After leaving Beijing, we
spent 8 days in Japan. We visited various different areas on the
main island of Honshu. The contrast with China was striking. Where
China was a little dirty and still an emerging market, Japan was both
spotless and flawlessly organized. We actually saw a man
fastidiously dusting the railing on a moving walkway. You could
set your watches by the trains.
The most striking thing
about Japan was how expensive everything was. We always marvel at
how expensive New York is relative to the rest of the country...and how
expensive London is relative to New York. But Tokyo puts even
London to shame.
The language situation was a
little better than China, but only a little. With the exception of
Tokyo, which is truly an international city, most of the Japanese people
we encountered spoke very little English, and English was not really to
be found on menus, street signs, or in other public places.
Our trip took us to Kyoto,
then to the resort island of Miyajima, then to a bunch of places on a
train trip to work our way back north, then finally to Tokyo.