An Escapade in Japan - Part 14

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Afterword

“So, what did you do in Japan?” asked my brother when I informed him that we were back from Japan.

“Oh, lots.” I answered breezily.

“Did you drink any Sake?” he asked.

“No.” I admitted.

“Did you eat any sushi?” he obviously was in a mood to tease me.

“Nope.” I had to resort to slang here.

“Did you see any sumo wrestling?” he was still at it.

“Nyet.” This Russian word comes handy sometimes.

“Did Avinashrao see a Geisha?” my Inquisition was still not over.

“Illa.” Being brought up in Belgaum, this Kannada word is part of our Marathi vocabulary.

“So, what exactly did you do in Japan?” he pilloried me.

“Oh, we saw lots of shrines, and scenic beauty and ASIMO, the robot and Hiroshima.” I defended myself.

“Hahaha!” he laughed.

“Go, fly a kite!” I said irritably and cut the phone.

However, it dawned on me that the Sake, sushi, Sumo and Geisha are the four pillars of Japanese culture according to the popular conception.

Even though we had spent 12 days in Japan, and visited 6-7 cities from Hiroshima to Tokyo, there was a lot that we had not seen in Japan.

In fact, we had not even seen the Kite Museum, which was very near our hotel in Tokyo.

There is a lot more to Japan than we could cover in 12 days. We just got a glimpse of Japan.

The Japanese people that we came across were always very nice, polite and helpful but that does not mean that we have any understanding of the Japanese character. Maybe there no such thing and every Japanese person has a different character, just like Indians, so we cannot generalize and say anything about Japanese character.

However, their discipline, intelligence and devotion to the Emperor are beyond doubt.

In those 12 day we did not hear their cell-phone ring even once, (The phones vibrate when a call comes.) even though we saw them talking on their mobiles or using them to browse the Internet. They spoke so softly that noise-pollution was practically nil.

They observe the queue system, and we never saw them pushing to get ahead or cutting the line.

We never saw a beggar in 12 days. What a relief!

We never had to worry about how much to tip for services. The cost is built into the services, but the people are not greedy, and do not expect a tip over and above the cost.

I admire their resilience. They have rebuilt their nation and reached acme of progress and prosperity after the devastation of WW2.

There is a lot that we have not done in Japan. We did not see any Kabuki or No plays, we did not see any Japanese garden in full bloom because it was winter, we did not see any Tea-Ceremony, we did not sleep on a tatami in a ryokan(Japanese inn), we did have a hot bath in a ‘onsen’ (hot spring baths) and we did not see the ‘snow-monkeys’.

We also did not see the iconic Mount Fuji.

So, I suppose we will have to make one more trip to Japan.

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