What is Japan Like to Visit?

We are just returning from a 19 day trip to Japan mostly by cruise ship where we visited the following places: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kamakura, Osaka, Kyoto, Shimizu, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Kochi and Enoshima. Yes it was quite a trip!

It was sometimes difficult to savour Japanese cultural differences because of the background noise on the ship, eg. ra-ra spirit, loud western music, trivia contests, people talking loudly etc.), we did enjoy observing the following:

• there were no visible homeless people on the streets
• streets are clean beyond belief (if you ate a candy bar you had to bring the wrapper back to the ship as no public garbages pails anywhere)
• the JR train and connected subway system is amazing, tap on tap off, go anywhere, no reservation needed
• one eat’s out of a bowl here eg, noodles, rice etc., there were few large plates and no knives in our rented apartment
• toilet seats are heated!
• prices seem less than in Canada eg. Bordeaux wine for $8 a bottle
• everyone waits for the green pedestrian signal, no one jaywalks here!
• fish is so plentiful, so fresh and so delicious!
• everyone is calm, no visible conflict or trouble
• we never saw any smoking or vaping anywhere
• low obesity rate, people are generally small and skinny
• Japanese dress well (blue jeans, sneakers and shorts were not really in)
• streets and parks very crowded during Sakura (cherry blossom time)
• fantastic infrastructure, motorways, sidewalks, pedestrian streets, public washrooms, parks and gardens

We saw hundreds of young people in beautiful school uniforms. Dozens of young couples happy and laughing. Purple, blue, green, blond hair, short skirts, faces whitened, white socks and black shoes. Beautiful young women being photographed by their family in lovely dresses in the cherry blossoms at Shinto shrines. Well dressed workers. Really cute kids with pageboy haircuts.

We loved it particularly when we got ashore and spent a few days in Kamakura where they have a huge Buddha and lovely bamboo forest.