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Published: October 19th 2010
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Japan is a modern country and even ahead of the times regarding fashion and technology but it also has a strong sense of traditionalism and honour. Japanese youth have a lot of pressure to do well in school and to honour their families. Japanese people appear to be polite, friendly kind and helpful where ever possible and yet there is a seedy side to Japan where most of the business men pay to be members of exclusive clubs where they are entertained by women. There are red light districts, love hotels and maid cafes. We passed a café where 2 young women who were dressed as Alice (Alice in wonderland) handed out leaflets to the millions of business men that walked by. The idea is that the waitress’ dress as maids or other characters whilst they serve you. We met an Austrian guy who told us he went in one and ordered a coffee and found it all rather strange. They even have women only carriages to stop the business men from “touching up the girls” on crowded commuter trains and they have invented a word for this too which I have forgotten. We passed a cat café which has cats
wandering around the tables and counters etc and you get to stroke or pet them whilst having a coffee. Yuck !!!
Despite all of this you are not allowed to blow your nose in public as it is considered disgusting and not once did we see a person eating or drinking on the street or the subway. They just don’t do it and neither do they litter-ever- and yet there isn’t a bin to be seen anywhere. People in Japan take their litter home with them. They don’t leave newspapers on the train, spit out chewing gum or drop cigarette butts on the floor. It’s spotless. On the trains and subways in Tokyo when business men leave they stand up and face the door with their noses touching the doors and don’t move a muscle. It’s very funny to see and we tried it but it’s actually really hard.
There is a complicated set of rules regarding shoe wear in Japan too. Basically shoes must always be taken off. Even when we entered the hostels we had to remove our shoes and put on slippers or plastic sandals or walk bare foot and these slippers need to be changed for
different ones in the bathroom and so on. We didn’t see too much bowing but this is a complicated tradition and the angle of the bow depends on the person and their age or position at work etc.
Crossing the road is also an experience worth watching as the cars and bicycles all obey the green and red man . Nobody will move or cross the road until Mr Green man lights up. Imagine a quite side road with no traffic and perfect visibility both left and right and a whole group of people refusing to cross until the green man lights up. The only people crossing the road when it was empty and on red were foreigners.
Vending machines are everywhere in Japan and brilliant. All types of drinks can be purchased from them and even alcohol. We asked how they stop those underage from using the machines and were told that the machine looks at your face to try to determine how old you are and if you appear young then it won’t sell it. Not sure I believe that. It would seem a little unfair as the Japanese women look about 12 years old. They never break,
get jammed, give you the wrong drink or wrong change. There are amazing.
Handling money in Japan was a very different experience in Japan than China. When paying for something in China the staff would throw the money back at you without even looking and they would never place it in your hand. The Japanese on the other hand would give and receive money with 2 hands as a sign of respect and as you entered a shop everybody would shout out a greeting which sounded high pitched and sing songy.
School children ride the subway and travel to school on their own from a young age. The high school uniforms for girls are short pleated skirts and long socks. They love this look so much that they often wear it even when they are not at school. The long socked school girl look is also popular with the businessmen.
We didn’t particularly enjoy Tokyo because the city was so large and the sights spread out that it made discovering it very difficult. We did however do one major thing in Tokyo which all of the guide books suggest and this was to visit the fish market.
We got up at 4.00 am and we’re amongst the first people on the subway to the market at 5.00 am. This is the hugest fish market which holds Tuna auctions. Single Tuna have been known to raise as much as $500,000 and the auctions alone turnover $2 million a day. The market is like a working dock and highly industrial and very busy. We found it and wandered into it not realising how manic it was and we soon found ourselves dodging motorised carts pack with fished. We kept getting told the auctions were closed and over. (Due to high levels of unwanted tourists at the market they have decided to allow 2 groups of 70 people to view the auctions and this is awarded on a first come first served basis.) different official pointed out the direction for us to leave and then one man pointed us towards the booking office. We got there and the guard told us that the auction was full. We just stood on the pavement deciding what we ought to do because the market doesn’t properly open to the public until 9.00 am. Then the guard came up to us and asked if
it was just us two and then let us into the 2nd group to watch the auction. We were assigned orange visibility vests and filed through the fish yard to the auctions. The actual auction was crazy with a man ringing a bell and shouting continuously and people bidding with their fingers in the must unobvious way ever. It was fascinating. Some of the Tuna were really huge. Later on in the fish preparation workshop area industrial electric saws were used to cut the Tuna. Fish of all sorts were being traded, bought and resold. It was mad and the actually about 3 blocks in size.
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Japan sounds amazing! I really had no idea what Japan was like. Definitely sounds like a fascinating place. Keep up the blogging, i think they're ace!!