[This entry was written soon after the vacation, but I didnt put it up hoping to get access to photos taken during the trip. Moral: Dont count on the spouse doing things on time]

Of all the places I have visited, Japan has been the most different culturally. Most places, I could read signs or communicate in English. Even though people in Italy and France did not speak english fluently, we could read words and tell if a place was a restaurant or not for example. People in Japan are very friendly and respectful. As a foreigner you get away with a lot of not-knowing-the-protocol thing.
 
The western toilets in Japan are awesome, my house is getting a toilet from Japan. It lets you control the temperature and pressure of water, some of them play music, have heated seats and there are other features that I'll refrain from writing here. The airport carts are designed such that you can take them down a staircase escalator. Pretty cool eh? The subway stations require you to enter a ticket to get in. Ticket kiosks are close to the entrance and some of the ones I saw had an option to choose english and some others didn't. An american guy asked a guy in uniform about tickets and that guy held this dude's hands, walked him to a kiosk and helped him buy a ticket. Sweet. You can throw in all your change and choose an amount, it will print a ticket of the amount and return the difference. Very smart. When you are leaving you re-insert your ticket, if the amount is right, the machine eats your ticket (ah, part of the no trash secret) and you walk out. If not, you take the ticket to the counter close by and you can settle the difference at no penalty. Again, very helpful for foreigners.

In all the cities we went to, we noticed that people were happy to get their pictures taken. Kids in armor practising kendo, girls dressed in kimonos, guy making sushi rolls, guy cutting fish - all agreed to pics being taken. Their favorite pose is making a V (for peace?) with the fingers. Most of them, after we took a pic with our camera, would hand us their camera and request a pic to be taken with us in the picture. I guess they are just as fascinated getting pictures of them with the foreigners . The girls cant stop giggling especially when they are in a group and one of them tries to speak in English to you. Its the same with some boys. It sometimes has a rippling effect, they giggle, I laugh, they giggle more ...

One of the chefs was trying to communicate with us via the waitress who knew very little english. Roshan had a few iphone apps that translated commonly used phrases and I had a dictionary that I used occasionally. We were sitting by the bar and he asked if we had a camera. We hadnt taken our cameras, but we had our phones. So we pointed at the phone and he asked Roshan to go into the kitchen - They stood together and then I was beckoned and finally the waitress clicked a pic. Everything happened in installments slowly, it was funny.

The english translations in many places are hilarious and sometimes just inappropriate. I am certain that most of those have no clue what it means. There are t-shirts that men and children wear with probably literal translations that end up sounding non-sensical. There are signs that crack you up - "publice toilet", "don't shoe" and this. Yeah we still dont know what it is, Roshan think its something you eat and lose weight, I think its like a topical cream or something. This was handed out as complimentary gift to all the women staying in this particular hotel in Nara. You can imagine Roshan's jokes I had to endure following the fact that I was given one of these. Just to be clear all women are given these!

A cab driver didnt know the right route to the station and kept apologizing and asked us if he could make a call. I think he called somebody to ask which entrance he could drop us off so that we could catch the train to the airport (We had a lot of luggage). After he kept the phone he kept bowing and saying 'Moushiwake arimasen deshita' (Sorry) and we kept saying its ok. He showed the meter and crossed his arms to indicate ignore the meter. A lot of the japanese cross their arms to indicate no, no entry, closed etc. Signs sometimes communicate a lot more than words . After a 15 min detour when he dropped us we paid him close to the amount on the meter and he kept refusing to take in japanese, apologizing and bowing, we kept saying it was ok (People there understand OK if nothing else) in english. He finally bowed like a million times saying thank you and sorry in japanese. If I powers to vanish, I would have definitely used it then.

Onsens or public baths are a neat concept. Its a great way to relax and refresh. People in Japan (just like many other parts of the world) believe that the water from the springs with all its chemicals cures ailments and is good for your body. They belive that the real onsens have water channeled directly from the hot springs and do not store/reheat or mix normal water. We tried two of these after long days of walking. One of our japanese guides said that a lot of the touristy onsens reheat the water and mix it. We think we tried some of the non-touristy ones. Ryokans are traditional japanese guesthouses. The true ryokans are expensive to stay in and some dont allow foreigners as they dont know all the protocols. Most of the touristy ryokans are a hybrid model with western toilets and not-so-strict on rules and more affordable prices.

Roshan loved Tokyo enough to think that he wouldn't mind living there for a few years. He especially wants to try all their food/drinks. We tried lots of japanese food, before I went to Japan I knew of sushi only. There is a lot of varierty and the food is surprisingly both tasty and healthy. The Japanese have an amazing skill of making things look pretty. We saw the most aesthetically arranged aquariums, flowers, lights, gardens, parks, food, dessert and even sand! OCD indeed! A lot of the eateries have plastic models of their menu items that they put on display outside, and boy, is it tempting or what! The best part is that if you order the dish, it is an exact replica of the model.

After several attempts in various ATMs, we discovered that seven-11 ATMS are the only one's that have english menus and work with foreign cards. Something for you to keep in mind if withdrawing money there.

Next time if I go, I am making sure I take some japanese lessons. It will be so much more fun when you can talk to the people and understand the train announcements and the museum audio tours. Even better if you can read, but after hearing how complex their script is, I am not even going to try. With konichiwa, sayonara, Sumimasen, dohmo arigato gozaimasu, oshi - I managed to communicate enough to get by on this vacation trip