JAPAN, I had been told, is one of the most intriguing countries in the world: mystical, cultural, and old-as-forever … yet future-focused, hi-tech-crazy, and overflowing with wonderful weirdness. So, accompanied by my wife and some Mad Midlife friends, I left the Land of the Long White Cloud and flew to the Land of the Rising Sun, hoping to fill in a few blanks.
Here, for your inspiration and edification, is some random Japan-stuff I never knew …
- Japan’s population is 126 million – with a mere 37 million crammed into Tokyo – and is the only nation on earth that still has an Emperor.
- Japan boasts more than 6,800 islands, with a land area of 377,887 km2. (NZ’s three main islands total 268,021 km2.)
- The bow is the customary way to greet people, and Japanese work hard to perfect it. The lower you bow, the more respect you show.
- Horse meat, sliced thinly, and eaten raw with ginger and onion, is a popular entrée: ‘basashi’.
- It’s rude to leave chopsticks standing upright in your bowl of rice. And just as rude to spear food, drum your chopsticks on the table, wave them around to get attention, or use them to scratch your itchy back.
- Japanese males used to apologise by shaving their heads – and females did the same after breaking up with a boyfriend.
- The Japanese live longer than most folk – averaging 84 years. (Must be all that sushi!)
- Most homes and restrooms have toilets that talk to you, spray your bum, dry it off, and even play music while you do your business. (Gotta get one …)
- Ladies in ancient Japan used to blacken their teeth with dye, as white teeth were considered ugly – “exposing too much bone”.
- Young sumo-wrestlers are traditionally required to bathe the veteran sumo-wrestlers (including those hard-to-reach places) at their wrestling ‘stables’. (Eww!)
- Geisha means ‘person of the arts’ – and the first geishas were actually men.
- Japan has a gazillion vending machines, one for every 23 people: eggs, flowers, canned bread, pantyhose, hot noodles, cold sake, batteries, umbrellas, you name it – a vending machine probably stocks it.
- Slurping your noodles isn’t rude – just the opposite. When chowing down on a bowlful, there’s only one way to eat … and that’s noisily. So slurp away!
- Half the world’s zips are made in Japan. If your zip has YKK stamped on it, it was made (along with seven billion others each year) by the Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha company.
- The number four is highly unlucky – because four in Japanese (‘shi’) sounds too much like their word for death. So buildings don’t have a fourth floor … goods are sold in sets of three or five … etc.
- There’s a bizarre naked festival – ‘Hadaka Matsuri’ – where thousands of men strip down to their ‘fundoshi’ (loincloths) in public, to secure a fortune-filled year.
- Okay, one more. The Japanese love wacky tastes: like eel-flavoured icecream … green-tea flavoured KitKats … wasabi-flavoured chocolates. (Good for clearing your sinuses!)
MY TOP JAPAN GOTTA-DO’S:
- TEAHOUSES: step inside an ancient wooden teahouse for an exquisite Japanese experience.
- TOKYO: explore glittering streets and towers, markets and gardens, plazas and sacred relics.
- SAKURA: marvel at gorgeous cherry blossoms, erupting in pink & white all over the country
- JIGOKUDANI: delight in the curious antics of wild snow-monkeys soaking in hot thermal pools.
- BUDDHAS: don’t just walk past – pause, look and learn – talk, take photos and show respect.
- HIROSHIMA PEACE DOME: roam this stark, sobering memorial to that first awful atom bomb.
- SHINTO SHRINES & Buddhist temples: they’re old, everywhere, and beautifully looked after.
- FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD: best thing we did was eat our way around Japan – and you can too!
- ARASHIYAMA BAMBOO GROVE: lose yourself in this towering forest of thick green bamboo.
- GEISHA SHOW: enjoy a performance by painted, kimono-clad beauties in their ‘geta’ (clogs).
- MT FUJI: ride a ropeway (cable-car) for eye-popping views of Japan’s iconic, snow-capped peak.
- FACES: stop rushing around like a tourist – just sit a while, smile at folk and say “Konichiwa …”
