Japan - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Osaka and Nara

On Monday afternoon, we caught the train to Osaka. It is really a very short ride as Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto are all very close to each other. In fact, if we were to do this trip again or if we were to advise people about visiting these places, we would recommend that they stay in one place and take advantage of the amazing train service to visit each of the other cities. That way, you would not be wasting time packing up every few days and moving. But as they say, hindsight is 20 - 20. 

We arrived at Namba Station in Osaka and we grabbed a cab to our Airbnb apartment. 

For those who have not used Airbnb in the past, many times you never meet your host. Rather, they leave the key in a mailbox or in a lockbox and when you arrive at the location, you simply let yourself in. 

And to ensure that you are the only one to have the combination to the mailbox, they usually email you the combination for the mailbox and you are good to go.

In this case, Jin, the proprietor was very creative. He did not email us the combination; rather, he emailed us a very creative video on YouTube showing you how to walk from the closest subway station and basically "walked" you to the apartment, into the mail room and you saw on the video how he opened the mailbox. If you want to see some creativity, watch Jin's short video.

Herein lies the problem and my huge mistake. 

I did not transcribe the combination on paper before leaving (when we had wifi) and since we would not have wifi again until getting into Jin's apartment, we arrived at the apartment and had no way of getting into the building. 

We tried a few people who were walking in and out of the building and asked if we could use their phone to call Jin, but there was a serious language problem and also what we had been told many times, that even tho the Japanese can be overly  helpful when it is their job to service you; in general, on a personal basis, they are very cautious about opening up to strangers. So we were stuck, sitting outside the building with all our luggage and no way to get in.

I finally asked someone where there was a Starbucks. She pointed in a specific direction and indicated that it was just up the road. So I told Fran to sit tight and I would be right back with the info. Well, just up the road meant about a kilometre away. And then to make matters even worse, when I finally logged on in Starbucks, it seemed that their internet was not working that day. My mazal that every other Starbucks that we entered in Japan had excellent wifi, this one was not working. 

What to do now? I saw someone who looked American and asked him if I could call Jin, and he graciously said yes. But when the fellow at the other end answered the phone, he spoke no English and hung up on me. 

I thought, Fran must be panicking...I had been away for quite a bit and she was sitting there all alone. 

Finally, I walked over to a Japanese fellow working on his computer and although he spoke no English, through sign language and showing him the address in Japanese, he picked up his phone, called Jin and within a minute was writing the combination down for me.....in Japanese!!! I looked at him and he instantly inputted the combination into Google Translate and showed me "turn left twice to the number 8 and once left to the number 4". 

I thanked him profusely and literally ran the kilometre back to the apartment where Fran was sitting patiently waiting, clearly worried....we tried the combination and we were in....Baruch Hashem!

Well, after two Airbnb experiences with very small apartments and hard mattresses, this apartment was a dream. It was much larger. Two large comfortable American style beds, and every modern convenience in the apartment. It looked totally new. And it had something that we had only seen once before...in China. A combination washer - dryer machine. 

We had wasted a few hours with the combination problem, but we were in and were very happy with the accommodations. 

We unpacked and set out to explore the town. 

Osaka is a huge city, very modern and bustling. Especially at night. They have these "shopping streets" all over the midtown area and while we had nothing to shop for, it was amazing to be in the centre of all this activity. Thousands of people milling around. 

We walked past a very large department store and the sign indicated that on the top floor of the store there was a Cineplex-type movie theatre. We wondered whether there was a chance of seeing a movie in English and when we asked, we found out that two of the movies, The Martian and The Marigold Hotel were both in English with Japanese subtitles. 

So two of our evenings in Osaka were spent at the movies. Both good movies and both attended by only Japanese (other than us). So they were either practicing their english or watching the movie with the subtitles. 

Tuesday morning, we went to see the Osaka Umeda Sky Building with the Floating Garden Observatory. It is at the north end of the city, and it an amazing architectural masterpiece. 

Before entering the building, we saw numerous office workers who were sitting outside on what was presumably their coffee break. They were all dressed identically...black suits and white shirts for both the men and women. This was indicative of what we saw over and over again on our Japan trip; the formality of dress by workers is rigidly followed.  Take a look at this short video.

There are two identical office towers about 40 storeys each, and at the very top, there is a circular structure that joins the two buildings. Apparently, when they built the towers, they hoisted the centre circular structure up between the towers and then bolted it in place. Here they are hoisting the centre into place before they added the cross escalators and the following picture shows the finished product.

What is remarkable, is that when you go up to the observatory, you go up one tower to about the 35th floor, and then rise to the observatory by means of an escalator that takes you to the top of the other tower. Then when descending, it is in the reverse. 

From the top you have an amazing view of the entire area. 

But it is really the structure rather than the view that attracted us. 

From here we were off by subway to the Osaka Aquarium. 

On the way we stopped in the subway to confirm directions and one of the english speaking attendants explained to us that we could buy combination subway entrance passes that would save us money. we did the transaction and then I filmed the now obligatory bowing ceremony at the end.

We have been to a few aquariums and enjoy them. This one rated with the best that we have visited. Fran and I are debating whether the Singapore Aquarium was better. Here are three of the favourite videos that we took there...

We spent a few hours and then spent the rest of the evening walking through town and enjoying the local colour.

On Wednesday morning, we had an appointment to meet a student guide in Nara, an ancient city about 30 minutes train ride from Osaka. 

Mikio, our guide, was waiting for us at the Nara Station. He spoke English better than any other guide that we had in Japan. He was graduating college that week and this was to be his last guiding job, before moving to Tokyo where he had secured a full time job as a manager of a comedy club.

We had almost cancelled the day because there was a steady downpour and all the activity in Nara is outdoors. But since Mikio had committed his time to us, we felt that would be unfair to him, so we pushed on.

By the time we arrived in Nara it was pouring. So we got on our raincoats and umbrellas and off we went. Nara was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (8th century). There are some very famous temples and shrines and a few beautiful Japanese gardens in Nara and there are wild deer everywhere. Each day they come down from the mountains to the city and mingle among the tourists. Other than grabbing your bags if they have food, they do not bother you. 

The problem was the rain, we kept hoping that it would let up, but it did not so after a couple of hours walking around Nara, we called it a day and said goodbye to Mikio and headed back to Osaka. 

We went back to the apartment to dry off and change our clothes and then went out to see the Second Marigold Hotel movie, which was a good way to stay inside, warm and dry.

We caught an early night's sleep, to prepare for our exciting day awaiting us on Thursday.

More to come

Fran and David

Sent from my iPad

Japan - Friday, Shabbat, and Sunday in Kobe

We began our day, last Friday in Kyoto, by visiting Beit Shalom, the headquarters of the Christian Zionist movement that was responsible for the creation of the Holocaust Education Centre that we visited earlier in the week in Fukuyama. 

We arrived at the centre at 9:30 AM and were greeted by the director of the Center, Hideo Yoshida, who is the identical twin brother of the director of the Holocaust Centre. It was like déjà vu! 

The Beit Shalom is a complex of buildings in a residential neighbourhood of Kyoto. The main building houses a museum dedicated to the founder of the movement. We watched a brief video where the now deceased leader spoke, at the age of 94, to a group of visiting Israelis, and told them the story of his vision and his love for Israel and how all parts of historic Israel has to remain under the control of the State of Israel. 

Below is a poem written by Reverand Otsuki when he visited the Kotel.

We saw and read the various plaques and dedications that were displayed in the museum; letters, pictures and greetings from former President Yitzchak Navon, former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan; honorary degrees from Bar Ilan and Hebrew University. 

We then met with the current director who is the son of the founder and met the director general of the Holocaust Center, Makato Otsuka, who speaks a fluent Hebrew, having spent a number of years studying in Israel. 

It was very moving to meet non Jews in Japan who truly loved Israel and what it stands for and who have not been swayed at all in their commitment to Israel's success and future by the untruths and negative propaganda spouted in today's media and by many foreign governments. We shared with all of them our message that we value their friendship and that even tho we may have different religions and even different concepts of Mashiach, that it is very valuable when we can respect each other and join together in the pursuit of peace. 

We returned to gather our belongings and continued our journey to Kobe. 

Kobe is an old port city with a population of 1.5 million, that was devastated by a huge earthquake in 1995, officially called the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Close to 5000 people were killed in Kobe and over 400,000 homes were irreparably damaged. 120 out of 150 shipping docks, which are the lifeblood of this port city, were damaged. Highways buckled and caved in at numerous spots. 

As a result, visitors to Kobe today are viewing an almost totally rebuilt city. It is modern and bustling and the port, which was totally rebuilt in less than 2 years (on time and on budget....typically Japanese) has now been expanded and reinforced to prevent any future damage of this magnitude in another earthquake. 

Kobe's Jewish history began in the 1860's. Japan had been a closed society until then and when they decided to open their borders to foreign trade and to foreigners living in Japan, they did so, in two port cities, Kobe and Yokohama. And naturally Jews came to trade in these two now open cities. It is for this reason that when you walk thru Kobe today, you see many more signs in English than in other parts of Japan. 

By the early 1900s there was a well established community and a Zionist movement in Kobe and the first shul was built in 1912. When the great earthquake of 1923 hit Yokohama, most of its Jewish residents relocated to Kobe. 

Two distinct communities, Ashkenazic and Sefaradic, developed and in the Second World War when the Sefaradic shul was destroyed in an allied bombing raid, the two communities decided to share premises. Today the Ohel Shlomo Synagogue functions as a Sefaradic synagogue with an Ashkenazic Chabad Rabbi and a membership of immigrants to Japan from primarily the USA and Israel. 

We arrived at our apartment at 1 PM and Shabbat was to begin about 5 hours later. 

We unpacked and walked over to the shul mainly so that we would know the route as there is no Eruv in Kobe and we would not be able to carry a map. 

We walked mainly uphill to reach the shul and met Rabbi Shmulik Vishedsky, originally from Kfar Chabad in Israel. The rabbi and his wife Batya and their three daughters have been in Kobe for two years and clearly have made an impact on the community. They are loved by their members. 

In contrast to many other Chabad centres that we have visited, the rabbi was working in the kitchen when we arrived and he explained that because the community is small and not wealthy and because labour in Japan is very expensive, much of the work has to be done by volunteers. 

Rabbi Shmulik instantly impressed us as a warm, selfless, non judgemental and caring person and over Shabbat, our initial impressions were confirmed. 

We returned to shul at candlelighting time and a little while later people began to arrive. There were a number of regulars and a few tourists like us. What was surprising was that a few of the regulars, who lived in Osaka and Kyoto, nearby cities, actually moved in to the apartments above the shul as they were Shomer Shabbat. 

By the time we sat down to the Seudat Shabbat, there were about 25 people there and we had a very enjoyable Friday night experience. We met Batya, the Rebbetzin, also from Kfar Chabad, and she was the perfect complement to Rabbi Shmulik. They were both so positive and welcoming to the guests and to the locals. 

What was noticeable was the level of intermarriage between primarily Israeli men and Japanese women and their resulting offspring. This presents challenges to the Rabbi and Rebbetzin and they amazingly take it in stride. They see their mission to bring the warmth of Judaism to the Jewish partner and to the children and they work very hard creating programs to highlight Jewish pride and identity. At the present time, they are preparing for a major Purim program and the Pesach Sedarim. They hope to have about 250 people at the Seder.

When I asked Rabbi Shmulik how many Jews were in Kobe, he replied that it is not just Kobe but the entire Kansai region which he estimates has over 1000 Jewish residents. He is working tirelessly to create a database of all the Jews in the area and he jokingly told us that he was "the chief Rabbi of over 60,000,000 people", the population of the Kansai region in Japan. 

Shabbat morning, davening began at 10:30 am. This was the latest start ever for a Chabad minyan that we have attended anywhere in the world. But by the middle of Pesukai D'Zimra, we had a minyan and by the time davening was over, there were about 18 men and 5 women there. I had volunteered to layn and I am now able to add Japan to the growing list of countries where I have had the privilege to layn the Torah. 

We met some very interesting local residents there and a number of visitors as well. One was a professor from Bar Ilan who was lecturing in Kobe and one was a lawyer from Washington specializing in the shipping and logistic industries. 

The meal was noteworthy in that Friday night's menu contained only fish and Shabbat's menu had mainly fish with a cholent that had a little chicken. You see, Japan has only recently been able to import kosher chickens from Iowa and supply is very limited. Beef cannot be imported yet and Chabad is working hard to either import meat or shecht Kobe beef in Japan. But the meals were very good, there were many salads and home baked Challot and both gefilte fish and salmon. 

On Motzaei Shabbat, the Rabbi and Rebbetzin invited us, together with a young American man from Miami studying Japanese in Kobe, and a visiting student from France who was just completing an internship in Shanghai, to a Melave Malka in their home above the shul. The meal was great, the shakshuka was amazing and the conversation with the rabbi and the other guests was interesting and lively. 

We left with a wonderful impression of the Chabad couple's dedication and mesirat nefesh on behalf of the Jewish residents of this area of Japan. 

On Sunday morning, we took the cable car to the top of the mountain overlooking Kobe and could see the huge man made island that had been built off the shore of Kobe using landfill from the 1995 earthquake. From the top of the mountain, there is a walkway to the mid level and it is an amazing herb garden with every imaginable herb growing along the paved and picturesque pathway down the mountain. 

We spent the rest of the day walking through the city which has numerous "shopping streets", covered midrachovs with tons of shopping. The streets were packed with shoppers and it was a very colourful way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Kobe.

On Monday morning before we left for Osaka, we walked down to the shore and visited the Earthquake memorial. This is an area of town that has been left exactly as it was immediately following the earthquake of 1995. We watched a short film in English which recounted how the citizens of Kobe and its government pulled together to rebuild in record time. It was truly an impressive accomplishment. 

We picked up our bags and headed by train to our next stop Osaka.

To be continued....

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Thursday in Kyoto Arashiyama

Last Thursday, our last full day in Kyoto, we had arranged for a private walking tour with Good Samaritan Guiding Group, which is a group of about 100 university students who wish to improve their spoken English and who love showing off their country to visitors.

We had wanted to visit the Arashiyama section of Kyoto. It is a beautiful area outside the city nestled in mountains, rivers and forests. We decided to meet at the train station closest to Arashiyama. Our guide was Riana Sahara, a 19 year old student and when we arrived, she told us that until this time, she was in training and always had to be accompanied by a more experienced mentor; this was her first time guiding all alone and that she hoped that we would be satisfied. 

Like the guides before her, she was personable, knowledgeable and very pleasant.

One of the activities to do in this region is to ride a heritage old style train through the mountains alongside a rushing river. Seats are reserved by number and you can choose to sit in the closed car or in the open air car. 

She reserved the closed car for one way and open for the return trip. It was a beautiful sunny day but the temperature was not yet in the teens, so the return ride was quite cool especially when going thru the numerous mountain tunnels on the journey. 

The scenery was nice, but nothing spectacular, although we could imagine that taking the train in the fall with the changing colour of the foliage might be spectacular. 

After we returned, we walked for a bit through the town which was a couple of streets lined with eating places and souvenir shoppes. Because we started relatively early in the day, there were sparse crowds when we arrived but now many more were arriving to take advantage of the sunny day and the fresh outdoor air. We walked alongside the river for a bit enjoying the beautiful scenery. 

We were headed to the monkey park, an area of Arashiyama accessible by climbing a steep, gravel paved hill with a number of switchbacks to make the climb a little easier. 

We had been to the Park Hakofim (Hebrew for Monkey Park) in Israel where monkeys roam freely and you walk among them but always separated by a fence. As we were approaching the top, we noticed a number of monkeys in the surrounding forest, roaming freely. But when we reached the top, we were on a flattened area, and there were many monkeys all around us. 

They are used to visitors and do not bother you, tho the males are bothered by direct eye contact and there are signs warning you of this.  There are park rangers all around to ensure that everyone is safe from any potential "monkey business" (sorry, could not resist)!

There was a very beautiful view over Kyoto from the summit, but the real attraction here was the roughly 200 macaque monkeys. You could literally get up close and personal with them. We spent some time watching the monkeys and then headed back down. 

We found a very nice spot along the river and ate our lunch with Riana who also brought her lunch. She was quite interested in our religion and asked us many questions about our observances. We were the first Jews she had ever met. 

We then walked to the bamboo forest, another feature attraction in the area. 

This is an enormous grove of very tall and straight bamboo trees. You walk on the path through them and you definitely feel very small. It is very photographed site that is featured in many travel magazines that highlight Kyoto.

By now it was mid afternoon and we boarded the train back to Kyoto station where we said our goodbyes to Riana. Before we left, she told us how memorable this day would be for her as we were the first tourists that she had guided as a graduate guide and she gave us a very beautiful thank you card that she had designed. It was really quite touching. 

We cannot say enough about these free guide services. They are a very good resource when visiting Japan. 

We spent some time walking through the shopping areas of Kyoto and then headed back to our apartment to pack up for our trip the next day to Kobe where we would spend our second Shabbat.

More to come...

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Wednesday and Thursday in Kyoto

We arrived in Kyoto on Tuesday night after travelling from Fukuyama and our experiences at the Holocaust Education Centre. 

Kyoto, a city of almost one and a half million people, is the capital of the Kansai region of Japan and is part of the huge metropolitan area that unites three large cities, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, with a metro population of over 19 million people. 

Kyoto is known as the Thousand Year Capital because it was the capital city and emperor's residence of Japan from 794 to 1868. It is also known as the City of Ten Thousand Shrines, because it is home to roughly one quarter of Japan's national treasures, countless shrines and temples, and seventeen sites recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Kyoto has gained popularity for its stunning beauty, carefully tended gardens and in season (unfortunately not this season) to amazing cherry blossoms in spring and breathtaking colours in autumn. 

Because it is impossible for us to shoot the spring and autumn pics, I have downloaded these from the web to share with you the natural beauty of Kyoto.

It is home to wonderful artisans in the area of fabrics, ceramics, and other such handicrafts. 

In Kyoto we were staying at an Airbnb apartment in what was described as a fairly "new mansion" near the historic Gion section of the city. Well, when we arrived, we began to understand what people had been describing as small Japanese accommodations. The apartment in Tokyo we thought was small and fairly basic was what we started with in Japan; we then moved to a beautiful expansive hotel room in Hiroshima and now we were in an apartment that could not have been over 250 square feet, which is not too bad in terms of a hotel room, but this included kitchen, bathroom, toilet room and very narrow hallway. 

We always said that we wanted to experience a real Japanese bed; a base called the tatami and the cover called the futon. Well, we were now going to live like real Japanese people. 

The good news about everything that we have experienced in Japan is their preoccupation with cleanliness. The apartments are immaculate. And they are quite well equipped for the kosher traveller; almost all have microwave ovens, most have gas stove tops, they have fridges, regular keys (non electronic), ....and then they have the Japanese beds. Well, after trying them in both Kyoto and Kobe, we can tell you that we will stick with our Sealy Porturpedic any day!!!!

We had arranged that our two days in Kyoto would be spent with two free tour guides. We had written earlier about the amazing free English tour guide organizations that exist in various places in Japan. Most of these are either retirees or students who have two basic purposes in guiding; a) to practice their English and b) to share their love of Japan and its culture while at the same time learning about other cultures. When we say free, it really is. We have now completed four days (including Kyoto) of these services and in each case, we tried to give our guide a tip or gratuity at the end, and it was totally refused as insulting. What we have now learned to do is to present the guide with a simple gift, candies, chocolates etc., at the end as a show of our appreciation. While it is not expected or required, it is accepted and appreciated.

On Wednesday, our first full day in Kyoto, we were scheduled to do a walking tour of a section of Kyoto that includes ancient temples and shrines and the Gion old shopping district of the city. We met our guide Nobuko at the Kyoto Central station. 

Because there are thousands of people traversing the station at all hours of the day, we decided to send, in advance, a picture of ourselves and asked the guide to do the same, so that we could pick each other out of a crowd. We also asked for a meeting point. We recognized Nobuko from her picture. 

Nobuko is a 72 year old lady, who retired at 62 from her job as a bank teller. At that point, she began to study English and now is a member of a women-only guiding club and English club that meets on a monthly basis to practice their English and to exchange ideas on guiding.

We got on a local bus and purchased three passes. The day pass was roughly $5 each and is good for unlimited bus travel for a day in Kyoto. We got off in a section of town not far from our apartment and began walking down a very narrow street. At the end of the street we could see the five roofed pagoda of the Yasaka Shrine and we were headed in its direction. 

All along the way, Nobuko shared with us explanations of the various shrines (Shinto) and temples (Bhuddist) and what all the symbols mean. It was quite fascinating. When we asked her what religion she followed, she responded as most Japanese people we have met have told us "I follow parts of both". The way we understand it, Bhuddism is a religion of good ethics with the idol of Bhudda representing their god, and Shintoism is the religion of nature, with parts of nature (water, animals, plants etc) representing various gods that each have meaning and good luck symbols. 

There is no central place of worship in either religion, there are shrines and temples all over the place and you can even erect a small shrine in your home. There are no specific times for prayer, and there is no liturgy. 

In Bhuddism, there are large bells at the temple that one can ring to wake up the gods because "they are very busy, there are so many people seeking their attention", so when entering, you ring the bell to make sure god is listening. In Shintoism, when entering the shrine, you clap twice and bow twice to get the gods attention. 

In either case, it is very different from Judaism's concept of one God who is Shomaya Tefillah (whose Omnipitence allows Him to listen to all prayers at all times).

There is an admission cost to enter the temples and shrines and this sustains the operation. If you are wearing a kimono or a yakuta (for men), the admission fee is waived. So near the major shrine areas of Kyoto, there are kimono rental places and we saw many people in full traditional Japanese attire. Many were locals, but a large number were Taiwanese and Chinese tourists. 

It is not inexpensive to rent the traditional dress as it includes full hairdos and makeup to give the customer the fully authentic Japanese experience. So it is done more for the experience than to simply save the price of admission. 

We seized the opportunity to photograph ourselves with many traditionally dressed people and were even lucky enough to meet and pose with a bride and groom who had come on their wedding day to pray at the temple. 

David with 4 local friends

Mazal Tov! Fran with the Chatan and Kallah

Gion is also the centre for Geisha training in Japan and we were fortunate to see two young ladies in full makeup and attire and obviously we took pictures with them. 

Take a look at the their elaborate makeup and hairdos and in the picture below, the backs of their outfits. 

Whenever we asked locals if we could pose with them, our requests were cheerfully granted with a smile and full cooperation. 

We had explained to Nobuko that our tradition is that we do not enter the sanctuaries of other religions but that we did wish to see the areas around the buildings and she was very good at respecting our wishes. She was very good at explaining all aspects of what we were seeing and for someone who only began to speak English at 62, was very clear and easy to understand. She also had a very good disposition and a good sense of humour. 

How is this for blending an ancient culture with modern technology?

The walk then took us to Higashiyama temple and eventually to the Inari Shrine, the shrine with one thousand Torii gates, one of the most famous and most photographed spots in Japan. 

Along the way, we stopped for lunch and even though we had emailed Nobuko to explain that we could not eat at local eateries, but that we would be pleased to purchase her meal for her, out of respect for our lifestyle, she brought with her own lunch and we sat outside and ate together.

It was now about 2 PM and we had been walking since 9 AM. At 72, she was very energetic and spry. She said goodbye as she had to go to an English class and she made sure to explain clearly to us how to get back to our apartment. We were on our own and we decided to walk through Kyoto and enjoy the local colour. 

By the time we returned to our apartment at close to 6 PM, we had been walking for close to 9 hours on this beautiful day in Kyoto. We were exhausted, but this has been the basic recipe since we arrived here in Japan....lots of walking in order to take in as much as we can of the local colour and tradition. 

Next post will be our free walking tour of the Arashiyama district of Kyoto on Thursday

All the best

Fran and David

Our initial impression of Japan (after 10 days).

We have now been in Japan for 15 days which puts us past the halfway point of our trip and so, we think it is time to share with you our initial impressions of Japan and its people. 

These points are in no particular order of importance and we must stress that thirteen days does not make us experts; but these are our personal impressions:

1. Politeness - we really feel that the Japanese are the most polite and helpful people we have ever encountered. You will never see anyone pushing their way into a line ahead of you; they wait patiently for their turn. On an escalator, you will see everyone standing over to one side, in an absolute straight line, allowing an open passageway for those who wish to climb the escalator. When you ask anyone at an information booth a question, the answer is always accompanied by a smile and a thank you. And if they do not know the answer, they will try to find it for you. If there is a language issue, the information person will oftentimes leave their post to come around and either direct you or actually walk you toward your intended direction, and such service is always accompanied by a deep bow. 

2. Buying products at a store - When it comes to paying at a store, you never hand over your cash or credit card to the cashier. Rather, you place it in the payment tray in front of the cashier. And then the cashier will actually show you the required amount that you have to pay for the items purchased, they will then count out your change and place it, using two hands and a bow, back in the tray in front of you. If you purchased items of clothing, the cashier will carefully fold all the items you purchased and place them in your shopping bag. We have never seen anyone here just throw the purchased items into a shopping bag like they do in many stores in Canada. Btw, this folding of clothes occurs not just in higher end shoppes, but even in discount stores, like H & M and the amazing Japanese chain Uniqlo (soon opening in Toronto).

3. Tipping - We have never seen anyone accept a tip here. We had heard that taxis did not accept tips and we can vouch from experience that this is true, but we assumed that a tour guide would accept a tip. Well, we tried to tip the tour guide  and she was insulted and adamantly refused to accept any tip. Even when we told her that the tip was for her granddaughter, the tip was vehemently refused. We have stayed mostly in Airbnb apartments, but this past week, we stayed two nights in a hotel in Hiroshima and one night in Kyoto. Both were what one would describe as upscale four star hotels. In both cases, we were greeted at the taxi by a bell hop (in one of the cases, a young very slim woman) who lifted our heavy suitcases out of the trunk, stood by us as we checked in, accompanied us to our rooms and when we offered a tip (assuming that in a name brand chain hotel the rules would be different), again the tip was refused.

4. Safety - we feel totally safe in Japan. We are told that while one has to take the same kind of precautions that you would take under normal rules of travel, nevertheless we feel safer. Unlike places like Barcelona and Rio where there were warnings everywhere about pickpockets, and as such you were always checking to make sure you still had everything you started out with in the morning, here there is no such feeling. We were in a pretty section of Kyoto a few days ago and had to climb a rather steep path to get to the Monkey Park of Arashiyama, and there was a woman with a baby who was doing the same. She left her stroller with a large bag (assume diaper bag) at the bottom of the path with no second thoughts. I believe that there is simply a culture of trust here that exists in very few places in the world. 

5. Size of families - We see very small families here. We are told that the average is under two children per family. And as a result you rarely see any couple with more than one child or baby. And unlike Israel, where you can see parents walking with many more than one child (and not just in religious neighbourhoods), and where you can see pregnant women everywhere; here, we rarely see pregnant women.

6. Animals/pets - on the other hand, what we have seen here that we have seen nowhere else in the world is the treatment of pets. When we saw our first woman pushing a baby stroller with a dressed up dog inside, we thought it was weird.

Then we saw more, and then walking through a large upscale department store (think Holt Renfrew) when we saw an entire section selling dog and cat strollers and specialized outfits for pets, we knew that this was part of a culture. And the store was busy with shoppers. The prices for the pets being sold in this department store ranged up to $6000 for a pet dog! 

                        

7. Dress : And while on the subject of dress, the Japanese have to be the neatest dressers in the world. And tzniut (modesty) of the highest degree. When I mentioned this to the Chabad Rabbi in Kobe this past Shabbat, he said, "mamash chareidim"! While you see many young Japanese girls with skirts above the knee, the vast majority of women wear modest clothing. With sleeves and hardly ever with cleavage of any type showing. Men, too, are dressed much more formally than in North America or in Europe. Rarely do you see torn jeans, grungy T-shirts or an unkempt appearance. What you see a lot in men's clothing is suits, white shirts and ties. No dress down Fridays for the Japanese.

And uniforms everywhere! Construction workers wearing the company uniform. Uniformed service providers. Taxi drivers are all dressed in suits, ties and white gloves! And students all have uniforms. Boys in suits and ties and girls in crisp white shirts with jackets, skirts and the cutest little hats anywhere. Hair combed properly...absolutely amazing to see. 

8. Tattoos - continuing with the appearance of the Japanese, the tattoo which has become a common sight in most places that we visited, is almost non existent here in Japan. In fact, it is frowned upon and we are told that many of the bath houses (or onsens) that are all over this country, will actually refuse entry to someone with tattoos as it will offend the other patrons. We even heard of a teacher who was refused a job because one of his tattoos was visible.

9. Taking off shoes - we were told that one has to remove shoes and use provided slippers everywhere in Japan and as a result, Fran did not take her laced running shoes on this trip. Well, not totally true. What you do see is the request when we are staying in Airbnb apartments that we remove shoes once inside the apartment and use the slippers provided. The apartment we are in now goes one extra step. There is a special set of slippers for the bathroom. So you remove shoes and put on slippers to enter the apartment. You then change slippers when going to the bathroom. 

Yesterday we went to Uniqlo and had to try on some items in the dressing room. The attendant asked us to remove our shoes to enter the dressing room. You could tell which change room was empty by the absence of shoes outside its entrance. 

10. Cleanliness - all of this neatness and politeness described above leads to our next statement that Japan is the cleanest place we have ever been to (next to my mother's house, that is😀)! Everything is immaculate. The streets are clean but more important, they are neat; which means that you will not find shoddy infrastructure. The sidewalks are not cracked, they get repaired immediately. You seldom see any garbage or wrappers in the streets. People are constantly cleaning. Even in areas with very old housing, there is never any hint of neglect. Storefronts are always neat and items in store windows are nicely displayed. 

We walked through the shopping streets in both Kyoto and Kobe; very long streets with stores on both sides, usually covered by a canopy, which in other cities would be the Shuk (market) experience. Even here everything is neat and neatly displayed. In many cases, when you pick up an item to purchase, the shop owner will replace your item with a new one from the back, neatly wrapped and then package it for you. 

11. Keeping kosher and the price of fruit and veggies - we are eating well, thank God, but keeping kosher in Japan is definitely a challenge. There is almost nothing on the store shelves that you can identify and even if you recognize the logo, (e.g., Snickers, Haagen Dazs), you cannot read the ingredients or the country of manufacture. Even things that we take for granted in most countries in the world, like buying a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, is a non starter, because we have not found it or any other cereals on the grocery shelves. It is not part of the average Japanese diet. It is available at Costco Japan, apparently...but that is far away and who needs a huge box when travelling. 

That being said, we are doing well, because we brought with Quaker instant cereals, cans of salmon, tuna and sardines, cold cuts, Meal Mart TV dinners, snacks like granola bars and nuts, instant soups and small jars of condiments like mustard and mayo. So a typical dinner for us is a home made vegetable soup, a TV dinner and a side of fresh vegetables or cooked sweet yams. A typical lunch is egg salad or tuna/salmon salad. And our nosh consists of nuts and fresh fruits. 

And a word about the cost of fruits and vegetables. Expensive! And another word. Beautiful. We can go into a supermarket and buy 2 bananas, three small yams, a few carrots, 6 eggs and an orange or two and the bill is typically $12 to $15. But the quality of the fruits and veggies is amazing. They look like they were handpicked. Blemish free and ripe. We have not yet seen an avocado that is not perfectly ripe. 

The Chabad rabbi and Rebbetzin here in Kobe told us that they were previously posted in Shanghai and there one could buy fruits and veggies for a fraction of Japan's cost and because the labour was so cheap, the Chabad house there could arrange a Shabbat for locals and guests at minimal cost. Here labour and basic food items are much more expensive and the availability of certain items like chicken or meat is severely restricted. As such the menu at Chabad for Shabbat is different and the cost of supplying it is quite high.

12. The Amazing Train and Subway System - all we can say is WOW! We met a couple from NY a few days ago and he has been coming to Japan for years on business. He said that New Yorkers like to think that they have the best subway system in the world. He laughed and said that NY has so much to learn from Japan about how to run a subway and how to integrate the subway, train and bus systems so that they all work in sync. 

Where do we begin in describing the system? Well, first of all, all of our fears about not being able to navigate the system or that the system would be too confusing, were unfounded. All the signs in the stations have both English and Japanese; the electronic ticket machines all have a button for English instructions. And if that does not help make it easier for you, every station we have been in (and they are many) has an attendant who can understand basic English and can explain which train to take and which track it runs on.  

The trains run on time. To the minute. And they are in the station for only a minute or two. The stations are clean and the trains are clean. And because of the sheer volume of people that pass thru the major city stations on a daily basis, there is a major concentration of retail shops in the stations. 

If you are visiting from abroad, you are able to buy a Japan Rail Pass. These passes give you unlimited travel on the JR rail system (there are certain trains that the JR Pass does not include) and if you are going to use the train at least three of four times in the week, the pass is generally a good buy. 

In Tokyo, you can buy a Passmo or Suica Card which you can load up with money and then use it for train travel simply by swiping it across a card reader. You can also use it for 7-11 store purchases. 

There are subway systems in all the major cities and the train system integrates with the subway systems such that if you are in a major city, you are seldom more than a ten minute walk from a station and you therefore can travel all over the country using this highly efficient system. It is clear that if we were living here, there would be little reason to own a car. 

And while many people (perhaps 90% of all people) in the subway are sitting working on their personal devices, you will never find anyone speaking on their phones. We were in a train and suddenly someone's phone rang. He immediately stood up, went to the area between the two cars and only then spoke on his phone. There is a certain level of respect for other people's space that does not exist in our Western society.

13) Jewellery - While women dress nicely in Japan, you rarely see them wearing any jewellery or earrings. And while you do not see too many people with jewellery, you do see many wearing masks on the street or in the subway. These are worn for one of two reasons; allergy issues and not wishing to be exposed to outside germs or because they have a cold or cough and wish to protect others from their germs. Whatever the reason, you cannot miss noticing the number of people wearing masks (more so in Tokyo than in other places we have visited).

14) Wifi - the one area where Japan appears to be lagging the rest of the world is the availability of free wifi connections. In North America, Europe and in Israel, we have had little trouble connecting to free wifi. You can connect almost anywhere. When you walk into a retail store or a restaurant or even in the center of certain cities, you can access free wifi. 

In Japan, other than at Starbucks, you are hard pressed to find free wifi connections. We have not yet figured out why, seeing that Japan is a high tech kind of place. But free wifi is almost impossible to access. As well, they have these passwords that are crazy random combinations of small case and upper case letters and numbers. 

As a result, a number of the places where we rented apartments, provided us with free pocket wifi's. These are little devises which are connected continuously and as a result, you carry them in your pocket and you are always connected. It saves the cost of buying a SIM card. 

So for anyone travelling here who thinks that they can get along with accessing free wifi the way they are used to in North America, forget about it! Either buy a sim card or get one of these pocket wifi devices.

15) Bowing - there is a lot of bowing going on in this country. Where we tend to shake hands when greeting someone, the Japanese bow. It is probably the feature of Japanese etiquette that is noticed immediately by visiting foreigners. Children are taught from a very early age how to bow and companies train their employees how to execute the bow correctly. The longer and deeper the bow, the stronger the emotion and respect expressed. The inferior party bows longer, deeper and more frequently than a superior. 

I observed two business people meeting in a hotel lobby. One bowed and the other responded with a deeper and longer bow. Then the first person returned the bow and it was receiprocated again. This went on for quite some time, until the formalities seemed to suddenly end and the two exchanged business cards, each presenting the other with their card held in two hands (another show of respect) with another bow. It was humorous (to a non Japanese person) to watch (only wish I had my video camera ready); but part of everyday etiquette here. 

16) Bowleggedness - the other thing that we have noticed was a heavy incidence of Bowleggedness here, especially in Japanese women. Just to make sure that we were not being racist, we went to Dr. Google and lo and behold, it is confirmed that there are studies to show that up to 90% of Japanese women are bowlegged. There are many theories; walking in a kimono forces this posture; lack of calcium in the diet; it is considered prettier in this society; we do not know and cannot verify which theory is correct but it is definitely noticeable when you walk down the street among Japanese women. 

17) The Japanese Work Ethic - Perhaps another generality on our part, but in speaking with locals in shul over Shabbat, it was confirmed. The Japanese know how to work. They are given a job and they work diligently at that job. Which means that during work hours there is total dedication to the assigned activity. No distractions, total concentration on performing the task to their best ability. Which creates a level of achievement not seen in other parts of the world.

We were also told and then later noticed that Japanese workers do not check their devices (iPhones, personal computers, Facebook etc) during work hours. You walk into work, you shut off your personal devices, put them away out of sight, and dedicate yourself to the task at hand. 

It is certainly noticeable. There is a level of service here that we have not seen in any other place in the world where we have travelled. 

18) Eagerness to help - Perhaps an extension of the work ethic and service ethic is the eagerness of Japanese people to assist tourists who appear to be lost. Over and over again on this trip, we have encountered individuals who have noticed that we are not sure whether to turn right or left, or we are standing looking perplexed at a very complicated subway map, or where we actually asked someone for directions and they simply drop what they are doing and help us and do not complete their assistance to us until they are sure that we are headed in the right direction. 

On our very first day here, on the way from the airport to our apartment, we had to transfer from a train to a subway and there was a short walk out of the train station to the subway station. We stood looking for a sign and could not see one. A fellow headed in the total opposite direction, walked over to us and asked us if he could help. We told him where we wanted to go. He turned around, headed back in the direction that he had just come from, actually took the luggage from Fran's hand, and walked two blocks and then carried our luggage down a stairway and did not leave until he was totally satisfied that we were safely on our way.

This has happened numerous times. The Japanese are really quite amazing!

19) A few basic facts - 

a) the electric plugs and volts are similar to North America, so you do not need any adapters. 

b) you will not find banks or ATMs on every corner like in North America; but you will find 7-11s everywhere and they all have ATMs that work on the Interac or Visa Plus system, so you can withdraw cash there easily in English.

c) the luggage or package forwarding service here is amazing. It is similar to our UPS, but one of the features that we like is that every 7-11 is an outlet for this company and you can drop your luggage off at 7-11 (which as I said are on every corner), they will give you a tracking number receipt and you are on your way. Quite amazing. 

d) if you decide to go Airbnb like we did, be prepared for very small apartments; much smaller than you are used to, but always immaculately clean. 

e) you might think that eating sushi is a no brainer because there are no kashrut issues with rice and if you stick to raw salmon you are ok. But be careful. a) there may be issues of bishul akum (check with you LOR) and b) we have been told by someone in hashgacha who lived here for many years, that they now add various flavoured additives to rice before cooking. 

We know that this has been a very long post, but we truly hope that it will assist future travellers in understanding and more quickly adapting to the Japanese culture that they will visit.

No, we are not thinking of moving here...but the experience has been great so far....and hopefully will continue for the next 9 days till we head back to Toronto.

All the best

Fran and David

 

Eagerness of people to help and to communicate

 

 

 

 

Tuesday in Hiroshima and Fukuyama

On Tuesday morning, we looked out the window of our 26th floor room of the Rihga Royal Hotel in Hiroshima to see a city blanketed in snow. Not a lot of snow but enough to tell us that this was to be a cold and grey day, and we were pleased that we had made the decision on Monday to do all our outdoor touring. Tuesday would be a day to remain indoors as much as possible. The main employer in Hiroshima is Mazda and when planning for this trip, I noticed that they have factory tours in English every day. You have to book in advance, which we did and so we headed out by train to the main office of Mazda, not far from the Zoom Zoom Baseball Stadium, which is named for Mazda's nickname and the Costco store.

There were about 20 of us on the tour and it consisted of a drive by bus through Mazda's enormous facility, a visit to the Mazda museum where you can view its cars dating back to the 1920s, a close up look at clay models of cars under development and the final product and the most exciting part of the tour, a walk through the assembly plant. 

We were on an overhead walkway and we had a bird's eye view of the assembly line where we had a close up look at how precise everything has to be to fit together at exactly the right time so that every minute there are 6 cars rolling off the three assembly lines in the Horishima area.  It was a short hour and a half tour and it was very interesting to see. We returned to the hotel, packed up and headed to the Hiroshima Station for our trip to nearby Fukuyama.  As an aside, the names of cities in Japan sometimes tells you things about the city. We are learning a few words in Japanese that assist in our understanding of names of places. For example; Yama (as in Fukuyama) means mountain. Shima (as in Hiroshima) means island. Saki (as in Nagasaki) means peninsula.  Our purpose in going to Fukuyama was to visit the Holocaust Education Center. The centre was established by a Japanese Christian group founded by Reverend Otsuki Takeji and his ministry. Father Otsuki had a vision in 1939 which taught him that he must pray for the establishment of an independent Jewish State in Israel, that he must pray for the welfare of Jews and that he must work towards the coming of Mashiach Ben David. When the first part of his vision came true in 1948, he began preaching the rest of his vision and since then, about 8000 members have joined his mission and have established 100 churches in Japan, a country where the vast majority of people follow Bhuddism and Shintoism.  The group, known as Beit Shalom, with their headquarters in Kyoto, take groups to Israel, have hosted many Israeli groups and visitors, including Israeli Presidents, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Moshe Dayan and many others, and Rev. Otsuki, who died in 2004, received honourary doctorates and awards from Hebrew University, Bar Ilan, and many others.  As part of their love of Israel and Jews, they felt that they must establish a Holocaust Centre so that young Japanese will be aware of what happened and they host thousands of Japanese children each year. Following a meeting between Otto Frank and Rev. Otsuki, the Center was dedicated to Anne Frank. When we emailed the Center and told them that we wanted to visit and when I casually mentioned that Fran was born in Bergen Belsen, we received a reply saying that they were looking forward to our visit. We took the train from Kyoto to Fukuyama and then took a local train to the station on the directions supplied by the Center. We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere and were not sure how to get from the station to the center. After a number of helpful locals steered us in the right direction we arrived at the Center and its director, Akio Yoshida was standing outside awaiting our arrival. After the customary bowing and handshakes, he said to us, please come with me to the auditorium, there are some people waiting to meet you. I have to stress that that there were no other visitors to the Center that day, just us! When we walked into the auditorium, there were about 40 Japanese members of his group who were all waving Israeli flags and to the accompaniment of a piano, they were singing Heveinu Shalom Aleichem.  Heveinu Shalom Aleichem
http://youtu.be/7aCQ7G1-UrI We were ushered to places of honour at the front and Akio welcomed us in English and Hebrew. He explained the founding of the Center and then introduced the choir who sang three songs including an amazing rendition of Avinu Shebashamayim; the prayer for the safety of the State of Israel. You must watch this video. http://youtu.be/nnpPxMA0CcI They then took us on a tour of the museum. There is a recreation of the Warsaw Ghetto wall, and a recreation of Anne Frank's hiding place in Amsterdam where she wrote her diary. There is a scaled model of Auschwitz, under an Arbeit Macht Frei Banner and infamous train tracks.   

There is a room dedicated to Sugihara who saved 6000 Lithuanian Jews including the entire Mir Yeshiva. It is really quite an impressive museum and we are sure that it is doing a good job in educating the future generation of Japanese to the horrors of the Shoah.  We finally arrived at the memorial room which has one shoe from the Shoah below a beautiful stained glass display leading heavenward.   

 

We were asked here to light two Memorial candles and to say Kaddish on behalf of those murdered in the Shoah. And then the choir led everyone in an amazing rendition of Ani Maamin. http://youtu.be/RGHS8aqij4Q We now went downstairs to the auditorium where Akio interviewed Fran about her parents and their experiences; how they met, their wedding in Bergen Belsen and Fran expressed her gratitude to the members of the Center for their efforts in spreading the message to Japanese people.   

I also spoke and made special mention of the fact that Fran's parents had their ultimate revenge to Hitler by building a large, beautiful family and that now two of their great grandchildren have served with the IDF in Israel.  The final song by the group was Hatikvah. http://youtu.be/QxjGxAFzwyk Akio drove us back to the train station and we continued on our journey to Kyoto which we will post next.  This was a very moving and emotional day. Here were Japanese people who took time out of their day to spend two hours with two visitors to their Center, paying the highest respect and honour to Jews and to the State of Israel. The entire event was conducted with the greatest sensitivity and respect and we believe that their sentiments and actions are based on a true and heartfelt love of everything we stand for.  All the best Fran and David