So, so sorry I'm late
and a couple of other travel stories from Japan
Konichi wa!
Writing you from the port town of Uno in the south of Japan. Arrived late last night and wandered the streets with great joy. Such a contrast to Osaka which had more shops per square foot than NYC has pigeons.
Here are ten things I have been surprised by:
Halloween decorations are everywhere and are both completely subtle and completely tacky and yet it kind of works in a bizarre way—like a tip of the hat.
Everyone in Osaka was wearing only four colors: navy blue, tan, black or white. Solids only. Long sleeves only. Layers.
Everyone in Osaka was dressed more formally than I have ever seen outside of a movie. In fact, every minute of this trip feels like a movie. The way it feels the first time you visit DC and everything looks like a postcard.
Powdered milk isn’t half-bad.
Osaka rises as late as NYC.
All cities are cities—everything is different and everything is the same.
The toilets are sparkling. Everything is.
There is no litter because you don’t walk with food or drinks. You sit to eat and the get up. This includes takeout. You sit on a bench, eat, and bus your garbage. You also don’t walk and smoke. Or walk and talk on your cellphone. Or walk and throw things on the ground. There’s no one cleaning up the streets because no one is dropping anything on the ground and leaving it. They’re just walking.
The trains leave exactly when they say they’re going to leave and inside the train everyone is quiet. Every car is the quiet car.
The shrines are everywhere and people drop by. They toss an offering into the bin, face the god, clap twice, bow, pray and wish, bow and clap twice again and then go on their merry way. Nice to integrate this, plus touching the oldest tree in Osaka for strength, into a workday.
Of course there is LOTS more to tell: a flight attendant dropped an entire tray of food on my head which made me laugh so hard that he brought me an entire bottle of wine as apology, I got on a bullet train that was the wrong one and we jumped off FAST—leaving my carry on bag with my passport, cellphone and wallet inside; Foodie tour was magnificently full of food; jet lag is real; it is more stressful than I thought to worry about being culturally inappropriate (this hotel with slippers and rooms and some public shoe hallways and bathroom slippers and public barefoot spaces and bath spaces is a colossal mystery, to be figured out today) Today is also the art-island visit!
Writing News:
Absolutely nada. You’re lucky I wrote this blog. Want to follow my adventures more closely, you have to see all the hundreds of photos on facebook.com/mmdevoe - I’m doing my best to post at least twice a day. SO MUCH TO SEE!
Random Final Thought:
I thought it would feel more foreign, instead it just feels like I’m not quite getting it. “A step behind and a dollar short,” as they used to say in Texas.
But I do love it - what a magnificent culture. Or rather, what an enjoyably terrific culture - everything is always working and it feels like it always does and always will.
I guess I keep thinking: here, people work together in public to ensure that society’s fabric is strong. In the USA, people are so caught up in individualism that following even the most reasonable laws has become anathema to many of us. We will not follow!
I hope your vacation is a magnificent experience and visits with your friends wonderful.
To be shallow, I have read that the Japanese are much fitter than people anywhere else in the world. Are much less likely to be obese. This is interesting in light of the fact that there is no eating and walking in Japan. Eating and walking is not, by and large, a disciplined way to eat, and lack of discipline certainly is at the bottom of eating too much. I believe the psychologist Daniel Kahneman also reported that people enjoy eating much less when they eat on the go, so maybe we should all make a point to try to cut down on it.
I love the idea of "just walking" -
sounds like a remarkable trip!