Asia travels: Japan

I agree with everyone who gave this country such high reviews. Japan rocks.
On January 2nd, I walked from one end of the city to the other. It happened to be one of the only two days of the year that the imperial palace is open. The path brought me to a reservoir that resembled Central Park on the Upper East side, people running et al.

The most amazing part of the Imperial Palace scene were the lines. People stood in such an orderly manner to see the royal family wave for a few seconds. At one point there were throngs of people walking in a line from point A to point B and then from point B to point C. Being a master of trigonometry, I knew that walking along the hypotenuse was faster, and began to veer off track subconsciously. I learned very quickly that walking out of line is NOT done in this country. A nice officer chased after me and I retreated to single file. Later on when there were ZERO cars in the road, I didn't even think about jay walking. In this country, they abide by the rules.

My friend who lives here had to apply to the government for permission to move, and as some of you know, the department of health has identified 13 million people in this country at risk for "metabolic disorder" and ordered them to excercise more and go on a diet. With control like that, no wonder the yen is so strong.

The hotel where I stayed my first night in Japan was quite luxurious with toilets that had a remote control on the side that warmed the seats. Many people here are embarrassed by the peeing sound and so there is a "FLUSH" command that makes a loud virtual flushing sound the entire time you're in the stall. Toilets like this were created in order to decrease water waste. Someone who lives here in Japan told me that since people were flushing continuously in order to drown out the noise they were making, a virtual flushing was deemed more eco-friendly.

Anyway, this week of New Years is a holiday time for the entire country. The most popular activity is to go to shrines and pray for a happy New Year.

I partook in lots of that during my first day of Tokyo, as well as eating street food and getting lost, asking people for directions. Those I encountered were incredibly gracious and friendly.

While waiting to get into some of one of the biggest shrines called Meiji Jing, they played advertisements on a big screen for thousands of people waiting to throw coins on the altar.

I took the night bus to Kyoto, (kinda like chinatown buses with lots of competition of brands for cheap prices) and then I found my way to Cathy's house. She's a fellow Townsend Harrisite from Flushing, Queens and is the sister of someone I used to play violin with in the All-City orchestra. She's just started the Jet program in August. I came to her countryside neighborhood just in time to go to her land-lady's house for a party. Lots of sake was served as well as dried squid and Udon noodles.

The next day I met a "Volunteer tour guide" suggested to me by lovely Nancy Fann. This guide, named Minako, showed me around Kyoto, a most beautiful city in the middle of the mountains.
Minako and I got along very well. She reminded me of myself the way she kept checking the maps and laughing.

To explain why many people stick up two fingers with the peace sign, let me call on Governor Schwarzerager for his help.