Some personal thoughts on Japan and the Japanese.

Being a foreigner

The people are fascinating. Their culture is very different to that of the British and getting use to the differences was quite a challenge.

The Japanese still have an insular attitude. Be prepared to be stared at, not a fleeting look as they notice you but an almost aggressive eyeballing over quite a long time. The longest we noticed was over 45 seconds. The funniest was noticed by my daughter while we were in a supermarket. A father went out of his way to drag his young son back from another aisle to point Rita and myself out.

The term used by the Japanese for foreigners is Gaijin. This is a derogative term, equivalent to the terms Spik, Yid, Wog and Paki in the UK. The more PC term is gaikokujin but we all know that common phrases are difficult to stamp out. Our first encounter with a taxi driver including him calling us gaijin. Admittedly he did look rather sheepish when I told him where we wanted to go in Japanese.

We had great fun on unreserved trains, such as the underground chika tetsu and local services. If we sat next to someone they had no problem but is there was no problem, the occupant would not leap up but if we sat on the bench seats and their were spaces on either side then these seats would remain empty. The Japanese traveller would fail to see the spaces and they would even stand in front of the empty space but not sit down.

The culture

The Japanese are very polite and deferential. As you get near, enter and walk around shops you are bombarded with Irasshaimase!, Welcome. When you leave the place you get a chorus of Arigatö Gozaimasu, Thank you. When you buy something you hand over money. Normally I would hand the money to the shop assistant who would take it. In Japan money should be placed in a small tray on the counter. The shop assistant then takes the money and returns the change and receipt via the same tray, accompanied by Arigatö Gozaimasu and other such phrases. One time I forgot and handed over the money directly to the shop assistant. She promptly put me in my place by placing the notes in the tray and giving me a very stern look. Luckily I learn quickly.

The language

I'm not a linguist by any means but I have found Japanese a little easier to get to grips with than I did French, there is no gender or verb conjugation for a start. Being able to read the phonetic scripting, hiragana and katakana, certainly reduced the need to ask where things were as there were plenty of maps around. Even Rita learned to recognise the symbols for "You are Here" quite early on. Being familiar with some kanji helped as I could use pattern matching to recognise station and district names on signs. Many Japanese, especially in the cities like Tokyo, speak a smattering of English and this certainly helped. I found that many liked to show off their skill and even though I would have like to use Japanese it was more polite to let them speak English. If possible I would confirm directions or prices in Japanese. This helped me and confirmed to the speak I had understood them. Even if you don't want to learn the language you should learn the basic set of phrases such as Good Morning, Goodbye, Thank You, Where is? and How much?

Money

Our budgeting was not very good. We elected for some cash. some Sterling Traveller's Cheques and Credit Cards. What we did not realise was that Japan is a Cash economy. The vast majority of shops do not accept credit cards, and many banks, especially outside the main Tokyo metropolis, cannot handle Sterling Traveller's Cheques. Our cash budget was too small. My recommendation would be that as theft is so low you should not bother with traveller's cheques and take lots of cash and Dollar or Yen Traveller's Cheques.

The cyclist

According to my daughter the biggest crime in Japan is the theft of cycles. They appear to be the only item it is necessary to ensure is properly locked up when you leave them. The real shock was to find was that cyclists in Japan ride on the pavement. This makes it interesting when there is a high density of pedestrians. Rita and I were constantly dragging each other out of the path of cyclists who had silently come up from behind. Rita constantly failed to hear the cycle bell ringing. When we hired bikes in Kyoto we all found it difficult to feel happy with and quite stressful to ride on the pavement. I did start to wonder if the thefts of bicycles was a means to lower the number of cyclists.

The motorist

The Japanese drive on the left, a boon for the British driver. Petrol prices in Japan are far lower then in England, around 50p per litre and it showed. At stations there would be dozens of taxis waiting for hire and all of them would be waiting with their motors on. Car theft must be far lower than bicycle theft as many of the taxi drivers were not even present. This was not restricted to taxi drivers; delivery vans and even motorcycles would be parked with their motor running while their owner was off doing something.

The railways

The Japanese railways systems are excellent. You can rely on them arriving and departing exactly to the timetable. I would recommend you buy the JR rail pass before going to Japan as it cuts the cost of travel ad also means it is one less expense to eat into your cash. The pass allows unlimited travel on the Shinkansen and most local lines including one that circles Tokyo.

The underground system in Tokyo can be daunting at first but they do give station names in Kanji, Hiragana and Romaji (English) so you should be able to find where you are and where you want to go. If you are not sure where you are going or what the actual price is you can simply buy the lowest priced ticket (¥130) and then pay the extra at the other end. We are used to seeing images of passengers being pushed onto trains but we no real problems with this. We were told to avoid the stations around Ginza first thing in the morning which we did. Our biggest problem was with the stations themselves, or rather the exits and entrances. Our first encounter was the Ötemachi station close to Tokyo mainline station. We we looking to walk to the Ginza area and took our bearings from the station. But as we walked we realised we were going the wrong way. Half an hour later an we were still unable to match up the map and where we were. It doesn't help that most roads do not have names. We finally got our bearings using other means, names of hotels, etc. The problem was that stations have underground pedestrian tunnels that stretch out in all directions for quite a distance. In one case the distance between the entrance we took and the actual entrance to the trains was 650 metres! The Ötemachi entrance we had first seen was actually on the other side of Tokyo mainline station from where were thought we were. The overground, local trains, were also very good but infrequent. Once at Omagari the next train to Yokote was not due for over an hour.

Using the Shinkansen (New Trunk Line) was like being on an aircraft. The seats were very comfortable and the journey smooth and quite. Apparently the windows are made up of 5 layers of glass to keep the outside noise to a minimum. Because of the smoothness it was difficult to realise just how fast these trains were moving.

The food

Both Rita and I enjoy Japanese food of all types, such as Sushi, Sashimi, Tempura and Ramon, and we had plenty of chances to sample them all. We can understand the revulsion that some people have at eating raw fish in this country where the quality of the fish is nowhere near that found in Japan. By the end of our holiday we were finding we were missing the more spicy foods like curry. The biggest problem was placing the order. Restaurants usually have a display of the meals they offer shown outside. These are not sun-faded pictures often seen in England but models made from plastic, works of art in their own right. Initially they are a bit off putting as they plastic sheen makes the dish look sickly, but you soon get use to it. Each dish would have a sign showing the name of the dish. Those with Hiragana or Katakana (phonetic scripts) were easy to order but many had kanji and although I often knew what the kanji meant I did not know what to say - each kanji can have different sayings. We often ended up dragging the waiter outside so we could point at the dish we wanted.

There is a great deal more I would love to type but you are probably relieved I am leaving it here. Finally I am already missing Japan and feel confident we will go back in the not too distant future, maybe to the south.