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In 1992 I did an internship in Tokyo, twelve years later I have finally returned. As I had really enjoyed Japan at the time the surprising thing for me is that it took so long to come back.

Impressions of Japan and Nagasaki's history

Odv
2006-04-13 19:50:39

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seen as an insult, but if you are a gaijin, any bow will do. They interpret it positively, it shows that you are making an effort to understand their culture, but of course, as a gaijin, you can not be expected to understand the intricacies of bowing.

A few more notably good things about Japan deserve to be mentioned as well. The Japanese, regardless of their job, have such pride in doing their work properly and as best they can, that you will experience a level of service unrivaled anywhere else in the world.

Japan is also incredibly safe, you do not have to worry about the usual problems while traveling such as theft, overcharging or being ripped off.

When I see the way Japanese visitors to my country are sometimes rather badly treated, I can only feel ashamed, because I always remember how well I was treated in Japan as a guest!

There is really only one major downside: prices. But if you take into account how much better everything is here, then I think it is worth it.

The natural disasters from which Japan is permanently at risk, could be considered as another downside, but the country is better prepared than most to deal with such events.

During our stay there have been two typhoons and two earthquakes. Although we missed an earthquake in Tokyo by one day and did not notice the deadly earthquake of 6.8 on the Richter scale that hit Niigata on October 24th while we were in a moving train near Sendai (only 200km from the epicenter), we did feel the second big earthquake of 6.1 that hit Niigata on October 27th while we were in Tokyo (where it was felt as an earthquake of 3 on the Richter scale).

We also experienced two typhoons during the first 2 weeks of our stay. The first one had a novelty interest for us, but the second was downright annoying. Though we realized later that several people had died in floods and mudslides, we were trying to visit some of the sights in Osaka, ...