Since my last update I have survived the madness of the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan (I'll let those pictures speak for themselves) and ventured north east to explore the areas around Tokyo and Kansai, Japan.
Japan... Aahh Japan! My now unfathomly rapid journey through this magnificent country has been a whirlwind of impressions, emotions, confusion, clarity, tranquility, contrasts and harmony.
Japan is tall skyscrapers and idyllic countryside, frantic labor and quiet zen, lightning fast Shinkansen and peaceful village strolls, high pitched and low key, incredibly formal and down to earth, foreign and familiar, spiritual and mundane, sacred and profane, high tech and primitive, Western and Asian, endearing and repulsive, reasonable and mad and oftentimes just downright odd - but most of all, Japan is distinctly, charmingly and uniquely Japanese.
Arriving in Tokyo I was for the first time on this journey truly inconvenienced by the fact that I am travelling alone, for one single reason; I immediately found myself turning towards the first person next to me every 5 minutes with the desire to go "did you just fucking SEE that!??", only to repeatedly find a Japanese person with no English capabilities wholly unimpressed by whatever mind boggling situation had caught my attention.
This inconvenience was quickly forgotten though, as I have been accompanied by incredible friends both new and old throughout my visit - all of whom I owe a great debt of gratitude and cannot wait to revisit.
Japan is an incredible Mecca for anyone intrigued by foreign cultures, and the impressions with which I have been bombarded over the past weeks are simply too numerous to adequately recount. The cultural differences between here and South East Asia, let alone Europe, are vast, and most immediately apparent is the fact that very many Japanese don't speak any English. And I mean *ANY* English. Add to that the interesting conundrum that in a society as modern as the Japanese, most signs, bulletins, menus etc. are written only in Kanji, and you have a formidable communicative challenge on your hands. A 15 minute instructional monologue from the receptionist at my day 1 hotel in Tokyo, of which I understood approximately 0%, was the first clear indication that I would come to truly appreciate the help of my Japanese companions in the following days.
The second thing that struck me was how the Japanese, unlike, say, the Cambodians, are very wary of being approached in the street and seem initially reserved to a degree almost comparable to northern Europeans. However, once the ice is broken and they're convinced you're not about to stab them, complete strangers will walk with you for 15 minutes at night in the opposite direction to make sure you catch your train or find your hotel, generously offer you gifts, eagerly practice their limited English vocabulary and happily praise your pitiful attempts at Japanese pronunciation.
The third major difference - quite possibly the best of all - was the noticeable absence of Western tourists! Not once have I spoken to a foreigner in my travels from Tokyo through to Nara (which is a definite first for the 5 countries visited on my itinerary so far), and although gap year backpackers are an awesome crowd for the most part, this has been a very pleasant surprise.
In the past weeks I have seen crazed businessmen dance with glowsticks in maidbars in Akihabara's Electric City, I have played Street Fighter like it's meant to be played in 8 story SEGA arcades, said a prayer at Sensoji temple and ascended the towering Skytree in Asakusa, shared beers with the locals of strange little bars in Nihonbashi, walked around the expensive shopping district of Ginza, consumed the best sushi known to man in Tsukiji, slept in space capsules and peeked into positively strange 'girl bars' in the red light district of Shinjuku, partied with the young Tokyolites in Shibuja, gone moonlight hiking in the parks and paid a visit to the last samurai in Ueno and strolled through the streets of Harajuku. I have explored Yokohama and the Kirin brewery on foot (with a little help from my excellent personal tour guide - and errr... Google Maps! ;D ), slept in kimonos on tatami mats in a traditional ryokan and visited the temples and Japanese gardens of Kyoto. I have sung karaoke with 60-year old izakaya regulars, celebrated Halloween in Osaka's Dotonburi with the most impressively dressed up crowd I have ever seen, hung out in 24-hour manga comic cafés, established a personal fan club of Japanese high school girls in Universal Studios, been invited into Japanese homes, been attacked by angry deer and subjected myself to (excruciatingly painful) zazen meditation in Nara. I have gorged myself in criminal amounts of sushi, sashimi, ramen, udon, somen, tokoyaki, yakitori, okonomiyaki, hakozushi, tempura, soba, mizo, mochi and other extraordinary dishes I never properly learned the names of. I have had the pleasure of sharing gratuitous amounts of Japanese beer and amazing sake with fantastic people and have picked up just enough Japanese to be able to get through a meal without offending the host - and so much more that for the first time in my life I have begun keeping a small diary to avoid forgetting all the details.
Perhaps most importantly, I have thoroughly enjoyed every second of my adventures in this enchanting foreign land and am, once again, sitting here at the airport, wondering why on earth I am about to leave. Fortunately, nothing prevents me from eventually returning (except perhaps the red number column on my mobile banking app, because as my bank lady would diligently point out, Japan is not Cambodia), and hopefully my next destination has something even just half as fascinating to offer!
Thanks for now Japan, and see you soon!
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I have now been travelling for more than two months, and am more or less at the end of the itinerary I planned out in advance from home. If I were to be broke and go home tomorrow, everything I have experienced in the past 65 days would already have made all the preparations and all the money spent far more than worth it. However, I still have about 10 months to go! Whatever comes beyond this point is pure (and very ill researched) improvisation. Wish me luck! :D
PICTURES (Full Moon and Koh Phangan): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152219983682262.1073741839.649632261&type=1&l=14bf046029
PICTURES (Tokyo and Yokohama): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152220006192262.1073741841.649632261&type=1&l=3659917891
PICTURES (Kyoto and Osaka): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152220061827262.1073741843.649632261&type=1&l=1ab6c81474
PICTURES (Nara): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152220097457262.1073741845.649632261&type=1&l=69901c9817
