the digest

Recently I paid a visit to Japan for a couple of weeks. My brother is teaching English over there for a couple of years, so I figured why not?

I have to say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Things I loved about Japan:
1) The mass transit. Take a train anywhere in the country, quick, clean, efficient.
2) The people. So polite, so nice. It was like travelling back to the 1950’s (the crime rate is extrememly low there).
3) The metric system. God we need to switch.
4) The mountains. Mountains everywhere, so beautiful (saw Fuji out of the train).
5) Speakin of train….the Shinkansen (bullet train)…..totally awesome. I would kill to have something like that here.
6) The lack of poverty. I don’t think I saw one homeless person, even in Tokyo a city of 30 million people (in comparison New York is 19 million, Chicagoland is 10 million).
7) The gonzo nature of everything. Everything was over the top. Over the top politeness. Over the top neon lights, etc..
8) Video games everywhere.
9) Being treated like a rock star. Not many Geijan (foreigners) over there, so especially in the more rural areas, you would get a lot of stares, and the kids would even point and get all nervous.
10) Heated toilet seats.

Things that I could of done without:
1) The food. It was ok. But not great. Too much fish.
2) All the change with their currency. A 1 yen coin is worth 1/100th of cent…..seriously, doesn’t it cost more than that just to produce it?
3) Taking off your shoes everywhere. It was cool at first, but gets annoying when you have to do it everywhere. Never have I wished more for velcro shoes.
4) Lots of smoking.

That being said, these are minor squabbles. The good FAR outweighed the bad. I can’t highly recommend this trip enough. If you ever have a chance, go, you won’t regret it. If you are interested feel free to email me, and I can tell you more. Go here to view my pictures. Warning, there are a lot of them.