Weird & Wonderful!....

…pretty much sums up Japan. Here’s our thoughts on the things which struck us as being so different from home:-

* 99.999% of the population are Japanese for a start, ethnically diverse it is not! This is due to their very strict immigration rules - basically if you’re not Japanese its damn hard to stay here;

* And there are a lot of Japanese folk staying here already. We were told the main island (where most folk stay) is about the size of the UK but they have more than double the population - it’s crowded! For example, we spent 6 hours on the train one day from Fukuoka to Tokyo and we couldn’t tell where one city stopped and another started as it was basically a massive suburb all the way!!

* So this means they have very little in the way of countryside to enjoy (at least in the south) and the countryside we did find has been kind of forgotten about and dare I say it - it was a bit like travelling half way round the world to visit Invergordon‘s twin town!! (although we now do actually have to travel half way round the world to get back to Inverg!);

* The countryside may be a bit disappointing but cities are what the Japanese do best - there’s lots off them and they’re really fun. Each city is different in its own way and has weird and wonderful skyscrapers which really come to life and look their best at night;

* However, the cities are on the pricey side, so particularly when in Tokyo, we couldn’t afford to eat the really tasty food (with the exception of course of the Michelin Star restaurant at the Whisky Society), which left us with the feeling that while Japanese food on the whole looks really tasty and is generally prepared with lots of tlc - in 99% of cases it doesn’t taste like you have imagined it will! They don’t really sweeten their food so there’s a lot more ‘sour’ flavours than we’re used to, and nearly every dish comes with a soft runny egg on top?? ….. and the other thing you don’t realise is that there is virtually no fibre in the Japanese diet….let’s just say this causes it’s own problems when you have a stomach and digestion system used to the western diet!

* Like everything, the Japanese present their food looking perfect and they are perfectionists in every way! The Japanese attention to detail is amazing. And they have invented gadgets/and ways of life to solve ever little annoyance - one’s which we just have to live with. Why can’t we have:-

- sneaker laundries;
- warm digital toilet seats
- train seats that flip round so you never have to travel backwards and feel sick;
- pens that still write even when you’re not leaning on something flat;
- exercise which needs no more exertion than sitting in a bath;
- the luxury of being able to walk the streets in what is effectively a very nice dressing gown;

….I could go on….. if it annoys you, I’m pretty sure the Japanese have come up with something to sort it;

* All these things taken together have left us with the feeling that the Japanese culture is very much alive and well - not so much in terms of history or architecture but in it’s people! They are most definitely Japanese and very proud of the fact and we feel very lucky to have been able to spend some time in this fascinating country to glimpse it at first hand (and perhaps we’ve seen a little of what life might be like for the rest of us in the future - it really does feel like they are leading the world in a lot of ways)…….and talking of world powers…. on to China……