Home » Japan » The top half of Japan… and the decision to head onwards alone

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair” (Robert Frost) .

The top half of Japan… and the decision to head onwards alone

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 14:32:32

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in England!?

The Japanese themselves are dignified, polite, hard working, friendly, and at times (it seems) a little strange! (the other night in a quiet Tokyo backstreet I observed a procession of elderly people marching about with a blaring loud speaker which appeared to be ordering them around. Every so often the group stopped to clap together some pieces of wood they were carrying...?! I felt like I was on a Monty Python set).Whilst the Russians demonstrated a very unreserved friendliness (within 5 minutes of meeting a Siberian Russian, they will have asked you ten questions, told you that you are crazy and offered you some vodka), the Japanese are far more shy. Once introduced though, I have been charmed by their friendliness and humbled by their generosity.

Even encounters with the police can be heart warming... Once we were sleeping in the warehouse of a restaurant, whose owner had kindly fed us and offered us this dry, warm place for the night. Obviously not everyone in the vicinity had been informed of this arrangement, so when someone in the carpark saw me clambering down the fire escape wearing my balaclava in the middle of the night (going for a pee) they naturally assumed i was there without permission. Half an hour later we were woken by a whole brigade of surprised policemen with torches and truncheons (I have got used to being woken up in strange ways now)... rather than Japanese robbers, they discovered us to be heroic English explorers (i like to think)...

On another occasion, when we were caught between towns on a snowy night, a police car pulled us over, and (after an incomprehensible conversation), we resolved that we indeed did not have the correct lights for riding in Japan at night, and so would of course be given a police escort into the next town, some 10km away... we felt mightily important as we skidded along the windy coastal road, a flashing siren illuminating our presence from behind. Needless ...