Japanese Travels
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[audio mp3="https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Japan-reflections.mp3"][/audio]
[audio mp3="https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/okinawa-visit.mp3"][/audio]
I have been to Japan about 10 times over the years. My first visit was in 1979 when I spent the night at Narita before going to Korea the next day. I last visited in April of this year doing a tour of Fukuoka and Kyushu. I spent five weeks doing a TDY in Sapporo and spent a week in Okinawa before the covid shutdowns. I also visited Tokyo a couple of times ,traveled to Kamakura and Kyoto and Nara. I even climbed Mt. Fuji.
When I was an undergraduate, I took courses in Japanese history and while in graduate school took courses in Japanese history, and business as part of my MA in Korean studies.
I also taught Asian studies at the University of Maryland in 1991 in Korea. I even picked up a few words of basic Japanese during my travels.
If you know Korean, you can learn Japanese pretty easily and vice versa. the grammar of the two languages are very similar and many vocabulary words are derived from Chinese characters. I can read about 500 characters.
Many expats who have been in both Korea and Japan prefer one or the other. I definitely prefer Korea but i like Japan and plan on future trips there.
Here then are some of my reflections on traveling in Japan.
Kyushu
I just came back from a trip to Kyushu Japan, a mostly rural part of Japan that I had never visited. I have been to Japan about eight times since 1979. I always contrast Japan with Korea where I now live part-time and with the U.S.. we are planning to come back next spring and spend a month in Japan -two weeks in Kyushu, one week in Tokyo, a few days in Kyoto/Nara and Hokkaido but might take another mini-tour hitting other parts of Japan. There is a good tour of Osaka/Kyoto and Nara we can do in September.
Overall the tour was a b - good choices of things to do, good food, got to know a few of our fellow participants and my Korean is getting quite good enough that I can continue a conversation and have people mostly understand me and I understand most of what people say to me.
Tuesday, April 17, 2024
Our first night we stayed in the Hilton in Fukuoka. I was a bit disappointed with the hotel. Just not up to what I might expect from a Hilton chain hotel. the breakfast was substandard. The TV did not work – everything was defaulting to Japanese and we could not figure it out.
Wednesday, April 18, 2024
Our second night was better.
Had a great breakfast Japanese style 5 stars one of the best I had so much better than the Hilton
Including the plates which had several places to place your food good choice of coffee and tea but no decafe
Looking forward to today ending with a sauna
