Traveling to Tokyo

Ryan lives with three other guys in a little house on the outskirts of Tokyo. There is no furniture in this house save three fold up chairs and I am writing on a laptop sitting in the only 4 sq ft of floor space in their living/kitchen/sleeping room which isn't covered by bedsheets, bags, or cloths. They are men with few material needs.


Wow, Tokyo is completely different from Beijing. I hope I don't get jumped when I get back to China for saying this, but Tokyo is a lot cleaner, more orderly, more tourist friendly, and many more people know english than in Beijing.





Tokyo and Beijing are in many ways polar opposites:
- Japanese use crosswalks - Chinese just walk/bike in front of traffic.
- Japanese utilize stoplights and turning signals - Chinese don't. (unless there is a policeman in - the intersection)
- To enter a train, Japanese line up in two straight lines - Chinese push to get through the crowd.
- A meal that I can get in Beijing for $1 US costs $10 US in Tokyo.
- In Japan the store clerks and prostitutes don't assault you in the streets.
- All of the merchandise I saw in Tokyo was legit.
- In Japan the air is clean.
- The streets are clean.

There are a lot of politeness issues in Japan which don't exist in China. It is a social taboo to:
- Stare
- Enter a home or temple with shoes on
- Walk and eat at the same time
- Cross the street without using a crosswalk
- Put your towl in bathwater (I'll explain later)
- Do anything even borderline illiegal or rude
- etc.

I've had lots of fun these past two days. I played soccer with several American and Japanese students yesterday. After soccer, we went to the Onsen, a public bath house, which was quite a cultural experience. A bath house is a place with hot and cold tubs, green tea and aloe vera baths, and wet and dry saunas. The only catch for the unsuspecting American is that swimsuits are not allowed. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures! Guys and girls were seperate, so no worries there. The bath really was relaxing and fun (in a totally platonic way.) I had some amazing food afterward, too. I had no trouble sleeping that night!

Today Ryan took me to Sindoku (sp?) to visit the government building and a few parks and temples. Walking around the streets all day was really neat. Here are some pictures I got today:

Buddhist monks chanting at Takahatafuto

Takahatafuto Temple
Street Scene