Japan - March 2013

Katie and I recently got back from our trip to Japan. We decided to have Penelope stay at home while we traveled, rather than bringing her with us, and this was the first time we had both been away from her at the same time for more than a single night. It was hard for us to be away, and a little hard on Penelope too, but it really worked out for the best. We were able to do the things that we wanted to do that would have been too boring for Penelope, without having to worry about naps and strange potties (she would have loved the food, though). Penelope got to spend some great time with Grandma Kris, who came out to stay with Penelope in our house while we were gone. Thanks so much, Grandma, for being an awesome Penelope-sitter.

Anyway, this all started because Katie got invited to give a talk in Hiroshima, Japan at a research center focused on understanding the genetic effects of exposure to radiation from the atomic bombing. The conference was only two days, and since she already had a free trip to Japan (where neither of us has been before), we decided to turn it into a vacation. Katie left two days before me, then Kris came in to stay with Penelope, then I flew out to join Katie in Japan. It was a bit of a crazy transition, with people coming and going each day for three days, but Penelope handled it all very well.

Once I arrived (after about 14 hours of travel on two flights), we spent one day in Hiroshima, then four days in Kyoto, and three days in Tokyo (just over a week). We traveled between cities on the bullet train (or Shinkansen), which is super cool. We took a lot of photos, over 400! Don't worry, we won't post them all. I will be posting them in batches for each city, along with the corresponding entries from my travel journal. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll have everything posted, so keep coming back for more updates.

Before I get into the journal entries and day-by-day account, I wanted to give a few of my overall thoughts. First of all, Japan was great. Although we went there not speaking the language beyond a few phrases, people were very kind and helpful (although rarely did anyone come up to ask us if we needed help, even when we looked completely confused). We both felt like somewhat arrogant Americans to come to someone else's country, not be able to speak the language, and expect those around us to know enough English to help us communicate. People were mostly kind about it (and occasionally laughed at us), but we really felt bad about not knowing any Japanese. By the end of the trip, I had picked up a few words here and there, but not enough to have even a basic conversation. And anytime someone started talking to us in Japanese, we both just got these incredibly blank looks on our faces, and we felt kind of embarrassed that we had no idea what they were saying. But the weirdest thing (and this happened to Katie, too), was that since we couldn't speak English, we both felt like we should be talking in Spanish (the only other language we kind of know). It was bizarre, and I kept forming Spanish sentences in my head. One time, I even said out loud, "Yes, uh, sí, uh, hei!" (with "hei" being "yes" in Japanese). So, yeah, communication was hard, but we made the most of it, and we were able to get by with a lot of finger pointing and hand signs.

My biggest impression of Japan is that it is instantly familiar and instantly feels very different all at the same time. It's a weird feeling. Katie put it best when she said that the Japanese have been very selective about what Western culture they have embraced, but when they embrace something, they go all in. The result is that the traditional and the modern, the East and the West co-exist side-by-side, in a way that I have not experienced in Europe or in the US. Ancient temples nestled in the middle of sky scrapers. Kimonos and suits and crazy teen styles all mixed together on the bus. Cities that feel like any major city in the US, except that I can't read the signs and can't eavesdrop on the conversations (a favorite hobby of mine). Figuring out public transit was easy for us, just like being back in New York or Boston, but then we would get stumped by the occasional sign with no English place names and have to count stops.

Another impression I had was the amazing amount of diversity and variation. Going to Japan, I was under the impression that it was a fairly homogenous culture. Certainly it is less ethnically diverse than many parts of the US, but it is not homogenous at all (except at rush hour, when the trains and streets were packed with people in suits, all in a rush somewhere). It made for a more vibrant feel than I was expecting, and made me feel bad about having a bit of a stereotype in my head.

Lastly, I have to talk about the bathrooms. One of my very first "culture shocks" was going to the men's room in the airport, after my flight to Hiroshima. It was late (~2AM my time) and I was tired. I go to the men's room, and there is a woman in there cleaning, and guys going about their business as if she wasn't there at all. No sign on the door or anything. So I did my thing and left, but it just felt weird. And many of the outdoor public men's rooms (in parks and such) were little more than a row of urinals and 3 walls and big windows, with no sort of privacy from the outside world unless you were in a stall. Now, I'm not super modest, but it frequently felt like I would be less exposed if I'd just peed against a nearby tree. In case you are wondering, the women's bathrooms were all stalls with 4 walls and standard privacy, although squat toilets were the norm. There was also never any soap at the sinks (except for in hotels and such), and it was generally BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper). In fact, handing out free TP was a major form of advertising in Tokyo. But then, at the other extreme, all the hotels we stayed at (even a Japanese-style inn) had super fancy toilets, complete with heated seats, butt washing jets with temperature and intensity controls, built-in deodorizer, and even "background noise" to cover up any of the more thunderous emissions. I had to try the butt jets, just to see what it was like, and I was pleasantly surprised. The first time I tried it I couldn't stop laughing, but then I got used to it. My personal opinion is that they don't make a big difference for hygiene, and mostly just leave you with a wet butt (the "blow drier" option that one had proved insufficient to actually dry off), but it's a fun gimmick. The heated seats, on the other hand, are totally awesome.

Ok, that's enough potty talk. Use the links at the bottom to navigate through the journal entries and read all about our trip. There are photos sprinkled throughout the posts, but our collection of best photos from the trip (don't worry, it's not the whole 400) are in the three albums below (I will post a new album for each city as I make my way through the journal posts). I hope you enjoy our tales and photos from Japan. We sure had a lot of fun.