My first day in Japan earlier this month was one of shock. There were so many people in what were quite small spaces and there wasn’t that much space to move around without bumping into other people. At first, I didn’t like it.
But that soon changed. Beyond the hustle and bustle that was the crazy tourist areas laid a culture of politeness and hospitality rarely seen in Western countries such as Australia, England, and the US.
People would go out of their way to make sure everything was okay, that you were accommodated and having a good time. From Airbnb hosts, shop owners, taxi drivers and more, everyone wanted to make you feel welcome.
There were two instances where I felt that hospitality more so than anywhere else.
The first instance was on my first day in Osaka where Laura (my girlfriend) and I were trying to work out how to navigate the subway system, specifically what ticket to buy from the fare machine. It was a lot more complicated than it should have been, but a Japanese commuter saw us looking a bit confused and took time out of his commute to help us. Apparently, you have to look at a table which has a list of the stations on it and the price to get to that station and then you buy a ticket with that value on it.
The second instance occurred at a small vegetarian restaurant in Arashiyama, a suburb of Kyoto where the famous bamboo forest and monkey park is located.
Laura, two friends we made a couple of days previously and I entered the restaurant and were instantly greeted by the kindest old man. He explained the food to us, it was traditional Japanese food based on recipes hundreds of years old. While Laura was able to speak with him in Japanese, he used an iPad with Google Translate on it to communicate with the rest of us, while some of the translations were a bit dodgy it was an ingenious way to have a conversation.
As well as explaining the history of the food, the owner also explained the history of the area and pointed out several local landmarks we should check out. Then just suddenly he told us to follow him, so we did.
He led us just around the corner from his restaurant to a temple which had a shrine to Thomas Edison, who apparently used bamboo from the area for the filament in light bulbs. From the temple, there was a great view of downtown Kyoto and the man pointed out several landmarks.
The experience of getting a personal tour from the restaurant owner (while his wife cooked our food, bento boxes and udon noodles) was just incredible. Not only that, it was some of the best food I’ve had in my time in Japan.
This man, not only explaining to us the history of the area, offering suggestions on where to go, but also taking us to the local temple, showing us how to pray, it provided one of the most unique food experiences I have ever had. Words can’t describe how incredible the experience was.
Japan is incredible country. The people are some of the nicest I have met in the entire world and they really go above and beyond to make everyone feel welcomed. I can’t wait to keep exploring this country over the next few days and to hopefully come back again and again.