Perspective
There is an aesthetic beauty to much of the conformity in Japan, whether it be groomed trees, or the near-ubiquitous neutral clothing palette, or the way of displaying produce like each fruit or vegetable is a little gift. On the return to Portland I was struck by our relative inelegance: mismatched and loud clothes, piles of trash, revving engines and honking horns.
Traveling always provides an opportunity to gain perspective. I love that in Japan, grocery stores put your items back in the basket or cart, then there’s a separate station for packing. I don’t love that there are essentially no public trash bins. I love the fast, frequent trains. I don’t love the color of the sky, which was often white instead of blue. It’s nice that people are conscientious of the space they take up, but it’s not so nice that the side used for pedestrian traffic is inconsistent, even within a single train station. The tap water tasted great, but there were hardly any water fountains.
Itinerary
Our twelve nights were distributed as: 2 Tokyo, 4 Kyoto, 3 Takamatsu, 3 Osaka. It was a very aggressive itinerary, especially given the heat. It would’ve been better to choose between Kyoto and Osaka and have more nights in fewer places, but it’s hard to look at the itinerary and choose something to drop.
I underestimated how long it would take to get from one place to another, mostly due to the vastness of the train stations. We learned to pay attention to the platform numbers and exit numbers in Maps to speed things up. I also should’ve centered meals better, especially dinner.
A local guide would’ve been really nice for a day or two. I looked at some tours but could never quite make up my mind. Even something like a 2-hour walking tour would’ve been helpful.
Language Learning
I began studying Japanese around nine months before the trip. I started with hiragana and katakana, then added WaniKani for kanji, audio-based learning with Mango Languages (free through the library), textbook work with Genki 1, and flashcards in Anki. None of this is needed to be a tourist in touristy areas of Japan. However, I feel like I need to show my middle-aged brain that it can learn new things, and Japanese seems like a good challenge.
I’ve nearly finished Genki I, which I’m doing in an online community that provides tests and feedback, studied more than 500 kanji and 1600 vocabulary words, covered around 76 hours of the Mango course, and spent over 200 hours just on Anki flashcards. In total, perhaps 500-1000 hours, which adds up to barely beginner level. It is humbling.
Seeing words in context was great. It is one thing to memorize “放題” as “as much as you want”, and another to see it on an umbrella rental stand, or to see “待合” written above the waiting room, or “注意” (caution) all over the place. It’s interesting to hear Japanese conversation patterns in real life, and any short phrase or single words (such as “hot, isn’t it” or “wow!”) that I could understand felt great.
I’ll keep plodding along for now. The advent of computer-based spaced repetition systems (SRS) is new since I was last seriously studying anything. It is great, as the length of time between seeing something adapts depending on your response.
Overall: good trip. We will be back!
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