Japan
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Mon 21 Apr 2025 01:11
If you have an image of Japan it no doubt includes delicate pink cherry blossom flowers, or sakura. Whilst cherry trees blossom all over the world, the sakura season has a particular significance in Japan. Hanami (literally blossom-viewing) is an annual event where Japanese families and groups of friends gather to picnic together under blooming sakura trees, celebrating the arrival of spring, the beauty of nature and the cycle of human life. The short blooming season of the cherry tree flowers (about 10 days) serves as a reminder that life is short and precious. We were fortunate enough to see beautiful sakura in Osaka, Kyoto and Fujiyoshida. By the time we reached Tokyo, only a week later, the blossoms were mostly over. Hanami season in Osaka Worshipping nature is a central element to the Shinto religion, primarily found in Japan. Followers of the Shinto religion worship forces of nature (kami), usually associated with a specific place such as a waterfall, mountain or a certain tree. The Japanese reverence towards Mount Fuji is an example of this. We first visited a Shinto shrine in Osaka with our local guide, Banri. He explained to us the washing sequence that worshippers undertake as they enter the shrine and the ritual associated with making offerings to the kami. A worshipper will put money into a box, ring a bell to attract the kami’s attention, then bow twice, clap twice and stand silently to offer a prayer. Various methods are also available to ask priests to mediate, such as writing prayers on paper ribbons or wooden plaques, or hunting for specially inscribed stones that symbolise health, prosperity and good fortune. Small trinkets can be bought that are supposed to help the purchaser in certain situations, such as bringing a fisherman a good catch. Banri asked us to buy one for our sailing adventure, so we chose one for averting disaster and inviting fortune. Banri was very relieved that we would now have safe voyages back to the UK.  Banri shows John how to find the inscribed stones amongst the gravel in this area of the shrine Whilst in Japan, John and I voiced our gratitude to the inventor of the chair on a number of occasions! We attended a tea ceremony and also stayed in a traditional Japanese inn where breakfast and dinner were served on a table about 6 inches high. It was like camping, made more difficult by the use of only chopsticks to pick up your food! Apparently Japanese dwellings are traditionally very small and having low and portable furniture maximises flexible use of space. Ironically our room in the traditional inn was much larger than the room we had later in Tokyo where we felt quite claustrophobic, but at least the Tokyo room had a chair and a proper bed!  John perfects the art of pouring water at low level We were very impressed by the efficiency of the railways in Japan, and particularly the bullet train (Shinkansen) which whisked us the 300 miles from Kyoto to Tokyo in just over 2 hours. Shinjuku station in the centre of Tokyo was an eye-opener though. It’s the busiest train station in the world - about 3.6 million people use it every day - and we got lost in its network of subways a number of times. There are an incredible 200 entrances and exits. We even did a dummy run before catching the train to the airport in case we couldn’t find the right platform whilst lugging our suitcases.  The Shinkansen ‘bullet train’ As we observed elsewhere in Asia, the young people of Japan are obsessed with taking selfie photos. Their fashions also kept us amused. There’s a cute baby doll look that appears to be based on Victorian dolls, so the girls wear big skirts with many lace petticoats, often with lace headdresses, hairpins and coloured wigs. Baby pink is a particular favourite. We were in a very busy convenience store near Mount Fuji where the staff were struggling to keep the customer queue in order, and in amongst the shelving was a girl wearing a pink wig and a candy floss dress pretending to lick a pink lollipop whilst her friend photographed her from every angle. They were completely oblivious to the chaos around them! The schoolgirl look is also popular, with short grey pleated skirt, blazer, long socks and black shoes with high platform soles. For the boys, either black slouchy Goth style or extremely baggy trousers worn with an animal print zip-up bomber jacket and hair with a fringe covering much of the face. All that to look at and I haven’t said anything about the doggy clothing boutiques! They were quite incredible. Department stores also have doggy clothing to match that of their owners.  Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Kyoto. Note the ‘schoolgirl’ in the foreground Travelling from Osaka through Kyoto to Tokyo, we realised that we never saw any children playing football, nor even football pitches to play it on. Baseball and golf seem to be the main recreational sports. The live music scene appears to be very vibrant, with many small venues hosting amateur live bands. We found a Blues bar in Kyoto on the fourth floor of a building in a side street. The bar was in a room about 15 feet square, with a drum kit set up in one corner. Of the 12 people in the room, we were the only people not taking turns to play in the band. Everyone else either had a guitar, a harmonica or could play the drums or sing.  Kyoto Blues Bar One odd thing about Japan: it’s illegal to smoke in the street but smoking indoors (including bars and restaurants) is permitted. Presumably the policy makers were more concerned about littering than public health. Other than that we loved the cleanliness and order of Japan. The cities felt very safe, even in the busy tourist areas, and the Japanese ability to queue in an orderly manner surpasses even the traditional British approach. After Japan we keep going East and fly back across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. It took us nearly 9 months to sail across the Pacific and will take only 13 hours to fly back! |