Not lost in translation

Just over 1 month in and our first actual holiday in Asia. Japan! Trends in Tokyo and meetings with my team providing an opportunity for Roby to come and join me for a week of exploration. And what a country this is to explore....

It has seasons! We walk to restaurants, wearing a jumper in the cold evening air. As we enter all be staff say hello. Leaving the same restaurant all the staff say goodbye, in both instances like a chorus of singing.... arrigato sai mass....our Japanese is not sufficiently advanced to catch the words clearly. But that doesn't matter, the bowing and kindness are overwhelming.

Then the transit system. We are in Tokyo, the most populous metropolitan area in the world; over 37 million people living on top of each other, and it shows. The sense of claustrophobia we feel in Harajuku as we are going to the Meiji Shrine. Imagine Kings Cross station. Now fill it....fit people in until they can only shuffle slowly forwards. A domino chain, it would only take one person stumbling to send us all falling. And yet we all shuffle slowly and calmly out. Until... now imagine Oxford Street, and fill it. Pack people in until you can't physically change direction while walking, you flow with the people-stream towards the crossing. Then to Shibuya - one of the famous Japanese road crossings. I stand mesmerised, videoing the hundreds and hundreds of people crossing the road every 3 minutes, crisscrossing the junction until it empties, road traffic moves, people volumes build, cars are stopped, whoosh.....repeat...

Tokyo is huge, it's full, and yet it is clean and it works. And while people rush to get to where they are going, it is not in any way unpleasant. People try to help; the language may be a struggle but they never, NEVER simply shrug their shoulders, say "can't help mate" and walk off. 

We are lost in Tokyo central, and a member of Japan Rail approaches us. Need to find the Shinkansen to Kyoto. He helps identify the platform we need to get to, he tells us we will have an amazing time, he pats us both on the shoulder. I want to hug him back! First days wandering Kyoto, watching  someone cook using chopsticks, an expert as he turns a splot of batter into a small fried ball. I'm intrigued, I want to taste it. What's in it? The lady doesn't speak English....but she picks up a toy octopus, indicating that all their products have octopus inside. Not tonight, I'm sushi'd out. But maybe tomorrow. This country has been amazing so far! Can't wait to see what the next 5 days bring.