would stand out too much.