Grant's Pad: Nara

Sunday, October 12, 2014

2014 Vacation: Japan and Taiwan, Part I - Arrival and First Observations

And now, for a break from the Clan's China Adventures!

China celebrates it's National Holiday on October 1. However, unlike the weak one or two days off that other countries get on their National Holidays (e.g. Independence Day), most Chinese get to take seven straight days off. This was actually a proactive move by the Chinese government to encourage its citizens to take longer trips and boost domestic tourism. The move worked - these long 7-day holidays generate the largest human migrations on the planet as millions of Chinese either make trips to their hometowns or take vacations to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, or the Terra Cotta Army. As a result, it's actually crazy difficult to plan vacations within China during the long holidays (or any holidays, for that matter).

The fireworks that we didn't get to see this year

Therefore, for our first National Holiday in China, we decided to leave the country (and, sadly, miss what undoubtedly would have been a fantastic display of fireworks over the Huangpu River). Destination? The Land of the Rising Sun - Japan!

The kids were a little scared of the see-through floor in the play-area of Shanghai Airport

This is one of Shanghai Airport's best ideas ever

Looking at planes

You know you're in Japan when you're greeted by a poster like this one!

After arriving at Kansai International Airport, we managed to navigate our way to buy train tickets to get to the ancient capital of Japan - Kyoto.

Japan Observation #1: We were quite surprised to learn that pretty much no one in Japan speaks English - even at hotels and train stations. It was the first time in my life that I haven't really had any ability to communicate with anyone - in my previous travels, I'd always been able to get by using a combination of English, Chinese (or a variant of it), or Spanish (in Central America and Southern Europe). Now I know what it feels like when my co-workers come to China!

Japan Observation #2: Upon getting into the hotel room, we found everything to be very compact and tiny - a trait that, as it turns out, is fairly characteristic of urban Japan. For example, the chairs and sinks are all very short, short enough that Fifi was able to comfortably sit in them and reach everything without our help!

The hotels come with these awesome robes

Ready for action!

These powered toilets are also very common in Japan - you can get addicted to washing your butt...

For our first excursion, we took the train from Kyoto Station to another ancient capital, the nearby city of Nara.

Japan Observation #3: Japan is clean. Like, impeccably clean. What's more curious is that there appears to be very few (read: none) street sweepers that are picking up after everyone, and what more, there are very few trash bins in public areas. Yet, it is almost impossible to find any trash, be it plastic bags, pamphlets, cigarette butts, bits of paper, etc., in the streets at all! Even smokers were few and far in between. We could only conclude that Japan's cleanliness was, as advertised, a direct result of the people taking responsibility upon themselves to keep their country clean - a stark contrast from our experience thus far in China, where people spit in the streets and toss garbage anywhere they feel like it (because usually there are street sweepers to pick up the mess). We would also later learn that much of Japan has designating smoking zones where smokers do their thing, and no, it's not in every bathroom in the country - in Japan, they mean it when they say no smoking in the bathroom. The Japanese take their cleanliness so seriously that they have a vehement dislike for shoes on surfaces that are not meant for walking... outside. When we were on the train, an elderly gentleman expressed unhappiness when Baby Lukas' shoes were touching the bus seats (since his legs, you know, don't reach past the seat)... This was perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Japan that we observed.

Kyoto Tower watches over Kyoto Station

Note how ridiculously clean it is - especially considering that it's a train station!

Seven Elevens (and similar convenience stores) grace train stations and street corners everywhere in Japan

Mini-observation: Beer (and cigarettes) can be had straight out of vending machines - no carding needed. In fact, pr0n is also readily available on public television and at newsstands... no photos of that for you today, though!

After a short and clean train ride, we arrived in the city of Nara, where we hopped on a bus to see the sites around the famous Nara Park.

Japan Observation#4: Transportation is crazy expensive in Japan. Our 2 minute taxi ride from the train station to our hotel cost 600 Yen (about 6 dollars), compared with a typical 10-14 RMB (about 2 dollars) for a similar ride in China. Bus tickets seemed to start at around 150 Yen (about $1.50 USD), compared with starting prices of less than 1 RMB (15 cents USD) in China. And, when we would later take the famous Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo, it cost over 10000 Yen per ticket (over $100 USD) - a similar ride in China (which has a faster bullet train) would run around 200 RMB (or $30 USD)!

Buses in Japan are very clean and very expensive. They're also a little confusing the first time around, as you pull a ticket which will let you know how much you owe if you want to get off at the current stop. You're expected to have the fare ready before you get off, in exact change, and there is a change machine at the front of the bus.

Nara was the capital of Japan in the 8th century, but today it's a fairly humble (by Asian standards) town of around 350,000. Today, it's famous for its park (and its free-roaming deer) and its numerous Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines. Our primary sightseeing was the park and the Kasuga Shrine, where we even witnessed a Shinto wedding!