It has been a month since our Japan holiday ended but the aftertaste lingers. Sharing the concluding part of the travelogue.
As we exited Japan via Kuala Lumpur, our first act was to switch off our phone’s silent mode, it was a relief being able to listen to our ring tones. In our Nippon sojourn, we never heard a phone ring – whether in a metro or bullet train. In most public spaces, you are advised to not use your phone for talking lest it disturbs someone.
Most Japanese houses are unimaginably small, but there is miniaturized mastery. Every house has every facility- it is almost like a bonsai plant.
If we Indians are obsessed about our toilet habits and condemned our left hand as an outcast till the cleaning jet happened, the Japanese are leagues ahead. Right from the opening of the commode to the flush and closure it is automated – this is a real case of “Toilet Ek Prem Katha”. Please check YouTube videos, they will enlighten you.
Apparently, all Japanese study English – but the knowledge is very poor. Google Translate had to be extensively used by us to wade through shopping, for directions, etc. I marvel at those guys who went to Japan decades, centuries back – they were language legends.
For vegetarians like us – food was a major problem (to explain vegetarianism even with Google translate was very difficult) – we survived because of my wife’s impeccable day-by-day planning – with ready-to-cook food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Shinsaibashi is a major shopping haven in Osaka- a must visit. Here we found the Onitsuka Tiger and Uniglo (both Japanese brands and the Tigers, the forefather of Nike) shops more crowded than Nike, Adidas, New Balance etc. Does it portend future trends?
For opulence, nothing comes close to Tokyo’s Ginza district shopping. Wealth, more wealth, and even more wealth screamed at us from every shop. The best, most expensive brands jostled for attention here.
Japan is amongst the safest countries in the world. I could not find one article on robbery, vandalism, or rape in Asahi Shimbun– Japan’s leading English newspaper. it was such a stark contrast to anywhere else. Some things caught our eye though – after Shinzo Abe’s assassination, politicians are no longer mingling with the Aam aadmi – common man. The current PM even apologized to his audience that he was speaking from 30 meters. Tokyo had also suffered a knife attack a few years back – the Japanese solution – an umbrella that can withstand knife attacks!
Most companies we know about have been named after surnames – P&G, Lever Brothers, Tata, Godrej or concepts – Infosys, Apple, Microsoft etc. The Japanese – apart from the above, do something very conventional. They name their companies after places – Yokohama (Tyres), Fuji (Film), Kobe (Steel), Daiichi (Sankyo), Komatsu are all names of towns- a glowing example of how rooted and global Japanese are. A marriage few nations have been able to emulate or outdo.
