Greetings from Kochi, Japan!
Tokyo is HUGE. The travel could not have gone more smoothly if I’d had a personal guide, but it took longer than my travel agent or I expected and it was the last flight to Kochi, so it was very important that I make the flight.
I arrived with only a few minutes to spare and the flight was closed for check-in and all passengers had boarded. But fortune smiled on me and the airport personnel at Haneda were very accommodating… The friendly girl at the ticket counter rushed through the check in, radioed ahead, then grabbed one of my bags and personally raced me through security. We were greeted by 4 other people and they held the plane and closed the door almost immediately after I boarded.
That would not happen these days in the US!
All in all it was about 24 hours of travel time to get here, so there has definitely been some jetlag. Crossing the International Date Line, I arrived 2 days after we departed. It’s been a bit disorienting. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom and the weather has been nice… a little warmer than Oregon and more humid because Kochi is on the south side of Japan and on the ocean.
Yesterday Dave and I went to Kochi Castle. Kochi was the main birthplace for the people’s rights movements or the birth of democracy in Japan and the city has some identity with that history. Today we go to the ocean so we can look east, touch the water and wave at our friends in the US (and I also want to blow some kisses to my sweetheart who will meet us in Tokyo on Sunday.
April 10, 2006 – Here’s a follow travelogue after two weeks intrepid travel through Japan.
The Tokyo skyline was amazing. We took photos of the Tokyo Tower from one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. I’ve traveled the world to something like 30 countries and never seen a city so large. I’d heard Mexico City was the most populous city in the world so we did some quick Internet research and confirmed our suspicion. While Tokyo is not the most populous city within it’s city limits, it is the largest “agglomeration” of people in the world with 85% more people than Mexico City, the next largest agglomeration. It also happens to be the world’s most expensive city. My wallet is still groaning.
After two weeks in Japan, many similarities and differences stand out. When I arrived, my first stop was the men’s room at Narita airport. The urinals on the wall were nothing unusual, but the only toilet was a sort of urinal laying on its back, embedded in the tile on the stall floor.
Malissa suggested that I could forgo any toilet commentary, but anyone who knows my passion for good health and fearless approach to any topic will not be surprised with what follows.
I was puzzled for a moment thinking about the mechanics of going doodie with pants on and no place to sit. The Japanese must have a system. There certainly were no instructions on the wall in English. Upon further reflection, maybe it makes more sense than the traditional American method… the toilet is a recent invention, right? What other animal in God’s creation sits on something to go doodie? If you think about it, sitting to do your doodie is anatomically unnatural: An American toilet puts our legs at around 90 degrees instead of a squatting angle of 30 degrees or less. That 60 degree difference changes the launching angle of your sigmoid colon and affects other organs of elimination. What we don’t eliminate becomes mobile toxic waste… So I’m now convinced the Japanese have found the better solution to accommodate the natural elimination process and indoor sanitation.
The bathroom novelty continued when I arrived at my friend Dave’s house. His toilets were digital –literally. I’ve read about ultra modern toilets in Popular Science, but now I’ve seen one in real life. The toilet seat is heated and controlled with a remote temperature control mounted just above the toilet paper. With the press of a his or hers button the toilet becomes a bidet (for cleaning your backside). Even the flush is electronic.
Malissa reported that the women’s bathrooms played the sound of running water or had a button that could be pressed if background noise was required. I saw no such buttons in any men’s stalls. Why do the girls get music, but the men don’t?
Ok, enough toilet talk, but nice topic, eh?
American products and influence are everywhere. Micky Mouse and other characters are so common, I’m not sure Japanese realize they’re any more American than Toyota and Nissan, etc are Japanese. They’ve become part of our society and we take them for granted. We have a Hitachi TV, Sony car stereo, Canon camera, and computers with parts made in Japan. So a Japanese native visiting the US might have a similar experience seeing Japanese brands everywhere. Japan has the second largest economy in the world, after the US. What brand of TV do you own, or what stereo is in your car?
Most models of cars that we saw by manufacturers like Honda, Toyota & Nissan are models I’ve never heard of. There’s the Honda Life; Toyota Soarer, Rush & Mark X; Nissan Skyline, Cube, and dozens more. It seemed as if someone I thought I knew was living a secret life and I’d just discovered it. We went to the official Toyota showroom in Tokyo where Toyota displayed some of its concept cars and late model, mostly Japanese production cars.
The people are very friendly and polite. My friend Dave Aberg, who has lived in Japan for 16 years tells me the whole language has largely evolved around politeness. There are something like 6 different degrees of politeness in the Japanese version of “Thanks”. Do you remember how to say thank you in Japanese? Hint from the famous Styx song: “Domo ______, Mr. Roboto…”
Caucasian men are a bit like rock stars in Japan. People point and sometimes stare. At one point walking through a park, a large group of high school girls waved to Dave and me and yelled “Hi, I love you!... Hi…” In a trip of 14 days, we had similar experiences maybe a half a dozen times or more. Waiting in the ticket line at Disneyland Tokyo a little Japanese boy, maybe 2 or 3 years old ran up to Calvin and hugged his leg. His 10 year old sister giggled and explained “he loves Americans.”
After three days in Japan, we hopped aboard what has been until recently the world’s fastest bullet train: The Japanese call it “Shinkansen.” The ride was surprisingly smooth. The French and Japanese have been battling for the top spot for years and now the Chinese are in the race. I’m rooting for the Japanese. I believe the train we rode cruised at 186 miles an hour. If the Japanese can just bump the speed by 1000 times, and then by 60 squared, passengers will be traveling at the speed of light and the Japanese will win!
I digress. =)
Food in America is generally served so most parties eating together can eat at the same time. Every one of the restaurants we ate at brought pieces of the order out as they were ready. Every meal was preceded with a usually hot washcloth and few or no napkins. Dave’s wife, Sheho served miso soup, sushi, and rice for breakfast most mornings. It turns out that Japanese eat almost 3 times more fish than Americans. We also noticed the sweets were generally not nearly as sweet as typical American sweets. These factors would explain why they are consistently thin while something like 2/3rds of Americans are overweight. I’d guess less than 1 in 100 Japanese were overweight. Dave joked with his wife, “Hunny, if you want to make American sweets, just add four more cups of sugar!”
Dave and his family were very conscious of recycling, partly of their own convictions and partly because the culture tends to be more environmentally conscious. Biodegradable are recycled into Sheho’s small garden. Plastics, burnables, cans and glass are all carefully sorted and collected separately. Except in Disneyland, it was common to see 4 cans in a row for different types of garbage at nearly every public place. It’s worth noting that more often than not we were unable to find a garbage can. Why? Dave explained that most Japanese take their garbage home with them. Perhaps that’s more polite? I now feel more inspired than ever to step up our recycling efforts at the Grannis Household.
Most people know that Japanese take their shoes off before entering a house. Turns out there’s much more to it than just that. Most houses are built with an entry inside the house that is considered part of the outside where the shoes go. It’s deeply engrained; Japanese give it no thought, they just do it. Malissa reported removing her shoes to enter dressing rooms to try on clothes. Perhaps it’s part of their native Shinto heritage, a religion or teaching that among other things values cleanliness and purity. After 16 years Dave removes his shoes without a thought. When I first walked in Dave’s house and thoughtlessly stepped over the shoes into Dave’s house, he looked at me like I had just dumped a wheelbarrow full of cow manure in his living room!
Dave has studied Aikido for 12 years now and is a 4th degree black belt. I took pictures with his Shihan, which means “Master Instructor” or “Teacher of teachers.” I felt honored to join them in two classes with about 15 students and many teachers in training where the Shihan gave me some personal instruction while Dave translated.
I arrived about 4 days before Malissa and Calvin and I was excited to see them. I especially missed Malissa. The total travel time was about 24 hours with about 2 hours from Medford to San Francisco and 11 hours from San Francisco to Tokyo. Calvin was a trooper both directions and got up at 6 AM the next day to go to school. True to form, he’s already gotten 112% on his physics test and 107% on his Spanish test.
We’ve got lots of pictures (and quite a few duplicates) posted plus a few fun movies at the end. Just follow this link:
http://pics.visp.net/grannis_jp
Enjoy!
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