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I'm taking my pictures in RAW format, which means I'm going to have to run them through Lightroom once I get back before I start posting them, so no pictures for another couple of weeks, sorry!
I wanted to share some if my initial impressions on Japan, though, while they're still fresh in my mind.
Overwhelmingly there's a sense of things being alien; it's a bit like being in an alternate universe where things are almost the same, but you can't read the language, the cars on the road have familiar makes but completely alien models, familiar staples like McDonald's and 7-11 are all a bit off, in way of menus and how things are done, and so forth. The diet version of Pepsi is know as Pepsi NEX, Tropicana has juices with weird fruits in them and by and large the selection of packaged foods and drinks consists of products you've never heard of before.
Oddly, then, that I haven't been hit by culture shock yet. It may be coming, but right now things just seem pretty natural, even if the rational mind is trying to tell me otherwise. I took a morning train to the Kiyomizudera temple, at the tail end of the commuting rush. Having people line up on the train platform, interleaved so that a line can start forming for the train after the next, and having polite and firm station personnel make sure people are packed in so doors can close seemed perfectly ordinary. It wasn't quite as bad as the famous youtube videos, but still, there were officials with white gloves pushing people into cars and I didn't blink an eye.
One expectation not met has been the whole hi-tech sci-fi aspect. I only spend a rather short time in Tokyo around Tokyo station and Narita, but nothing really struck me as any more futuristic than in your average European city. (Or American, if you ignore the cleanliness and public transit.) Another is smoking. While there was an option of a smoking and non-smoking car when purchasing train tickets, and a few restaurants appear to have a smoking section, everywhere else it just as smokeless as in the West. English, though, is about as poorly spoken as I expected, but that doesn't stop people from talking at you - the latest being a monk at the Ryōzen Kannon (霊山観音) temple who spent quite some time attempting to discuss Paavo Nurmi's and Lasse Viren's Olympic achievements with me, complete with scribbled explanations of Viren's beard.
As far as Kyoto goes, there are two things that stand out to me. The first is history. Sure, I was told the city's filled with temples, shrines and historic landmarks, but especially in some districts it gets ridiculous. You pretty much can't throw a rock without hitting something really significant, and if you just keep going to that next notable shrine right there in the next block, you may end up giving up and calling it quits after 15 or so kilometers of non-stop walking -- though the rain also may have had something to do with my aborted adventure. I don't think I was out of sight of a world heritage site all day. The second is density. Not having seen Hong Kong I can't compare, but for someone with Finland, Germany and Florida as reference points it's pretty incredible. Roads are one American lane wide, and yet they're theoretically two-way streets with sidewalks. In practice this means tiny delivery trucks and delivery mopeds scurrying around, and a constant dance of traffic and people ducking in alcoves and pulling out of the way so someone can pass a pesky electrical pole taking up space from the lane. Every nook and cranny is in use, be it for storage, AC units, scooter parking or something else -- and the way cars get stored can get outright creative.
Winter was a good time to come here for ease of walking and lack of tourists, but I'm really thinking I need to come back when there are leaves on the trees, because many of the shrines, temples, parks and museums I've seen just in the past couple of days are gorgeous, and stunning when lush with vegetation. The weather in general is not really cooperating either; it was drizzly all day, and overcast. The near freezing temperature and drizzle wasn't enough to keep hard-core travelers off the roads, though -- I can only imagine how busy it gets during peak travel season.
Other, more random notes:
Yes, I'm rather fond of Kyoto. I'd probably welcome a chance to live here for a while. That being said, observing casually the working environment of office buildings I'm passing by, or in the service industry, it's not a comfortable life, and the conformist group culture really comes out. The working part of living here would be rather tough, I imagine.
I wanted to share some if my initial impressions on Japan, though, while they're still fresh in my mind.
Overwhelmingly there's a sense of things being alien; it's a bit like being in an alternate universe where things are almost the same, but you can't read the language, the cars on the road have familiar makes but completely alien models, familiar staples like McDonald's and 7-11 are all a bit off, in way of menus and how things are done, and so forth. The diet version of Pepsi is know as Pepsi NEX, Tropicana has juices with weird fruits in them and by and large the selection of packaged foods and drinks consists of products you've never heard of before.
Oddly, then, that I haven't been hit by culture shock yet. It may be coming, but right now things just seem pretty natural, even if the rational mind is trying to tell me otherwise. I took a morning train to the Kiyomizudera temple, at the tail end of the commuting rush. Having people line up on the train platform, interleaved so that a line can start forming for the train after the next, and having polite and firm station personnel make sure people are packed in so doors can close seemed perfectly ordinary. It wasn't quite as bad as the famous youtube videos, but still, there were officials with white gloves pushing people into cars and I didn't blink an eye.
One expectation not met has been the whole hi-tech sci-fi aspect. I only spend a rather short time in Tokyo around Tokyo station and Narita, but nothing really struck me as any more futuristic than in your average European city. (Or American, if you ignore the cleanliness and public transit.) Another is smoking. While there was an option of a smoking and non-smoking car when purchasing train tickets, and a few restaurants appear to have a smoking section, everywhere else it just as smokeless as in the West. English, though, is about as poorly spoken as I expected, but that doesn't stop people from talking at you - the latest being a monk at the Ryōzen Kannon (霊山観音) temple who spent quite some time attempting to discuss Paavo Nurmi's and Lasse Viren's Olympic achievements with me, complete with scribbled explanations of Viren's beard.
As far as Kyoto goes, there are two things that stand out to me. The first is history. Sure, I was told the city's filled with temples, shrines and historic landmarks, but especially in some districts it gets ridiculous. You pretty much can't throw a rock without hitting something really significant, and if you just keep going to that next notable shrine right there in the next block, you may end up giving up and calling it quits after 15 or so kilometers of non-stop walking -- though the rain also may have had something to do with my aborted adventure. I don't think I was out of sight of a world heritage site all day. The second is density. Not having seen Hong Kong I can't compare, but for someone with Finland, Germany and Florida as reference points it's pretty incredible. Roads are one American lane wide, and yet they're theoretically two-way streets with sidewalks. In practice this means tiny delivery trucks and delivery mopeds scurrying around, and a constant dance of traffic and people ducking in alcoves and pulling out of the way so someone can pass a pesky electrical pole taking up space from the lane. Every nook and cranny is in use, be it for storage, AC units, scooter parking or something else -- and the way cars get stored can get outright creative.
Winter was a good time to come here for ease of walking and lack of tourists, but I'm really thinking I need to come back when there are leaves on the trees, because many of the shrines, temples, parks and museums I've seen just in the past couple of days are gorgeous, and stunning when lush with vegetation. The weather in general is not really cooperating either; it was drizzly all day, and overcast. The near freezing temperature and drizzle wasn't enough to keep hard-core travelers off the roads, though -- I can only imagine how busy it gets during peak travel season.
Other, more random notes:
- Kyoto public transit appears excellent, but also immensely confusing. With a local guide and two days I think I've got the trains down, despite there being at least three private companies and the national railway -- each with their own tracks and stations. Trains run every few minutes, and ferry a rather mind-boggling amount of people efficiently. For someone coming here for a weekend for the first time it's bound to be headache-inducing, though.
- European-spec 3G phones (2.1 GHz) work here just fine. I haven't noticed anywhere that I didn't get a signal. Rental SIMs and roaming rates are pretty mad, though. Also, I've yet to find free Wi-Fi. The alternate reality McDonald's service seems to be intended specifically for Nintendo DS.
- Speaking of McDonald's: Shrimp burger, Big Texas burger, McPork, Chicken Akatougarashi, Teriyaki burger... At least the shrimp burger is quite tasty!
- The food is to die for. Boxed lunches from corner stores, little restaurants EVERYWHERE, amazing pastries... Reasonably priced, and in reasonable portion sizes! It's actually not at all hard to shop for a single person here.
- The price level overall isn't that bad. Books, music and such are expensive, but a 20 minute train ride is 260 yen (~$3), and a typical entry fee to a museum or shrine is between 200 and 600 yen (~$2.20 - 7), and you can eat pretty good restaurant chow even for dinner for less than 1000 yen (~$11) -- and that includes all taxes, and there's generally no tipping. (It's refreshing to be somewhere where the advertised price of an item is what you actually pay for it!)
- English signage is adequate. Quite often when you find a sign that's all in moonspeak, there's another near by that will have enough English translations to get you by.
- Navigating in the city is pretty tough. Get a good map.
- The fashion among younger women is to show stockinged thigh, rather often with boots. Rain or shine, even if it's freezing. Whether their legs are worth showing or not.
- Everyone either has an iPhone, which has amazingly good local application support, or a cookie-cutter Japanese phone. The entire gaggle of schoolchildren on a train has phones shaped exactly the same, distinguished by colors and charms. Except for the iPhone users.
- Shopping for souvenirs or crafts in Kyoto will bankrupt you. Not because they're super expensive, but because there's just so much incredibly neat stuff you must have! And they're actually real things, rather than Chinese junk with a Kyoto sticker on them. Get Geisha-style hair pieces, textiles, dolls, paintings, ceramics, woodcrafts, knives... The list goes on.
- Visit the Nishiki Market (The Kitchen of Kyoto). It's like living a food channel travel adventure, in a clean, safe environment.
- There are a few larger stores, but everything else is tiny, mom-and pop style. It might not be as efficient a way to conduct business as chains and large outlets, but I'm realizing just what is missing from suburbia.
- The Japanese are big on having guys in helmets and blinky wands stand around for any excuse. I'm sure there's a guy in a helmet that is supposed to escort cats across streets somewhere.
- Ambulances on Tokyo have recordings played over the sirens asking people to clear the intersection as the vehicle approaches, and then thanking everyone for their trouble after it passes. In Kyoto they don't appear to announce their gratitude afterwards.
- Despite all prior assurances to the contrary, I don't feel like I've attracted particularly much attention with my appearance.
- Japanese taxis. I have no idea why, but they're incredibly awesome. They're all retro-70s with lace doilies and uniformed drivers with white gloves and a serious look.
- Western style toilets or toilet paper are not at all as rare as I was led to believe. Still, some bathrooms don't have toilet paper, so scoring some from a random person handing them out with ads is still a good idea. Also, bring hand sanitizer or soap. For all the Japanese cleanliness, a lot of bathrooms seem to lack soap. Even if they have heated seats and auto-bidets.
Yes, I'm rather fond of Kyoto. I'd probably welcome a chance to live here for a while. That being said, observing casually the working environment of office buildings I'm passing by, or in the service industry, it's not a comfortable life, and the conformist group culture really comes out. The working part of living here would be rather tough, I imagine.
