This is the continuation of my diary from my RTW trip from November 2003.
So I have been in Japan for 10 days. I have condensed all of the things I had planned to do here, as I’ve decided to head onto China early.
The two main reasons behind that are the horrendous cost and the uniformity of the Japanese urban sprawl. There is very little difference between any of the cities. Sometimes the Pachinko parlour is in between the Starbucks and the NTT DoCoMo store (their mobile phone provider). Sometimes the Pachinko parlour is to the left or the right.
There are some unique and interesting sights away from the cities, but they are quite spread out and I've already spent US$500 each on train fares already! This is more than my 14 day any flight Air India pass. Hopefully China will have some variety, some soul, some sense of fun and a sense of proportion when it comes to pricing.
One final interesting thing I note about Japan is a strange practise they have for dating buildings. Every castle or temple you come across dates from the 11th, 12th, 15th Century. Yet they have all been built since 1950. Exact replicas have been built of what went before, and they then claim an unbroken heritage.
The best metaphor I can think of to get across to you the sterility in perfection of this country is as follows. Remember when as a teenager you tidied your room, or maybe now as an adult when you clean your house. You reach that moment as the hum of the vacuum dies down, you look around and your job is done. Everything dusted. Everything transformed. No more mess. No more clothes on the floor. CDs all in their cases – maybe even in a preferred order if you’ve been especially determined. Everything neat and tidy and in its place. Everything just as you want it to be and how you want it to stay. And you sit down. And you smooth the sofa down around you. And you look around. And what next? Anything you do will alter the perfection. So you sit there and look at your neat room.
And that’s Japan.
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