Japan: Day 3

 Today we do Bonsai.

 

One of my heads thinks Bonsai is deformed, stunted and unhappy plants. I prefer plants as an indispensable part of a sustainable environment. I love plants that provide safety and food for fauna. Plants that need fauna for food in order to reproduce.

My other head thinks of the people living midst of Tokyo. To them a potted bonsai is a thing of beauty and a connection with the natural environment.

 

We also visit a local shrine.
People wander in. No official day or time.

Guide: People go to shrine when they want help. Having exams or stress. Go and ask the Gods for help.
Family cemeteries surround the shrine.
Goes to oldest son. He maintains the family plot.
Shinto worship ancestors. Many have a shrine in their home. Every morning respects to ancestors before leaving home.
Most live as Shinto and die buried as Buddhist.

Japan: Day 2

 Our group consists of five Aussies, one American, two Londoners and a guide who regularly changes her persona.

 

Guide: At school we are always told to think of others. You don’t know what you want.

 

Harmony is praised above individual differences. 

 

Me: Do you think of other people?

Guide: Yes 

Me: Do you think of the environment? 

Guide: Yes keep it clean. Don’t leave any rubbish. 

Guide: School kids have to clean the toilets after school. Car owners all clean their car at the end of every day.  

 

Tokyo is devoid of rubbish. No rubbish or rubbish bins.

 

One of us Aussies uses the word bogan which leds to quizzical looks from non-Aussies.

 

We have to define the bogan.

 

Me: For a bogan their favourite food is pizza and chips. Pizza and salad if you are an intellectual.
Tourist: I have both.
Me: That’s called fusion.

Tourist: Confusion.

Me: A bogan has tatts. A gluten-free vegan, new-age intellectual has body art.

Me: A bogan wears black singlet and jeans. A teal-coloured, sensitive woke wears organic natural happy pants.

Japan: Day 1b

We wander around Tokyo and serendipitously arrive at the National Museum of Modern Art.

Replete with exciting, interesting modern art.

Japan: Day 1

 

Today we begin our group tour by having a day off.

A free day.  We spend the day experiencing Tokyo.

Japan: Day 0

 

After flying through the night and sleeping on the plane we arrive in Japan.

We spend the day tired and half-comatose wandering around Tokyo.

 

No road rage in Japan. I hear one driver use his horn. Just to make sure it still works.

Birds of Tokyo. The story is their name comes from the time the chart-topping group was in Japan. Somebody told them there are no birds in Tokyo. They said we will be the Birds of Tokyo. After wandering around Tokyo aimlessly I see very few birds or animals of any sort. I see occasional stray birds and a few toy dogs.

Tokyo is an endless mass of buildings and people.

How do the people survive? They need food, shelter, jobs, money and happiness.

The days of blindly following the Emperor are gone.

The days of following their job are going.

We see young people filling the streets waiting to enter Western fashion shops and spend money.

Late afternoon we meet our guide and our hotel.

 

These posts about Japan are not all grammatically correct. They were written as postcards. Scribbled in situ.  They are all idiosyncratic impressions of a visitor to Japan. 

The Cornelian Bay Boathouses say g’day mate.

The Cornelian Bay Boathouses

say g’day mate.

How you going?

The Cornelian Bay Boathouses

say g’day mate.

You can make this pebble dance.

I’ll show you. Give you a chance.

This pebble looks good. Throw it like this.

Wow four times. That was a good throw.

What color will I draw them? You said.

Orange blue, brown, black, green or red?

I’m drawing the great big  yeti

That lives under the jetty.