Bloggingsouls.com: Japan: Post Jetlag

May 01, 2005

Japan: Post Jetlag

Unlike our trip to Italy, I guess you could say our sightseeing in Japan wasn't as varied as our last big trip was--most of our sightseeing was comprised of visiting gardens, temples, and shrines with some shopping and evening culinary wanderings thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, our visit to Osaka was confined to only visiting this place, but I would say out of the cities we did see (which included Nagoya, Tokyo, and Kyoto), Tokyo was definitely our favorite being the vast city that it is and having a multitude of large and highly explorable neighborhoods. I'm not sure how the population density of major cities in Japan compares to New York City, but judging from our experiences on the streets and in the train and subway stations, I would say it seems considerably higher. Nothing short of maybe working in Times Square can prepare you for the masses of people encountered in the stations and streets of urban Japan. It's definitely overwhelming for at least the first few days you're there. But one of the things I liked about visiting Japan was the mix of stimulation and relaxation encountered in exploring the commercial districts and spaces of Japan's cities along with the parks, gardens, temples, and shrines intermingled with the country's urban fabric.

Other things I liked about Japan:
The department stores- most department stores in Japan have floors (generally the basement floors) devoted to foodstuffs. Generally one floor devoted to pastries, candies, and other sweet stuff and one floor devoted to pre-prepared food and produce and other groceries. I swear, if I lived in Japan I'd almost never cook because of the existence of these food floors.
Convenience stores- stocked with all sorts of goodies like Japanese snacks and rice balls.
Japanese drinks- there are vending machines stocked with all kinds of drinks everywhere and Adam and I tried only but a handful of these drinks but the ones that we tried were so yummy! Japanese companies really have perfected beverages into something of an artform.
High-speed trains and subways- The high-speed trains really seemed to compress space and time and were quite comfortable and both the subways and trains run so frequently and are so punctual! A nice contrast to New York City subways. On the flip side, the subways, especially in Tokyo, are frequently crowded.

The main challenge I would say was the lack of English comprehension in the country and our inability to read Japanese which made communicating and finding places to eat really difficult at times. Regarding the latter, at least with non-Asian languages you can look up words you don't understand but I don't think this is really possible with Asian characters--Adam and I thought it would be a really good idea if there were scanners you could rent that could translate menu and other printed text.

Anyway, onto the pictures!

post- expo mascot.jpg
One of the World Expo mascots