I never thought I
would go to Japan. Honestly, it wasn’t even on my bucket list. Having lived in
the USA for 10 years and now in Europe for the past 5 years, I did not think I
would travel to the Far East.
This year in March, however, I got the opportunity to travel to Tokyo (twice) and even better, with
all my expenses paid for, since they were business trips. The first of the two
trips was a trip of many firsts. I traveled business class for the first time,
used a toilet with a heated seat (more on that later) for the first time,
chalked up a taxi bill of 38,000 JPY (roughly 300 EUR) traveling to the hotel
from the airport, successfully ate with chopsticks and the list goes on.
Some things were as I
had expected, such as the tiny hotel room. Others were not. Such was the
little things, like a nightshirt provided by the hotel, which I could not get
myself to wear since I absolutely refuse to sleep in clothes used by someone
else. Some may consider that prudish…but I have my limits. I read somewhere
later, that the Japanese believe that guests should have all the necessary
items for a night’s stay in case they have forgotten to bring their own. Hence
all hotels provide some form of sleepwear, slippers, and toiletries. The other
thing always present in a Japanese hotel room is a humidifier/air purifier
which I could have really done without since the room was really small, to
begin with, and I also did not think the air quality to be particularly bad.
I could write an
entire page about the toilets in Japan, but I will stick to a paragraph. I
quite literally rolled my eyes when I saw the first one of these gadgets. Yes,
they are gadgets, with various functions that can very possibly make you really
nervous. Firstly, most have heated seats which is a boon since toilets in
public places other than airports maybe are not heated. All of them have an
integrated bidet and shower function to wash your behind, wherein the intensity
of the jet and temperature of the water can be varied. Naturally, there is an
air jet to dry your behind after washing. There is also a function to clean the bidet
prior to use, which apparently can be set to run automatically every time you
sit on the toilet. Some can also play a flushing sound or other music to muffle
the natural sounds of bodily functions!! If that all wasn’t enough, most also
have a deodorizer which runs automatically after you get off, so that you don’t
leave nasty smells behind!! Thankfully,
most of the buttons have pictograms and are labeled in both English and
Japanese. Using the toilet is apparently some kind of ritual in Japan, and they
take it very seriously there.
After I was settled in
my room, I went for a stroll outside my hotel. Along the way, I found that I could
buy a beverage like tea, coffee, water and sometimes even beer anywhere if I
figured out how to use the ubiquitous drink vending machines. If not, there is
a convenience store such as a 7/11 in every block, which will have a variety of
drinks, both hot and cold. Yes, one can purchase hot tea or coffee in bottles
there. They actually have vending machines and convenience store shelves with
heating and cooling functions. This is apparently so that patrons are able to
enjoy drinks such as a tea and coffee in any weather. The drink vending
machines reminded me of the cigarette vending machines here in Germany of which
there is one on every corner. How I wish they could be replaced with drink
machines instead!!!
The bottled tea was
actually very good. I tried different types, however, the oolong tea (although
not Japanese) and Hojicha were my drinks of choice. Hojicha, I discovered is a
Japanese green tea brewed from roasted green tea leaves, due to which it is
virtually caffeine free. I even got to the point of having a preference for a
certain brand of bottled oolong tea over another!! All of the unflavored teas
are pure leaf and sugar-free so one can enjoy them relatively guilt-free.
Since I am a huge coffee snob, I reluctantly tried some bottled coffee. It was
not bad, however, was definitely not my first choice of beverage. I preferred to
walk over to the nearest convenience store and purchase a cup of freshly brewed
coffee, as the office did not provide any complimentary coffee, however
Japanese green tea or Sencha was available (also from a machine J).
Now that you have
read, and hopefully enjoyed the introductory chapter to my Japan Diaries, I
intend to continue next month with more topics such as food, people and
culture.
Stay tuned…
Yashaswini
Patwardhan
Karlsruhe, Germany
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