Japan Part 1

Japan with a Taiwanese tour group cannot be defined as fun, but more as good value the Taiwanese way. Everyday, we left the hotel at 8am, and returned at 5 or 6pm. We stopped at as many tourist attractions as possible. I think it also had something to do with the province we were in. Imagine spending 5 days touring a farming state like West Virginia. There really wasn’t a whole lot to see. We even went to see a tiny little museum of this Japanese politician who had no connection to Taiwan (or the world for that matter) whatsoever.

At any rate, it was good for me to see Japan again, the last time I visited was when I was 6, and I honestly don’t remember much of it. I was amazed at how much influence Japan had and still has on Taiwan. It’s not just how people dress or how similar the building styles are, but more importantly, Taiwanese people have retained a certain amount of cultural influence from the Japanese occupation days. For example, linguistically, Bread, (or “Pan” in French) is prounced as “Pung” in Taiwanese, a very similar pronunciation in Japanese.

Now the more fun part. The hotel rooms in Japan are very small compared to what I am used to in America. The last time I got rooms this small was in the midtown Hilton in New York. I suppose I shouldn't complain since I wasn't sleeping in a drawer in Tokyo.

Although I did get a bigger room later on. It wasn’t much bigger.

To be fair, I did get a much larger room the next night when I got a tatami room. It was kinda neat.

Imagine a 10’x15’ room that is just floor space, except instead of wood or carpet, it’s all tatami. (The bathroom was outside this tatami-floored room, between the door to the hotel room and the tatami room) When I arrived in the afternoon, there was simply a very short table in the middle of the room. The table is less than half the height of a normal table, since you sit cross-legged instead of on a chair. On the table, there was the typical hotel room accommodation: tea kettle, cups, tea, and a little bit of sweets.

After returning from dinner, the room was made up. The table was pushed to one corner, and the “bed” was moved to the center of the room. A very simple mattress pad (don’t be expectin’ pocketed coil springs), a pillow, and a comforter was setup.

I have seen many tatami rooms in my life, growing up in Taipei, but I have never stayed in a hotel room that is all tatami (minus the bathroom).

The best part of staying at these hotels was that they were all had their own hot spring and every night, we would go sit in these steaming pools and relax. I must say, the best pools were those outside. A light breeze and steaming hot spring really did it for me. I was told that although traditionally hot spring pools were co-ed, modern Japan has been influenced by western culture enough that most pools nowadays are no longer co-ed. And no, I didn’t get to go to one that is. One cool thing about these hotels is that they give you this really comfy bathrobe which is really made out of this think cloth, but they also give you a short “jacket” which is much thicker to go over the bathrobe. You can wear this “bathrobe” everywhere in the hotel, to dinner, to breakfast, to the hot spring bath.

On to this one dinner we had. The food was not the best (what do you expect when you are with a tour group), and the dinning room was just a big room with tatami. Everyone had a little miniature table filled with various kinds of Japan cuisine. We all set cross-legged. As you would expect, half an hour into it, blood stopped flowing to my lower legs, and an hour and 15 minutes later I almost couldn’t stand up.

The first night we got there, we were taken to a Geisha show. I would like to say that I really enjoyed it, but I just couldn’t understand the music and the dance. It’s like watching cricket, players look kinda nice in sweaters, but I have no appreciation of the game since I have no idea what is going on (and how on earth a match could go on for days). But Geisha show was an eye opener that was also enjoyable.

A nice, old styled “taxi” that was popular in Asia in the early part of the 20^th century was also on display.




We also went to a couple Japanese Buddhist temples. They were really nicely built.

Here is one noteworthy building. The roof is completely made out of straw. They stack on the straw layer after layer. However, the straw alone isn’t enough to keep the rain out. So, they would use the house part time in the winter, heating it up with firewood inside. Supposedly, the smoke would then fill the holes in between straw. A big roof can take up to 20 years to “fill” before it is ready to use. These roofs also have to be replaced every fee decades. There is a U.N. designated world history site somewhere in Japan consisting of a whole village because all or most of the houses there use this style roof.

I was told that these houses, while really cool in concept and look, are actually pretty cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I am not sure if it’s because the heat wasn’t on or the fire wasn’t burning when we went to visit, it was just as cold inside.

Anyway, there is another typical Japanese building here. For some reason, one temple is usually a collection of buildings. I guess this is not strange, I am just too used to the Chinese and European style religious sites: one cathedral, one temple.

There was also a flower show at one of the temples. The mums on display were truly different, if not outstanding.

I think this one actually won some competition.

You probably can’t tell from the picture, but the leaves are actually not pointy. They are just like regular mums in the U.S., except they are thinner, and curled up from the sides, that is why they look kinda thin.