As per usual when I start these type of posts, I soon realised that I needed to break it up into more than one post. I think I will leave this topic at two however. So here we are. Part 2 of Curious Japan. There are more but I don’t want to make a part 3 etc… Where would it end? I may well capture some of them as I go with other posts about our trip (probably – let’s see).
In case you missed it the link to Part One is here
Swastika Symbols
Now this really is curious. Try this on your PC/Laptop or mobile phone:
Go to google maps and type in a Japanese city. Say, Hiroshima (my example below). Then search for (nearby) “temple”. What does it show? (zoom in if needed):
This is just the central area in a relatively small city in Japan. You can do the same for anywhere and those swastika symbols will appear.
To many this probably looks like something out of a Stephen Spielberg movie right? (If you know, you know.) But it should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about the origins of the swastika symbol. It is not, and never was, the property of the Nazi party in 1930s Germany.
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is in fact an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly found in various Eurasian cultures, as well as some North American ones. Unfortunately, in the West it is more widely recognized as a symbol of the German Nazi Party who appropriated it from Asian cultures in the early 20th century. Sadly the general perception of the swastika is amplified by Hollywood films regularly using it to depict nazis/2nd-world-war Germany and so on… Meanwhile in the real world the swastika has always been a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
In Japan the symbol means good luck and prosperity in its religious and spiritual sense. Occasionally you see it at a temple site.
It also appears on the Legend of printed maps in Japan – see below.
This is also a common symbol in India. I saw it a lot when I visited India back in the 1990s. The symbol is also historically found across Europe and was even used by North American native tribes on traditional head-dress. Native Indian school sports teams even displayed the symbol on their uniforms. I would urge everyone to go and research the history of the swastika before jumping to any conclusions.
Chopsticks
I know this is not exactly a secret but like most other countries in this part of the world Japanese people eat with chopsticks. I do not get it. I never have got it. It is clearly so much better to use a fork. Occasionally you see locals using forks for some food. So it is not just foreigners who are struggling with chopsticks (at least for certain foods). For a country so efficient in so many ways they still use incredibly inefficient eating tools. It just makes no sense.
And I won’t even get into the story of an English lad I knew (from my first time working in Spain) who claimed that the food tasted better when eaten with chopsticks. Yes. Someone actually said that; and he meant it. The mind boggles eh?
No Litter Bins – Yet No Litter
For a country with such large and crowded cities it is incredibly clean. Insanely so.
When you walk through a town or city there are never any litter bins. It is really hard to find them. So you can end up carrying your litter for some time before you can dispose of it. But as crazy as that sounds, it is a good thing.
While people are respecting their own (very) local environment so much it makes it easy for the councils to do their jobs. Less people are needed to constantly sweep and clean the streets – a common sight in Spain with local council workers hosing down the streets. It means councils can spend the money elsewhere on more important things. (Just guessing.)
When you get on a train it is super clean. When all passengers get off the train it is still clean. Like it doesn’t need cleaning. In Europe public transport can often get very trashed out. It is embarrassing (compared to Japan) how badly we behave when it comes to litter.
Incidentally the cleanliness of the streets and public transport extends to walls and “blank canvas” spaces. There is just no graffiti. At least I never saw any.
No Tattoos?
Natural hot springs (温泉, onsen) are numerous and highly popular across Japan. But if you want to spend time relaxing in an onsen you had better not have any tattoos.
The tattoo thing is clearly linked to gang culture in Japan. Members of the serious criminal gangs sport a lot of tattoos. So I understand the tattoo ban in these places. Such policy would never work now in places like Europe however, as tattoos have become more or less a ‘must-have’ fashion accessory.
Toilets
The toilets are generally the same as the ones I discovered in my culture shock introduction to Korea a few years back. I covered it in a post about Korea – click here for that one.
Great fun but over-complicated I would say.
Breakfast
You can get almost anything in a Japanese buffet breakfast. Not only (perhaps Western style) breakfasts of fruits, cereals and pastries. Including what most Westerners have come to expect as a cooked breakfast – aka the English/British breakfast fry-up.
Beef curry, various soups, fish, vegetables and of course rice. Pretty much everything you might expect to eat later in the day is on offer at breakfast time in the hotels we stayed in.
No Noise
For a country with so many densely populated cities it has to be the quietest place on earth. Very strange indeed. Eerily so in some ways. Even the boxing match I went to in Tokyo was relatively subdued. There was some cheering but mostly polite applause.
Japan is the antithesis of Spain when it comes to being a noisy/loud nation. The Spanish are reckoned by many to be the loudest country. Even by the Spanish themselves, who seem to take great delight in the title of being the noisiest bunch on planet Earth. If the Spanish are loud – and they are – then the Japanese are almost certainly the quietest.
But they do like to have a drink and let their hair down. They will have fun in much the same way as most other nations. When the drink flows in bars or restaurants they can be heard.
Mount Vic Flicks
