Thoughts on Japan

Now that it’s been two weeks, I figure I should write this.

The first, and biggest thing, that I’ll remember about Japan was how hard it was to find edible food. Okay, all the food was edible, it just wasn’t anything I liked or even wanted to try. Now, if I had my own place and my own stove, that would be an entirely different issue. There would still be whacked out food prices and extremely expensive fruit, but I could cook things to my taste. However, eating outside of my home would be a pain. And in the case of one or two people, eating out is generally a much realler option than with larger groups. What with the difficulty of cooking for one and all.

Prices for other things were also very different. Some things are more expensive, other things are less. Cigarettes, for instance, were about $2.50 a pack when purchased individually. Fruits was absurdly expensive. Most foodstuffs were of relative comparable prices. Restuarants were cheaper, except for the complete lack of all-you-can-eat places. Books were very cheap. Digital media was extremely expensive, though older and used stuff could be found for reasonable prices. Sometimes even very good prices. Housing is insane.

Everybody spoke at least some English. This made it somewhat difficult to practice Japanese as folks would try to speak English. And if I did get my question out in Japanese and they responded in Japanese, they would go at it like I was a native speaker. Which is not necessarily a bad assumption. If I ask in Japanese, why shouldn’t they assume that I’m prepared for full speed Japanese?

Everyone was nice and helpful. And understanding. There were a few times I said things in a rather inappropriate way for talking to strangers, but I hear the Japanese appriciate any effort to speak their tongue. I may suck, but at least I’m trying to be considerate. But then, most people appriciate things like that.

It was also interesting being in an area that has been an agricultural civilization for a long time. North America has been overwhelmingly nomadic/hunter-gatherer up until the last few hundred years. Ancient cities just aren’t common around here. They’ve got ancient buildings and architecture spotting the landscape.

It was also interesting in just how different, in terms of small things, the cities felt from US cities. There just so much space in US cities. They sprawl over the landscape. I spent some time walking around Milwaukee yesterday. There’s space and green everywhere. In Japan, asphalt and buildings everywhere. Everything cramped together leaving as little freespace open as possible. Japan’s cities were huge well before it industrialized. The United States was industrialized from it’s infancy. In 1721 Tokyo was a city of over a million people. In 1790, the entirety of the US was under four million. This makes me very curious to see the old cities of the western world, just to see how they deal with things. Rome, London, Jerusalem, etc.. There aren’t very many massive cities in the western world, though. The vast majority of them exist in the east. Though I would love to see those too. There are a decent amount in the Americas, though.

I’d certainly like to go back, but there are other parts of the world I’d like to first. Europe or India would be next. Korea, Taiwan, and China are also high on the list. After that I think South America.