Japan, A-Z

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    SITES, SIGHTS swirl in some explosion of colours, searing the mind, satiating the senses, uplifting the soul. In one      brief, all too brief, sojourn around Tokyo and Kyoto, we had it all. Unorganized, at whim, with the fancy of  the  moment as only guide, the wife and I took  on Japan’s foremost cities.

    And, as randomly now, I write about the  experience. With only the  alphabet serving as some sort of guidepost. Arashiyama. The fabled bamboo forest in the utskirts of Kyoto. It’s a wonder what’s in it that draws waves upon waves of mostly  local tourists. Maybe, it’s the soothing, calming lullaby of the bamboos, as in lawiswis kawayan of the Filipino song, that engenders peace of  mind. 

    A is also Akihabara, the gadget capital ofokyo, if not of all Japan where a wide, wide  avenue gets closed  every Sunday just to accommodate the hordes of techies that swoop down the place. And all I managed to buy was a  mood filter for my camera.  Bow.

    The ultimate expression of respect, so innate in the Japanese character. Cosplay.  It’s the young Pinoy generation’s current top-of-mind vision of Japan. But it’s not that widespread as thought of, at  least in theareas we went to. The only cosplayers – in short, short skirts of the Sailor Moon anime –  we met were five  girls doing promo for a mobile shop in Akihabara.

    Cebu Pacific Air. Feather-touch landing on the dot at Narita International. As best as any  Juan can ever fly. No, this is no freebie from CebPac, the wife paid for our tickets, at  full price.

    It’s just giving the airline its due. oncieria Tower West. Courtesy of our  son, our cozy home in Tokyo, on  hilly ground of skyscrapers and forested parks. Daibutsu.

    The giant Buddha at Kamakura.Its antiquity – crafted in the  1200s – showed  in the patina of its bronze, its contemplativeserenity inspiring generations upon generations  seekers to take the path to enlightenment. 

    Environment. Blue – for the sea, and green  for the fields and mountains,  are the first  colours that greet the traveller to Japan coming  from the air. The green amid a profusion of ellow, bright and burnt orange, and red in autumn. Forested areas are as common in the rural communities as in the big cities. 

    Garbage  is virtually nil. The streets, the trains and the buses have a most pleasant aroma. Bus drivers are in shirt and  tie, taxi drivers in full suit. Both ear white gloves. Talk of clean and green – Japan perfectly fits the bill. uji. Caught  light sight of it from the viewing deck at the 45th floor of the twin-towered  Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku.

    The mountain that symbolizes  apan totally shied away from view, engulfed in cumulonimbus  clouds that rainy Tuesday we set for Lake Kawaguchiko, reputed to be the best vantage point to view it. Could it be  that we were not pure of heart, as the myth holds for those deprived of sighting the more perfectconed Mayon at their  first try? Ginza. Glorious decadence defined in Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Mikimoto, Hermes and their elitist kind. Ginkaku-ji. Kyoto’s “other” temple – the silver one – to Kinkaku-ji, the golden pavilion, but made no less spectacular by  he vivid colors of its autumn foliage. Geishas.

    I hoped to see – and found, but only in the memoirs of one written  by Arthur  olden. Hachiko. Monument to dogged loyalty, to canine faithfulness stands right outside the Shibuya station,  ow as much a meeting place as the spot for renewing relationships which makes the essence of every   meeting. Hygiene. Spanking clean is the country, be it in its rural areas or cosmopolitan centers.

    Bathing is a ritual in  Japan. Answering nature’s call a most pleasing, literally cleansing experience – what with warm toilet seats and choices of spray and bidet of warm water to wash with, complete with warm air to dry and canned music, all at the  touch of a finger. Irashaimase. Japanese for welcome and visitors feel the sincerest and warmest meaning of the  word.  Japan Rail (JR) Pass.

     Something the apanese and permanent residents of the country can only dream of. So  says its website, as the pass is exclusive to tourists and temporary visitors. We ordered and paid – in the web – for a  seven-day pass at Y29,000 per head. Once in Tokyo, we presented acknowledgement receipts at the JR stall in  Shinjuku station and were issued the pass. It’s all free access thereafter in all areas served by Japan Rail and its  subsidiary/partner lines, including its bus lines.

    Why, a Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip by shinkansen or the bullet train nearly  costs – at Y28,000+ — as much as what we paid or our JR pass. With our constant movement from one site to  another, we got easily over 200 percent of the value of the JR pass.Kyoto. The old capital, the very soul of Japan, with  ts ancient temples and shrines that have withstood the test of time, that have, indeed, triumphed over the  devastations of war.

    Most majestic is Kinkaku-ji – the temple of the golden pavilion amid a small man-made lake, inspiring awe since its dedication in the year 1397 and its restoration after it was gutted by fire in 1950. The ashes of  the Buddha are said to be housed there. Kimono.

     In Kyoto too where the traditional attire for Japanese women is still  an everyday wear. Not so much in Tokyo now where the attire du jour is the black Western style dress. Layering. The best way to dress in autumn in Japan. Three layers – thermal undershirt, cotton sweater or Henley, and padded jacket   to fight the cold outside, and easily peeled one layer at a time inside the heated trains, buses and buildings.

     Missed. Things Japanese we missed in  this trip, aside from Mount Fuji and geishas: Godzilla, Kobe or Matsusaka      beef, the Imperial Palace, museums, Nara and Nikko, Osaka too. Enough reason to come back in springtime. Narita.   Not as “modernistic” as Hong Kong’sChek Lap Kok or Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi, nor  s instantly impressive as  Singapore’s Changi, Tokyo’s international airport is as time-andmotion efficient, and elderly- and PWD-friendly.

    Nothing is lost in translation at Narita, be it in the signages or at the information booths. No international airport in the  world, at least those I’ve passed through in USA, Europe, Asia and the Middle East can come close to Narita when  it comes to the toilets. No tipping. Giving tips is a no-no in Japan. So we were told. So the Scrooge in us is most happy. Okonomiyaki. A variation of the Filipino binalot meal – rice and viand wrapped in banana leaves – of tuna or salmon in  ayonnaise as filling of malagkit rice wrapped in nori. It comes in a triangular shape.

    Onitsuka Tiger. Bruce Lee’s  iconic yellow rubber shoes, reprised by Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill series. Must haves. Precision. Punctuality.  Politeness. A 24/7 experience in Japan are the definitive values of its people. On time, always on time – be it with  trains and buses, or with the Japanese, as much at work as at play. Subdued voices, toned  down mobiles — so as not  o inconvenience anyone near is an unspoken rule here.

     Queues. You line up for everything, and anything. No  one rushes ahead in a line. At escalators, you take the left side, the right side  given to those who’d rather walk up. Ramen. Lost count of the number of variants of the broth-noodles-toppings dish. It mattered not, all we tasted here  were ambrosiac. The palate will have a hard time now readjusting to the taste of ramen at the malls. Shinkansen.

    An  experience, thrilling at that, of its own is the bullet train. We took the Hikari  train on the Tokyo-Kyoto route – all of 513+ kilometres – in 2.5 hours. That’s even farther than Manila to Laoag. We can only dream. Shinjukugyoen. The  first park we visited, a25-minute walk from my son’s place. Our first  real exposure to the wonders of autumn, thewife  could not help rhapsodizing “…the autumn leaves are turning to the color of his (mine) hair.” Sashimi. Sushi. The    more you eat, the more you crave for them.

    Tea. The most common beverage in Japan  that is readily given at any  restaurant. You have to ask for water. But not for tea. It is there placed before you once you get seated. Tea  serving  has a ritual of its own. There’s one more in my Missed List. Takao Kanko Hotel.

    Off the beaten tourist traps of   yoto, nestled in some mountainous  area is this boutique hotel that offer a bit of everything and anything of the   Japanese  lifestyle one perceives of: tatami rooms, public bath, kimono robes, a meandering stream by its  side, a red  arc bridge, 300+ stone steps leading to an old temple. And the most polite hotel staff. 

    All at the cost of Y36,400  overnight, dinner and breakfast covered. As thrilling, if spartan, is an earlier stay in a Kyoto traditional house – small  tatami  room with wood screens, common bath andtoilet, a pocket garden, and a walk across a  convenience store.

    A backpacker’s delight is this airbnb find. Umbrella. A must in the autumn season with its unpredictable drizzles. The  clear, plastic ones, the cheapest – and therefore, the most in number. Colorful folding umbrellas on the other hand are  ne of the top souvenir items from Japan. 

    Values. You can never run out of words tospeak of the values and  virtues of the Japanese that have taken them from the ravages of the  past to the excellence of their present. So,the  country is supposed to be in recession now, blamed on the “Abe-nomics” of its prime minister. So are the Japanese  out in the streets – not to rant against their government but on the way to work.  Work ethic. Inspiring, as well as frightening. It makes one think the Japanese live to work, rather than work to live.

    Meeting a surge of the so-called  salaried men and women on their way to work early morning with uniform clothes – invariably black suits, and uniform  faces – serious, unsmiling, determined, I thought of robotics already infused in the human genes. Automation is a  Japanese invention that seemed to have turned as invasion of the  apanese. My son had a ready answer on this:

    Life is compartmentalized here, as w k is work, so is play, play. No twain meeting there. Wasabi. Sushi and sashimi won’t taste so divine with merely Kikkoman without the “nuclear horseradish” that is now an ice cream flavor too. Wow! Xenophobia. So we learned in school, ancient Japan had this fear or hatred of foreigners and foreign influences, as  sampled in the expulsion of the Jesuits and the martyrdom of foreign religious workers – including the Filipino Lorenzo  uiz – in the 17th century. Indeed, gaijin, the Japanese word for foreigner, is said to be a racial epithet with  sinister underpinnings.

     All proving to be unfounded biases now. It’s xenophilia that’s trending in Japan. Proof of this  is the lifting of visa requirements in a number of countries, the relaxation of the same for Filipinos. Yen. As much for the   currency as for thaturge, that desire, that enthusiasm to take in as much as one can of Japan. Yeah, strike out  that visa hurdle for us Pinoys. Yotsuya.

    Five stations away from Nissi- Shinjuku where we found St. Ignatius Church at  ofia University for Sunday Mass and found ourselves in tears at the singing of Kordero ng Diyos by a choir of  Filipinos, Japanese, and Latinos. And where Filipinos congregate, can pansit, bopis, tocino, kare-kare, outo, cochinta and all other delights be far behind? Zen. The way of Japan. No explanation necessary. Just be. And be there. 

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