Reflections on Japan

Japan cut itself off from the rest of the world from 1603 to 1853. It is, of course, a set of islands, and the history and geography may explain the incredibly insular culture of Japan.
It’s part of what makes Japan so worth visiting. Japan has not been taken over by Anglo Americans. Japan is not a multicultural society, and it has compared to other developed countries a negligible level of historical and current migration. Other developments of the last 50 years, such as womens equality, have taken foot in Japan, but progress has been much slower.
So Japan and the Japanese are very different. Add to the mix a language we can’t read or speak , and the very low levels of English spoken here,and you have a culture that is baffling and inaccessible, even if your here, and even with a guide.
Through visiting temples and shrines, we have begun to understand the local religious influences, and we have seen directly that Japan is a modern high tech country, but we are incapable of understanding the local mentality, where most things have to be perfect, but others are a mess. An example of the latter is that the cities are concrete jungles with almost no green spaces and no planning laws.
It’s seems the 1st rules for locals are (1) Never stand out from the crowd (2) Do everything you can to avoid mistakes/risks.
These are currently on full show to visitors, with the Covid restrictions, and more importantly, the population’s implementation of the restrictions. Take, for example, masks. Currently, the rules are, 1 Outdoor not needed 2. Indoor only needed when talking. Now that for most non-Japanese seems over the top, but in Japan it’s the people who collectively implement over 99% mask wearing outdoors. On top they still measure temperature on entering buildings, abd have perspex shields on tables, the purpose of which is not clear, since in half the places, they separate tables, but in the other half they are between those sitting opposite each other. Then there is social distancing at pedestrian crossings, with very high compliance.
It is all very odd and baffling for us, but it's not just Covid. We visited a lot of historical and cultural sites, and two things stick out. First, most Japanese tourists are in organised groups, and the smaller number of individual tourists are rarely to be found off the beaten track. That means the main shrines are often overcrowded, but walks nearby are almost empty.
Other odd things that fit in the overall picture of those two rules. There is a lot of street food on sale, but it’s forbidden to eat whilst walking, so most Japanese huddle near the food stall. There is no litter, but also bins are very rare, whilst everything is packaged, often with excessive packaging. (They take rubbish home).
We ask Daniel, so what happens if, for example, I eat in the street? Nothing he replies because even for official rules, there is very often no sanction. So we relax and eat our croissants/ ice creams/ etc. I suspect the punishment is simply a critical look from the locals.
A special mention for dog rules. Of course shitting in the street is not allowed, and collecting poo in plastic bags is also not ok. One icream place warned there was 24×7 video surveillance of any dogs pooing or even peeing. But there are quite a number of dogs being walked. N.B. not dogs walking. They get pushed around in prams. Indeed, we saw more dogs in prams than human babies.
For a developed society, they still have a lot of houses that go on fire. They seem not to use modern materials and strategies to prevent fires. Instead, in Kyoto, at least, there is the bizarre policy that each house should have a bucket of water in front of it. Nowadays, some have buckets, but others have 3 or 4 PET bottles.
Clothes, cars, etc. are all scrupulously clean, and people seem to iron all their clothes. Business attire is still conservative, with suits for men and knee-length skirts for women.
In my previous visits, there had always been a minority of youngsters willing to style or dress in whacky ways. This time, that was a rare occurrence.
Side note. We travel with children, and that is a bit tricky, since Japanese children are to be seen and not heard, just as children were in Europe 50 or 100 years ago.
That leaves me uncertain where Japan goes from here. In the 80s and 90s, it seemed Japan and other countries were developing in similar directions, and certainly I would have predicted that 30 or 40 years later the differences would have narrowed considerably But they haven’t and that in itself is interesting.
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