Q: Why go to this strange, expensive, strenuous country ?

A: Because it is both so different and so cultured ! - Where else can you get this combination ...
(and yes it is expensive but it will cost less than the average banker will lose you in a year - but instead leave positive memories for life)
and because we like sushi

Because we like: the culture, wood prints, bamboo forests, ikebana, harakiri, food (kobe beef, sushi prepared using the principles of "ichi motsu zen shoku" - "one item, consumed entirely" i.e. use fish/veg etc. totally, and without waste and "washoku" - harmonious combination of colours, textures, flavours, cooking methods etc.), gardens, lacquerware, no tipping, bonsai, netsuke, courtesy, respect for privacy, veneration of old age, pride in work, sense of beauty (also in everyday things), calligraphy, politeness, shinkansen, kimonos, origami, ceramics, white-gloved escalator attendants, mix of natural and artificial, anti-americanism (understandable after Hiroshima, I suppose), gift wrapping, selling schoolgirls' underwear in vending machines

Also like the corporate values (refreshingly different to American):

- competition doesn't mean earning more but serving better

- company has greater loyalty to its employees than its shareholders

- the objective is to keep the greatest number of people equally happy

 

Even though we don't like:

Summer humid weather, 1000 earthquakes per year (= 3 per day !), 20 typhoons per summer, No/Kabuki theatre, tea ceremony, violence in sex, denying war crimes, lack of fruit, whale burgers (for research only, of course), noise/warnings, sweets/deserts/bean paste in pastry and the standard tourist fare (Disneyland, Mount Fuji, Beppu, Expo, Geisha)

 

We enjoy the curiosities:

Pointing with flat of hand, impolite to blow your nose in public, "heavy burden" husbands (who flop drunk on wife's doorstep at night), "christmas cake" women (who wants one after 24th?), sararymen, "inemuri" spontaneous sleeps, adults reading manga/watching anime, people having no own identity but slip into several persona depending on role required at the time, love and capsule hotels, "giri (obligation)-choco (chocolate)" as opposed to "honmei (prospective winner)-choco" given from women to men on Valentine's day, Yakusa

We fly to Japan, see some people already made friends with via e-mail, do a course on japanese cookery, cooking utensils and foodmarkets, take the bullet train, stay in a traditional Ryokan, watch the Kobe famers massaging their beef with sake (which they don't), see the architecture in Naoshima and then take the trip back visiting some of the greatest hotels in Asia (Architect's Benesse House, Manila Pearl Farm, Peking Capitalists' Club - see below)

11/8   Leave Frankfurt, GERMANY - Japan Airlines Business Class

12/8   Arrival in Tokyo, JAPAN
         Keio Plaza Intercontinental Hotel
16/8   Tokyo-Hakone
         Relais & Château Ryokan Gora Kadan de Luxe (*)
17/8   Hakone-Kyoto
         New Miyako Hotel
20/8   Kyoto-Hiroshima
         Granvia Hotel
21/8   Hiroshima-Okayama
         Minshuku (*)
22/8   Okayama-Naoshima
         Benesse House (*)
24/8   Naoshima-Kobe
         Green Hill Hotel & 6km Water Slide (see below)
26/8   Kobe-Toyko
         Grand Palace Hotel


Although some of these can get very full ...

28/8   Tokyo-Manila-Davao, PHILIPPINES
         Barcélo Pearl Farm Island Resort (*)
1/9      Davao-Manila
         Mandarin Oriental Hotel

2/9      Manila-Peking, CHINA
         Red Capital Club & Residence (*) - Chairman Mao's Suite & East Concubine Suite

6/9   Peking-Frankfurt, GERMANY

(*) see below under "Great Hotels Asia" and http://community.webshots.com/user/msalmony

The Barceló Pearl Farm Island Resort, Samal Island, Philippines

 

A Living Room by the Sea

The houses were built based upon the traditional stilt houses of the Samal seafarers.

Homes and nature linked by wooden footbridges and even by rope ladders – a more beautiful way of getting from the living room to the beach does not exist.

Situated south of Manila at the Gulf of Davao, 1.5. hours by air and then 45 mins by boat.
Typical Filipino food, the seafood is particularly good.

http://www.philippine-travel.co.uk/~pthotels/hotels/davao/pearl_farm/index.htm

 

 

Red Capital Club & Residence, Beijing, China

 

On Mao’s Trail

Private residence by leading politicians as their pieds-à-terre of choice.
The concubines’ rooms are next to the Chairman’s Suite – they consist almost entirely of beds and are furnished with with antiques from the Qing Dynasty.
The Restaurant’s „Zhongnanhai cuisine“ includes Mao’s favourite dishes.
The stretch limousine that once used to chaffeur Madame Mao is available for the exlusive use of hotel guests – all seven meters of it including red flags, champagne and Russian caviar.

http://www.redcapitalclub.com/

 

 

Benesse House, Naoshima, Japan

 

On Form

Designed by Tadao Ando in 1992 – the hotel itself is a work of art.
More than half is underground.
From the air it looks like a giant Fisher-Price toy and is linked to the the galleries of the Naoshime Contempory Art Museum and a Seaside Park with landscape art.
Huge concrete cylinder with a transom window.
The restaurants „Sound of the Ocean“ and „Wind between the Pine Trees“ serve elaborate Kaiseki cuisine.

http://www.naoshima-is.co.jp/english/first.html

 

Source: "Great Hotels Asia" ISBN 3-8228-1913-1

Gôra Kadan Ryokan & Yamasa Honjin Minshuku

 

A Ryokan is a traditional japanese inn built with traditional materials

 

sleeping on tatami mats,

sitting at 1-foot high tables,

using japanese steam baths 

(and japanese toilets),

eating traditional japanese food

and having a special etiquette on how to use a Ryokan.

They come from simple Minshuku (like a home visit, where you get to see how a family lives)

to a super luxury Relais & Châteaux Ryokan – both of which we will be visiting

 

Yes/No	Hai/Iie
Please	Onegai shimass
Do you speak English ?	Eigo o hanasemass-ka ?
Excuse me/sorry	Sumimasen (*1)
My name is X	Watashi no namae wa X desu (*2)
I've reserved a room	Yoyaku shitemasu
Kuidaore	The civilised practice of bankrupting oneself through sheer gluttony
Hello	Konnichiwa
Don't give up	Gambatte kudassai
Master/Beginner	Sempai/Kohai
Death through overwork	Karooshi
Thank you	(Domo) Arigato (gozaimass) (*3)
Good bye	Sayonara
Enough	Jubun desu
How do you do ?	Hajimemashite
My name is X	Watashi no namae wa X desu
Mahlzeit	Itadakimasu
Where is X	X wa doko desuka ?
Toilet	Otearai/Keshoshitsu
Taxi	Takushi
Train	Densha
Left/Right/Straight on	Migi/Hidari/Massugu
Arnold Schwarzenegger	Arnodu Schwa

*1 note that the "u" is sometimes pronounced
*2 and sometimes it isn't

*3 three of dozens of levels of politeness. In an otherwise wonderfully simple language (no genders, no declinations, not even plurals !) they have added enourmous complexity by distinguishing linguistically whether a man or a woman is speaking, whether the person spoken to is a man or a woman, a superiour to an inferiour, an old person to a young one etc.. That and the amazing writing (3 alphabets in parallel !) make sure any simplicity is entirely removed.

Two facts explain a lot:

• Until recently (1835) Japan had isolated itself entirely from the rest of the world !
  No harbours, foreigners entering Japan were beheaded, ...
  - until this day only 2 of 127 million inhabitants are foreigners
  
  
• In Western cultures we see initiative, individualism, having a strong personal opinion etc. as showing a strong character - in Japan that is considered a sign of weakness !
  Instead the social goal is to subordinate oneself to the group, hence
  - little crime (group sticks together)
  - better at science than arts subjects (e.g. philosophy - where you need an opinion ...)
  - you never discover your bosses name (he remains tencho)
  - the buddhist monk will get out of his mercedes to go to a red-light district bar (no consistent individual in the western sense - but "one man in his life plays many parts")

Curious facts:
- shoes must be changed between street, home, toilet etc. all day
- signs are everywhere: like in a socialist country: "let us avoid rubbish !" but also as the ultimate nanny state "please do not kill yourself during the rush hour"
- do not look people in the eye (provocative), do not shake hands (avoid contact)
- 13 million people live in Tokyo, 21 million in greater Tokyo, 4.4 million people go through Shinjuku station a day
- due to paucity of space, lack of cellars/attics due to earthquakes/tornadoes/torrential rain - spare stuff is spread around the houses' environs
- suitcases are rented so as not to fill house
- Japan consists of 3400 Islands, from arctic circle (latitude above Omsk) down to tropics (latitude Bangladesh), most is south of the latitude of the alps, 90% is mountainous and unpopulated
- Tokyo is at the Latitude of Tunis - hence the heat in August !
- Mobile phone variants: throw away, in-store with customer-to-customer telephone directory, local city only ...

The Land of the Rising Yen, George Mikes
-lovingly pointing our the foibles of this nation too

Zeit für Japan, Gert Anhalt
- the non-standard guide to Japan

World Food - Japan, lonely planet
- especially good on local variations and practical tips

Japan, lonely planet
- ditto, well researched and masses on every area

Japan, Dorling-Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide
- the standard, but beautifully illustrated, guide to Japan

Japan, Bucher Verlag
- beautiful pictures of ancient and modern Japan

Ando by Masao Furuyama, Taschen
- the only architect who really knows how to do concrete

TimeOut: Tokyo
- excellent guide by insiders

Kunst aus Japan, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin/New York
- dig those Kimonos with Mickey Mouse

Japanische Farbholzschnitte, Taschen Verlag
- poor quality pictures and long boring texts on fascinating subject

Darum nerven Japaner, Christoph Neumann
- thing you wish you didn't know about the Japanese

Mobile Suit Gundam, Kazuhisa Kondo
- classic Manga comic

At Home with Japanese Cooking, Elizabeth Andoh
- excellent manual for all Japanese staples

Japans 99 irdische Paradise
- boring: grey texts, maps and pics - no paradise

Haruki Murakami e.g. A Wild Sheep Chase
- weird stories by the Japanese master

Ryokan, Gabriele Fahr-Becker
- the concepts behind the traditional inns

The Hotel Book - Great Escapes Asia, Christiane Reiter
- these look so good it makes you want to go there

Sex and the Floating World, Timon Screech
- academic treatise on woodcuts used, ahem, "in conditions of solitary pleasure"

Pons, Japanisch Powerkurs fuer Anfänger
- you're not going to learn Japanese in a hurry

Gateway to Japan, Kinoshita & Palevsky
- encyclopaedic guide to Japan

Japanese Cooking A Simple Art, Tsuji
- don't be put-off by the fact that this book is over 25 years old, has few photographs, more than 500 pages and that it "takes 20 years to acquire enough experience to make truly perfect rice"!

Tsukiji, Ted Bestor
- the world's biggest fish market (described by boring academic)

Merian Japan
- more useful hints for the traveller

Mondtränen, Bürohelden und Küchengerüchte, Schmitt
- less useful, longwinded articles

Wrong about Japan, Peter Carey
- a father discovers Japan through travels with his son

The Xenophobe's Guide to the Japanese, Sahoko Kaji
- what is likeable and less likeable

Taishita koto nai jinsei, Helga Sentivany
- talks with aged Japanese ladies

Railway Timetable, JR Group
- indespensable for the Rail Pass user

Inemuri - wie die Japaner schlafen, Brigitte Steger
- academic treatise on the instant nap/meditation at work






And now enough theory ...

Here follow the Crudities, those hastily consumed and as yet undigested morsels of events, for the nourishment of the reader - live from our trip ...

[Thomas Coryate, 1611]

Japan is the ideal holiday destination

+ fascinating	more than can possibly be described here - but see photos for first impressions
+ well organised	can set clocks by trains, great signs, all 400.000 vending machines work
+ passion for excellent food	especially seafood
+ squeaky clean	and orderly people, streets, transport, bank notes, ...
+ polite	90 degree bowing and handing things with two hands
+ safe	even for women at midnight in parks
+ no tourists	not even Germans or Americans
+ slim beautiful people	especially while young
+ great air-con	not too cold, totally pervasive

However there are some disadvantages

- heat	and humdity (but see air-con above)
- distance	from Europe, within Tokyo
- expensive	but no worse than London
- no fruit	only as 10.000yen gifts

The following rumours are not true


Puzzles:

- why does a nation so devoted to aesthetics have all their towns so incredibly ugly?
(Answer: Japan grew from 75 to 175 million in 100 years, Japanese are better at details than the grand schemes)

- where do the English habits of driving on the left, tucking sheets in, scones, .co.jp, admiration of transitory values, non-explictit communication, self-deprecation, complex social conventions and cucumber sandwiches come from?
(Speculation: from William Adams, the last foreign samurai in 17th century - originally from Cornwall - a Shogun adviser)

All in all an ichi-go ichi-e  ("once in a lifetime") holiday

We ate a scorpion, dried fishes' heads, survived typhoons and earthquakes, were refused entry into china (and thus to our way home) and had an emergency root canal operation - but otherwise we had the most exciting holiday of our lives in Japan. Also outside Japan we had the nicest hotel (Mandarin Oriental Manila), nicest beach resort (Pearl Farm) and the best discount shopping (Peking) of our lives.

Here are some of my pictures from Japan, Philippines and China

Not all of them are of the amazing food and toilets

http://community.webshots.com/user/msalmony

Here are some amazing professional photos of Japan - enjoy !