[Pat]

By popular demand here are some photos of my trip to Japan. My family lives in a very famous town called Sekigahara. Here's the view from the driveway. Yeah, that street is one car-width wide.


Sekigahara is a small town out in the country situated between two mountain passes. More on this in a bit.



Just up the road from my house it's very wooded. The bamboo groves are quite peaceful.



Sekigahara is famous because the most decisive battle in Japanese history took place there. In American terms it's about the equivilent of the Battle of Gettysburg. On September 15, 1600 the collected armies of the East and the West met in the small narrow pass on the plain. 160,000 troops fought and in 6 hours over 40,000 men were dead. It's said the streams ran red with the blood of the slain. In the end, Tokugawa had crushed his enemy and controlled the fate of the nation; within three years he crowned himself Shogun and essentially unified all of Japan. Everywhere you walk in town there are small memorials and plaques of historical significance. So-and-so lord died here. So-and-so person defended this area, etc.


Here's an example of some of the terrain not too far from my home. Behind me, believe it or not is a 7-11 convenience store.

[Pat]

In Japan trains are the cheapest way to get around. The closest fun towns to Sekigahara are Ogaki and Gifu. A train ride into Gifu was about 2 hops at about 500 yen a pop. That's maybe $10 US.


If that sounds like a lot consider that most of the highways are tollways. To Nagoya it costs about 1800 yen ($18 ) one way. With gas between $3-5 a gallon you can see a quick trip into town adding up pretty quick. The trains are very fast and very punctual.


This is a typical street in Nagoya, where I spent a considerable amount of time.


This is a backtreet in Ogaki. I found an awesome curry shop just around the corner.


Japan's got some serious telephone lines. I'm interested in that sort of thing, so I took a lot of shots.

[Pat]

In Nagoya I visted a Shinto Shrine. This picture looks nice and sunny but it was about 38 degrees out.


Ah, the wall of Sake.


I just had to eat at a McDonalds. It's essentially the same. My Big Mac combo meal was 650 yen, which is a little over $6. It's a little more expensive than it's US counterpart, but it came with these strange spring-roll curry/tomato things I thought were pies. They weren't.


Visiting Japan is like going 10 minutes into the future. Everything is kind of familiar but different and futuristic. Check out this Toyota.


MmmmmMMmmm. Tako Yaki. Yeah, that's an Octopus in there. It was tasty.

[Pat]

While I was in Ogaki I stopped off at the local castle. Although small it's an important castle since it served as the staging ground for the Battle of Sekigahara. It was mostly destroyed in the air raids of WWII, so it's partly reconstructed.


Here's some cool samurai armor from the time.


Pay Phones are now all green in Japan. Well, at least the ones that take coins and cards. They used to be all red --I don't know what happened.


Ah, the fabled Pocari Sweat. It's delicious. I also happen to like Calpis, which is like Pocari Sweat but more.... milky? I have a strange facination with vending machines. The Japanese sell just about anything in those things. I saw newspapers, ramen, beer, coffee, cold drinks, vitamin drinks, train tickets, phone cards, tv cards, highway cards etc etc. I even saw one that sold warm hot dogs!


Lastly, a lovely persimmon tree.

[-HoodZ-]

nice pics pat how long did you stay in Japan?

[Intuos]

Best Sijun geographic ever.

[Drunken Monkey]

This is one of the coolest posts in a long while. I knew I always wanted to visit there but now i really do!

Considering the prices, i assume the minimum wage in Japan is not $6.75 ;] ?
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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity" - Sigmund Freud

[Max]

Now that is cool. Very nice photos. reminds me on shenmue kinda.......

[Gort]

Hi Pat - thanks for sharing your pictures with us! I especially enjoyed the historical references - makes me want to go check it out. Thanks again!
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Chris]

Nice. amazing how different a place can be. That car was just weird to see, you just don't see stuff like that in the states.
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[Giant Hamster]

Pure bad-assity

[merlyns]

I missed a typical japanese small mobile phone shop. you know those really tiny ones I like those shops. *asks himself: whats the matter with me?*

-david
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[Chthonic Divinity]

wow awesome
really makes me want to visit
that octopus thing looks wretched though, especially with that white goo.

[Periadam]

That car reminds me of a "futuristic" car I once saw in footage of the detroit auto show... so very cool. Why is it that we don't get these sorts of things in N. America?

And I too now I want to visit Japan.
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Under communism, man exploits man. Under capitalism, it's just the opposite.

Peri.

[Pat]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

-HoodZ- I was in Japan for about 11 days this time --which was about as much time as I could get away from my job. I wished it could have been longer.

Intuos - wow, thanks.

Drunken Monkey - I asked about that actually. If I understood correctly the minimum wage was close to 750 yen per hour, which works out to a little under $6.60 an hour US.

Max Kulich - Yeah, that game is very accurate looking. Yu Suzuki is the man!

Gort - Thanks. There's quite a few books on the historical aspects of Sekigahara so if you're interested the info's fairly easy to dig up.

Chris - Yeah, right? While I was there I was astounded at the number of strange looking Daihatsus and Toyotas I saw. But interestingly enough, I saw maybe only 3 Hondas total the entire time I was there. For some reason they're more popular here in the US than in Japan.

Giant Hamster - Heh heh, thanks. You know the most popular anime show in Japan was Hamtaro?

merlyns - Huh?

Chthonic Divinity - That white goo was actually mayonnaise. It's not the same as US mayonnaise though, but close enough.

Periadam - I think the Japanese are secretly keeping all their cool stuff to themselves and giving us the boring or rejected car designs.

I did see quite a few English-speakers while I was travelling --more and more every time I go back. This time I spoke with some of them and discovered quite a few of them were actually Canadian. Weird. English speakers who stick to major cities like Tokyo/Narita usually do well since there are quite a few people who can understand you. English is manditory for all students so you might have better luck talking to younger kids. A lot of them relish the chance to practice with a native speaker. While I wouldn't recommend travelling to Japan without a passing understanding of the language, I was amazed at how much English is in use --on signs, in conversations, etc.

[Chris]

I can't wait till there is only one lanuage throughout the world. I don't care if it is english or not, let's just pick one

btw, that's odd, no hondas there. Yeah we love our hondas, good gas miliage and easy to mod/customize
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[gezstar]

nice pics, pat. i'm half-japanese myself, and i'm moving there in the future with my fiancee (you guessed where she's from ). good to see someone else interested in japan on sijun.

chris, you want one language in the world... dude you'll be asking for only one style of music and one brand of beer next

[Chris]

LOL!
Nah, I would never NEVER only want one brand of beer!
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[Spooky]

Sijun Geographics, again another good reason to frequent the forums! I've always been fascinated with Japan and I was pleased to see the amount of photos you posted. Everytime I think I have a grasp on the expansiveness of the world, it gets even broader and more fascinating with each photo and story.

[Lunatique]

Awesome, Pat. It's so cool that even in the more country-side Japan, it's still clean and organized. Such a contrast compared to China.

Ya, why is it that we get the boring designs from Japan? They feel that we can't handle all that coolness?

When I visited Japan waaaay back in 83' I felt like I was in a Sci-Fi movie. Everything was so high-tech, clean, organized, cool, well-designed..etc.

It's kind of strange to me that most Japanese think it's a step up in life to go to America(most Asians tend to think that). They long for the romanticism, freedom, and individualism that's seems to represent the U.S. from Hollywood films, TV shows, Rock music..etc. But is it really a step up in life? What's your take on this? For me, I would say that the U.S. is a much less materialistic society compared to Asian countries. The pressure of succeeding financially in Asian society is suffocating, especially in big cities like Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo...etc.

[Pat]

Lunatique, in my opinion the Japanese aren't any more materialistic than Americans. The Japanese are preoccupied with recources --but this is understandable as they live on an island. Maybe it goes a little beyond that; it's culturally engrained in them to not waste anything and it's a behavior which is socially reinforced. For instance, most homes and apartments are heated by kerosine space heaters --central air is uncommon. Even in homes with central air a lot of owners opt to use space heaters. The Japanese feel that heating a room which is empty is a waste. They're thrifty like this with food, money and well... everything. It's kind of like a society of "Grandmothers who lived through the Depression" saving even little bits of string because they might be useful. American culture seems positively decadant in comparison.

As for succeeding financially, there's about as much pressure as in America. Japan is expensive but their pay reflects this. There's far more pressure to perform well academically and to simply pitch in and work. One person's task becomes everyone's task if time allows --and bitching about it is bad form. Whatever you're doing you're expected to give it your all because everyone else is doing the same for you. It's hard to explain how this system works unless you see and feel it in action. But it does. You know that Big Mac I took a picture of above? It was the neatest Big Mac I've ever seen in my life --the kid who made it took a measure of pride in constructing it. That's because in his society he's told it's a good thing to be a good burger maker, even though it's a shit job. And if he excels at his task, no matter how menial *or* important, he will be respected. In America, our society tells kids that flipping burgers is for losers so my Big Macs here always have too much sauce and are flopping over because they we're just tossed into the box. There's no sense of pride. Aside from the cash, there's a whole other currency in effect here.

Just my $.02.

-Pat

[Lunatique]

It seems Japan, although have some of the common Asian traits, are quite different from the Chinese or the Korean.

Take the pride thing for example. Not at all the same in Chinese or Korean society. Most people slack off when given the chance. It's funny that even though the Chinese hate the Japanese with a burning passion, they do respect how hardworking and advanced the Japanese society is.

The financial pressure thing is very obvious in Chinese society(and Korea). People directly judge you based on how much you make and what kind of a job you have. It's quite disgusting. That sort of thinking is in every country, but the severity of it drastically increases once into the Chinese territory.

One thing I see all the time is that waiters and waitresses are treated like sub-humans here in China. I once explained to Elena that I would never behave like that. Her explaination for the behavior was that waiters and waitresses in China are unskilled losers who couldn't do anything else in life, while waiters and waitresses in the U.S. could very well be a university student about to get his masters degree, or an aspiring filmmaker with incredible talent...etc. How do waiters/witresses get treated in Japan?

The politeness of the Japanese seemed very odd to me when I was in Japan. I've never seen a complete stranger bow so low to another stranger like that before I went to Japan. It was a similar feeling when I moved to the U.S.. Strangers would smile and say hi to you. Try doing that in China or Taiwan, and people will think you are mentally ill.

Some Japanese friends of mine seem to dislike many of the Japanese traditions and society structure. They complained that the Common Japanese mindset is like sheep following the herd(live concerts in Japan = audience copying every gesture the singer makes on stage. Kinda disturbing.)--so homogenized that they might as well be programmed robots. They felt that individualism is frowned upon and the only way to be accepted is if you were like everyone else. I found that attitude to be a bit extreme, since Japan's definitely got its own share of freaky trend setters. Another thing my Japanese friends complained about is the "fakeness" that comes with all that politeness. People never say what's on their mind, and they are always polite, even though they hate your guts. I don't think that's a Japanese specialty. God knows I've seen enough two-faced people in the American society as well.

[Daijoobu]

Nice pictures Pat!

I spent a summer in Gifu, Nagoya and a little mountain town called Gu jo hachi man and these really bring back memories of that great, great summer (although I can assure you that it was alot hotter then than what it seems to be in the photos)
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-They will say that I have shed innocent blood. What's blood for, if not for shedding?

[Pat]

Japan has changed a lot in the past 10 years. It's hard to overstate the amount of influence American culture has had on the Japanese. In a society that is very well defined and NOT prone to change, the US has had a very disrupting effect. You can get away with individualism now as long as you still conform to your role's responsibility. So it's sort of a half improvement. For instance, if you're a young student you can have that freaky hair cut /color and obsess over car modifications as long as you maintain your grades and don't slack off, because that's your primary responsibility. Like many things Japanese, the unwritten law is that you can indulge here with the condition that your core Japanese values are not compromised. It's a very curious aspect of Japanese culture that they can take and take and take from other cultures but still remain distinctly Japanese. The system is sort of self-regulating because you actually can't function in Japanese society if you don't have these values.

There is a "fakeness" that can be associated with all the politeness --and I don't think that's ever going to change. But by and large the respect afforded you is genuine, or at the very least simply traditional. The problem here, as you mention, is in every society there are two-faced people.

Everyone seems to forget that Japan was a millitary nation for thousands of years. For most of their history they were embroiled in civil wars so their society evolved around that. Just like in our military, questioning orders is a disasterous practice in the heat of battle, so this trait is frowned upon. Other traits such as teamwork and cooperation can be critical for success in battle --and at one time their very lives depended on mastering these skills. So even in times of peace these practical traditions remain.

As for waiters, they're treated like waiters here in the US. It's not the greatest job in the world, but you've got to pay the bills. Frankly, I think most people don't notice them unless they fail to do their job somehow.

I think there's a natural tendency to judge someone by what they do or how much money they have. Thank goodness it's not the sole criteria in the US or Japan --that would be maddening.

-Pat