Back to Asia - Japan and South Korea
After three months in Denmark being spoiled by our family and friends, we decided to make one last stop in Asia and visit some friends in Japan. We flew to Tokyo and our friends helped us a lot with information on places we could visit and things we could do. We also used their place as a base in order to travel around Japan by train without carrying all our luggage. On arrival we were picked up at the airport, so we didn't notice how big the city really is. Tokyo, with 36 million inhabitants, is the largest metropolitan area in the world. The city itself has around 13 million inhabitants and has many “downtown” areas, so there is always a new place to visit. Our first day was pretty chilled, we just walked around the area of Hiroo and Shibuya and visited a Meiji garden and shrine around that area. The Meiji emperor was the one who in 1868 began the “Meiji Restoration” process which would unify Japan into one country as opposed to the traditional shogunate regions, where the shogun was in charge and emperors were only ornamental figures. All the traditional samurai movies we have seen in the West are based on the times previous to the Meiji Restoration.
It took very few hours for us to realize and be surprised about how organized and clean everything is in Japan. The Meiji shrine park had many different sections and one of them was a traditional Japanese garden. At the entrance of that garden worked a guard, dressed in a business suit, who kept sweeping the street, over and over, every time somebody entered the garden. We could not imagine something similar happening in Chile or Denmark these days.
While in Tokyo, we met with two friends from Maersk times and together we visited Tsukiji market, Asakusa Temple and the Imperial Palace, and we also shared some wonderful food together. The grilled tuna jaws we tried in a restaurant close to Tsukiji market is something we will never forget! With our hosts, we visited the area of Odaiba - where we took the pictures of the Statue of Liberty - which has several sushi restaurants (which are very cheap in Japan) and watched Tokyo's night skyline from the Ebisu tower. We also took a day trip to Hakone and drove out to see Mount Fuji, which reminded us a lot about volcano Osorno in Chile.
Some days later, we got our first glimpse of what was, undoubtedly, one of the best experiences we had in Japan: the Shinkansen trains. These are Japan's high speed trains, which have lines covering most of the country and that makes visiting Japan a real delight. As a foreigner you can buy passes for 7, 14 or 21 days and use as many trains as you want during that period; so we decided to go for the 21 days option and visit as much as we could.
Our first destination was Nagano, more precisely, the Jigokudani Snow Monkey park, which I wanted to see ever since I saw the pictures of the monkeys in National Geographic many years ago. We arrived to Tokyo central station earlier, so we could find our way to the right train, and everything worked perfectly. The train arrived precisely on time and it was the first time that we saw the regular cleaning ritual of the trains. Every train that arrives to Tokyo station is attended by two cleaning ladies per wagon. When the doors open, the ladies bow to each passenger that disembarks, then enter the wagon and quickly turn the seats around so they all face the travel direction, clean the floors and seats, replace all head covers of the seats, dispose of all trash and clean the toilets. The process takes no more than ten minutes and when you enter, the wagon looks and smells perfectly clean. It does help that Japanese people are extremely respectful of other people and of common spaces and areas. If you walk around in Tokyo you cannot find any trash, paper, cigarette butts or anything lying on the streets. Everything always looks as it had just been cleaned. Same applies to the trains. When you are traveling on them, nobody dares to throw any trash around. We could not help thinking what a joy it would be if people in our countries behaved in the same manner.
On our first days in Tokyo, while walking on the streets, we were very surprised to see how well behaved young Japanese kids were. When we mentioned this to our Danish and Japanese friends, they told us that immediately when the kids join the school system, they are forced by all society into very strict and tough behavioral practices. Our Danish friend explained it as “you cannot be different from others, because the balance and harmony of the group needs to be maintained. Japanese people don't dare to stand out from the group, either in a negative nor in a positive way”. So, if your kid does not behave in a restaurant or any social gathering, anybody has the right to say something to the kid and make him behave. This is very different from what we would see in Chile or Denmark, where we would be in trouble for saying something to somebody else's child. That same way of thinking explains many features of Japan, for example, why Japanese companies work very differently from Western companies. In the West what matters is to achieve the goal, no matter what. In Japanese companies what matter is the process, and the continuous improvement of the group as a whole. In Japan you don't see trash on the streets or trains, or hear people disturbing others because this would be a disruptive behaviour that destroys the harmony of the moment. Some people in our countries would do well learning some of those principles too.
Something we found very interesting is the tradition to buy ”fast food” to eat on the trains. This food is sold in boxes and they are called ”Bento” boxes. It is not junk food at all, it is real, fresh and delicious traditional Japanese food and it varies wheverer you go because they are based on the typical food from every region where the train is passing by. We bought Bento boxes whenever we had to take trains, it was great.
The visit to the Snow Monkey park was nice, it is located in a very beautiful area, and walking in the forest to get there was quite beautiful. The pool for the monkeys is man made and it was developed by a nearby hotel which had outdoor pools that started to be invaded by the monkeys in the winter, so they decided to make a pool especially for the monkeys in the valley where they live. We were extremely lucky to get to see some monkeys in the water, because they only get inside the pools when it becomes really cold and snowy outside, and the day we visited was not particularly cold.
Our second Shinkansen train was the day after, again from Tokyo central, and we went to Gala Yuzawa, which is a ski area quite popular with Tokyo residents because you can reach it directly with the Shinkansen in 90 minutes. When you arrive to Gala Yuzawa train station and get up the stairs, you are inside the building where you can rent your equipment and buy tickets and just outside are the lift that takes you to the slopes. It was great and we had a sunny and beautiful day of snowboarding. We were surprised to be only at 1.000 meters of altitude and yet there were still 3 meters of snow in early March. Then again, Japan is one of the countries that gets most snow in the world; in some ski areas in Hokkaido they get more than 10 meters of snow every year. Our three to five meters of snow a year in Valle Nevado are nothing in comparison, and it is no wonder that our ski seasons are so short in Chile.
After these two short trips, we took a longer trip to visit Kyoto, the ”essential” Japan, as people call it. If you want to see the geishas, temples and the bamboo forests this is where you need to travel. Kyoto is one of the few big cities that was not bombed during WWII, so most old buildings are still standing. We saw a number of palaces, visited the Inari temple shrines and Arashiyama bamboo forest. Kyoto is not very big, so we could walk around from one place to another, though the walks were long; around 15 km per day, and one day we had to take the train to reach Kinkakuji temple, Inari and the bamboo forest in the same day. We visited Nishiki market and tried some local food. We have both always liked Japanese food, but being able to try real Japanese dishes was great. In the west we are only exposed to sushi and a few other dishes, but the variety of flavours and ways of preparation they have for their food is enormous. Everything is prepared and served with such dedication and care. Service takes a whole new level in Japan; much like it is all over Asia really, and which is completely different from what we are used to in the West.
After our trip to Kyoto, we needed to plan the rest of our journey and since we were so in love with our ski experience in Gala Yuzawa and it was still the season, we decided to change our travel plans and visit a second ski area. Hokkaido was difficult to reach by train, so we decided to visit Zao Onsen instead, which lies around 100 km north of Fukushima. ”Onsen” is the Japanese term for hot springs and before hot springs became known in the west, Japanese already had it all figured out. Today, in our countries, if you want to enjoy a hot spring, it quickly becomes an expensive ”Spa” experience, with all kind of surcharges for everything. Onsen, on the other hand, are very cheap – around JPY 600 (USD 5) - per person, many are public and because of the strict education and respect for others that Japanese always show, they are really nice to attend. Again, everything is clean, people are respectful, you don't need to worry about your things being stolen or the place being dirty or disgusting, etc. Most Onsen have separate sections for male and female and you need to enter the Onsen completely naked. We stayed two nights in Zao Onsen and enjoyed it a lot. Ski was much harder than we expected though as we had very bad weather and temperatures of -18C, so, it was not as nice as the day in Gala Yuzawa, but we enjoyed it anyway.
Zao Onsen was the last time we used Tokyo as a base. For the remaining part of our trip we would travel to the south with all our belongings. Our next stops would be Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Naha in Okinawa.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki deserve special mention in this story because for us it was very touching to be there and to experience on site the stories, pictures, movies and memories of those tragic days. We forget the history, but at the end of the 1800's Japan was a very powerful empire and they were trying to conquer every country in Asia hoping to secure natural resources, especially oil, as they did not have any themselves. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan entered a war with China over the occupation of Korea. Japan won and China had to hand over Korea, Taiwan and the Chinese province of Liaoning to them. The Japanese ruled harshly and strongly there until they were defeated at the end of WWII. The scars of that invasion still run deep in the Korean people. Koreans had to forget their culture, speak only Japanese, Korean women were used as ”comfort” women for Japanese soldiers, etc.
We believe it is difficult for anybody to judge if dropping the bomb was the right thing to do or not. While it did stop the war and therefore, saved many soldiers lives, around 200.000 people living in those cities– especially women and children - suffered terrible deaths, life lasting wounds and unimaginable pain. After reading the stories of the days when the two bombs were dropped, you can easily understand why Japan is advocating so strongly for an end of the possession and use of nuclear bombs. They are the only country who really knows what nuclear weapons can do to a population. We believe more politicians should visit the Hiroshima and Nagasaki museums so they can think harder the next time they decide to talk so irresponsibly about the use of nuclear weapons.
After the war, the Japanese Court ruled that the Emperor and the ruling government were the sole responsible of Japan's defeat in the war and the calamities this brought onto the people. When the war was over, the Allied forces occupied Japan until 1952. General McArthur was named Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers and was the de-facto ruler of Japan for those years. Japanese people still regard him with a lot of respect for pardoning the Emperor's life after the war. McArthur deciced that killing the Emperor would make Japan much more difficult to rule, so he used him instead in order to reach unity and peace. After WWII, the West quickly jumped into the Cold War and USA needed allies in Asia in order to keep communism away from the area. Japan and South Korea were the chosen ones to receive technological and monetary support and that was the main reason why these two countries saw enormous advances in their economies in the years to follow. Nevertheless, as modern and groundbreaking as we all remember Japan to be in the 70's and 80's, today the country seems to have stayed back in time in terms of technology and progress. Japan is extremely traditional in everything you see and does not look like a country of the future in general. We were surprised to see that in the cities and even in Zao Onsen, there was no central heating available. We were told that, at least in Tokyo, it's because there is a group of construction companies that always get all the tenders and they build the cheapest way possible. Plus, many constructions only have a lifespan of 30-35 years before they are demolished and replaced by new buildings.
Kagoshima was a brief stop on our itinerary in order to catch the ferry to the city of Naha in the island of Okinawa. Hiroshima and Naha were the only places were we took taxis to get from the train and port to reach the places where we would stay. That proved to be a really ”Lost in Translation” experience. While moving around in trains is very easy, most Japanese people don't speak English, so trying to communicate with a taxi driver was a nightmare. Naha was the worst and after 15 minutes driving in the opposite direction of our hotel, we decided to get out of the taxi and call our host so he could call another taxi to pick us up and drive us to our place.
We were not impressed with Naha because it was too touristic for our likes. Same as many other places in Asia, Chinese tourists are everywhere, and as we said before, they are not the kindest of tourists, as they are always loud, always getting in the way, etc. Okinawa has tropical climate and without having been there, we imagine it to be a bit like Hawaii. A touristic place for the more than 50.000 American soldiers based on the islands. We had a good place to stay in Naha, so we enjoyed a few quiet days there and prepared for the rest of our trip. We had a fun experience one night in the restaurant across from our place, which was very bohemian and local. Since there was no space in the restaurant, a group of local musicians invited us to share their table and it was pretty funny.
We had a flight to Seoul from Naha airport, so we left for the airport with plenty of time, only to end up running around like crazy in the airport because it was impossible to find out from where our plane was leaving. ”Lost in Translation” came to mind again.
So, we left beautiful, calm, organized and friendly Japan to arrive in South Korea sometime around 16:30 PM. Maybe because we were picked up in the airport in Tokyo, we did not realize how big Tokyo really was. But in Seoul we realized its size very fast....it took us two and a half hours by train to reach our apartment from the Incheon airport. Luckily our place was quite central, so it was easy to move around the next days.
Seoul, in contrast to Japan, seemed to us very ”Chinese”, in the sense that most apartment buildings look the same as they do in big cities in China, plus the attitude of the people is very similar and different from the Japanese. We found people spitting on the streets, they often look serious and not happy, etc. I must say we kind of missed Japan a lot the first days we were in Seoul.
Many historical buildings in South Korea look very similar to the Japanese ones, except maybe in the decoration style. Food however, was very different, and we found ourselves missing Japanese food very much. We visited one of the most famous palaces in Seoul and probably because of the time of the year, we found the gardens quite boring. Unlike Japanese gardens, which have evergreen trees, in Seoul everything was brown and dead because of the winter, so it really didn't look all that interesting. We were very surprised though to find many people that could speak Spanish and they tried to practice with us when they heard we were coming from Chile. Same as we always experience during this trip, the people that have visited South America, had travelled to Peru, Argentina or Brazil and always skipped Chile. It is very clear to me that all our governments have done a very poor job at promoting our country abroad.
We visited another war museum in Seoul and while it was very big and had a lot of interesting things, it didn't really follow a storyline, so sometimes it was difficult to understand what it was about. The most interesting part of our trip to Seoul, was the day trip to the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea. We left Seoul early morning and visited first camp Bonifas, where the soldiers normally live and where we could see the ”meeting room” where South and North Korean officials have their meetings. We stood for a brief period of time in North Korea, while we were in that room.
After WWII, Japan was forced to return all territories they occupied in Asia to its original owners, so they had to leave Korea. Nevertheless, Japan was not only at war with the Allies, but also with Russia, which conveniently declared war on Japan three days after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, so Japan really lost two wars at the same time. Russia ”liberated” Korea from the 38th parallel to the North and the USA liberated the south. Since these two countries could not agree on one ideology (capitalism or communism) to rule Korea, the country was split in two from that moment on. North Korea, and Kim Il Sung (grandfather of today's young North Korean ruler), were supported by the Russians and Chinese, while South Korea would be supported by the United Nations.
Kim Il Sung struggled for years to get approval from Mao and Stalin to invade South Korea and when he finally got the support he invaded and the War in Korea started. At that time, South Korea was poor and lacked trained people and infrastructure, so a United Nations command of 13 countries sent troops and support for them to fight against North Korea. Among them was a medical support ship sent by Denmark (Jutlandia). The war lasted for three years, between 1950 and 1953 and it ended with an armistice negotiated between the UN command, the North Korean Army and the Chinese People's volunteers, which did not include the South Koreans. There has not been any peace treaty signed between the two countries. The armistice is monitored by an international commission and since it was established, there have been numerous incursions and acts of aggression by North Korea. The latest one we saw, happened when we were waiting for the ferry in Naha, when North Korea launched a test missile close to the Japanese coast.
I was surprised to see that Colombia was one of the countries that had sent troops to Korea. But I was shocked to read that while Chile and other Latin American countries sent financial support to South Korea after the war of around USD 250.000 per country, the Vatican sent only USD 10.000...there was not a lot of Catholics to support or convert in Korea I guess.
Today, South and North Koreans long for a reconciliation process because many of them have families that were separated by the war. What we could see from North Korea in the distance, was barren hills which have been depleted of trees (whose wood has been used for heating due to lack of other sources), a huge 160 mt high flag pole, with a huge flag that weights 300 kg and constant propaganda music playing through the loudspeakers, which tries to convince the few South Koreans that live in the demilitarized zone, to change sides and join North Korea because they ”live in paradise”. So far, we only hear of North Korean people trying to leave the country, so paradise must not be so fantastic after all. We also had the chance to walk through the “Third Infiltration Tunnel”, which was discovered in 1978. North Korea built this secret tunnel to be able to enter faster into South Korea in case on an invision.
It is 1.635 meters long, 2 meters high and it took more than three years to uncover all of it.
On our last night in Seoul we had dinner in a very nice traditional barbecue place close to where we lived. This was a nice way to get ready for the long flight that would take us to the United States and closer to home.
We really enjoyed our month in Japan, learned a lot of things and discovered a very interesting society, much different from our own, and from which we could learn a lot. We look forward to go back and explore more in the future.
We would like to thank Hans Peter, Carina, Isabella and Olivia for receiving us in their home and for spending time with us and Yan-san and Moto for showing us around in Tokyo. We will go back!
Big hug
Claudia and Carsten.
