At mid point of my journey to Japan
Well, I've now been in Japan for nearly 20 days now and I have to say its been a really interesting experience.
Its feels a bit weird traveling in Japan, a very industrial nation, after traveling in Africa, but its a good experience nonetheless.
Since I don't have much time, I'll just give a taste of some of my impressions here and I'll elaborate further when I get back.
There are lots of interesting things about Japan;
The train system here is wonderful, I wish we had one like it in Canada, it is very comfortable, fast and efficient.
I'm amazed by some of the miniature cars that drive on the streets, some of them look like almost toys; they have miniature trucks, mini-vans and some of the smallest cars I've seen - even smaller than the 'Smart' cars.
There are lots of inefficiencies here, lots of people standing around being pretty and on occasion point somewhere or something -- and that is basically their job :)
The food here is amazing; some of the interesting, and new for me, dishes that I've had here are takoyaki, okonomiyaki, udon, onigiri, etc.
Lots of towns/cities here have a castle, many of which were rebuild after they were destroyed in the various wars.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum is amazing and very emotional; I will write a whole post on this. But it covers the destruction of the city by the atomic bomb, how and why it was built, why Japan was selected as the target, various information about the city before/after the bombing, photographs and recovered artifacts from the bombing.
People are crazy for Manga (comics) here, you can see them in convenience stores, book stores, libraries, etc ... I've even visited a library dedicated only to Manga.
The building architecture is nice here, and there are lots of lights at night in the modern cities w/ advertisements, etc ... very busy w/ lots of stuff going on.
For the most part, the Japanese don't speak English here ... so, I've been relying on my brother and some sign language to get around. However, they are very helpful and sometimes go out of their way to help you.
I have met up with Mike, a friend, who is working on the JET program; teaching English here.
Its been raining a lot here, but I guess this is to be expected during the rainy season.
Thus far we've covered much of Japan from North to South. One thing that I still really want to see here is the World Expo, going on at the moment, somewhere near Nagoya ... from what I'm told there is some amazing new futuristic technology being displayed there (eg. Toyota's dancing robot, a robot playing guitar, etc). Many countries are presenting there as well, including Canada and Japan.
Finally, it is my b-day today! 8)
Tags
Japan experience Travel impressions
tripHiroshimacars
trainmanga
Its feels a bit weird traveling in Japan, a very industrial nation, after traveling in Africa, but its a good experience nonetheless.
Since I don't have much time, I'll just give a taste of some of my impressions here and I'll elaborate further when I get back.
There are lots of interesting things about Japan;
The train system here is wonderful, I wish we had one like it in Canada, it is very comfortable, fast and efficient.
I'm amazed by some of the miniature cars that drive on the streets, some of them look like almost toys; they have miniature trucks, mini-vans and some of the smallest cars I've seen - even smaller than the 'Smart' cars.
There are lots of inefficiencies here, lots of people standing around being pretty and on occasion point somewhere or something -- and that is basically their job :)
The food here is amazing; some of the interesting, and new for me, dishes that I've had here are takoyaki, okonomiyaki, udon, onigiri, etc.
Lots of towns/cities here have a castle, many of which were rebuild after they were destroyed in the various wars.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum is amazing and very emotional; I will write a whole post on this. But it covers the destruction of the city by the atomic bomb, how and why it was built, why Japan was selected as the target, various information about the city before/after the bombing, photographs and recovered artifacts from the bombing.
People are crazy for Manga (comics) here, you can see them in convenience stores, book stores, libraries, etc ... I've even visited a library dedicated only to Manga.
The building architecture is nice here, and there are lots of lights at night in the modern cities w/ advertisements, etc ... very busy w/ lots of stuff going on.
For the most part, the Japanese don't speak English here ... so, I've been relying on my brother and some sign language to get around. However, they are very helpful and sometimes go out of their way to help you.
I have met up with Mike, a friend, who is working on the JET program; teaching English here.
Its been raining a lot here, but I guess this is to be expected during the rainy season.
Thus far we've covered much of Japan from North to South. One thing that I still really want to see here is the World Expo, going on at the moment, somewhere near Nagoya ... from what I'm told there is some amazing new futuristic technology being displayed there (eg. Toyota's dancing robot, a robot playing guitar, etc). Many countries are presenting there as well, including Canada and Japan.
Finally, it is my b-day today! 8)
Tags
Japan experience Travel impressions
tripHiroshimacars
trainmanga
posted by Alex Pilchin at 11:31 PM
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