Monday, April 30, 2018
Tying it all up with a Sakura-hued Bow
When I first told friends we were travelling to Japan, among the responses was an interesting question "What do you hope to get out of that?" It was not a question I'd ever received about any of my travels before and it gave me pause.
What do we hope to get out of travel? Is it all just a selfish exercise, escaping real life and spending money to have a nice time? Adding to our carbon footprint these days is not to be ignored. Are we indulgent by thinking we can try to get under the skin of a country that we are only in for our pleasure for a few weeks, and will never live in or operate under its rules and governance? Are our observations and experiences of any value, to anyone, even ourselves? How can we really justify the time and expense when there are so many other avenues that would put both into good use?
I was still contemplating that question when we were flying high over the Pacific Ocean on our way back home from Tokyo. I looked out the window and saw puffy clouds, with the sun sliding down to the horizon and it struck me that me and my airplane mates, and every other person who has flown anywhere over the last 60 years or so, when tourism travel by air really became possible and affordable, has been able to see the world from a different vantage point than had anyone else for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, no one in history had seen the tops of clouds before the 20th century. No one had seen mountains or oceans from above, watched rivers move in their course, islands in their entirety.
I felt so lucky to be alive in a time that gave me the opportunity to witness the earth from above. And to feel what a monsoon feels like so when I read about them I can understand and empathize with those that deal with extreme rain. And to see what a tropical forest looks like, or a sand desert, or a stretch of permafrost, so that changes to these can be understood and responded to, if a response was necessary, from some form of activism to assistance.
When I read about the actions of a politician, or the choices of a company in a country I have spent time in, I can understand 'why' a little more, and thus add a bit more insight and hopefully intelligence to my conversations and actions. Having traveled means a connection with anyone I meet who is from that place, or who has also been there, which binds us as humans. My mind is opened with information that I see first hand, or learn from those who actually live it, and my questions can relate to other places, so that I can understand even more.
Facts seem to be under threat right now, and opinion seems less based on what is real and more on what others thinks we should think. No one seems keen to really get to the heart of an issue and take the time to read the facts about it, research the history of its reality, or seek out someone who actually knows from first-hand experience. All it takes to know how harmful and hurtful a thoughtless and incorrect answer is to ask someone in a foreign land where you can find a hospital or a safe place to stay. Travel means putting yourself in others' hands, to have trust that they know something you don't and will help you learn the truth. Having a good experience on the road makes you that much more thoughtful at home when a stranger asks you where food can be bought or a bus can be taken.
I look at those rules and habits of my country differently and more closely after I have been somewhere else. Sometimes I see my country more favourably - often I see my favourably, and that makes me grateful and appreciative. Occasionally I find something less than good about something I didn't used to question but now will, because it is handled so much better elsewhere. I look at my home and surroundings more critically, but only so that I try to live my best life, and thoughtfully, consciously. Sometimes it's a habit I change for the better, or a cause I support a little more, or perhaps another that isn't really worthy after seeing what other people in other parts of the world have to deal with on a daily basis.
As a baby boomer born in the latter part of that social epoch, and born in Canada to a healthy and loving family, I know I am one of the luckiest people who has ever walked the earth. I was favoured with life in a good climate, with food and education, with the encouragement and expectation that I would contribute to the world in pretty much whatever way I wanted. I could travel, I could marry who I wanted, I could work for someone else in a shop or for myself in a house. I could be a doctor or a plumber or a gardener or a writer.
With all that opportunity available, I have often felt it is my duty to do it all. To extend my talents, such as they are, and my time and energy into as many avenues as I can, just because I can. That not to do it is to ignore and somehow snub the millennia of people who have lived harsh lives of survival only. My set-backs are of such little consequence in comparison to those faced by others everywhere. My gains have moved me even further ahead of anything some people could never have hoped for in their wildest dreams. Lives are short, and to not live them to the fullest we are capable of is a waste of the gift we have been given for however long we have it. The world is small and fragile, but so full of different landscapes and ideas and peoples and histories that to know it all is impossible, but to experience as much as possible is to be a more developed person. My brain evolved to expand, my emotions evolved to encompass, my body evolved to move, and as long as I am able to make my way through the landscape of life and help without hurting, earn without oppressing, spend without appropriating, learn without assuming, I hope to make the path better for anyone with whom I come into contact, whether it's someone I meet once once and share a smile, or someone I spend my life with and offer my undiluted love and support.
What do we hope to get out of travel? Is it all just a selfish exercise, escaping real life and spending money to have a nice time? Adding to our carbon footprint these days is not to be ignored. Are we indulgent by thinking we can try to get under the skin of a country that we are only in for our pleasure for a few weeks, and will never live in or operate under its rules and governance? Are our observations and experiences of any value, to anyone, even ourselves? How can we really justify the time and expense when there are so many other avenues that would put both into good use?
I was still contemplating that question when we were flying high over the Pacific Ocean on our way back home from Tokyo. I looked out the window and saw puffy clouds, with the sun sliding down to the horizon and it struck me that me and my airplane mates, and every other person who has flown anywhere over the last 60 years or so, when tourism travel by air really became possible and affordable, has been able to see the world from a different vantage point than had anyone else for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, no one in history had seen the tops of clouds before the 20th century. No one had seen mountains or oceans from above, watched rivers move in their course, islands in their entirety.
I felt so lucky to be alive in a time that gave me the opportunity to witness the earth from above. And to feel what a monsoon feels like so when I read about them I can understand and empathize with those that deal with extreme rain. And to see what a tropical forest looks like, or a sand desert, or a stretch of permafrost, so that changes to these can be understood and responded to, if a response was necessary, from some form of activism to assistance.
When I read about the actions of a politician, or the choices of a company in a country I have spent time in, I can understand 'why' a little more, and thus add a bit more insight and hopefully intelligence to my conversations and actions. Having traveled means a connection with anyone I meet who is from that place, or who has also been there, which binds us as humans. My mind is opened with information that I see first hand, or learn from those who actually live it, and my questions can relate to other places, so that I can understand even more.
Facts seem to be under threat right now, and opinion seems less based on what is real and more on what others thinks we should think. No one seems keen to really get to the heart of an issue and take the time to read the facts about it, research the history of its reality, or seek out someone who actually knows from first-hand experience. All it takes to know how harmful and hurtful a thoughtless and incorrect answer is to ask someone in a foreign land where you can find a hospital or a safe place to stay. Travel means putting yourself in others' hands, to have trust that they know something you don't and will help you learn the truth. Having a good experience on the road makes you that much more thoughtful at home when a stranger asks you where food can be bought or a bus can be taken.
I look at those rules and habits of my country differently and more closely after I have been somewhere else. Sometimes I see my country more favourably - often I see my favourably, and that makes me grateful and appreciative. Occasionally I find something less than good about something I didn't used to question but now will, because it is handled so much better elsewhere. I look at my home and surroundings more critically, but only so that I try to live my best life, and thoughtfully, consciously. Sometimes it's a habit I change for the better, or a cause I support a little more, or perhaps another that isn't really worthy after seeing what other people in other parts of the world have to deal with on a daily basis.
As a baby boomer born in the latter part of that social epoch, and born in Canada to a healthy and loving family, I know I am one of the luckiest people who has ever walked the earth. I was favoured with life in a good climate, with food and education, with the encouragement and expectation that I would contribute to the world in pretty much whatever way I wanted. I could travel, I could marry who I wanted, I could work for someone else in a shop or for myself in a house. I could be a doctor or a plumber or a gardener or a writer.
With all that opportunity available, I have often felt it is my duty to do it all. To extend my talents, such as they are, and my time and energy into as many avenues as I can, just because I can. That not to do it is to ignore and somehow snub the millennia of people who have lived harsh lives of survival only. My set-backs are of such little consequence in comparison to those faced by others everywhere. My gains have moved me even further ahead of anything some people could never have hoped for in their wildest dreams. Lives are short, and to not live them to the fullest we are capable of is a waste of the gift we have been given for however long we have it. The world is small and fragile, but so full of different landscapes and ideas and peoples and histories that to know it all is impossible, but to experience as much as possible is to be a more developed person. My brain evolved to expand, my emotions evolved to encompass, my body evolved to move, and as long as I am able to make my way through the landscape of life and help without hurting, earn without oppressing, spend without appropriating, learn without assuming, I hope to make the path better for anyone with whom I come into contact, whether it's someone I meet once once and share a smile, or someone I spend my life with and offer my undiluted love and support.
my small piece of Japan
It's been harder to get under the skin of Japan than it has been of some other countries. It is a formal country, with many elements kept tucked away from strangers, and even compatriots.
One bows with respect, but doesn't touch. This makes for a hierarchical framework of society. The plus of this is a reverence for age and experience. But it also means that young voices are not always listened to. At work, young people are expected to follow and so don't learn to lead.
Experiencing shame is pretty much the worst thing a Japanese person can experience. It is not uncommon for a mistake at work or a bankruptcy to result in suicide rather than live with the results.
Girls and boys date late, and without any discussion or experiences with feelings, so they fall in love and marry within weeks. This results in a lot of marriages that are either short or containing two separate lives and not a lot of real happiness.
Japan is also full of contradictions that are hard to figure out. Mothers are revered, and are quiet and gentle with their children, who can be quite clingy. But children taking the bus or train on their own to school is common. Life is lived in sober seriousness at work and school, but in the evenings there is much drunkenness and shouting, as if an adolescent is let out of an adult body after the sun sets. Work is so all consuming that time off is a day or two of full-on activity someplace away. Day trips are common, with every minute accounted for, souvenirs purchased, new clothing worn, and experiences paid for, complete with 8,000 photos.
Nature is revered and yet every leaf is picked up. Covered shopping arcades are in every town to encourage mass movement regardless of the weather and enormous enclosed pachinko halls (a cross between pinball, slot machines and video games) are filled with individuals in their own overlit, incredibly noisy world. There is no immigration - Japan is very exclusionary, and yet there are very few Japanese flags seen anywhere except on the rare government building. Japanese people seem to care a lot about what other people think, and yet whale is still hunted for fine dining, and plastic encases everything. Male and Female roles are distinct - it is still very much a male-oriented society, and yet the most popular celebrities are androgynous in appearance. Smoking is unlawful on many parts of town, and there are tiny sad little smoking rooms on train platforms, and yet there are still a lot of smokers. The Japanese don't seem to invent, but they are incredible innovators - they can take an idea, such as a steam train build by some other country, and turn it into an electronic future in only a few decades while other countries are still on diesel. Squatter toilets are preferred by many and the sitters have all these amazing sensors and attributes. Most meals include chicken or pork or beef and yet I did not see one farm animal in 5 weeks of travel. Every station on the main island has its own fake bird song over loudspeakers. Dairy is not part of the ethnic heritage but coffee is always served with the thickest cream. There is very little solar power but Japan is the master of water irrigation. There is wood everywhere, but picnic tables and railings are made of concrete, to look like wood.
In Japan, the most common music heard is jazz. Road vehicles are parked with incredible skill. Crows sound like humans. Everything is on time. Monopoly companies are common. Not every inch of land is cultivated. But every inch of cultivated land is filled. Forests include flowering vines and trees, even if no one sees them. Design shapes everything, and there are photographic images just waiting to be photographed:
One bows with respect, but doesn't touch. This makes for a hierarchical framework of society. The plus of this is a reverence for age and experience. But it also means that young voices are not always listened to. At work, young people are expected to follow and so don't learn to lead.
Experiencing shame is pretty much the worst thing a Japanese person can experience. It is not uncommon for a mistake at work or a bankruptcy to result in suicide rather than live with the results.
Girls and boys date late, and without any discussion or experiences with feelings, so they fall in love and marry within weeks. This results in a lot of marriages that are either short or containing two separate lives and not a lot of real happiness.
Japan is also full of contradictions that are hard to figure out. Mothers are revered, and are quiet and gentle with their children, who can be quite clingy. But children taking the bus or train on their own to school is common. Life is lived in sober seriousness at work and school, but in the evenings there is much drunkenness and shouting, as if an adolescent is let out of an adult body after the sun sets. Work is so all consuming that time off is a day or two of full-on activity someplace away. Day trips are common, with every minute accounted for, souvenirs purchased, new clothing worn, and experiences paid for, complete with 8,000 photos.
Nature is revered and yet every leaf is picked up. Covered shopping arcades are in every town to encourage mass movement regardless of the weather and enormous enclosed pachinko halls (a cross between pinball, slot machines and video games) are filled with individuals in their own overlit, incredibly noisy world. There is no immigration - Japan is very exclusionary, and yet there are very few Japanese flags seen anywhere except on the rare government building. Japanese people seem to care a lot about what other people think, and yet whale is still hunted for fine dining, and plastic encases everything. Male and Female roles are distinct - it is still very much a male-oriented society, and yet the most popular celebrities are androgynous in appearance. Smoking is unlawful on many parts of town, and there are tiny sad little smoking rooms on train platforms, and yet there are still a lot of smokers. The Japanese don't seem to invent, but they are incredible innovators - they can take an idea, such as a steam train build by some other country, and turn it into an electronic future in only a few decades while other countries are still on diesel. Squatter toilets are preferred by many and the sitters have all these amazing sensors and attributes. Most meals include chicken or pork or beef and yet I did not see one farm animal in 5 weeks of travel. Every station on the main island has its own fake bird song over loudspeakers. Dairy is not part of the ethnic heritage but coffee is always served with the thickest cream. There is very little solar power but Japan is the master of water irrigation. There is wood everywhere, but picnic tables and railings are made of concrete, to look like wood.
In Japan, the most common music heard is jazz. Road vehicles are parked with incredible skill. Crows sound like humans. Everything is on time. Monopoly companies are common. Not every inch of land is cultivated. But every inch of cultivated land is filled. Forests include flowering vines and trees, even if no one sees them. Design shapes everything, and there are photographic images just waiting to be photographed:
Saturday, April 28, 2018
the Sakura Theme lives on
Back in our Tokyo Park Hotel, we were thrilled to find that we were placed in the Sakura Room as hoped for but not expected as it is perhaps the hotel's most popular room on the Artists' floor.
Designed and painted by Hiroko Hitake, it is huge cherry tree whose blossoms fall as fluttering butterflies that turn golden on the midnight blue walls and ceiling, becoming more realistically butterflies as they 'land' on outer walls.
Ms Hitake's premise is that the Japanese people see all the world as transient, us humans most of all, and the short, beautiful season of the cherry blossom is a manifestation of that, just as the short life of a butterfly. There is beauty in this transience, and we both relish and weep for it as it passes in the four seasons of the year, and the lifetime of a person. Not a bad sentiment to end a trip and start home life again.
Designed and painted by Hiroko Hitake, it is huge cherry tree whose blossoms fall as fluttering butterflies that turn golden on the midnight blue walls and ceiling, becoming more realistically butterflies as they 'land' on outer walls.
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| our night view |
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| our day view |
Ms Hitake's premise is that the Japanese people see all the world as transient, us humans most of all, and the short, beautiful season of the cherry blossom is a manifestation of that, just as the short life of a butterfly. There is beauty in this transience, and we both relish and weep for it as it passes in the four seasons of the year, and the lifetime of a person. Not a bad sentiment to end a trip and start home life again.
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| twixt day and night |
Thursday, April 26, 2018
the PC Life
Only in this context, PC does not stand for Politically Correct, but Pink and Cute.
Japan loves cute. Cute girls, cute boys, puppies, kittens, fluffy bunnies, big-eyed animations, high squeaky voices, giggles, curls, smiley stickers, small things individually wrapped, logos, buttons, do-dads, souvenirs, glitter, dangly things, shiny things, rings and buzzers, bird chirps, catchy tunes, lace collars, buckles, bows, ribbons, badges, stamps, things that are pink or mauve, short steps, singing grannies, miniature items, flowers, deer, robots, eye lashes, things that make you go 'awwww'.
and Pink. That could be one contributing factor to the popularity of cherry blossom season, but if anything can be made pink it gets noticed, photographed, bought, worn, eaten or played with.
Japan loves cute. Cute girls, cute boys, puppies, kittens, fluffy bunnies, big-eyed animations, high squeaky voices, giggles, curls, smiley stickers, small things individually wrapped, logos, buttons, do-dads, souvenirs, glitter, dangly things, shiny things, rings and buzzers, bird chirps, catchy tunes, lace collars, buckles, bows, ribbons, badges, stamps, things that are pink or mauve, short steps, singing grannies, miniature items, flowers, deer, robots, eye lashes, things that make you go 'awwww'.
and Pink. That could be one contributing factor to the popularity of cherry blossom season, but if anything can be made pink it gets noticed, photographed, bought, worn, eaten or played with.
A society so formal that goes ga-ga over a pink toy kitten is definitely not being its authentic self - there is something underneath the armour of polite reserve that hankers after slobbering over the most banal item.
What's interesting is also uncovering overtly sinister, scary images, but that are placed in humourous or unthreatening situations so that they are more comical than fearful.
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| leg of a huge clock |
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| Iya Valley creature |
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| Godzilla - 1 foot tall |
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| a guard dog waging its tail so hard it looks like he has 5 of them! |
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| two samurais guardians... |
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| in front of every temple gate |
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| a dragon made of 5 yen coins |
A psychologist would have a field day trying to analyze Japan. But maybe it's best just to let it be, and enjoy the contradiction.
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| typical backpack |
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| pink food in pink boxes |
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| even pink beer |
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| swan boats for fishermen |
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| miniature food |
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| ubiquitous "hello kitty" |
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| anime girls |
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| I don't know what they are, but they are small and pink so they must be good |
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| how to make a hard boiled egg nonthreatening |
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| tater tot bunnies |
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| cute ninjas |
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| cute pilgrim (with cute sidekick) |
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| candy floss |
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| police barriers |
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| street cat being fed |
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| food tastes cuter on these plates |
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| yes, this is the engine of the fastest train in the world |
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| 'nuff said |
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