Japan is an amazing country, very different yet the same. I know that isn’t a particularly eloquent or informative way to describe it, but it is accurate to experience.
Japan is a country with many different sides to it’s culture and heritage. In many ways I saw similarities to England with our range of rural countryside and castles and also having a large international city as it’s capital. In some ways it felt familiar even if people were speaking a different language. But this may be true of all countries, being my first trip makes it hard to draw conclusive or accurate comparisons, so I will continue to make broad sweeping statements just based on what I have seen and see where that gets us.
Things to know about Japan:
English words that everyone seems to know: Quite a few people speak a little English. Many people in larger cities seem to know a smattering of things such as ‘Good morning’, ‘Hello’, ‘Bye’, ‘Thank you’ and similar basics and many enjoy practicing them. Assume they know roughly what you remember of studying french in and stick to basics.
Just to make life easier; quite a few words are well known over there and become part of the language, words such as ‘bathroom’, ‘toilet’, ‘hotel’ and anything non Japanese like ‘coffee’, ‘ice-cream’ and ‘chocolate’ just need a slight Japanese accent to be valid. Generally I found that adults, especially those working in train stations and so on, can give basic directions such as left, right, up, down and a platform number (which are usually in English on the platform too). Tourist offices always have local maps in English as well. So I would say that even if you don’t speak a word you can get around – although learning basic polite phrases like ‘good morning’ and ‘excuse me’ is always a good idea in any country.
Younger people tend to know things which have migrated into Japanese slang like the word ‘Lucky’, so you may hear English in sentences by people who don’t actually speak it. The same as an English person might use the word Manga, Karaoke or Karate without knowing any Japanese.
They seem to love the English. English music is huge in Japan. The Rolling Stones especially. English history is seen as very cool somehow. People will often ask when they talk to you if you are American, when you reply and say you are English they usually think you are the best thing since sliced bread. I don’t entirely understand, but entire hoards of college boys hanging about at night would yell about how cool we were as soon as divulged this information (usually as we were trying to get past so we could get home after a late night out).
Crime. There isn’t much. I can’t say there isn’t any – but I didn’t see any. I saw hundreds of bicycles left on the streets and outside houses with no locks. No one stole them. when I explained to people how in England we had to use locks all the time they were shocked. Also, the legal age to drink is 21. There are beer vending machines which do not require ID to use. Yet I did not see a single person on the streets drinking or any youths using the machines in the entire time I was there. Put one of those vending machines at the end of my road and I suspect teenagers from across the county would flock to it even if it meant walking for miles… Oddly, cigarette vending machines do require ID – so if you smoke you will need to buy them from shops as you can’t get a temporary Japanese ID card.
Shops, such as 7-11, DailyMart and anything else along those lines are everywhere in larger cities and near train stations in smaller ones. And they are open 24-7. Anytime of day or night you need a snack, a drink, sweets or alcohol they are there. Late night chocolate buying runs became quite a hobby of mine as Japanese sweets are really good (I highly recommend Mini Galbo in chocolate or strawberry chocolate and any variety of Pocky chocolate sticks).
There are some cultural differences which can be quite subtle if you don’t know where to look. For example; it is really, really rude to eat while walking unless you are at a festival and it is street food which comes on a stick. It you want to eat a snack sit down on a bench or wall to do so. If you aren’t sure if your food is ok to eat walking, sit. You may see people eating and walking who are Japanese, but it is hard to tell if they are doing it because it is ok, or because they are being rude to those around them. Also do not eat anything on any public transport, unless it is a long distance Shinkansen (Bullet train) where food is served.
Trains: If you want to see more than 2 places or cities in Japan get a Japanese Rail Pass. It will save you a fortune and works all all Shinkansen (bulelt) trains, any JR local trains and busses and also the shuttle train to and from the airport into the city.
Live music – there will be no signs, but never take photos at live gigs of any kind. The bands make money by selling photos and are usually tied contractually to one photographer. I made this mistake and had to apologise profusely after the one other westerner in the place came up and told me what I was doing wrong. I would suggest if going anywhere you ask if photos are ok. I’ve started doing this and it was much nicer to know I wouldn’t accidentally make another mistake. If you don’t know any Japanese just point at the camera and as if it is ok and they will either be very agreeable, hesitant or say no. Anything other than agreeable means you shouldn’t. Museums and similar places usually have a photo with a cross through if you can’t – but if you aren’t sure always ask first. If they look reluctant or anything other than very happy about the idea, take it as they want to say no but are afraid to be rude and put the camera away. Definately see some live music. We saw local Visual Kei bands – which are kind of glam rock metal and seem to be primarily concerned with style and over the top costumes. Also, the crowd won’t dance or move unless the band directs, which means we saw a hoard of teenage schoolgirls all repeating the same motions as the band (usually para-para computer game moves) which was surreal to say the least. What was terrifying was then the band instructed them to ‘headbang’ (which means all hold hands and shake your heads in a sort of cute little girl version of that style) while lights strobed – this was exactly like a scene from a horror movie and scared the life out of me. Soudns silly – but this was the greatest culture shock aspect of the entire trip. I haven’t ever seen entire rooms of people do this and the Japanese sailor outfits, srobes and long hair waving was a missing scene from the Ring I swear… it is hard to describe – but believe me, it was scary!
Places to see:
Japan has some amazing sights, from the peace momorial park / dome in Hiroshima and the floating temple next to Miyajima mountain just off the coast and all the shrines and temples in Kyoto to the busting busy city life of Tokyo.
Some places I went and things I did which were of note were:
Hiroshima peace memorial park and dome – beautiful and haunting, the only surving building from the A bomb and surrounding areas are a beaufitul memorial to those who were lost. Including the girl who made a chain of 1000 paper cranes and many tributes to her.
Miyajima island. Climed mountain and saw the sights plus the temples on the mountain itself. Also saw the floating temple at night – absolutely beautiful. As a side attraction the deer on the island are tame and seen by the locals as pests – You can pet them.
Osaka – Osaka ju (castle), Black stock tattoo parlour and drinks bar (complete with pet pythons as well as drinks and a coupel of great tattoo artists). This is a nightlife area which is great for people watching. You can observe the countless hot young overly groomed and stylish Japanese men (under 21 so unable to go into bars) hanging out till 5am on the streets smoking and using their mobile phones hoping girls will approach them – yep, that’s right, in Japan the girls have to approach the guys on nights out.
Takarazuka – Didn’t get to see a play but saw the famous Takarazuka all female theatre building and local area. Osama Tezuka Museam was really great as well.
Kobe – Kobe beef for the meat eaters as it is famous worldwide. Cables – yes, power cables – they are everywhere in this industrial city and the images of them remind me of many cyberpunk and sci-fi films from Japan. Kobe is also considered very ‘international’ and has themed areas for different countries (with varying levels of accuracy). It is the home of Shirow Masamune and might explain why his work is so a-typical for a Japanese artist and has such a international flavour, especially as he is a hermit/recluse who never leaves Kobe. There is also several famous Sake brewers located in the area.
Kyoto – Shines, temples, shrines… Gaiko (Geisha, but do not refer to fully trained Kyoto Gaiko as regular Geshia even if the English tourist information does) district tours, shrines, Bar Moonwalk 200 yen bar, Bar ING rolling stones bar and the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine which has thousands of red shinto gates. We were lucky enough to see a Rumik World exhibition as well while here. Also check out the International Manga Museum – thousands of books to read (some in English) as well as galleries of art and exhibitions on particular authors or artists. Also the museum is full of Japanese people just reading books and kids dressed in costume hanging out with their friends. Toei Move Land (also called Kyoto Movie Park) is a good fun and silly theme park which has shows (such as live power ranger ones and martial arts displays) as well as themed yearly exhibits, museum on the history of the studio, lots of silly tat to buy, street performers and so on.
Tokyo – Harajuku for fashion and cosplayers (people who take on the characters of computer game and TV shows for the weekend all dressed up and hanging around posing for photos). Tokyo Tower has an amazing view – I recommend this at night so you can see how close the view is to every cyberpunk cityscape ever drawn or created in films. The ‘otaku’ fan district for anime, manga and computer lovers is Akihabra – many many shops dedicated to all things collectibles, readable or watchable. Things are priced by desirability rather than anything else so if you like anything which isn’t rare or too popular you can get a good bargain. Also, find stores called ‘Bookoff’ these sell second hand goods at huge discounts. Nekobara – cat petting room in a shopping mall which is a few pounds to get in and allows you to play with cats if you are too busy for your own pet. Quite silly but being away for so long I missed having any kind of affection so I spent quite a while in here – it was also a good novelty side trip before doing any serious shopping in Aki. I also went to a ‘Maid Cafe’ in Aki, where you eat over priced cake in an overly cute cafe and all the waitresses are dressed as french maids – cute full covering outfits and not anything sexy about the whole thing. I went out of curitosity and found it to a be a cute charming place where before you can eat your cake you have to say a little spell (complete with hand gestures) to ensure it is delicious with the waitress. A ocne off tourist thing for me but evidently a common hobby for 20-30 year old Japanese business men. Shibuya crossing is in Tokyo – it is the huge multi zebra crossing used in every film where hundreds of people cross at once. Miyazaki Museum – It was closed while I was there, but really do go, even just to see the lifesized Laputa robot on the roof, although I am told everything about it is good. I will go on my next trip!
To be honest the list will just continue for another thousand words if I do not stop here! There is so much to do and see. I could have spend another month just wandering and people watching to see how the culture works.
I will put some more photo’s un in my next post.
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I read this book recently – and it doesn’t do any sort of reinventing the wheel, it doesn’t even necessarily tell you anything you don’t already know… What it does do, in a very very funny way, is remind you of all the mistakes that annoy you in other peoples fiction that are so easy to fall into with your own writing. 
is a great book with a sense of cruel humour I really loved. They explain what things you should do if you really want to ensure you never get published, with complete written examples of those practices in use. A quick read and a great way to spot in your own writing if you have fallen into any silly yet deadly habits which will foil your attempts to write anything likable.
‘ with me in case I just don’t have the energy to type, or just have nothing to type due to being in awe of the amazingly unnatural state of being so high off the ground in a little metal tube with wings. I am not afraid of flying – I think the whole idea is pretty interesting and am hoping to get a window seat at least one way so I can see how clouds look from a birds point of view.
