GrumbleSmiles

This is one of a series of blogs which describe my trip to Japan in April 2012.  To see earlier blogs in the series, click on “Japan Odyssey” in the Tag Cloud.

Half-way through our holiday we travel from Tokyo to Kyoto on the renowned the bullet train.   Our luggage had been sent ahead the previous day  —  there is no room, or more especially, boarding time for messing around with luggage on the Shinkansen !   After our first day encounter with the super efficiency of Japanese Railways ( See the blog by clicking on the Archive  dated April 5 2012 ) we did not dare be late for the train.   So we set off  to Shinagawa station at 9.30am to catch the 11.56 am train   —   Hakari Express116 coach 12 seats 6A and 6C  —  with Mr J.R.’s instructions still ringing in our ears from 5 days before.   There was no-way we were going to let him down by missing the train. 

  The station is vast and the Shinkensen has it’s own set of platforms.   So we start by heading for the Information Office, for some easy turn-left, turn-right, up-the-escalator, turn-right, turn-left directions.   I think we got lost after the second turn-right, still we retraced our steps and they seemed  pleased to see us at the Information Office again 🙂    Next time we listen more carefully and do exactly as we were told.   Then we arrive at the ticket barrier and remembering  Mr JR’s instructions,  ” men are better than machines”, we don’t use the ticket machines.

In spite of our muddled wanderings, the station is organised, spotlessly clean and well provided with food shops offering a huge variety of boxed take-away suchi snacks.   The newsagents are full of manga comics and sudoku puzzles, but no English newspapers.  Nearer the platform, each coach has it’s own waiting room including a Starbucks and a row of computer terminals.

The platform has clear signs  —-  all in Japanese.   Once again they are sparkle- clean, to the point where you can sit on the floor  without getting your coat dirty.   This young mother wth her baby had no problem finding a space to sit, although seats might be a good inovation for old men with dogy western knees.

Trains arrive and depart every few minutes from each platform.  A few minutes before your train is due to arrive —  but not too soon in case you get swept off to Okinawa — you line up in a little marked box.   The train stops exactly at your marked carriage point.   All the train doors open automatically.     A quick ‘squirt’ of passengers spill from Coach 12, then with a short intake of breath the train ‘sucks’ on-board the line-up of new passengers in the box marked 12, which includes me and Tom.    A guards whistle and off we go, in less than two minutes, —-but it didn’t feel rushed.

The carriage is five seats wide with a larger than UK style central aisle.   So the trains must be wider than the UK.   All the seats are reserved in advance.   Soon up to 200 miles an hour, we speed through lots of tunnels and built up areas, almost all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto.   Small two storey detached houses interspersed with office blocks and industry.   A flat plain, bordered on one side with a range of heavily forested mountains,  the coast line is never far away on the other side.   Certainly you get the sense that this is a nation squeezed into a very small island.   Building space is in short supply.

 Add the jam-packed trains and crowded Tokyo streets, and just maybe you can begin understand the masks ???????

Sony, Panasonic, Suzuki, Toshiba, Nikon, Mitsubishi – flash by the window like railway ticker tape.     Global Japanese names dotted about in relatively small factories and office buildings.

First stop after an hour at Tokyo Hashi.   At the sound of a “bing bong”, a few people get up and put on their coats,  all are standing in the aisle when the train arrives.   All off in a 20 second ‘squirt’.   All new passengers on in another 20 second ‘suck’.   Train leaves in one minute 40 seconds.

Quarter of an hour later, next stop Nagoya.      Another one minute 40 second stop.

One unusual thing is that every member of the train staff, from the coffee lady to the ticket collector, as they walk through the carriage , stop as they exit the coach, turn around to face the passengers and bow their head – even if no one is looking.

Our final stop, all passengers due to get off are already in the aisle again.   No rocking about on this train, or abrupt stops.   After an announcement in excellent English, Tom and I are duely ‘squirted off’ at Kyoto.

This is one of a series of blogs which describe my trip to Japan in April 2012.  To see earlier blogs in the series, click on “Japan Odyssey” in the Tag Cloud.

Takashimaya is an upmarket department store in Kyoto.   We went there to see a Marc Chagall exhibition.   Not exactly the normal way to use valuable retail floor space !    Since we were directed to the “exhibition hall” it is evidently in frequent use for this cultural purpose.   The gallery was well attended and not full of shopping bag carrying temporarily diverted customers.

As lunchtime was approaching, we went to the food department with counter after counter of unrecognisable delicacies.   As you pass by each section, the assistants shout a high-pitched “welcome” at you, like fruit and veg market stall holders in the UK.   Walking by the fresh delicatessen counter which had about ten assistants, set them all off in unison.  Clucking like a coup of squawking chickens.

We finally found the Sushi bar and expected to go in and be able to select one or two samples of food for a light lunch.   First problem was the door again – we could not see in, so when we entered we were surprised to find ourselves in a tiny room with a counter only big enough for a dozen seats —  with a white aproned chef and only one waitress.   Next problem – the menu was all in Japanese – no pictures and no English speakers.    So we pointed at the mid priced set meal and hoped for the best.    We were not disappointed – individual bowl after bowl of food was placed before us.

It was all interesting, although we had no idea what most of it was.    After about an hour and ten courses, we were presented with a plate with one real chilled strawberry and a quarter of grapefruit which turned out to be delicious jelly.    This looked like the last course, but we were only certain when the people at the end of the counter got up and left.

Another surprise experience behind a closed-door.

Next some gift shopping.    I went to browse in the homeware department.    I obviously looked lost after ten minutes of aimless wandering and an assistant approached and offered to help.     When it was apparent I could not speak Japanese, she apologised and fetched someone who spoke fluent English and proceeded to be my personal shopper.  Each time I selected something, she picked up the plastic label off the display and someone else came and took it them away.    When I had finished my selection, she ushered me to sit down at a table.   All my selections were already waiting neatly laid out in front of me.    I was asked to check these were the correct items and then to choose a wrapping paper and colour of ribbon.    I was just wondering how I would keep track of what was in each box, when I was asked to put the name of the intended recipient on a strip of paper.  Then all the presents were taken away.    Within five minutes they were all returned wrapped, ribboned and protected with bubble wrap with the small paper name-tag labels attached.

  A brilliant lesson in customer service !

As I left, I passed another exhibition in the store.   This time a big room sparsely filled with displays of ikebana flower arrangements.   The attendants were all ladies in Kimonos.

I could even get to like shopping if it was all done in this way 🙂

                                    THANKFULLY IT WON’T BE

This is one of a series of blogs which describe my trip to Japan in April 2012.  To see further blogs in the series, click on “Japan Odyssey” in the Tag Cloud.

When I leave my hotel room each day I try to leave it tidy, but my idea of tidy falls a long way short of tidy by most people’s standards.  Certainly my wife tells me frequently enough.  That said by Japanese hotel standards I am not even close.  They do all the things that any hotel housekeeper does – replace the used towels, clean around everywhere, make the bed and put clothes back into wardrobes and draws.  Nothing unusual about any of that.

However, there are noticeable differences that go beyond that in Japan.  Immediately you walk back into your room the curtains haven’t just been drawn back, the lace shear has been evenly pleated so precisely that you assume it must have been done with a ruled template.  Similarly, in the bathroom, they haven’t just replaced all the soaps and lotions you have used, but a new variety of bath salt – “herbal” has replaced yesterday’s “citrus” – to bring you health and happiness.

Towels have been refolded and placed long on the high rail and short on the low rail.  Used dressing gown, not just hung up but expertly folded and tied with the belt as it was when we first arrived.

Tissues are all triangle tidy, as are the toilet rolls.

Even my toothbrush, toothpaste and razor have been repositioned with all the other items to match the alignment of the sink basin.

It makes you want to keep the room tidy yourself.

MAYBE THAT’S THE LESSON

P.S.

It does not stop there  —-  all hotel corridors are spotless and clutter-free  — except for the occasional decorative item.  Here are some examples :-

This last one is something really special 🙂

This is one of a series of blogs which describe my trip to Japan in April 2012.  To see further blogs in the series, click on “Japan Odyssey” in the Tag Cloud.

Like our hotel door to 16th floor lobby experience, we emerge from the underground into the light of a Shinto Shrine.

Our Meewa guide turns out to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Meiji Shrine.   The park was built near the beginning of the 20th century with trees planted by 10,000 volunteers.    90 years on it is one of the three largest man-made forests in the world.    The others being the Bois du Boulogne in Paris and Central Park in New York.    We enter through a massive wooden gate constructed with two single cedar tree posts brought from Hong Kong.

One of the first things we saw on the pathway leading up to the Shrine, were offerings to the many Gods.  There are 180 Shinto Gods and judging by the wall of Saki barrels that were left for them, they must have been heavy drinkers.

As we walk up the wide paths through the wonderland of specimen trees, we occasionally pass a be-masked fellow wanderer, surely missing the point of this fresh air lung in the city.    On the approach to the Shrine, the path widens and is framed by an advertising hording sized gallery depicting the history of the park.    Even the people with masks stop to admire them, but they still don’t take their masks off.

At the next turn in the path, a man with a rake has a Forth Bridge job of raking flat the loose gravel scuffed up by all the visitors.    He shows no sign of concern about new visitors approaching his freshly levelled work, more like pride that they can walk on a smooth leafless path.    His job is to keep the path looking today as it did on the day he first started in the job.    Change is in the hands of the God of the Seasons.

Before we were able to enter the Shrine, we had to cleanse ourselves of any impure thoughts.  There is a small washing place and Meewa shows us the ritual of washing our left hand first, then our right hand, then cupping water into our cleaned right hand and swilling our mouth.  I don’t know if it worked but we tried.

After this, there are no more photographs as you weren’t allowed to film inside the Shrine.

The Japan Odyssey continues as we emerge into the more commercial world of Tokyo again but with one final surprise just outside the entrance.  I saw in the distance a familiar building which was locked way back in my mind from my early architectural training.  A building designed by Kenzo Tange for the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.  This swimming pool design was so outstanding that it instantly brought back the impression it had made on me all those 38 years ago.