A Slight Change of Plans

The Petronas Towers In KL

After a short flight from Phnom Penh we were in Kuala Lumpur. It's a more modern city than any we've been to in SE Asia with prices to match. Although I think it's fair to say that we didn't put as much energy into it as we should have we were, in general, uninspired by the place. Our impression was probably tainted by the fact that every other person in the city was sick coughing, sniffling, and sneezing their way around town. I think we probably spent half our time there with our handkerchiefs covering our noses and mouths in an effort to stay healthy. Kerchiefs in hand, we toured around and saw some of the main tourists draws and due to dreary weather even caught a double bill at one of the numerous mega-malls in town. We give the new Star Trek movie a 3 out of 5. Iron Man 3 comes in at 3.5... Dawn thought we were rating out of 10.

"What To Do" Conference Over Crappy Potato Burgers

 

 

 

 

Singapore was up next and to help us get to Indonesia more quickly we decided to jump on a cheap flight rather than take the train. And that's where things took a turn for the unexpected due to us missing our flight. Just in case you didn't already know, there are two terminals at the Kuala Lumpur airport and, to our surprise, they're about thirty minutes apart by taxi. We were informed that the terminal was just a couple minutes away by a train shuttle similar to what most of you have likely experienced in other airports. But it turns out that terminal didn't open for a couple of weeks and, in the meantime, the flights were flying out of the cargo terminal. Add to that the backward service of the airline we were flying and you have a fantastic excuse for what was really a bit of poor planning on our part.

When we were told that it would cost more than the original ticket price to change our departure time to Singapore we reassessed and decided to switch things up a bit. A few hours later we were on a flight to Osaka, Japan. This was not only a fairly significant change of environment but also marked the happy turn towards home.

Osaka Castle

We've now been in Japan for several days and are loving it. In sharp contrast to SE Asia, Japan is very clean, organized, and orderly. And it's so quiet. For instance, it took days here before we heard a car honk whereas it's been the norm for us for months.

In addition to the pleasant environment the people here are incredibly friendly and will go well out of their way to help you out. We had a couple with their new-born baby walk us several blocks out of their way to our guesthouse. We asked a man in a shop for directions to a local restaurant he shook his head and said he hadnt heard of it. We can only assume he did some investigating because he chased us down the street five minutes later to tell us where it was. If someone doesn't know, they'll frequently take ownership of the problem and ask someone else. And if that person doesn't know someone will pull out a phone and look it up. Perhaps we've been lucky but I think it's more a indication of how service-oriented and hospitable the Japanese are.

Fushima Inari Shrine

 

 

There have been a few instances during our time in SE Asia where someone has just started speaking to us as if we understood their language. We have engaged in conversations in which neither party likely really knew what was going on but we always enjoyed it nonetheless. Mostly though people have either attempted to speak to us in the English they knew or not spoken at all. However, in Japan almost everyone speaks to us in Japanese and well beyond a simple hello and goodbye. All we can really do is smile and nod when it seems we're supposed to and hope for the best. Even though we feel a bit helpless not being able to respond in Japanese it feels good that we're treated just like everyone else.

One of my favourite aspects of Japanese society is the level of respect they appear to have for others. Bowing is very common from a full torso gesture to a nod of the head. For instance, I'm writing this on a long-distance train and each time a train employee passes through the car they stop at the front, turn around, and bow before proceeding. When we were leaving a mall at closing time many of the employees stood along the aisle and bowed as you walked by. When leaving a stretch of road construction there is almost always a sign of a construction worker bowing. Admittedly, there are times when this is a little uncomfortable as the receiver since it doesn't really seem deserved but perhaps that's what I like about it. You are given the bow whether you have done something to deserve it or not.

Sake Barrels

All that being said Japan has not been without its challenges or unusual inconsistencies. For a society with such order and organization the sidewalks are chaos. We're really happy to be back somewhere that actually has sidewalks but figuring out which side you're supposed to be on while dodging the seemingly out-of-control bicycles requires constant concentration. In my experience, sidewalk etiquette matches the driving rules of the country. Here though the rules frequently change by location and are, more often than not, a mystery. I've also thought of Japan as an very technologically advanced country yet access to wifi in the cities has been far more challenging than any other city we've traveled to. Smoking is prohibited in many parts of Japan's touristed cities yet smoking in restaurants is sadly common making us feel so grateful to live somewhere that you can eat smoke-free.

The Only Veggie Thing On The Menu (We're Pretty Sure It Had Fish Sauce)

Aside from perhaps rural Laos, Japan has been hardest from a language perspective. It seems that fewer people speak English here than any other country we have visited and signage, packaging, and menus are often void of anything recognizable to us. Thank goodness for the artful plastic displays of dishes served that many restaurants display! Speaking of food, being a vegetarian here is not easy. No doubt this whole trip has been challenging for finding Dawn-friendly grub but I think Japan wins the prize. To give you an idea, out of the over 32,000 restaurants listed on Trip Advisor for Tokyo only twelve are identified as vegetarian friendly. That's 0.0003%!

OK, now to a quick summary of what we've been up to. After somewhat recovering from our red-eye flight we spent a day wandering around Osaka seeing a few of the sights. Admittedly, we didn't find too much of interest other than the Osaka Castle and surrounding park. More than anything, the time there allowed us to start becoming familiar with the dizzying array of train lines and soaking in everything that's different about Japan.

Our Kyoto Neighbourhood

From Osaka we jumped on a train for the short hop over to Kyoto where we ended up spending several days. So far Kyoto has been the highlight of the trip. Seeing as Kyoto was the capital of Japan until Tokyo took over the distinction in 1868, the area is packed with temples. We saw a fair number of temples and balanced that out with walks in our very pleasant neighbourhood and shopping. Neither of us really enjoy shopping that much (except for food perhaps) so it came as a bit of a surprise how much we dove right in to the Kyoto shopping scene. There are just so many neat things to look at. In particular, I now have a near obsession for Japanese treats and I can't help but dart into every candy shop I see to view the amazing and sometimes weird creations these shops sell. Department store basements tend to be full of these shops and without Dawn to break me free of my candy art trance I'd probably spend hours in these places.

Artful - And Sometimes Weird - Candy

 

 

 

This is already an exceedingly long post so I'll leave it at that for now. Up next... Tokyo.