Ah… Back from Japan at last… I went for a short trip to Japan for attending an intervi...
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Ah… Back from Japan at last… I went for a short trip to Japan for attending an interview with Toshiba. This blog is dedicated to my Japan trip. I'll speak about two main sections. Japanese Culture, people and hospitability and then about Japanese Technology and Infrastructure. After all, these are the two main important aspects that Japan is famous for.
The place I visited was the famous Honshu island that hosts the World's largest metro, Tokyo. I stayed in Shin-Yokohama (New Yokohama), and travelled around the city. I went to Ome, Yokohama, Tokyo, Shinjuku and Akihabara. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad and I was advised that for going to Mount Fuji, this is not the right time. I had a glimpse of Mount Fuji while traveling to Shin-Yokohama though.
Japanese tradition and culture is well known. As opposed to the myth that in Japan people speak only Japanese, I could see a lot of people who could converse well in English as well... Even when I started conversation in Japanese, they replied to me back in "pretty good" English and that amazed me. Japan in no longer a isolated country. So are the announcements in trains. Nearly every announcement will be in Japanese and English. Yes, of course, you room cleaner cannot speak English and you have to live with that. Apart from that, Japan is not completely into English too...(like Singapore) You can't find English novels and people do not read them nor do English papers, and yes, you can find a lot of English teaching courses. So, to summarize, if you have any plans of going to Japan but fearing that language would be a barrier, please do not hesitate. Go ahead, and book your tickets!!! Of course, learning some Japanese sentences could be useful.
Now, onward to the culture. Japanese are very traditional. They bow for nearly everything, like saying a Thankyou or a sorry. They will try to help you out in nearly every situation that's possible. For example, I was stuck at a railway station as I could not buy a railway ticket. The interface language was in Japanese and so is the map. If anyone have learnt Japanese, they would know that unlike western languages, Japanese is pretty difficult to read and write that to speak. For native tamil speakers, speaking japanese will be a breeze. I picked up within 3 months as Japanese has close relations to Tamil. (no not my own hypothesis, read this http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm research done by a Japanese professor). So as the board was in Japanese, I approached a person to help me out. I only asked "shin-yokohama e ikitai desu ga..." (I want to go to shin yokohama...) and he readily helped me out. He asked me every detail as how many people are going etc., etc., You can't expect this hospitability elsewhere. Same happened in Shinkansen ticket counter. We were called seperately when we were in the queue and the person (who looked like a police) bought us the tickets from the ticket vending machine.
We ate inside our residence, a canteen sort of. Food was pretty expensive compared to Singapore standards. The canteen is actually subsidized for the employees and for us, it was free (hi hi, so finally there is something called "free-lunch") as our meals and stay was paid by the company. A meal costed around 600 Yen (8 SGD) where as in Singapore I can get a equivalent meal for about 3-4 SGD and in India it should be around 100 Rs. If it were not subsidized, multiply this cost by two. One interesting thing to note here is that, one of my friend, a pure veggy, just told the canteen incharge that he cannot eat NV and a special customized vegetarian noodle was prepared for him!!! Japanese are helpful to that extent and if you speak Japanese, rest assured that you are a king in Japan!
Let me now move on to other aspects of Japan, especially technology. I don't know why I did not like Japan's transportation system. Was it that I expected more?
www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/2296292436/
A comparison of Farrer Park station in Singapore (LEFT) and Tokyo (RIGHT)
The station is clean though not as clean as Singapore. The population is overwhelming. People, people, people everywhere and Shinjuku, the most busiest station is used by over 5 million people (slightly higher than the population of Singapore!)
Travelling from Shin-yokohama to Ome, took about 3 hours by train, a pain-in-the-butt situation, where everyone hangs on to the train, no place to sit, etc., etc., Trains are clean and warm (yeah, japan is freezing cold (-2 to -2 degrees), but still the stations are quite unclean compared to Singapore and the reason could be over-population. Same applies to Narita Airport. I would rate Narita a B in cleaniness if Singapore is A+. I have not yet visited Hong Kong as I've heard that Hong Kong is well ahead of Singapore in the quality of service. (Even if I go to Hong Kong, I would still rate Singapore A+ and Hong Kong A, as I live in Singapore... 
Huh..? just kidding... leave it)
One of the technological marvel in Japan was the Shinkansen. I travelled from Shin-yokohama to the next stop Shinagawa in Shinkansen and it took about 5 minutes to reach. I could not feel the speed of the Shinkansen from inside as it was all closed everywhere. While returning back, I came in the normal train and reached my place in about 30 minutes. Now that should give you an idea of how fast the Shinkansen is!!! It travels at about 300 KMPH, and you will not feel it! But travelling by Shinkansen will cost you an arm and a leg as that one station travel costed my 1250 Yen (SGD 16) or (450 INR). The whole of the Honshu island is connected with Shinkansen and Air transport within Japan is slightly under used compared to United States, which could partly be because of the size of the country.
I toured the city and reached Yokohama Landmark Tower. Wow, marvellous, was my first word when I reached the top of the tower. A few shots from the top of the tower.
The city is lively!!! Full of lights everywhere and so large when I compare it with Singapore. Shinjuku the business district was also rocking!
I went to Akihabara and purchased a cover for my iPod. Unfortunately, upon opening I found that the cover was for iPod classic 80 GB whereas mine was iPod video 80GB... If it were any other country, they would not have returned my money back. But it's Japan! No questions asked. They told they don't have a cover for my iPod and hence will give me money instead!!! In this world which is full of cheaters around, this was very different for me. I have had very nasty experience in Bangalore when I got a blank DVD only to find that it was scratched like hell. The shopkeeper replied, "it's not covered under warranty". After all a 20 Rs issue. A few photos from Akihabara...
Though, the city is pretty clean, I was almost choked when I returned back owning to Haze.
No idea where these dust came from, but, it makes you suffocate given the close-to-zero temperature.
Electricity in some parts of Japan like Shin-yokohama is still transmitted through open (non-insulated) cables which is something that was quite disgusting given the country's technological advancements. As the electric voltage is very low, 100V 50/60 Hz (50 or 60 depending on which part of Japan you go) the conductors are really thick. Power lines are found virtually everywhere as in the picture below.
This was something which I did not see in Singapore. Not all the parts of Japan have underground electric wiring.
All in all, the city was amazing. It's a kinda new experience. Though i did not enjoy much, which is probably because of my overly high expectation, Japan is still amazing. I think people have over-exaggerated Japan's cleanliness. My next trip to Japan will be to cover the northern island, namely Hokkaido and probably climbing the Mount fuji in the main island.
My gallery of Japan photographs can be viewed at flickr here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/sets/72157603972972870/
Mugunth Close
Thnx MugunthKumar for answering my Qs and for the extra details. Hmmmm....interesting
Lakshmi
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Yes, both Singaporeans and Japanese are very law abiding. The most funny (?) thing anyone will note when they come here is, vehicles yield to pedestrians at crossings! Japan's Tokyo alone is atleast 3-4 times the size of Singapore. And above all the whole area of tokyo looks like core business district of Singapore whereas in Singapore it's only about 100 sqkm area that's the business center. The others areas are ports, and HDB flats.
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So the legendary Singapore is cleaner than Japan? Since I have not visited either, is the population density higher in Japan which of course is physically bigger than Singapore.
Do the Japs monitor obedience to the laws and rules (so my neighbour tells me) as zealously as the powers- that-be in Singapore?
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Pollution, specially the haze, I think, is a seasonal thing... It was all clear when i went out for a stroll but by the time I started back, all of a sudden, the atmosphere became golder orange with all those suspended dust. "fanfare" is something associated with illiteracy. I define the term literacy with some one with a professional education. Any engineer/doctor/lawyer or a professor will never go behind politicians. It's all the un-educated or partially educated people who create all these "fan fares" around our ministers. Hopefully, the system should change...
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Nice detailed travelogue!
My husband went to Japan several years back and spent a number of days there. Apart from serious food problems(he's a vegetarian too), he did not seem to have the pollution related issues you encountered. The stations and the trains became the place for him to test his company's cell phone (CDMA) prototypes. He used to call me from the bullet trains to test them! Surprisingly, he once encountered the Prince of Japan traveling the same train with no fanfare at all. He just traveled with the rest of the passengers!
Ranjini
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nice travelogue. i have for long wanted to visit japan. your blog has rekindled my interest.
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Nice one.
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We have got a glimpse of Japan from your short visit to that country.You have rated Hongkong high followed by Singapore and then Japan.It is good to know that people are very co operative particularly when you speak in their language.we are to learn a lot from such an advanced Asian country.
Thanks for a good travelogue.
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Hi Mugunth,
A real nice and detailed description of ur trip Japan.. Enjoyed reading it!
Very informative...
Cheers
Divya
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