Travel Chapter 24- Japan 2009 (1)

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Japan2009?feat=directlink

We sailed last night after two days in Kobe. The contrast between Japan and China is almost like coming from say South Africa to the UK. I had the distinct impression that China is a modern country being built but far from being modern. Yes, China has skyscrapers and subways but all of this is so new that it really has not yet fit into the real landscape of China. Japan is a modern society which has been modern for so long that it fits totally into the local scenery. Japan is as clean as a hospital, Japan has everything under control and under regulation, Japan is comfortable with the density of its cities, Japan is used to glitz and glanz. In China, many of the same things exist but they feel and look out of place with the rest of the country. China is a developing country which has built it glitz and glanz in the last 20 years while the rest of China seems stuck in the past. The Japanese are polite to the extreme; the Chinese are pushy to the extreme. People in China dump stuff in the street. In Japan, one could almost eat off the street. People in Japan speak in small voices; people in China are loud as everyone else is loud. In China the streets team with vendors pushing products on every passerby. In Japan, there are no street vendors, only shops with doors. In China, almost every building consists of sidewalk front little stores, shops, work areas with people crammed inside doing whatever they do for a living. In Japan, there are stores with doors, workshops in side streets and the cleanliness and order make Germany look like chaos…

But I still prefer China over Japan. Japan gives me the impression always that it is so developed there really is no where to go or to improve. It is a regimented society where everyone obeys the law and everybody is respectful to the extreme of the space of the next person. Japan’s society gives me the feeling that there is little room for people to be different and that conforming to the norms laid down by society is the proper way to move. China also has rules but they seem more like guidelines, suggestions or indications and everybody is pulling and shoving to achieve their own goals at any cost to their surroundings.

In China there are illegal tour guides, illegal bike taxis, illegal sellers of illegal fakes, illegal restaurants, illegal prostitutes and illegal all sorts of things and nobody does anything about it. In Japan, there is nothing illegal and if there were it would be stopped immediately.

China is still a developing country. It has amazing infrastructures but huge areas of poverty and destitution. China has a very rich upper class followed by a thin middle class with the vast majority of the population poor and outside the real economy. Japan, on the other hand, has a thin class of rich persons, followed by a huge middle class and very few really destitute persons. At times in Japan, I imagine I am seeing China 50 years from now if it is able to continue developing at the current rate. Japan is a highly developed country and such a level of development requires a high level of social organization given the density of its population. Given that only a small percentage of Japan’s area is habitable, the already high population density (327 per square km vs. China 119 and US 27) makes real population density extreme.
So there we arrived in Kobe, a city of 1.5 million persons with an infrastructure to die for. The passenger terminal was by far the best so far without the glanz of the shopping centre in the Hong Kong terminal. The big negative was the bureaucratic procedures involved in arriving in Japan. First the night before, the whole ship company, 1000 persons had to have their temperature taken by the ship’s medical team. Each person’s temperature was recorded and each person was then issued with a numbered quarantine card. The morning we arrived in Kobe, at 8 am, the whole ship company had to have their temperature taken again, this time by the Japanese authorities. We were then told to wait until called to go through Japanese immigration and custom procedures. This took well over 4 hours until the last persons were through this painstaking procedure which consisted of picking up one’s passport and forms already completed. Standing in line to eventually step up to some Japanese authority that required one to put each index finger in a reader and then the picture was taken. Then, without any luggage we had to go through an other screen of a customs officer who dutifully looked into the passport and at us and waived us through. As we were not going ashore immediately, we just turned around with out passports and went back on the ship. From them on we were free to come and go off and on the ship with whatever goods we would have wanted. Silly controls which do not control always amuse me. I think in fact the Japanese were doing this all to show their US visitors that they too can jack people around. Bearing in mind the way the US now handles arriving visitors almost as criminals: requiring visas which must be obtained before arriving and only after personal appearances at a US consulate, fingerprints on arrival, picture on arrival and potentially secondary treatment at immigration which can take several hours, I think the Japanese were doing a tit for tat.

By 1pm, after lunch on the ship, we walked out of the ship and onto the subway station which was 3 minutes from the ship. We had decided to jump the bus which made a tour of the city. It ran from the Sannomiya station where the metro ended. We found the bus and boarded a rather small bus which was full of tourists already. We had the pleasure of sitting on this fine bus listening to some Japanese girl babblings away in Japanese about something. Too bad they have not yet adopted the technology which one finds in some countries where the tour conversation is taped and available in several languages.

We decided to jump off the bus at the stop which leads to the bottom of the Kobe Ropeway, which in reality is a cable car rising some 3000 feet above the city. As often happens on these visits, we ran into a number of people from the ship who were also doing the same ride. In a very modern gondola for 6 we went up this rather steep mountain which is part of a chain running at the west of Kobe and through a good part of Japan. Kobe sits at the foot of this chain. On the top of the mountain, the view of Kobe was quite spectacular. Once more we were lucky with the weather and the view down on Kobe was very beautiful.

We then headed down to the city by cable car. When we got to the bottom, Emmett headed off back to the metro with Joan Knecht, our ship nurse. Brigitte and I then decided to walk back to the metro center as it was still light. It was quite a change to walk down a sidewalk which was not half used by people selling food, watches, pens, knives and many other things and not being approached by people offering their services or goods as is usually the case in the middle republic. We stopped in at a Japanese coffee and pastry shop where we had a small piece of cake and a cup of coffee. The bill came to the equivalent of US$12 but whose counting???

I then set on my tasks of finding a Japanese sim card for my phone and some foreign newspapers. All the way back to the center of town we stopped in at places where either or both of these things are available in most countries: hotels, telephone shops, convenience stores, drugstores. All to no avail. Sim cards do not seem available for purchase here according to the ten people I consulted. Not a large sample for such a large population but significant as two worked in shops selling phones. As far as I can tell so far they come with the phones as is the case in North America but I will continue to investigate. As for foreign newspapers, they are apparently just as rare. I finally found some later that evening when I returned alone to town after diner and went through a local department store. I was looking for an insulated coffee mug with a plunger as I am getting desperate because of the bad coffee on board the ship. I finally found an insulated cup but I was not willing to pay US$ 79 for the one cup so I settled on some filters with which I will make coffee I purchased in Vietnam. I found a book store on the 6 floor of this building and went wild buying an Economist magazine for US$11 and a financial times newspaper for 6 bucks. Well, it is only money…

While there I went to my favorite part of any store which is the electronics section. I can report that most electronics in Japan cost 2 to 3 times what they cost back in the US. I priced the flat screen TV and Sony blue ray DVD player we had bought about 5 months ago and they both cost almost 3 times what we paid in Virginia! I guess the locals support the industry so we can get our electronics cheaper.

The next day we went off on a ship organized trip in 2 large busses to Kyoto to visit the amazing temples of this city. Early on I realized that Brigitte and I had already done this tour back in 2004 but it was still fun to see these beautiful buildings. We were also blessed as exactly this week, the cherry and other blossoms are in their full glory. This is a huge event in Japan and is quite spectacular to see, as you can see from the pictures posted to the website.

When we got to the last site, Brigitte and I were templed out and slid out of the group and headed to a quiet restaurant looking out on a bubbling fountain. There we had a nice cup of copy and enjoyed the simplicity of Japanese interior decorating. It reminds me very much of the design one finds in Finland. Simple but beautiful using wood and stone and large open views of natural settings.

We got back to the ship in time for dinner. As it had been a long strenuous day, we decided to stay on board as the ship was leaving at 11pm that evening. The ship headed out at 11pm and we stood up forward on the 7th deck as it was a warm clear evening. Despite the late hour, Captain Jeremy insisted on sounding 3 long and loud toots on the horn as we moved out of the huge empty harbor of Kobe on our way to Yokahama, 450 miles away were we will arrive tomorrow morning.

This one day at sea is the first real cruise time we have had on the voyage. No classes, no meetings, no mandatory anything. As most people opted to stay on land and make their way to Tokyo or elsewhere on their own, there were only 250 people on board. It was a quiet day to read and catch up with work and play. Many students are at the end of their travel budgets so cannot really afford any expensive traveling with overnights and food at the costs in Japan. For us, it was a restful day without plans and without having to jump in and out a bus to view some wonderful relic of the past. That is strenuous work when it goes on for several hours. Tourism is not for the week. Beside the knowledge overflow which happens from the continuous talk of some local guide. It is all part of one’s education, but sometimes it is a little much.

Tomorrow we hit Tokyo. As my credit card had to be cancelled because someone used it fraudulently, I need to find the American Express office which will be the challenge of the day. Get from the ship to Yokahama and then to Tokyo and to the Amex office. It is kind of like a game. I will report more on this in the next chapter.
Cheers from calm see off Japan where we are cruising along at a slow pace of 11 knots.