June 2008 Archives

Well, one week is short to explore the whole country, if I have time I need to get back and to experience more...

Strange things I found or experienced in Japan:

1. So modern country, but peoples skill of speaking language is quite weak. And for me, I looked not much different than them, so they assume that I speak Japanese and even sometimes I said sorry I do not, they seems not believe me and keep talk in Japanese. I found that strange! And such developed country without communicate with the outside world.

2. They are really pet friendly, rainy days you could see the special carriage just for your pet to sit in, just like a baby carriage which inside is not a baby but a dog or something. That is really amuse me!

3. So polite nation, everyone bow to each other and smile and obey all the rules. But as I saw on the street there are posters about series killers a lot, is the politeness or what make people gone crazy faster?

4. Asian people by nature are more conservative than westerns. But here on the street girls and boys are keep sending out ads about you can contact with beautiful lady and sexy man... Well, maybe not all are related to sex, I heard they have some club for women to hire men to listen her talk, since her husband would not or does not have the time to listen. Isn't that interesting?

5. Food wise I liked almost all. Just the potion is really small, I wonder if all the others are full since I am still a little bit hungry after eating eight small potions of food. Maybe they just have really healthy living style - not eat too much for dinner!

6. Womens carriage, for the subway they have one carriage just indicate that only women or children can enter.Special care for women and also to protect them from ugly dirty men.

There will be more if I stayed longer, I found it is really interesting. Even China and Japan are so close to each other, but still so many differences!

It is the chance for me to experience the japanese fast train - Shinkansen. From Tokyo to Sendai just need about 100 minutes, the highest speed can be 300km/h. Bought the tickets and contacted my cousin, she lived in Sendai with her family already for a long time, although I call her my cousin, we have the same family name - sun, it is more like real sisters. Tickets price is a little surprise to me, but it is ok since it is a good experience and I could see my cousin again after five years...

Got up early to catch the train, the Tokyo train station can be the most messy and crowded one in the world, but we were lucky since that day was Sunday, amazingly quiet... Wait for the train and try to figure out where we should go, everything seems fine without much communicate and understanding...

In the train, it was really quiet, mobile phones are not allowed to use and seems people are not talking either, while somehow I am not used to it, I am more used to crowded and noisy Chinese trains.:)

After exactly 100 minutes we arrived at Sendai station, my cousin said she will be there and I just tried to look for her. Everyone looked the same, that is the difficult thing in Asia, in Finland I could always easily find non white people because there were so little amount of them. Called and looked and finally found the face I  wish to see for a long time, she and her husband and her ten year old daughter, but I still think she does not look like a mother whom already has a ten year old daughter.:)

We chatted and laughed, it has been a little bit difficult for her husband and daughter to pick up the chat, since we mostly spoke in Chinese.( Sorry for that,  I will try to study and next time we can practice Japanese!) Lunch was great, then we went to Matsushima Bay (pine-clad islands) - One of the three views of Japan (Nihon sankei). Weather changed from rain to cloudy and not too cold, lovely! The pine tree islands one by one stand in the sea, great view! We also crossed the red bridge to one of them, if we came one month earlier we could see the sakura, so romantic!

We had great time together, but the sun was going down that showed us it was the time to get back.

I stayed with my cousin and her lovely husband and daughter for another two days, we chatted and laughed together, it was really a great time! And she bought me some cooking ingredients and I could  make  my favorite Okonomijaki  at  home. Isn't  it great!

I just visited Japan last week, a amazing and interesting place. First we were in Tokyo, after arrived the people assumed that I am Japanese and tried many times to speak japanese to me, but unfortunately my japanese is really poor. I just can smile and bow back.

We lived in Shinjuku, a busy area not far from Tokyo, it is one of the center of Tokyo city, since the metro and railway s are so advanced, you could reach to one place so easily. But the metro and railway map is really a confusing one, many different lines with different colors, difficult for me to figure out where to go. Another thing is to use the ticket machine, good it has English so we could just use it, since ask the conductor there is useless (we tried once, but he seemed not really understand English very much).

Busy and crowed big city, lights from the tall buildings shining all night.It looked like New York, just on the street walking most of them are Asian. First night we went to Shibuya and found a nice small restaurant, with pointing out the food on the menu, we had a pretty good dinner.

Second day we went to the Yasukuni-jinja (Jin guo shen she) where the japanese people warship lots of soldiers and some are war criminals. It looked so normal as other shrines in Japan, but absolutely the feeling is different. Chinese and Korean people against the prime minister of Japan to come to this shrine for many times. In the museum we  read about the war history of Japan, most of it showing that Japan is fight for good and justice, they did not mention much about Nanjing where they killed more than 300 thousands Chinese people. This shrine just like a government tool to fix their peoples' mind and to plant the seed that Japan is fighting for goodness and peace...

In the evening we met the lovely translating machine - an American who can speak fluently Japanese and lives in Japan for many years. He is funny, though he is speaking Japanese but his face move and body languages is so vivid, not like a Japanese.;)

We had fun together and enjoyed good food again. The next day will be traveling to Sendai to meet my cousin and her family.

(To be continued)