Japan: Assorted Musings

Can you guess where I'm traveling from the flower above?

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Yep, it's Japan! Can we just take a moment to appreciate how elegantly this flower captures the nation? It looks like the Japanese flag, while the central red spot also resembles a sakura petal, another national symbol. The flower above was in the "Sky Garden" at Kyoto train station. The station has terminals for the famed "bullet trains", as well as normal train, subway, and bus lines. Japanese public transit is truly a marvel. Here are some other assorted musings about my time in Japan.

-The dichotomy between traditional and modern Japanese culture is very pronounced. Though I've read they can be at odds with each other, at least at a surface level, the interaction is subtle and truly fascinating.

-Strict manners and other social behaviors (such as bowing) are very alive in Japan. Foreigners stand out pretty quickly.

-For other prospective travelers, most Japanese people (outside of hotels and huge tourist attractions) don't speak english. However, key vocabulary words are not out of the question. Some pointing, gesturing, and elementary japanese can usually get the job done (if not somewhat sheepishly.)

-Fast Food restaurants are replaced by convenience stores such as 7-11, Family Mart, and Lawson. You can buy boxed meals from the freezer (which they microwave at the register). The food is cheap, but still delicious, and lots of people come in during mealtime rush.

-Traveling to Japan opens one's eyes to many different facets of beauty. There's plenty of natural sightseeing as well as amazing industrial complexes. There's functional beauty in the way certain systems are run, and especially in traditional Japanese architecture and interior. Of course, if one has the opportunity to see them worn, yukata and kimono offer a unique beauty that can't be seen anywhere else.

-The amount of cute things (relative to an American of course) is pretty hard to describe. The advertising, the mascots, the music that plays in stores, the restaurant menus, certain behaviors of very people themselves...

Well, that's all I can come up with at the moment. I hope you've learned something about Japan from this unorganized little post.