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Japan
- ancient and modern by Ken Gambier My wife and I have been to many countries in the world and decided to fill in one of the blank spots on our holiday globe. A tour with this title caught our eye and it had an immediate appeal. We flew to Osaka where we found ourselves in the same airport shuttle train as Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, on his way to a conference. We queued up to have our passports checked while he went through the VIP gate. Then we went on to Kyoto to start the tour proper. If there is one thing which encapsulates the charm of the country and connects the old Japan with the new it is the glorious cherry blossom in the spring. Cherry blossom has been admired in Japan for centuries. The trees start flowering in early April in the south of the country then the wall of blossom moves north throughout the month and into May. The blossom does not last long, a couple of weeks at the most, and a much shorter time if the weather is wet and windy. We were very fortunate to arrive in Kyoto at the time the blossom came out. For several days we travelled around in the area and everywhere we looked we saw a profusion of pink and white. The really ancient part of Japan is seen in the temples and shrines all over the country; one does not have to walk more than a short distance to see the evidence of past religious faith, both Shinto and Buddhist. Today the Japanese have no official faith and fewer people - mostly elderly - are active members of a religious order, but the buildings are much treasured and are visited by many thousands of people as a recreation. In Kyoto there is a one mile walk known as the Philosophers' Way which passes by six temples and has flowering cherry trees the whole way. It is a wonderful experience at any time but especially in April. Another reminder of Japan past are the splendid castles all over the country which provide a good insight into how the shoguns lived in style while defending their territory. (One dictionary gives a definition of shogun "barbarian-subduing great general") We particularly enjoyed the castle at Matsumoto which is on six floors and contains some most interesting exhibits showing the arms and armour of the men who defended it. We went to a display of Geisha dancing which was very colourful and varied with beautiful backdrops to the stage. It was preceded by a bowl of tea simulating the Japanese tea ceremony but in fact being mass produced for the people attending the show. On another occasion we went to the Kabuki or Japanese opera. This was astonishingly popular with crowds of people queuing outside for tickets long before the performance started. As it was in Japanese and we had only a brief synopsis to go on, it was incomprehensible to us but clearly enjoyed by the Japanese audience. There was very little action and the singing was not musical to our ears so the one act we saw, lasting 90 minutes, was enough of a taste. There are some (strange to us) customs to remind one of old Japan. There is the disapproval of anyone using a handkerchief in public. This results in people - men especially - coughing and sneezing into whatever is handy, such as their newspaper, book or hands. Many people with a streaming cold wear a face mask in public. Then there is the custom of taking off ones shoes when going into private houses and many public buildings. This is not unusual in places of worship in other parts of the world but is practised in Japan in many museums, castles and old houses. This results in cold feet and dirty socks! Another custom which makes more sense when in the country is the practice of washing and rinsing the body before stepping into a bath. In many parts of Japan hot water emerges from springs and is fed continuously into communal bath-houses where people of the same sex bath together. The guest houses in which we stayed some of the time had their own hot pools and I happened to be the only man in the tub each time, but it was an enjoyable experience and all the better for going in clean. Space really is at a premium in Japan, being a mountainous country only 50% larger than Britain, with over twice the population. Buildings are rarely erected on mountainsides - no doubt because of the perceived earthquake risk - and so crowd into every available space on level ground. Private gardens are tiny and this has given rise to bonsai, the practice of tending trees and shrubs to keep them small. We went through an apple-growing area and saw how every square foot of space was taken up with growing apple trees. Even a small plot in the front garden of a house would have its tree. One wondered idly whether Japanese boys ever go scrumping! The trains really are as efficient as reports tell. We travelled nearly all of the time by public transport - usually train or tube - and the journey time was totally predictable. In fact on trains with reserved seats the times of departure and arrival were printed on the ticket and one became accustomed to the fact that these times would be adhered to. The amount of information provided to travellers is extremely helpful. On an electronic signboard in each carriage of the train there is displayed the destination and intermediate stops, and the next stop, alternately in Japanese and English. On the tube the carriage shows a list of stations with a light to indicate the next one and which side the doors will open. (In contrast when we travelled back from Heathrow to Kings Cross the Piccadilly Line train kept showing "This train is for Cockfosters" We must have seen this solitary sign hundreds of times) We went by bullet train to Hiroshima and visited the museum which graphically traces the horror of the atomic bomb blast in August 1945 and what has been done since to restore the city to a thriving and lively community. The Industrial Promotion Hall which was standing almost directly under the blast, and whose steel dome escaped being demolished, has been left as a symbol to remind visitors of that awful day in Hiroshima's history. The description of events leading up to the blast was honest enough to state that it ended the war very quickly and the conflict might otherwise have gone on much longer with many more lives being lost. On a free day my wife and I took advantage of a rail pass which had not yet expired to travel by bullet train from Tokyo to Odawara, a few miles from Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately the summit was covered in cloud so we could not see it, so we went to Odawara castle and had an excellent tour. The same thing happened when we went to the top of Government twin-tower building in Tokyo from where Mt. Fuji can be seen on a clear day. It was not to be. However there was an excellent view over Tokyo and we could pick out many places of interest. Incidentally entrance to the Government building and a ride in the lift to the 45th floor was free, with no checking of bags. For five days in the middle of our tour we stayed in minshuku or ryokan (types of guest houses) which brought us much closer to traditional Japanese life. We slept on mattresses on the floor - much more comfortable than we had thought - and had our meals sitting on the floor at a low table. Japanese people sit with their legs under them but we found this uncomfortable and had to sit with our legs stretched flat under the table. One evening we were entertained with a demonstration of Japanese archery by the ryokan owner who had his own archery range at the back of the guest house. This involved much ritual in dressing in the proper clothes and testing the bow and arrows before actually firing at the target. Buying meals in restaurants in Kyoto and Tokyo was made considerably easier by the practice of displaying outside plastic replicas of the dishes on the menu. Often the Japanese description was accompanied by the English interpretation, but even when it was not, choosing a meal was quite simple. One would take the waiter outside and point to the chosen dish. We made an early morning visit to the fish market in Tokyo where hundreds of workers were busily cutting up and packing the catch which had just been landed. There were several tourists around but nobody seemed to mind if we took pictures of the frantic goings-on provided we did not get in the way. Food and almost every other item we bought was very expensive and we needed more money than we had originally calculated. Fortunately we had taken a good supply of travellers cheques left over from our inexpensive trip to Ghana. It is a little sad that money intended to be spent in a poor country should end up in one of the world's richest economies. The one item which did not appear to be expensive was an umbrella, probably because Japan has a lot of rain and a large population of 126 million people, so providing economy of scale in manufacturing umbrellas. I took one with me but on the first day I needed to use it, it wouldn't stay up so I went to the nearest shop. With a bit of sign language I bought a new one and asked the proprietor to dispose of my old one. We were lucky in having only two really wet days in a fortnight, plus a cold day of 4C when we had flurries of snow in the Japanese Alps. There we saw the curious sight of macaque monkeys (which I always thought lived in warm countries) soaking themselves in a hot pool. We were amused to find that pedestrian crossings in Nagaro played tunes to encourage people across instead of the usual beeps. They often used old-fashioned British tunes such as Coming Through the Rye or Annie Laurie. In Tokyo we went on a river cruise together with a group of Japanese schoolgirls who wanted to practise their English on a family of American tourists, amid hoots of laughter. The schoolchildren we saw were all smartly dressed in uniform and very well-behaved. We flew home
feeling we had been on an excellent tour which had given us a good appreciation
of this fascinating country. First published in VISA issue 37 (summer 2000) |