Farewell Japan!

I am feeling quite sad to say goodbye to Japan tomorrow. The last 3.5 weeks have been so wonderful! Japanese people have been unbelievably kind and helpful. Case in point: everything is handed to you with two hands! So much care and attention to detail. It was not uncommon when I left places for people to walk me out, waving goodbye with a bow. I felt very cared for. The country is incredibly safe and clean. Apparently there are no janitors in schools--rather, the kids spend the first 40 minutes of every school day cleaning!!! I've often thought about how awful it is that my students make a mess and then don't fully clean up, leaving the work for an underpaid janitor. As a lover of communal living, I generally believe in cleaning up your own mess and love that Japan has this institutionalized in the educational system! The food has been a yummy novelty. In many restaurants, the chefs greet you and say goodbye! Machines/transportation work so well. There are so many fun cultural quirks and so much fascinating history (eg I can now explain the difference between the emperor, shogun, samurai and daimyo)!

People I met here summarized their favorite and least favorite things as follows:

+ Lots of festivals: I didn't get to experience this, but apparently there are!

+ Extremely convenient: eg convenience stores with good/decent, cheap food everywhere

+ Each region of the country has a distinctive identity that is fun to learn about/experience

+ Emphasis on the good of the community from childhood (this is a classic "East" vs "West" cultural difference)

+ Very large middle class (not a lot of inequality compared to the US)

-Hot summers: Apparently it's always very hot during the summer! It was hot and humid well into September this year.

-Overly bureaucratic: People still have to do things in person that you could do online in the US; there are many codes of conduct that prioritize old systems over what would actually be most convenient for people. The lack of encouragement for individual thought can stifle innovation and improvement.

? Homogeneous population: The sense I got is that Japan has come a long way in the past 20+ years with regard to its international tourism appeal and investment in teaching English in schools and interest in connecting with the non-Asian world, but I heard there exists racism towards non-Japanese people who live here. Personally, I found it fascinating to be in a place besides Lowell High School where nearly everyone looked Asian 😜

Other random notes: Biking is very popular here! Way more bikers than in the US (though definitely not at the level of the Netherlands!). It's sad to see how many young people are smoking/vaping. It's way more common than I expected.

I'll leave it there for now. It's off to Seoul, South Korea tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be back in Japan, but until then, Japan is much more a part of me than it was before, which I am forever grateful for.

Arigatōgozaimasu Nahon! ありがとう日本! Thank you Japan!

Miyajima (Itsukushima) shrine is in an intertidal zone--so cool!

Miyajima from the ferry

Japanese culture can be hilarious! You can buy weird sh$% like banana bird keychains...

...and cat hats

...and tempura families?! Gotta love it!

Japan has signs for everything. Including how to use the bathroom. In case you forget, "please sit down to use the toilet" ^_^

It really is an island nation! So much green, even at the end of summer!

Typical city street with lots of lights, unlocked bicycles, businessmen hanging out after work--not necessarily by choice--they often "have to" until 9 or 10pm :( The country is very safe with vibrant cities at night!

Umbrellas are ubiquitous here--rain or shine!

Fukuoka is lovely at night under a full moon!

The toilets are from a thousand years in the future and ALWAYS clean. It's insane.

Elegant Japanese dresses are very common.

Japan has a lot of castles! I didn't know that before!

Hiroshima

Oddly, or perhaps fittingly, Hiroshima is the most peaceful and pleasant city I've been to in Japan. There is a calmness to it that certainly is not part of Tokyo or Osaka but also not even smaller cities like Kyoto and Fukuoka. My entire time in Hiroshima I had a thought running through my mind: "Every American who can, needs to visit this place". The Peace Memorial Museum is extraordinarily powerful. Notably, the American blockbuster movie "Oppenheimer" that came out this past summer is not being shown in Japan...

The "Abomb Dome" lit up at night. Probably the most important monument in the city to the bombing. The bomb exploded ~1000 feet above the city, so the greatest force was in the downward direction, which is why the roof was blown off but some walls remain.

One of the other few buildings that remains standing from pre-Abomb was a bank. 

What Hiroshima looked like shortly after the bombing. The canals remain in the same place today; it was eerie to walk along them after seeing this picture and learning that people on fire threw themselves into the canals.

I was amazed to see that an elementary school building also survived the blast and is still used as a school today. There is a small museum connected to it, where I took this photo. Many families had evacuated to the countryside during the war, as they knew cities were prime targets for bombings (though they had no conception of a bomb that could destroy an entire city).

Peace Memorial Park, with the Abomb dome in the background. This place is powerful and I strongly encourage anyone who can to visit.

I couldn't help but notice the uncanny resemblance between the tattered clothes of Abomb victims (above) and concentration camp victims that are now on display in WWII/Holocaust museums.

Melted statue of Buddha on display in Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima

A Taiko drum from the school that survived but was blown out.

Model showing Abomb dome before and after Abomb on display in Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima.

This was probably the most impactful sign I read at the Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima. Why didn't the Potsdam Declaration include a guarantee of the continuance of the emperor system for post-war Japan? Perhaps a lack of cultural understanding contributed... The Peace Memorial Museum advocates to rid the world of all nuclear weapons. It is a powerful message that Hiroshima sends to the world.

This is a memorial to all of the children who were Abomb victims in Peace Memorial Park. Since most of the men were off at war, most of the Abomb victims were women and children. It was very moving to see Japanese children come on a field trip to the memorial, sing songs and place paper cranes ("orizuru") to honor the victims.

Kyoto: Traditional vs Modern

One major theme in Japan is the juxtaposition of tradition with modernity. I believe Kyoto is one of the better places to see this in the country, as it was the old capital city before Emperor Meiji moved it to Tokyo in 1868. Below is some photographic evidence :)

Also, one of the most important historical things to know about Japan is that it was extremely isolationist until the Meiji era (second half of the 19th century). Then, under his direction, the country went through an insanely rapid period of industrialization which, combined with the post WWII "Japanese Economic Miracle", led it to become what is today the world's 3rd largest economy. My greatest contributions to the Japanese economy have been buying a lot of Zelda video games growing up and a Prius ;)

Modern: The "Shinkansen" bullet train.

Modern: Gibson Les Paul and Shohei Ohtani (did you know that the best baseball player in the world right now is Japanese?) This photo was actually taken in Tokyo.

Modern? Japanese pancakes

Traditional: Sushi

Traditional: Chawanmushi (yumyum)

I don't know what a lot of this is but I liked it!

Traditional: Kimono

Kiyomizu-dera (Buddhist temple)

Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera

Udon with pork and pink pepper

Kinkaku-ji, Buddhist temple

Kinkaku-ji (aka the Golden Temple)

Modern: Apple store

Look familiar?

Fushimi Inari: Vermillion has never looked better!

It was fun hiking through the vermillion gates! Apparently a Shinto shrine to the God of rice (the Shinto word for God/deity/spirit is Kami, which also happens to be a very popular EdTech company...)

Japanese roast?

Makin sushi!

Kyoto canals are beautiful

I did not purchase.

I did purchase.