I am sooo excited to take off to Japan on Sunday, first time in my life. And to whomever I have spoken, everybody said how different everything was from anything a Westerner has ever seen before.
The season is said to be one of the most beautiful in the year as the cherry trees are about to blossom. An event which is very important to the Japanese and an event where the weathermen in the country can prove their skills to the T with forecasting the exact period. Yet, this year, they screwed up badly quoting a computer bug, as the BBC reports. A mid-size scandal for the precision-obessed country. And the way to apologize is to bow, and the bow on TV must have been really, really deeeeeeeeeeep :-)
Feeds
Mushi mushi!
The last time I was in Tokyo was 2003. I just missed the cherry blossoms then!
I love Tokyo. Not the gigantic brick city but the intricacy of the traditional Japanese life which survives it.
I remember going for a long dinner (Japanese have longgggg dinner) with CTO and CEO of the company I was working with then, we all had to remove our shoes (it was a posh restaurant) and crawl (the ceiling was so low) to the table. It was quite funny (I was in a skirt)! So remember don’t wear socks which are dirty or with holes!
The food in Japan is amazing! Here in the west, people think they are advanced if they eat sushi. There, you’d be introduced to so many lovelier dishes. Sushi is only a small course at the end of the meal!
The food at the supermarket are just wonderful! They make them look so colourful and quaint. It is almost unedible, they are just too pretty! the amount of patience and love which goes into it…mind-boggling!
Yeah, drink a lot of Sho-chun (cold with lemon and warm with sour plum). They are yummier than sake!
I love the ‘respect’ (it is so up your alley) thing which goes on there. People would bow at metro stations! And the loud ‘masei masei’ you hear everytime you enter a shop/restaurant etc…
i was taken to one really wonderful (exquisite) restaurant where the PM of Japan took Bush. Will dig for the name and mail it to you if I can still find it.
I remember a romantic place in Shibuya train station where lovers meet at a statue of a dog. The story is so sweet. About a dog, who waited for his master to return from work everyday at Shibuya and one day he never returned…The dog waited and waited…and waited…
I also went to a temple in Tokyo. It was so serene. I left a note on a tree, wishing for a baby!
Chris and I promised to go for the cherry blossom (he had been there when they bloomed!) and we are going to send Milla for a cultural exchange programme to Japan.
I heart Japan. Wished I had learned the language.
Have you read any Murakami? You’d love it more once you’ve been to Japan…
ENJOY! Sayonara!