Arriving at Haneda airport on a slightly overcast Wednesday morning was not the most auspicious way to enter Japan for the first time but even in my severely sleep-deprived state, there was still a sense of excitement in the air. I had made it. Finally after literally years of false starts I was in Tokyo and ready to lap up the experience.
Like scenes from Sofia Coppola’s wonderful ‘Lost in Translation‘ Tokyo was a dizzying rush of new sights and sounds which at times could be quite overwhelming. From the viewpoint of a Brit who lives in China the temptation to make comparisons is unavoidable but Japan really is a completely different kettle of (raw) fish. Whilst wandering the streets I jotted down my first impression on my iPad (of course) and before I get into the full flow of recounting my many stories I thought I’d share them here:
- Everyone is extraordinarily polite & go out of their way to help – I would only have to stop and look at my map for someone to ask if I needed directions
- Everywhere is spotlessly clean and tidy – street workers and citizens clearly take a lot of pride in diligently keeping it this way
- The trains and busses run on time and are barely ever a second early or late – how they achieve this I have no idea but it was might impressive
- Bus drivers give a constant running commentary on what they’re doing (“I’m about to stop… turning left…”) – strangely robotic and creepy
- You’re not allowed to make phone calls on public transport although people are constantly on them sending messages – near silence is maintained
- Japanese salary men all wear the same black suits and carry the same black bags – uniformity seems to be the group mentality
- Japanese women range from extremely avant-garde to minimalist fashion tastes, wear heavy makeup and many smoke
- Japanese kids are very well-behaved and very cute – the streets are so safe parents let them walk to school alone
- There is no free wi-fi anywhere – you need to have a subscription to get online which is highly annoying for travellers
- At tourist sites you don’t find any tacky souvenir stalls (that I saw anyway) – everything was pretty tastefully presented
- Shop assistants are constantly smiling and always seem to be in a very cheery mood – they don’t try to follow you around
- Almost everything is super expensive – at least if you’re used to China prices, probably closer to London in this respect
- There are vending machines on almost every corner selling just about anything you could imagine
- QR codes seem to be on everything – from tickets to advertisements they allow people to scan them with their phone to get more info
- Chocolate bar-shaped flip phones are still in vogue although the number of people flaunting iPhone 4s was staggering
It’s easy to generalise when you only get to experience something for a short period of time but Japan was really quite remarkable for a first-time visitor. In the coming weeks/months I’ll be posting in more detail about the different places I visited, from the raw urban energy of Tokyo to the zen gardens of Kyoto with plenty of photos to illustrate. Watch this space!
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