I finally made it to Japan...after so many years! I guess one of the reason was due to too much time spent in grievance and recovery from the failure of marriage (silly~~). Although I've been to many part of the world, Japan is a place I desired for a long time. Today I made it there not only by myself but I brought my precious along to see what her mom wanted to see.
One of the objectives from this trip was to visit a long lost friend of mine who reside in Fukuoka, however it didn't happened due to ignorance of distance and cost ほんとにざんねんでした。I promised her 10 years ago, bad me, I know, ok I hear it. ==..
I always have strong passion towards the language spoken and written characters of Japanese, find them very beautiful and culturistic, the catalyst of study and learn. This trip certainly had open my eyes and deepen my passion for Japan.
I like the blue blue sky ...dust-free, clean and fresh air. Picture taken in Shinjuku (新宿区, Shinjuku-ku, "New Lodge), since it's the main city in Tokyo, I was expecting to see the magnificient high rise office towers all over the place, however what I see only the lowrise, mostly. Ya, it was due to nature disaster condition, most of the premises are low rise unlike tall and Kuala Lumpur (so silly~~)
Systematic
Japan is a very systematic and organize piece of land, people are very health concious and patriotic. I do remember the admiration and respect they appended towards the King of Japan. I also notice their dedication and devotion keeping their country and environment clean and well. Japan live and led by good culture, one of the subject in my recent study, a positive culture does carries the impact the quality and the performance of an entity. According to Wikepedia, Emperor of Japan is the symbol of the state and unity of people, that explained how Japan could be kept so well orgarnized and robust through out many years - teamwork.
Professional
I admire at their professionallism especially those in the service industry. They are patient, friendly, clean and professional. Their smiles and tone of greetings in their interaction with customer (but I heard from an "insider", Japanese actually dislike how they behave woh, but that's not my business whether they are genuinely smile as long as I don't find them fake.).
Although they speak little international language -english, but I appreciate their patient in directing me to destinations from the complicated line of trains. With Little Jap and Eng, I managed to travel around Tokyo in my finger tips. I'm equally impressed how up to date their train map, you won't get lost by following this. This train map is what I carried the whole time!! (grins)
Perhaps I look so confident and expert, there were tourist even ask me for direction! (LOL). It was adventurous and fun to hop-in and out the trains and figure out your route, it's definitely much more fun than you travel with tour agency!
Although they speak little international language -english, but I appreciate their patient in directing me to destinations from the complicated line of trains. With Little Jap and Eng, I managed to travel around Tokyo in my finger tips. I'm equally impressed how up to date their train map, you won't get lost by following this. This train map is what I carried the whole time!! (grins)
Perhaps I look so confident and expert, there were tourist even ask me for direction! (LOL). It was adventurous and fun to hop-in and out the trains and figure out your route, it's definitely much more fun than you travel with tour agency!
I was greatly impressed to see an airport officer aligned the luggages from conveyer belt for easy retrieval. See the array of luggage which align in same direction? It was pretty shock to see one consideration and dedication to his job.
Cleanliness
Japan is such a clean country (although I only been to Tokyo but in my opinion that represent the whole country), I see no trace of rubbish and stray dog and cats, not to mention rats and cockroaches. I'm serious, no rubbish at all their public places especially train stations, toilet, shopping mall, residential in the absence of rubbish bins (exclaimed).
A friend of mine debated perhaps government enforce cleaning every hour, but another friend proved it wrong. She once told me her friend who lives in Tokyo got approach by his neighbour to see if the rubbish were categorised accordingly (LOL). The driver of the cleanliness lies in the hand of the citizens, people don't have the habit of littering and they even keep an eye of each other to ensure rules were adhere. Yes, all of them. (another exclaims).
Due to the cleanliness they uphold, of course strict enforement of waste management, low emission of carbon monoside, use of electric car and cycling led to fresh air and water. You could drink the water for tap everywhere! (exclaim x 2) but not from this river-lah. FYI, I spent USD1k to get a water filter at home (= =)
Infrastructure
I like how much they upkeep with the infrastructure and pulic area, that made up to new and fresh looking Japan. Perhaps I was there during Autumn, the air was fresh and clean which contributed to my observation of "Fresh". haha. Well, I would miss the automated hygiene facilities attached to the toilet LOL so much. Most of the toilet in Japan has such facilities if not part of it.
Amenity
The amenity was well considered up to the extend of umbrella. See the arrays of umbrella? To avoid confusion, they are locked and assigned. See the tiny hook in the toilet? There are meant for umbrella (Not that i know Japan rains a lot though). Every little things that counts. I like the amenity in the toilet, there even equipped with handrail for handicap at the basin (exclaimed)!
Security
My friend told me Japan is a safe place to travel, I doubted a little, every foreign places has own crime rate. But that changed my perceptions totally when I see this. Did you see how many bicycles parked without chains and locks within the City down town? The low gate structure potray the level of security in Japan. People even care-less with wallet protruded out of their loose pocket (you know guys who wear those low waist peggy jeans, the back pocket usually drop down to their tighs), I'm sooooooooooo amazed with the extend of integrity in Japan (Grins).
I love Japan and I miss it sooooooooooooo much...Watch out part 2 for Cost and Standard of living in Japan XD
