Konnichiwa

I haven’t written a blog post in a minute, because I have been on a trip to Japan with my husband. It was my first visit to Japan and I loved every minute of it. I wanted to see something unique and more exotic than I have ever seen before, and Japan did not disappoint. Today, we were trying to get over our jet lag (there is a 13 hour time difference – so instead of Monday night, we actually watched the March Madness basketball final, in Japan, on Tuesday morning in a coffee shop and then, at the last few minutes, we went outside, only because loud and excitable is highly frowned upon in public places in Japan. After that, when we traveled back to the United States, we landed at home earlier than we had left Japan – experiencing true time travel!) Here are some of my “takes” from my trip:

+ I’ve never been around a culture more respectful of others than I have, when I was in Japan. We visited Tokyo and other majorly populated cities, and I can count on one hand the number of times in which I heard any “honking”. We were told that people in Japan only honk to help others in a dire situation. No one ever honks out of anger or frustration. This was so utterly refreshing (and peaceful). People treated everyone with kindness and dignity and lots of bows (as in nodding your head). One young man made a point of stopping to ask my husband and I if we needed help (we were trying to find a good restaurant in Osaka and we sat on a street corner, probably looking quite dazed and confused). This young man, donning a suit and tie, was just getting out of the train close to 7 pm (the Japanese work late hours) and yet, he (with the excuse that he was practicing his English) made a point of walking my husband and I, to a restaurant that he insisted that we would like, because he had taken his parents there (I guess he figured that we were around the age of his parents, sigh) and they had liked it. (It was a great restaurant!)

+ I’ve never visited a cleaner place than Japan. And ironically, they have very few public garbage cans anywhere in Japan. You are expected to take your garbage home (or to your hotel) with you and then dispose of it there. And this rule was fully respected. The taxis, trains, subways, and streets were honestly, practically spotless (which just added to the ambience of peace and quiet which was felt everywhere).

+ My husband insists that the highlight of the trip to Japan were the toilets. All of the toilet seats in Japan (even in public spots) are heated, have fancy bidet options, and offer soothing nature sounds to cover other sounds (ahem). It honestly has been sort of hard to come back to clammy, cold, plain ol’ boring, no frills toilet seats.

+ We decided (after some imbibing of sake) to enjoy the public baths from natural springs coming from the mountains. The public baths are segregated by sex in Japan, and thank goodness, because you are required to experience the baths entirely in the nude (unless you have tattoos – if you have tattoos, they have stickers to cover them up) I was admittedly nervous and apprehensive before the experience, but once settling into the baths, it turned out to be a beautiful, accepting, lovely experience. There were women of all ages there, from the elderly all the way down to a little girl. I honestly found the Japanese bath experience to be a beautiful celebration of womanhood and femininity in all forms. I truly felt connected to my inner goddess. As I eased into the hot, bubbling waters, I melted into self-acceptance and into love for myself and for others. It was an experience that I will never forget, and I was grateful that I mustered up the courage to do it.

+ The food is amazing in Japan. Especially surprising to me, was just how good the coffee (I thought that the Japanese would just be about tea, but their coffee was so good, I would put it up there with Italian coffee) and bread were, but also, one time we had a gourmet meal of shrimp heads, cherry blossoms, eel, sea urchin, and octopus, and that meal was as totally delectable and delicious as the Japanese coffee and bread. The sushi in Japan is enormous and incredibly fresh. (I will never eat grocery store sushi again.) The Japanese have an unbelievable dedication and attention to detail that I have honestly never seen replicated anywhere else.

+ Everything is adorable in Japan. Everything. The food, the people, their voices, their clothes, their dogs etc. etc. Even things that are meant to be scary, are cute and funny. We were on a hike and the Japanese bear warning signs looked like something closer to beware of Yogi Bear or the Care Bears. I almost hoped that we would run into one (and I thought that if we did run into a Japanese bear, it just might be pink with a heart on its tummy). I bought so much “cute” stuff in Japan that we bought another suitcase, and of course, the Japanese storekeepers carefully wrapped and adorned each little item. We haven’t opened the sweet, carefully wrapped little packages yet, but it is going to be like Christmas when we do – a complete celebration of darling delights!

+ Speaking of adorable, in one restaurant we met a charming, older couple who turned out to be relatively famous in Japan. The husband was a renowned Japanese photographer and the wife (cute as a button) turned out to be the first Japanese Playboy Bunny ever. (She is now 75). They were both so welcoming, kind, cute and funny and I couldn’t help but feel that it was kind of ironic that the wife always covered her mouth when she giggled. (I guess that she felt it was more important to be humble and modest by covering her mouth, than by covering any of her other parts. I just don’t know. Regardless, she was a living doll.)

+ We were lucky enough to visit Japan during their cherry blossom season which only lasts one week, out of any year, at the height of its season. The cherry blossoms were beautiful and the wind made it look like it was snowing. Apparently, the Japanese government planted thousands of cherry blossom trees to give hope to their people after WWII, and it was entirely apparent just how much the Japanese revere these trees, and rightfully so. The cherry blossoms are breathtakingly beautiful, and maybe moreso, due to their fleeting beauty.

+ I don’t think I have ever experienced a culture that so perfectly blends its reverence for tradition, with its desire for expansion and technology than I have in Japan. It is so utterly fashionable to be able to appreciate the “old with the new” and to be able to blend it all together in a way that works, so interestingly and seamlessly. I have never witnessed this better done, than in Japan. I guess that I would call it “Ultra-modern vintage” or maybe just simply “perfection.”

+ But a word about “perfection” – we were reminded at a temple, that Asian cultures typically are sure to purposely add at least one “mistake” to their art, or to their rugs, or to their food, or to any of their creations, as a reminder that we can always do better. If we say that something is “perfect”, than there is only one way to go from there, and that is downhill, and this is not good. It is always best to leave at least a little room for “the best that is yet to come.”

+ When touring one of many intriguing temples (there are thousands of these Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. When in Europe, you tour old churches, and in the far East, you tour ancient temples and shrines. Which to me, is just a humbling reminder that there are many, many intriguing, gorgeous paths to God.), we met a young, newly married couple from Oregon who were farmers. On their off-season, they travel the world and they often “wing it.” When I expressed my amazement and awe with this “wing it” approach to global travel, the young woman said to me, “Well, in worst case scenarios, you can always rely on the “mothers.” No matter where you are in the world, the mothers are everywhere and they want to help you.” And at that moment, I swelled with pride. It made me feel marvelously happy to be part of the sacred tribe of international “mothers” – the safety net for us all.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.