| I arrived in Japan in early December, and Tokyo's Christmas celebration
was already in full swing. Street decorations, window displays, music
on public loudspeakers, and St. Nick everywhere...
Christmas? Japan is overwhelmingly Buddhist. What's the deal? Did 18th century European evangelism have such an effect on Nippon? No, there's nothing religious implied or intended here. This pragmatic and objective culture readily recognizes what Christmas is all about... ...commerce. |
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The Japanese people have a reverence for the English language. No, really. But they go ahead and mangle it anyway in beautiful ways. Semantics, grammar, or spelling do not matter--it's English. |
Date Sun, 13 Dec 1998 20:28:07 -0800: Funny experiences here in Japan. Two nights ago I arrived in Kobe on the night before a large festival (which I did not know about) and hotel accommodations were very scarce. So I stayed in one of those "capsules" that you may have heard about! The only redeeming part of it was that the hotel also has a sauna/spa so I took advantage.
| Ariel & I visited Tokyo Big Sight (it's a big site of a convention center on the harbor), where we encountered a couple thousand of these fashionable young women milling around. This one is a classic example of outfitting, including the mandatory keitai (cell phone) glued to the ear. But it's the drag-queen shoes that start it all off. |  |
I was in Japan a total of 17 days. Seven of those days I had a JR (JapanRail) Railpass. This is such an amazing bargain for the traveller, you would be nuts not to buy one before you go to Japan. As all such rail passes go, you must buy it outside the country of travel. I rode much of Honshu's Shinkansen (bullet train), both north and south of Tokyo. The side route destinations, reached only by regional rail and bus, should not be overlooked. |
(Top image: Monastery gateway at Miyajima Island, one of the "three nicest spots in Japan.")
| Japan 1 | Japan 2 | Korea | Hong Kong | Macau |
| Thailand 1 | Thailand 2 | Thailand 3 | Thailand 4 | Thailand 5 |
| Nepal 1 | Nepal 2 | Nepal 3 | Nepal 4 | Nepal 5 |
© Dan Goldfarb 1999-2000