2014 was the year of the horse, and it was a year when I spent a bit of time in Japan.
I’d visited briefly a couple of times before, but this was the first time that I’d had an extended stay.
My base was the ancient capital of Kyoto.
Despite being unable to speak any Japanese, I slowly got into they rhythm of daily life — finding my way around and, each day, falling in love with the country just a little more.
Here’s what I learnt:
1. Trains. The Shinkansen bullet trains are an absolute dream. There are constant departures, the trains are modern, spacious, and efficient. And the service is super professional — the sleek and stylish ticket inspectors bow politely as they enter each carriage, and then politely bow again as they leave. This is how train travel should be.
2. Health. The Japanese take public health seriously. The majority of people seem to wear protective face masks when they’re out and about. If you ask anyone about it, they will explain that it a form of politeness — that if you have a cold or are sick in any way, then you wear a face mask to prevent passing your germs on to anyone else. But the face masks do seem to have become a bit of a safety blanket as well. While I was there the authorities in Tokyo issued a flu epidemic alert. One of my colleagues helpfully suggested: ‘Do you think we should be giving our customers face masks?’
3. Dumplings. I really love dumplings. There’s a dumpling outlet called Hoorai 551 — it’s a chain that’s originally from Osaka, but you can find them at most airports and train stations. For one reason or another I passed through Kyoto’s central train station pretty much every day. Every time I stopped at Hoorai 55 to grab a snack. I learnt how to ask for the gyoza style (they come in boxes of 10), but to order any of the other varieties I had to rely on pointing and smiling. Seemed to work okay.
4. Anime. There’s a whole culture that surrounds this form of graphic art. Apparently anime studios in Japan are finding it difficult to continue as revenues are dropping as consumers becoming increasingly unwilling to pay for content. The strategy that they seem to be adopting is to share some content to engage with the audience (for example on free-to-air television) with the promise of “more interesting” (ie. sexual) content if the viewer subscribes or buys the DVD. One production that hit the news was ‘Saikin Imoto no Yosu ga Chotto Okashiin da ga’ (which translates as ‘Recently, My Sister is Unusual’). This incest-themed story (a young girl becomes possessed by ghosts and is compelled to have sex with her step-brother) had drawn so many complaints that it became the subject of a broadcast decency investigation.
5. Cycling. I cycled a lot around the streets of Kyoto. The city really lends itself to cycling as it’s pretty much flat — it’s clearly the locals’ preferred method of getting around. In Japan you are supposed to cycle on the sidewalks which are generally fairly wide, so there’s usually enough space for pedestrians and cyclists to dodge each other. Cycling is less common in Tokyo, although apparently a lot more people in Tokyo began to cycle after the 2011 earthquake left hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded in the crowded subway system. While I was there the local papers reported that a cyclist in Tokyo had been ordered to pay 47 million Yen (nearly half a million US dollars) as damages to the family of an elderly woman he knocked down and killed. From what I’ve seen, most pedestrians and cyclists strictly observe the traffic signals, but apparently this cyclist whizzed through a pedestrian crossing and ran into the woman who subsequently died from the injuries.
A fascinating country.