IMPRESSIONS

---

Impressions of Japan

This past week I have visited Naha, Okinawa, Nagasaki, sailed the Inland Sea and explored Kobe and Osaka.
The Japanese are the most polite people I have ever encountered. They bow to each other, when getting off the bus, when shopping, when greeting one another on the street or in the hotel. The port Police salute each other. When a Japanese woman or man helped me or waited on me or answered my questions their eyes smiled as well as their mouth. The only unfriendly folks were the taxi drivers and one “took me for a ride” just like the guys at JFK. I was charged 3000 yen or $30 for a 660 yen ride. That was my only negative taxi experience.
On the positive side, I was looking for camera batteries in Naha. I walked up and down the shopping street but didn’t see batteries anywhere. There were plenty of large bottles of sake with snakes in them though. I asked in one store and although they didn’t speak English they gave me a map and marked a photo store. When I went there, they didn’t have my size battery I needed so the owner marked another photo store on my map and there I was successful.
The architecture in the cities is varied and interesting. While the main streets are straight boulevards, the side streets curve and twist, which gives a varied aspect to the buildings. Tall modern apartment buildings sit next to private homes and they are next to small four or five story buildings, all facing in a slightly different direction. Stone buildings reminiscent of Cleveland or New York City are next to glass sky scrappers. Shopping alleys where every store seems like a Dollar Store are near Coach or Louis Vuitton.
The cars in Japan are amazingly clean. I only noticed one van with a dent in it. The cars are fairly new too, no old jalopies. The buses and trains are clean, quiet and comfortable. There is no graffiti or litter. In the hotel coffee shop this morning, I noticed the manager picking up crumbs from the carpet. Everyone seems to take pride in the work. Japanese do all types of work, no immigrants here to do the unpleasant jobs. The culture appears to value the work one does. I’m not implying that this is a classless society. I’m not naïve. It just seems that the resentment and envy are less and the respect for one another more. On the other hand, don’t try to be polite when getting on a train or bus or you will be trampled to paste.
Japanese sidewalks have a yellow metal grid running down the center to assist the blind. These terminate in patches of metal knobs that indicate an intersection or other change. Bicycling is allowed on the sidewalks as well. I’ll say more about those knobs later.
The Japanese teens wear cutting edge styles and haircuts but I only saw one pierced, spiked, tattooed, leather crusted guy and he was at the airport boarding the flight to Honolulu and could have been an American for all I know. Older Japanese wear conservative clothing, nothing in loud colors. Old blondie here must have stood out like a sore thumb walking around in my pink jacket.
Next up, my Adventures in Kobe.

---