In this, the first blog I've written in ages, I hardly know where to begin or how to do justice to my visit to Japan. So, I think I shall be fairly random and resign myself to leaving out a lot, perhaps even much that is important and just dive in.

Amazingly enough, I survived without my Blackberry, though sadly that  meant also without my camera, since I have no other (I deemed that it was more needed at work so went without it). So in the end, It wasn't so much the email contact I missed. I hadn't realised how dependent I had become on all its other functions - it is my watch, my alarm, notebook, address book... In pondering all the helpful qualities of my Blackberry, I think on the immortal words of Homer Simpson, and mentally make a small substitution:

"How can you say
anything bad about TV, Marge? It gives so much and asks so little."

I left for Japan a week and a half ago, on the Saturday morning, and so arrived late Sunday afternoon, because of the combination of the long trip (nearly 24 hours) and the time difference (14 hours). Of course, the time difference meant that when I returned yesterday, the plane left Tokyo at 5:20 pm and the connecting flight touched down in Montreal at 6:30 pm - the wonders of jumping time zones.

I met up with some of my friends in Vancouver on the way, and watched many movies on the flights, including Ghost Town which surprised me - I think it was really worth watching.

The first full day we were in Tokyo was mostly lost on shopping, which, sadly, most everyone else I was with was keen on doing. (Shopping is one of my least favourite things in the world.) We got to explore the Tokyo subway system somewhat in so doing, though we did not get packed into the trains like sushi by the pushers as I have heard so much. It wasn't busy enough.

On the full day of sightseeing the next day we :

Went up The Tokyo Tower: (Had to delete the picture, see link)

(Tokyo Tower as seen from the very base. Photo Credit)

The views from the observatory are quite overwhelming - one gets the feeling that Tokyo goes on forever in every direction, except where it ends in water.

But here I would like to take a side exploration on some of the things about Japan that made more of an impression on me than the sights.

The Blind:

The first one has to do with consideration for blind people. Near  the views from the Tokyo tower are translations into Braille, for the blind people who are curious to know what they would be seeing from there if they could see. Isn't that something? There is braille all over the place - where tickets are sold from the subway too. And there are grooves along the sidewalks so a straight path can be walked, with a series of bumps near the corners so they know when they will be crossing a street (also many of the intersections have beeping sounds or songs).

Masks

In terms of general consideration, you will often see people wearing masks. At first I was confused and thought they were afraid of germs. But I was told that these are the people who are ill with a cold or something and don't want to spread the germs.

Astonishingly Clean:

It is amazing how clean it is everywhere. The subways that are thronged daily with people, the public washrooms, the streets - clear of litter. Very few garbage cans to be found, so you have to plan carefully to dispose of your litter.

Quiet and Polite:

People are so much quieter and less obtrusive in public places. You rarely hear a cell phone ring though everyone has them and see signs everywhere reminding people to keep cell phones on silent mode. Even peole speaking on their cell phone on the street talk quietly. The only exuberant ones I heard were children home from school - a pair of them were delightfully singing a song in Japanese to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy as they hung on to the back of a bicycle and played a hand-clapping song

Suits and Uniforms

I saw few men not wearing suits and all the children were in uniform as many public schools as well as private schools mandate them - the children's hats were very sweet.

Christmas everywhere

I have never seen so many Christmas lights or heard so much Christmas music. But there was little connected to religion, Christmas is almost purely secular. We were told on the tour that the Christmas displays are all taken down on the 25th and replaced by New Year's decorations on the 26th.

(to be continued...)

Before I go on to talk about more that I saw and did in Japan, I thought I'd step back and talk about the lessons I learned about preparing, by arriving headlong without doing so.

The company sent all of us who were going on the conference a very detailed file full of helpful tips on what to do before going, etiquette tips while there, and useful phrases in Japanese.

Of course, I read it after I was already there.

Exchanging money:

The file explained that it was important to arrive with enough yen to see us through the time we were there as it was difficult to find ATMs that accept foreign cards. I won't tell you how much time my friends and I spent chasing around reinforcing this point, or how many yen I still have because I panicked and overcompensated by getting too much when I finally did gain access to funds.

This process was not helped by the fact that our Canadian dollar, after being very strong much of the year while I was planning the trip, was at rock bottom.

Weather:

It is still autumn in Japan, though winter here in Montreal, so because I did not pay attention to this, I spent a lot of my time there galumphing about overly warm in my fuzzy winter boots, and a heavy coat. The coat did come in handy at times, though, as I chill easily. I even needed my gloves one cool day.

Etiquette and using chopsticks:

I have managed to get this far in life without any discernable proficiency in the use of chopsticks. Too bad, since for many meals these were the only utensils available. We ate at a number of authentic Japanese places, and at one, besides being hilarious inept at using the chopsticks in spite of the best of help from my friends, I made the mistake of leaving the chopsticks sticking upright in my bowl of rice for a while. Apparently this is a big no-no.

One is also supposed to eat everything, down to the last grain. As usual, I left too much food, spectacularly at two meals - one, where I started to crack what I thought was a hard-boiled egg and found it was raw, and another where I ordered what I hoped was a vegetarian meal and it was covered in greasy pork.

(Being a vegetarian is difficult in Japan, even for the initiated. I spoke to one of my friends later in the trip about it. He had lived there for 10 years, and confided that he had had to go back to eating meat, though he began as a strict vegan at first, because it was just so difficult. Staff tried hard to help me at restaurants, and were very kind, polite and helpful as always, but I was chagrined by their perplexed looks and consternation as they racked their brains trying to think of menu items that might work.)

There is a lot of etiquette around bowing of course, too, and I'm quite sure that in spite of my best efforts I did not do well in that regard either. I just couldn't stay focussed enough to bow to everyone who bowed to me, and I'm not sure I bowed the right way.

I didn't manage to master the full thanks, and used the informal "arigato" most of the time when it would have shown more respect to do otherwise.

No camera, no watch, no...

As I mentioned in my last blog, not having my Blackberry meant I didn't take any pictures, but more importantly, I rarely knew what time it was, and it often mattered, so I was always asking someone. I could have bought a watch early in the trip, had I felt more comfortable about the cash I had on hand. Instead, I ended up buying the watch, which was my gift from Japan for my youngest, at the airport on my way home.

The result?

Well, the result was that I felt a little off-balance the whole time I was there, which tinged the whole experience with a certain dizzyness and feeling of uncertainty.

Live and learn, eh?