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Japan Index 1st
Trip
 After
passing my GCSE Japanese, I went on a family holiday to Japan.
Now I have to explain that GCSE Japanese is of a very low level.
As a result, I had an awful amount of fun trying to make myself
understood in Japan. The very first night we arrived, I tried
to reserve a table in a restaurant by phone. The phone call was
going just fine, when the person at the restaurant asked me a
question I didn't understand. I said I didn't understand, and
got an alternative explanation but to no avail. I didn't have
a clue what she was going on about. Well, having no where else
to go for dinner, we thought we go anyway, and see if I'd managed
to get a table or not. As it happened they were waiting for us.
The question I'd been asked was whether we wanted a traditional
style table or a place at the counter. We pointed to the table
and we were shown to our places. I was so relieved! On the way
there I had imagined how embarrassed I would be if they were shut
or if they hadn't saved us a table. Despite having studied Japanese
for 2 years, we really didn't have many classes a week, and I
knew that I could hardly say anything at all, and understand even
less. But in the event, they'd understood, and we had our table.
It suddenly all seemed worth it. I was over the moon. The menu
was of course a whole new "challenge".
We only stayed a few days in Tokyo, and soon we
were off to Hakone. It's a town with natural hot springs from where
you can see mount Fuji. Well, when I say you can see mount
Fuji, I mean you can see it, as long as it's not cloudy or misty.
Which in fact means you can nearly never see it from Hakone 
which with it's natural springs is famous for its mistiness. We
did however, find a great open-air museum where there were lots
of Picasso sculptures. It was such a beautiful setting. My love
for Japan really developed during our first few days there. Japan
has such an amazing mix.
It is a country which is the most technologically advanced in the
world, yet has managed to preserve its traditional customs and history
as well. The toilets in homes wash your bum and then dry it. Walk
outside and between the high-rise buildings there will be a wooden
temple with a beautifully manicured garden. It has such a strong
identity. One which is very different from ours as Europeans, yet
at the same time, Japan is so pro-Western. American music, French
and Italian clothes, British jams and scarves. And here, in the
mountains between natural springs was a museum with an amazingly
large number of Picasso sculptures.
 We
then went on to visit Kyoto which is a much older city than Tokyo,
and Hiroshima. I was taken aback by the peace memorial there. The
museum showed the extent of civilian casualties. It was so sickening
thinking how many ordinary people who had nothing to do with the
war were killed. Later in my first year at university I went on
to write a paper on how the bomb had been dropped for reasons other
than simply ending the war.
We finished in Okinawa, which is a small island
right at the south of Japan. Its longitude is about the same level
as that of the middle of the Sahara Desert, and so yes; It's very
hot there. The island is also home to the largest American military
base in Asia, but we didn't realise that from our hotel. It was
such a lovely way to end our trip of Japan. We'd seen so many places
that it was nice just to relax by a pool for a couple of days.
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