There’s a couple of things that I didn’t really know how to fit into the blog, and as Judy thought of most of them, I thought she deserved some credit!
I) Japan is never quiet! There’s noise everywhere, all the time. Everything beeps and bongs, the streets have speakers on the lamposts blaring out muzaki and fake birdsong, every station has it’s own signature tune played on arrival. It’s a cacophony.
2) If the English think they have a monopoly on manners, we’re nothing compared to the Japanese. The ticket collectors bow as they leave the carriage of a train. They paint queuing lines on the platforms and one day I saw a group of 20 or 30 people from what was obviously a tour group stand on an otherwise utterly empty platform in single file, as directed by the lines, waiting for their train. Incredible.
3) A lot of their customs make sense. It makes complete sense to have a different pair of shoes to use in the toilet to the ones you use in the rest of the house, which are different again to the ones you wear outside. But why have heated toilet seats and simulated flushing noises when you’re prepared to shit over a hole in the ground?!
4) Of all the countries I’ve travelled in so far, the Japanese are the only ones who have seen me looking lost and complete strangers have come over and asked if they can help. And always men of a certain age. Never women or the young.
5) Judy’s internal blogalogue with herself. Poor Judy spent the whole time in Japan thinking about how I would write up what we were experiencing. I hope I’ve done the blogalogue justice!
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