Kickin it in Japan: Definitely Not in Kansas any more

Well, a week or two ago, I took an amazing trip. The high school I am in sponsors trips around the Globe (I went to Russia with them last year) every year, and this year they went to Japan. I have always been a fan of Japanese culture, from the architecture, to the technology, and their history, so this trip there was really amazing for me, and I learned a whole lot about differences in culture between the US and the world.

Well, before I start talking about the journey, I guess I should throw my world traveling experience in. Japan was my fifth visited country, the first 4 (in order) are the Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Russia, all beautiful amazing places. The first three were with a group called the Student Ambassadors, and Russia was with my school. I either worked for, or raised the money needed to go on these trips, they were never paid wholly for by a parent or family member.

Now Japan. Well our first destination for the trip was Osaka. We didn't spend much time here, only a day, but we visited a Osaka Castle, which was pretty amazing. It was very renovated, so it wasn't like being on an ancient Japanese castle, but it was still very amazing, especially the view from the top lookout point. Then we went to Kyoto, which was one of my favorite of the places. There we went to a multitude of shrines, and ancient houses. One of the cool things about the old style houses was that the floor made a high pitched noise, a kind of ancient security system. And the shrines were beautiful. In Japan, they separate clean from dirty, as explained by our tour guide. This is why they take their shoes off whenever they go into the house, and their toilets and baths are in different areas of the house. It was in Kyoto that i first found Mos Burger, a fast food place that has some of the best fast food hamburgers ever. Its like the size of white castle, but a little taller, and far far better quality.
After Kyoto, we went to Hakune by bullet train(which are super fast), which we only spent about a day at, and went on a pretty cool boat ride through an inactive volcano that became a huge lake, and also a gondola ride. Then we went to Tokyo which was probably the highlight of the trip. Our Hotel was right next to the subway station which provided very easy access to the rest of the city. In Tokyo we visited the largest fish market in the world, numerous shrines, saw a few sumo wrestlers, Akihabara (a big district with all stores selling technology stuff), the Tokyo zoo, and various restaurants and side trips thrown in.
The Culture in Japan is so incredibly different from the other cultures that I have experienced. The technology in Japan was pretty crazy. They have vending machines everywhere, and they just use technology in their country to make them a lot more efficient than most other countries. They are a lot more polite to people I have noticed. Even to each other, and especially to tourists. They speak a lot less English than the other countries I've visited also. Their cars are way different. Their version of Ford in the US is Toyota. Toyota makes everything from the Taxis to the Police cars, and their cars are a lot different. Very few sedans. There are mostly hatchbacks, and wagons, and box like cars. They are a lot smaller, and their brands are very different.
The Culture was one of the most amazing things for me though, because I enjoy looking at the differences in Cultures around the world. They have been around a lot longer than the U.S. and they were isolated from the rest of the world for a large amount of time in the past, so I think this attributes to the politeness towards each other. Even with the civil wars and the in-fighting, a kin-ship grew between them because they were all Japanese. They are far less ashamed of their bodies. In Kyoto I got to experience a hot bath were everyone gets naked in front of each other, and sits in really hot water. As Americans my friends were really embarrassed and it was awkward for a while, but pretty cool nonetheless. Very relaxing . In America it is a bunch of different cultures slammed together, which creates both good and bad things.
The trip was amazing. I had an absolutely amazing time. I love examining the differences of cultures, and this trip really gave me a lot of differences to examine. I greatly encourage everyone to go. But learn Japanese first, because not being able to speak to anyone else around you sucks. Especially when you are buying stuff.

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