The Good Things about Japan

It was a very exciting time to be in Japan, as the country was in a state of constant change. It will be interesting to see if and how Japan copes with the economic enigmas it may face in the next few years, following in the footsteps of the West. The following are some of the things I have liked about Japan.

• Some of the most generous people in the world. Some of the kindest people I have ever met have been Japanese. (In what other country in the world would people take a complete stranger by the hand when you are lost in the middle of a city - Tokyo excepted - and lead you to the place you are seeking?)
• It's extremely clean.
• It's relatively safe (though this is truer for men than for women).
• The countryside is very beautiful.
• If you look between the modern concrete blocks to find the old architecture, it's very beautiful. There is a unique magic about sipping green tea in the early morning as the mist hangs over the bamboo garden of the temple, or about walking between the paper lanterns, breathing in the scents of green tea, sake and wood-smoke to visit the shrine on New Year's Eve.
• The service, even in gas stations or convenience stores, is almost always courteous and unhurried.
• Many people in Japan work extremely long hours in not altogether pleasant conditions and will go out of their way to help their customers.
• The trains run on time. Coming from another island country where the former national railway company is a national joke, it's quite a revelation to me that a train company can get all the trains to run on time every day except in circumstances such as a blizzard. By blizzard, I mean blizzard, not the few flakes of snow that serve as an excuse for the company formerly known as British Rail...
• If you buy an electrical appliance, it is almost always tied in a way that makes it easy to use the cute little handle you're given (without having to ask) to carry it to the car.
• The Japanese make beautiful pottery and lacquerware.
• The Japanese are capable of innovating some of the most fun electronic gadgets in the world.
• You can buy hot cans of coffee, tea or other drinks as well as cold cans at drinks vending machines. Not only that, but the vending machines don't get vandalised.
• Kimonos.
• The excellent postal service, which is not only first rate, but costs less than the equivalent service in the UK.
• Onsens (public spas, often with sauna rooms and outdoor pools).
• The annual festivals. Besides end-of-year parties (bonenkai), beginning-of-year parties (shinenkai), cherry blossom viewing parties, transfer season parties, 'turn-of-the-autumn-leaves' viewing parties, each village, town or city has at least one huge festival each year. These are incredible fun to watch and/or take part in.
• Tabehodai, nomihodai, norihodai, telehodai... Hodai means 'as much as you can' and here means 'as much as you can eat/drink/ride [on trains, usually]/telephone [useful for Internet access]'. These 'hodais' usually have strict time or date limits, but are one of the best things about Japan.
• Tempura. Yakitori (grilled chicken kebabs). Curry rice. Katsu kare (curried pork cutlet). Yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles). Green tea. Wonderful snack foods like ham and cheese or lasagne filled pizzas/fajitas. Coffee shops.
• Karaoke boxes. This way, if you have a terrible voice, you offend only your friends. Who will probably still love you anyway. *L*
• The taxis, which are clean and whose drivers not only wear neat white gloves and cute peaked hats, but they will never, ever, cheat you or make you feel unwelcome. (Which is more than I can say for UK taxi drivers....!)
• Football (US=soccer) is not the national sport. (You would really have to be a female living in Newcastle to appreciate how wonderful it is that all men do not treat this sport as a religion...) *L*
• With the exception of staring, queue jumping, and occasional deliberate getting in the way, Japanese people are generally very polite to Caucasian foreigners. I cannot comment on their reactions to black Americans or to those with a South East Asian heritage.
• It's beginning to change...

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