Japan and Taiwan 2006


Introduction

Japan was great. Cleaner than China, the people are less intense, more restrained, more reserved, just as the stereotype says. How can I write briefly about this land before I crawl to my bed?

An air of gracious innocence hangs in the air, despite the encroaching population and technology. A noble dignity pervades. One knows one is dealing with a culture that knows its mind and will not take instruction from another, even after having been crushed in the dust and resurrected by America. It gives back to the homogenizing globalising current as good as it gets, such that one feels there will always be a Japan.

Such dinky street siding vending machines! I thank you for so conveniently slaking my thirst, with your cream melon sodas and slightly too diluted banana milkshakes.

The country bears an austere dignity, yet knows how to party, the people are work horses whose happiness is toys.

And magical, beautiful women, sprung from fairy tales, smile enchantingly, and know no fear.