別れ JAPAN
Japan.....so how
do I sum this up.......
It's hard.
A example. The
Japanese drive on the left side of the road, so therefore you would
think they walk on the left side of the sidewalk. That is not so, but
it is not their fault. In the subway and train stations there are
arrows and sometimes the arrows say walk on the left and some times
on the right. There is no rim or reason to them...to the western eye.
So, on the public sidewalk they walk everywhere. Freedom or confusion
I don't know.
Another example.
Japan airlines. I have already told you the story of upgrading
tickets in Chicago, but in Tokyo if is even more bewildering. It took
10 minutes to check in, 10 minutes to change the ticket. Then the
counter person walked across the terminal to another counter where we
had to pay. Another 10 minutes while everything was entered manually
in the computer and wait for the printer to print 10 pages of 8x10
paperwork. Four of which we got and they kept for. So, that is 30
minutes to handle one transaction. Yet, at 41,000 feet over the
Pacific they can swipe your credit card and sell you a duty free
bottle of liqueur.
Tokyo is a big
clean efficient city, but to me it has no soul like Paris, London or
New York. Kyoto was a big clean efficient older city, but was no
Florence or Barcelona. But, I just saw the surface of them.
It is winter and
everything is just starting to come alive, but a lot of Japan's towns
are not visually appealing. The houses are not old but seem to have
no rim or reason to them either. None are the same but in a bad way
not a good way. There are wires and stuff everywhere.
In the end I am
glad I went. It was great getting together for the wedding and
visiting with Chris's mother and her family and that is what the trip was about.
In retrospect, and
I did look at this, I would have a travel agent who specializes in
independent travel put together a tour for us. Japan is expensive to
see and it would have been well worth the money to have some one
optimize all the travel and time for us.
They do have great
sushi.
More examples of
people are nice all over the world:
- Standing in the Tokyo metro discussing exactly where to go a young lady stopped to ask if she could help and a metro employee came over also.
- Vicki walked into a coffee/tea shop in a small town railroad station and admired a commercial poster hanging in the window. She walked out with it rolled and packaged in Japanese newsprint and everyone was smilling in their native language.
- Just a few of the many
