I have been blogging for about two decades (yes, 20 years!) and I don’t think I have ever blogged about my travels or vacations – until now. I just came back from a 16-day vacation in Japan…and I’ve been blown away by the experience on so many levels. And, there were so many things I experienced that no one even told me about even though beforehand I watched a ton of videos on YouTube.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to read this blog post, I’ll give you the quick summary of my time in Japan. The one word I would use to encapsulate my time in Japan is empathy – the people and the culture are built to be empathetic to others and it shows in everything they do. If you continue to read on, you will understand what I mean. Let’s dig in.
We landed in Tokyo and from that moment forward it felt like people were there to help you. We had to ask someone where to get a particular train and that person must have walked with us for about 200 meters to show us exactly where to go. Usually in other countries you get the typical “it’s just ahead” and pointing in a certain direction. But in Japan, that person felt it was their DUTY to not only tell us where to go, but also physically show us the way. And, this happened repeatedly throughout our trip.
It was apparent that, whatever job someone has in Japan, they viewed it not as a job but their duty to perform the task at hand and exceed expectations. The kindness was everywhere, people bowing to you as a sign of respect for the simplest interactions.
Before I continue, I have to talk about the toilet tech. This is one of the things, that no one mentioned to me. Every single toilet I saw in Japan had some level of automation and at first it was very intimidating. The menu bar presented many options, several times they were not in English, leaving me puzzled as to the intended function of the various icons. But, after awhile I got used it and now I miss it! And more importantly, I can’t believe #toilettech made it into my blog post.
Being married to an architect, I’ve somehow become one as well. We would walk into a space and comment how it was made from the perspective of people, again they had empathy for the people that would end up using that space. Little details like a place for people to sit, railings for old people to use, ramps for suitcases, etc…
We visited the art islands of Naoshima and Teshima which were converted from a landfill into a tourist destination. The government of Japan asked several architects and artists to create structures, museum’s, and art installations for people to visit and provided a place for the artisans to show off their work. This is when I noticed the number of elderly people working at these museums. It was a way of having empathy for the older generation and give them meaningful work to keep them active as well.
Another unique service in Japan was the ability to get your luggage transferred between hotels. This luggage service was created to make it easier for people to travel around Japan when most people would be using the railway network and to drag your luggage around would be a major pain in the ass – again empathy for the traveler. The list goes on and on.
The Tokyo metropolitan area has a population of around 40 million people which makes it the most populous city on earth. However, in most instances you don’t feel the enormous crowds of people around you. Everyone is very respectful of your space and also all of them are obedient to follow the posted signs for directions…minus the one Indian I found at a museum who apparently could not read English. Reminds me of that saying “You can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian”.
In summary, I would HIGHLY recommend everyone to put Japan on the top of their travel list to visit soon. It’s a country that has changed my outlook on certain things and restores my faith in humanity when you see all the chaos that is happening around the world.
UPDATE 1- As a Marwadi, I was very happy and excited to learn that there is no tipping, it’s not in their culture.
UPDATE 2 – I didn’t mention the insane car culture because then this blog post would only be about cars. However, you can checkout my Instagram to see the Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition that I saw, 1 of 50 in the world.
celestri - virtual home of manish jain 