IT’S ALWAYS RIGHT TO BE POLITE
Japanese pride themselves on quietness, tidiness and doing everything with grace and style. It’s a beautiful thing.
Tokyo makes a great first impression. Not all cities do, but Tokyo does.
If you arrive at Haneda Airport in the early evening, your shuttle into the heart of the city will be a dazzling roller-coaster ride through twisting tunnels, over high bridges, along narrow underpasses and across arching flyovers.
And as you whoosh by, the city sparkles majestically and looks gorgeous all around you with tens of thousands of twinkling lights from countless highrises and apartment blocks.
My first impression of Tokyo and Japan was of a clean, well-organized, graffiti-free, litter-free world, filled with polite, non-horn-honking drivers, clutter-free balconies, and immaculate urban landscap- ing. But what also struck me was what a quiet city it is, considering it is one of the world’s largest, with 35 million people living within a 50-kilometre radius of the centre.
Quietness, politeness and respectful behaviour are deeply entrenched in the Japanese psyche. It is not feigned or cynically observed: It is a sincere and genuine sensibility, a core value of the society.
I loved this aspect of the culture immediately, and I grew to love it more and more during my 14-day tour from Tokyo to Takayama, Kanazawa and on to Kyoto, Nara and Osaka.
This respectfulness is most elegantly expressed in a simple hand gesture. The Japanese don’t point: They direct you to where you need to go, whether it’s your seat in a restaurant, the way to the exit or the invitation to step first into an elevator, with a graceful extension of the hand, palm facing up and fingers closed. It is a charming thing to see performed.
Bowing is a common practice, too. It is not a cultural cliché, cynically performed, but rather a universal gesture of respect.
Another form of politeness I thought may have been a thing of the past but is still rigorously and passionately adhered to, is the custom of removing shoes before stepping into a home, living area or traditional-style restaurants.
Some of Tokyo’s homeless are allowed to sleep at the train station once the last train has gone. Others put up small tents in the park behind city hall.
But what you notice is that before settling into their temporary abode for the night they always remove their shoes and leave them off the mat or outside the tent — that’s how deeply entrenched the importance of shoe-removal is in their thinking.
Even when people picnic under the cherry blossoms in the park — something I saw extensively in the Shinjuku Gardens — they remove their shoes before stepping on to the picnic blanket.
Politeness even extends to traffic signs. Along a highway out of Tokyo, I saw a sign showing the cartoon face of a sleeping person with a moon and a sprinkling of stars above their head. It was a request to motorists not to rev their engines or make unnecessary noise out of consideration for people trying to sleep nearby.
When I checked into my hotel, the Keio Plaza in the Shinjuku neighbourhood, I received another cultural lesson: The Japanese not only love politeness, but also multifunctional, push-button toilets. At first I thought it was a joke. It struck me as an over-mechanized hospital toilet with far too many buttons. But no, each button performed a specific and practical function, including one that initiated a polite flushing sound (new models play music) and others to launch various washing functions with pressure control.
I was also delighted to find hotels in Japan always provide guests with yukatas — the lightweight, cotton-equivalent of the classic kimono. There is no faster way to feel that you are into the culture of Japan than to slip on a yukata the moment you get into your hotel room. These come, by the way, with stylish slippers, too.
Within a few days, I discovered all sorts of other interesting, albeit sometimes quirky, things about the Japanese sensibilities.
Public displays of affection, for instance, are frowned upon. You don’t see any hand-holding, kissing, hugging or overt gestures — even loud talking. I was told these expressions are thought to be intimate and private and not for public display.
When you leave a restaurant or hotel, it is not unusual for the staff to gather at the door and wave goodbye — and keep waving and bowing and waving until you are completely out of sight.
Walking the streets of Tokyo, night or day, even in the bustling “Night Town” areas around Shinjuku was a pleasure.
The biggest challenge to being in Japan — and I knew it would be — was the food.
I love sushi but Japanese food is way beyond sushi. They eat every kind of seafood, including jellyfish, octopus — you name it — a lot. The good news is that many restaurants have three-dimensional, full-colour plastic replicas of dishes displayed in the window or outside.
Or, they have photographs in menus or in the windows, so you can just point (or gesture) to order.
I had at least three Japanese banquet dinners during my stay. At each of these banquets, I had to cook meat in a boiler in the centre of the table. I ate fish with their heads still on and fresh vegetables.
The Japanese like to eat a range of small portions, of as many things as possible.
In Tokyo, there is no shortage of things to do. The Ginza shopping district is top notch, especially the food sections at the department stores, where items are exquisitely displayed like works of art.
In the Mitsukoshi store, you can buy a light lunch and carry it to the sunny roof-garden terrace where you can dine and enjoy a lovely city panorama.
The Asakusa area is another exciting place to visit with its 7th century Senso-ji Buddhist temple and Denboin traditional garden and streets crammed with stalls and gift shops.
This is a good place to buy a kimono. In fact, you see dozens of young girls walking in colourful kimonos in the street as unpaid ambassadors for the district.
Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples abound. At the famous Meiji Shrine, you first learn the act of spiritual cleansing. This involves taking a wooden cup attached to a long handle to scoop water with which you first wash your left hand, then your right hand before touching your lips with water to conclude the ritual.
I would recommend attending a baseball game. We went to see the Yakult Swallows take on the Yomiuri Giants at Jingu Stadium. I rooted for the Swallows, the home team. Every time they scored, fans would open umbrellas and sing a song.
At the game, young women walk around dispensing beer, using a tap attached to a beer reservoir they carry as a back-pack. It is one of the most unusual delivery systems I have ever seen.
From Tokyo, we travelled to Takayama on one of Japan’s lightning quick bullet trains. Getting on and off the train is something that needs to be done quickly and expertly. You get two minutes maximum.
In Takayama, we stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, where you not only get to wear yukatas and slippers, but also sleep on a futon in a typical Japanese set of rooms with tatami mats and a low table. The idea here was to give us a taste of traditional Japanese living. Many people in Japan still live in homes with rooms that are used for more than one function.
As well as first-rate ryokans, Takayama also has a vibrant oldtown shopping area and morning market where you can taste a variety of local dishes and treats as well as taste locally brewed sake.
Kyoto is by far the most bustling, vibrant, energetic city I visited. Yes, even more dynamic, I thought, than Tokyo.
At night, Kyoto is particularly beautiful. Shopping areas are brightly lit for strolling. The city also has some of the most beautiful temples and gardens in Japan
Saying goodbye is something Westerners have to learn to say properly, I was told.
“You don’t just say the word, you say it with a tear in your voice as if you were weeping.
“When you just say the word, it sounds as if you mean, ‘Good, I am glad to be going.’ But when you say it the right way, with a tearful tone, it means I am so sad and don’t want to leave you.”
So with that ... Sayonara.