Despite my love of the road and exploring all things new and different, Japan has remained off my priority “hit” list for years even though I’ll admit that I have always been intrigued by its allure and mystery.
You see, as far back as I can remember, I had pen pals….in the traditional sense, you know….in the pre-Internet days. I wrote hand written letters to what started out as a few people from far away places to dozens from around the world. My very first pen pal was from Sweden and the second was from Japan. We met them in a hotel restaurant in upstate New York and my grandfather being the man he was, had to proactively interject ourselves into their conversation while they were having a quiet dinner.
It was in his nature to do something like this and I have to admit, we were secretly glad he did since our entire table was in awe over the beautifully elegant traditional clothing that adorned their bodies.
It was rare to see a woman and her daughter from another country alone in the 1970s in the very provincial area where we grew up. And so, off we went to interrupt their dinner and “chat” with them only to learn that the daughter spoke no English at all and the mother could only speak a few basic words and phrases in English. That one encounter led to a few decades of letter exchanges, almost entirely with the mother even though the daughter was much closer to my age at the time.
She would always send me the most decadent cards and photos. The cards had ribbons trailing them, sparkles and icons and the photos were most always of traditional rituals or events her daughter participated in, such as dance and piano recitals. Her English was always broken and spotty but the dialogue continued and even after the Internet took over traditional penmanship, we continued with Christmas cards.
After adding more and more country stamps to my passport, I still had never come across elaborate and beautifully styled cards as the ones from Japan that made it to my mailbox each year. Only in recent years have our annual cards stopped.
After so many long years, I now embark on a trip to Japan, somewhat by accident and somewhat designed.
You see, I have something called a destination intention board in my office and Japan has been on that board for about a year now, together with other countries you’d think a seasoned traveler would have hit by now, like Peru and Argentina. Although I traveled extensively through Southeast Asia in my twenties, hitting Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Macau, Nepal and India, Malaysia and Japan were purposely skipped at the time, largely because the around the world tickets didn’t stop there (at least not easily) and Japan was always known as an expensive destination and as a young traveler, that simply meant that it was off limits.
I had 3 more opportunities to visit Japan over the years, two of which were business related however I was asked “not to come” by our business partner at the time and that they send a man instead. It wasn’t said in precisely in those words, but the translation from my international new business development manager who spoke six languages, alluded as such.
Miffed by this, I somehow wasn’t entirely offended; it actually added to the intrigue. I had heard of stereotypical stories of women in boardrooms only present to serve tea, men with multiple concubines, stories of American male business counterparts who would go out drinking with Japanese partners only to come home with a credit card bills that made their CFO’s skin crawl. The beauty of the Geisha Girls, traditional dance and of course fresh sushi.
A long time fan of sushi, I had secretly dreamed of being sent to Japan with an unlimited expense account and merely asked to entertain a partner by taking them the top ten sushi restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka. I envisioned other scenarios like an assignment to sample the best saki across four cities and write about it.
And yet, as the years went on and the travel continued, I never really found a reason to go to Tokyo and the frequent stories of $300 cab rides, $1,000 dinners and $40 draft beers easily directed my focus to other more affordable destinations and so I let Japan and the alluring city of Tokyo wait it out.
As the few people I know in Tokyo will attest, I was a bit nervous about my arrival. They probably saw the emails as anal, repetitive, uncannily junior in nature for such an avid traveler and perhaps a little overly cautious.
As many people know, I don’t put a lot of planning and research into a trip in advance. While I do cover the basics such as protocols, money, health, visas and where to avoid, I don’t research known activities or sites I’m supposed to visit. Rather, I land and let the experience take me organically.
This is a little easier when the culture is more aligned with your own such as I felt was the case with the Vikings in Iceland last summer. Frankly, it had been a couple of decades since I visited a country whose language was not only a far cry from the English language, but written in a form that is indecipherable by anyone who grows up with the Latin alphabet. When you think the Eastern European languages are hard to grasp and are pulling your hair out, try looking at Japanese for the first time and making any kind of sense of it.
That said, I quickly learned that Japanese a beautiful language that just rolls, which more familiar languages like German and Russian have never done for me. That introduction started on the plane and continued at Tokyo’s Narita airport upon arrival.
I love the feeling I get when I first land in a foreign destination for the first time – the butterflies go off in a rather addictive way, not unlike the kind I get when I meet an attractive man with a mysterious allure. Those familiar butterflies happily went off as the plane smoothly landed on Tokyo’s soil, albeit over four hours late, so late that I was concerned about catching the very last Limousine bus into the center of Tokyo, which apparently stopped immediately in front of my hotel.
I didn’t sleep on the plane and I’m not sure if it was due to the few cups of green tea, the not so pleasant smells coming from the seats in front of me, or the fact that I was somewhat tightly wound by having all my ducks on a row (SO not the case) when I landed.
I realized as I went through Immigration and then customs, that I didn’t actually have the address of the hotel, but surely there was only one Hotel Otani. Actually no…..in fact, there are three Otani Hotels, two of which the Limousine Bus stop at – this is one of the downfalls of not preparing for a trip as extensively as some travelers do, where every detail is confirmed three times before they leave the country.
Luckily we (the ticket agent and I) figured it out through process of elimination. What I did know:
I knew that Japan had changed dramatically from the days where women were not found in board rooms or became engineers.
I knew that Japan would have beautiful temples, gardens, mountains and views. I knew I could eat like a king and smile ear-to-ear at every meal.
Iknew about Tokyo’s efficiency and formal culture, such as bowing, being courteous and polite rather than forward and assuming, something I was looking forward to coming from a culture who just does and asks for forgiveness later. It’s an American quality I admire and respect, but also find grating at times, even in myself. I knew there was much to learn from Japanese culture and yet I feared it at the same time.
Someone asked me at the Travel + Leisure Smitty Awards event I recently attended in New York what was the most “foreign” place I ever visited? “What do you mean by foreign”, I asked him. He pondered and then shook his head and added, “where was the one place you felt more out of sorts than anywhere else, where you felt more confused, more out of alignment with who you were and knew, than any other place?”
Great great question. I thought about arriving in Bucharest and Prague in the mid-eighties and my exchanges with security and police officers, or the absurdity of banned objects in Russia, Malawi and Tanzania around the same time and the constant warning of my hotel phone being tapped. I thought about taking the third class train with the goats and the snakes through Egypt and nearly being sold in Somalia to a family. I thought about China the first year it had opened to the western world, where I was spat on at a ticket counter and later, nearly died in hostel in the north.
And yet, at the tip of my tongue, I wanted to say, it very well may be Japan where I knew I would be in a week’s time.
Sure, westerners travel to Tokyo on business all the time and have been for years. The city attracts mainstream tourists and has international hotels and chains just like other global cities do.
And yet……
I am writing this on the Limousine bus from Narita to the New Otani Hotel, something I try to do before I actually experience a place. Why? Because doing so before you meet a new city, allows all the stereotypes, preconceived ideas (some truthful, some not) and images in your mind to escape freely and openly before a culture actually touches your soul.
Currently I write impressions that aren’t really impressions at all (yet), but illusions of a place I have only discovered from books, photos, blog posts, movies, stories and cartoons.
As I make my way on the long one hour and a forty minute journey to my hotel, the suburbs and high rised buildings of the outskirts zip past me in the darkness. The bus is air conditioned, offers wifi and has reclining chairs and its efficiency very well may be unparalleled. Sorry Singapore.
As I sit in comfort, I am aware of my excitement about my first sushi experience in Tokyo while simultaneously I take in my sore muscles and tired body. I think of how cold it was at JFK before we left, the air conditioning blasting through the vents and coating us with icy air as we digested all the lame reasons for yet another flight delay.
Then, And a warm smile crossed my face as I thought of the Japanese woman in her early fifties who took her shawl and wrapped it around my shoulders as she saw me shivering. Later, the same woman gave me her seat so I had no one sitting next to me for the 13+ hour flight. Ahhh, her dramatic eyes with the ever so precise black eyeliner which would have looked hideous on my eyes, yet made hers glow and sparkle.
My first encounter with a Japanese angel and somehow I knew I would encounter many more angels and magical moments on this overdue trip. As the bus driver shot me the same warm smile she had given me so many hours before, and helped me with my heavy camera bag down the stairs, I made my way through the rolling doors of my first Tokyo hotel, ready to let a new experience begin.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
