my japan impressions

8/12/2019 My Japan Impressions

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My Japan Impressions _ July 2009

Train Travel in Japan

Train transportation in Japan is like in any other western country: dependable. Unlike

in India the system is well maintained, the stations clean and the trains run on time say, as it is in any developed and advanced country.

A typical station in the suburban section of Japan, near

Osaka is shown on the left. One station is like any other

one, say as in any city of Europe or UK. You will notice

that the stations are

well lit and the

displays helpful to

commuters. In many

places even thoughJapanese language signs dominate, English is now

seen quite prominently and hence a foreigner need

not feel lost. But asking for help for directions, may

not solicit much response as there are very few

English speaking natives.

Blind persons can use the stations with no

difficulty. As you would have noticed there

are paths with special tile markings. The

horizontal etched marking lines show the

straight path. Whenever there is a change

of direction or height is encountered the

engraving changes to bubble (round)

impressions to help the visually impaired

climb stairs, or turn around.

Japan has a very wide and complicated

network of trains: The Shinkansen (the bullet train) connecting main Cities, over

ground trains between stations and also the Subway trains (tubes) within the city.


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It is a pleasure and convenient to travel in Shinkansen they run at over 250-300

kms per hour and we could cover the

distance of 400Kms from Osaka to Tokyo in

three hours. A little faster than a present

day European train running between sayMilan (Italy) and Frankfurt (Germany). But

the Japanese had a significant head-start to

the race of train speed. The Shinkansen

started in 1964! TGV the fastest European

train (French), comparable to Shinkansen

started at least twenty years later.

Indians (like other foreigners) will benefit by carrying the JR (Japan Rail) passes

which are easily available with many Travel Agents in India. These are economical

and easy for travel within Japan. Otherwise the tickets can be expensive. A oneweek JR pass cost me Rs 15K. The amount of travel I did in one week travelling the

country south of Tokyo - around 200Kms/day, would have cost me no less than Rs

50K (JPY 100K), had I bought the ticket from the counter every time. The JR pass

will save packing and unpacking in various hotels and laundry costs.

Stations are easily recognisable by the JR sign board as in Europe and elsewhere.

One has to travel by JR to know the

comfort levels. Even the window has an

arm rest! The stations are very clean. Andthe seats are comfortable. The passengers

even queue up at the entrance for

boarding. This is unusual in any suburban

situation. They go to unusual lengths to be

courteous to each other. Even in Europe,

there is a mad scramble for entry into the

carriage.

As in case of many European countriescycling is popular because of the

community awareness of need for eco-

friendliness. And JR helps people to be

eco-friendly. The stations are so well

connected that most homes are never

more than 2-3kms from a nearest

station. This encourages people to park

their bicycles near the station and travel

to work or shop.


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Japanese pride on their punctuality and

schedules. In the unforeseen

circumstance of any train delay it is

announced in advance and the reason forthe delay is also displayed prominently!

However such instances are rare.

Londoners would find it useful to know that all

sub way trains in Japan have hat racks, where as

in London only the main line trains have. LondonTube is especially guilty of this slip-up. It is so

common in Mumbai and elsewhere that people in

a hurry tend to forget things on the rack. But on

JR you can safely forget your cash box and

retrieve later!

No impressive Architectural buildings

The country is bereft of any architecture of significance (heritage buildings!) at

least to the extent I have seen while travelling across five cities Osaka, Tokyo,Nagoya, Hiroshima and Himeji. In small towns like Miyoshi one does come across a

house or a mansion made in the medieval Japanese style. Thats about it. Even our

Banjara Hills in Hyderabad have some excellent houses. Towns like Vadodra and

Ahmedabad in India boast some extremely imposing architectural abodes. Japanese

will probably give an excuse on the vulnerability of their houses to frequent earth

quakes for such an aberration. But the last earth quake was in 1975!

Thus any significant architectural symbol is

conspicuous by its absence. All stations look

alike, as rectangular steel and concrete

structures. Compared to this even our Nampally

station (Hyderabad) looks majestic. However

some corrections are being made, as the

adjoining photograph of Tokyo station under

renovation shows. They say it will be ready by

2010.


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Hiroshima

Because of busy business schedule I was

unable to indulge in any sight-seeing in

Japan. But when I went to Hiroshima I

had some time between appointmentsand so I had the privilege of seeing the A-

bomb site. It has an impressive a Peace

Memorial and an exhibition with graphic

details of events that led to the A-bomb

and its after affects.

On 6th August 1945, America bombed

Hiroshima and Nagasaki as we all know. The adjoining photo is a symbol of the

devastation caused by the bomb.

The interesting information I had gathered during the exhibition tour of the Peace

memorial is revealing at least to me. I somehow missed this important piece of

information from my study of WWII.

Just after the surrender of Germany in

June 1945, there were negotiations

between Russia and Japan for a similar

surrender and peace treaty. The talks

about to be closed and a treaty signed. But

the Allied Forces, sensing that this could

lead Japan into a communistic regime

wanted to prevent the surrender of Japan

to Russia. And that is how this decision of

A-bombing of Japan has been taken by Ike,

Montgomery and Churchill. Though War was over in June itself, the A-bomb was

dropped in August!

This forced Japan to surrender to the Allied Forces, probably with an assurance of

freedom on how they run their country ensuring the independence of their traditionalinstitutions and emperors authority unaffected. This was quite contrary to the draft

agreement between Russia and Japan then under discussions, which would have

made Japan subservient to Communistic governance. Thus the Japanese should be

thankful for the bombing otherwise they could have been like some underdeveloped

CIS country, which are till recently under Communistic influence thus severely

stunting their growth and development.


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The well documented information in the

Peace memorial gives a vivid account of the

devastation and loss of lives (100,000) in

Hiroshima. It was told then that the after

affects of the Bomb would be such that novegetation can grow in the vicinity for at least

100yrs or so. But nature is stronger, as you

would see from the adjoining photo. There is

vegetation all around and the city is

crammed. It is suggested that immediately

after the A-bomb there was heavy rain both in Nagasaki and Hiroshima which

washed away the remnants of the radio-active particles. This might have made the

soil recover its fertility. Man proposes GOD disposes! can best describe this

phenomenon.

The YEN

All promotional literature on

Japan debunks the theory that

Japan is costly just to lull you

into going there. But dont

believe. At least for an Indian,

Japan is frightfully expensive. A

meal (thali) in an Indian

Restaurant will cost you Rs600/- (two yen = one Rs). Even

by standard of USD it must be

costly as this converts to $12/-

A meal for four persons cost us JPY 13K, without alcohol. That is a neat 1600/ head!

A four station twenty minute train travel will cost JPY 200 ie Rs 100/-. In India

for that amount you can have a monthly pass! I did not have the privilege of

comparing the costs in Dept stores but one can project by conjecture. But, I did

find that a mineral water bottle of 100ml cost me 120 i.e Rs 60/!!!

Interestingly local salaries do take care of this cost for instance, the salary of a part

time school teacher is JPY 200K per month. That is something!

But as a tourist it is difficult to survive even for a week. May be one should combine

pleasure with business travel so that your company takes of your portion ($ 240/per

day, as in case of Reliance) and you take care of your family. Otherwise dont

attempt to go to Japan as a holiday destination as you would to other countries in SE

Asia.


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The Food.

Dont look for vegetarian food in Japan.

But if you can live by salads, rice and

potato fry (pommes frites) then may be u

can manage for one or two days. So betteryou find some friend or relative to put you

up - so that you can cook at home.

Interestingly as Japan has friendly

transportation system, one can cover the

entire sightseeing parts by staying at one

place as you can go in the morning and

come back for the night home cooked

meal!

But going to a Japanese restaurant is an

experience. The restaurants are very

consumer friendly. You can literally order

your recipe. Here in the photo you can

see how the table top is having a grill

fixed, so that you can mix and match your

ingredients as per your own recipe. It is

really fun. Imagine you can make your

own tawa dosa as per your need crispy

for my wife and soft for me!

Other Musings:

1. It is difficult to find (almost impossible) a Japanese male with a paunch!

2. Japanese men are workaholic is well known. But this made the Japanese

woman independent in handling day to day routine. So the Japanese husband

depends on his wife for advice on mundane matters, say where to send their

children to school, which house to buy, the going price and the like.

3. Lipstick is not common amongst Japanese women.

4. Even if the Japanese woman

has a watch on her right wrist,

the lucky charm, if any is worn

on the same wrist.

5. Japanese children are well

behaved they dont litter or

spoil the public property as the


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Americans. No chocolate dripping fingers that ruin public property.

6. English is not common though some of them are trying to learn. So the

Japanese integration into IT is not fully self reliant. A lot of it outsourced,

mainly from China and Taiwan. If Indian software engineers/technicians learn

Japanese, there could be a big opportunity. Though some Japanese knowEnglish they prefer conversing in Japanese only and thus feel comfortable

with Chinese because of commonality of traditions and script. Though they

fought a lot of wars against each other!

7. Indian men may not like Japanese woman as they have small breasts.

8. 80% of the blue collared Men folk wear blackshoes to office few with laces

and mostly as slip-on. Suede and Brown shoes are rare. Other men may wear

sports shoes.

9. Designation does not give any notion of the authority and responsibility of a

person in an office situation.

10. Number of Japanese made International Brands (Sony, Toyota, Mitsubishi,

Fuji etc..) per capita (pop: 120 mil) gives an impression of their quality and

delivery rather than marketing strengths.

Some Photo Ops:

As you would notice the display of train

arrival and departure is in Japanese. But

dont panic. Wait for some time, English

will appear on the same display board.

What is interesting however is that there is

never any ambiguity in the information.

Also if you wait long enough observing the

display, some Japanese g man will

always volunteer to help you need not

even ask.


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From these photographs, one feels that these stationsare abandoned. Not a soul! And yet it is the peak

hour. No train is expected on these platforms for the

next hold your breath, ten minutes! That is the faith

the commuters have on their train service that they

enter the platform in droves just few minutes before

the train is scheduled.

My Escorts in Hiroshima

A Station Entrance a drab structure

A series of lockers in a station but is

nothing unusual. Most stations do have

them. In India they are manned that isthe difference. But the interesting thing is

we had kept our luggage in one locker

and locked the next one! Luckily we did

not lose anything, though it did give us a

scare as when opened the locker we

found the same empty.

Fortunately we opened the immediate

next one and found our stuff.

But this is a design fault. The number of

the locker should have also been

prominently displayed on the lid of the

locker.


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The author at the Hiroshima

Bombing Site

my japan impressions

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