A Week Later.... Reflections

Since I have been back I have been trying to figure out why it is so hard to summarize the experience of this trip for people who ask me how it was. Most of the time people are interested, but only have a few minutes to listen to my babbling. It is good to have a sentence or two that summarizes the experience. For some reason this time I cannot come up with one.

This week I have had a good friend who listened to me for longer than a few minutes and I was able to put into words what was different about this trip. What bothered me was that I did not feel the need or desire to learn the basic words (hello, excuse me, thank you) in Japanese or Korean. I also had a few times when I just wanted "normal" food. One day I made Steve search with me for food I recognized and we bought an apple, string cheese and crackers to eat! I actually had McDonalds in Japan and really enjoyed cooking a home meal in Hawaii. Usually I am glad not to ever cook while traveling.

I think that the main thing is that I felt so foreign, like I did not belong there. I was the wrong color and the wrong size. It didn't matter if I didn't learn the language or like the food somehow. 

Also, I think that European food is more similar to ours and so it is an easier transition. Japanese food has a different taste that is unique. I have heard the word umami to describe what I think it might be (Wikipedia says, "Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste."). Korean food included things like chicken feet and textures that I was not used to. Philippino food often came with bones and had more of a fish flavor or fish broth for soup. Each evening when it came time for dinner I had to try to figure out where to eat and that got tiring. Don't get me wrong, there were delicious things and food that I enjoyed, but in general I felt wary. 

The final issue is being a tourist. I don't like the kind of traveling where I am a tourist, even though I always really am. I like being in one place for a while rather than just seeing the sights in a place while racing on to the next place. Going to three (four?) very different places in 5 weeks made it impossible to be more than someone just passing through and made just seeing the sights the main thing to do. As I write this I realize it is not totally true. In each country we were in there were people we knew that showed us places out of the ordinary and gave us insights.

So, all of that is to say that I do not want to discourage anyone to visit this part of the world or any other. It was not my favorite, but I have totally expanded my understanding of the world. When Philippines, Japan, or Korea is in the news I feel much more connected to what I read. Geography of that area has taken on meaning and I am fascinated by history there also.  Those are great reasons to travel.

Tokyo First Impressions

As you have probably heard from many people it is a huge city with tons of people everywhere. Our hotel room in Tokyo was tiny. It was the length and a few feet wider than the double bed in the room. You could not walk around the bed at all. The bathroom was also tiny, but had everything you need. There was a tiny sink a toilet and a tiny bathtub/shower combination. There were no cabinets or drawers.

Toilets are a big deal in Japan. They do just about everything. The seat is heated, water can clean you off and many of them have a button you can push so that there is a flushing noise (without really flushing) so that other people do not know what you are doing in there. In a few public restrooms I came across a squat type of toilet. I guess that explains the sign I saw earlier telling people not to squat on a sitting toilet.

One other first impression that I also heard from other bloggers is the number of vending machines. In about a 20 minute walk I took pictures of 20 machines on my way.

TRAVEL MAPS

Since I love maps and find them helpful this map shows the three places that we visited-The Philippines, South Korea and Japan.

So here is a map of the places that we went in Japan.

It began with another unidentifiable airline meal. The item at the top right looked sort of like yogurt and there was a packet with it. I tasted the packet first and it was like soy sauce and then I tried the “yogurt”.  I think it was soft soy. You put the soy sauce on it and eat it. It did really taste OK to me, but it was weird, savory rather than sweet.  Don’t worry, there is more about Japanese food coming.

On our trips north and south in Japan we took the bullet train.  It is amazing. It travels at 200 mph and has no interruptions, so a trip that might take 8 hours by car takes 2 hours!  It is comfortable and just felt like taking a train. It is a good way to see a bit about how the country is. I saw lots of rice paddies. Everything is very green right now.