Japan is ...
em ...
Okay, there is no single word that can describe Japan, or, at least, the part of it where I am fortunate enough to be at the moment. I know that Japan is a big and very diverse, and I am still in the 'euphoria' phase of my journey here, however, you never get tired of good things, of which, in Japan, there are many.
Listing them all is simply impossible here. If you are reading this and the interest of finding out what these good things are does not leave you - well, put it mildly, you have to go here. Just to see them, feel them and breath them.
Please, do throw your cliches about Japan away, of which, I am sure, there are many. Everything that you have heard about Japan or its people, its food, etc. will be slightly different to what you have imagined when you come here. Your sushi will taste differently, even thought sometimes it would look the same to what you are used to. Your service will be polite and fast and friendly everywhere you go and you do not have to include a tip. The streets that you will walk will always be clean and puddle-free. You will always be in less that 1,000 meters of a vending machine, which might sell simple drinks or something more elaborative...
If you have heard about crazy Japanese productivity and how they are only focused on work - forget about it. Yes, of course, there are people that work overtime all the time and stay until the middle of the night just to come back at 08 AM - but if you enjoy your work, why not? However, your co-workers are much friendlier that you used to. Everything is more relaxed, yet, somehow, people do not slack off and do stuff. In this short time, I was able to narrow it down to two reasons: discipline and trust.
These two words acquire a different meaning in Japan. Discipline is uniform, it is everywhere, in every detail. That is why everything is just a little different in Japan. Discipline, like water, fills all the tiny gaps and smoothes things out - it brings order to a huge crowd of people, it eliminates chaos - it works in Japan. However, surprisingly, that does not turn everyone into machines and robots, simply obeying rules. In the end, the most important part is that, despite the discipline and the rules and the hierarchy in their society, Japanese people are still ... people. They are not machines, as many people see them - each one of them works hard, yet also lives a bright and full live. They go out, they play games, they dance, they drink, they do ... everything. However, they have their ways. Coming here, you don't just appreciate what they do and, more importantly, how they do it - you start doing things the same way. However, you can never assimilate - instantly recognizable, you will always be a foreigner, no matter how well you speak Japanese and how well you know the culture. Yet, that doesn't mean that you will be excluded from the society - on contrary, they simply have a special place for you, like they do for all the things - everything has its place in Japan.
This weekend is a long weekend, so the destination is Kyoto. The next post will see you there.
