A PECULIARITY of conversations about Japan is that almost everyone, no matter
how scant their experience, knows exactly what they think about the place.
Japan, you will hear, is a beeping, neon, sci-fi wonderland where high-tech
gnomes inhabit soaring skyscrapers and even the lavatory seats have control
panels. Others will talk of misty mountains and rice paddies tended by old
men in pointy hats or return with tales of hospitality, courtesy and almost
embarrassing kindness.
Each one of these images is accurate, in its way, but none represents more
than a fraction of the whole. Few nations — certainly none as powerful as
the second-richest country in the world — are so burdened by cliché. Perhaps
the best reason for coming to Japan is to find out for yourself what it is
really like.
Even then, it depends — on where and when you go, how you travel and what you
choose to do while you are there. A glance at an atlas confirms the quality
that surprises many first-time visitors to Japan — its variety.
The northernmost capes have a Siberian climate and, in the cold months,
pack-ice clogs the ports of the Sea of Okhotsk, while, 1,800 miles (2,900km)
south are subtropical islands from which, on a clear day, you can see
Taiwan. Linking these extremes is an uncountable chain of mountainous
islands. The upper slopes have volcanoes, hot springs, hiking trails, deer
and bears; the lowland plains contain some of the biggest and most exciting
cities in the world.
The culture fostered by this geography is no less varied. Among Japan’s
Buddhist temples are the oldest and biggest wooden structures anywhere in
the world; the country’s 20th-century architects, by contrast, have created
bold and bizarre buildings in steel and glass. Side by side with these
monuments to consumerism are the shrines of Shinto, a living nature religion
as old as recorded history.
Amid such richness there are a thousand holidays to be had, and an efficient
public transport system which makes travelling long distances a pleasure. In
a well-organised fortnight, it is possible to ski in Hokkaido, bathe in hot
springs in the Japan Alps, then take in kabuki theatre in Tokyo,
temple architecture in Kyoto, modern history in Hiroshima and a cruise
across the Inland Sea to end up sunbathing on a beach in Okinawa.
Japan’s uniqueness has everything to do with its history. From the 17th to
late 19th centuries, a time of unprecedented modernisation in the wider
world, Japan was a closed country, locked by its samurai rulers in a
perpetual medieval age.
Japan is like one of those freakish Oceanic islands, isolated from the
continental mainstream by leagues of sea, where nature is left to go about
its own business, nurturing weird blooms and bizarre wildlife, a country of
cultural platypuses.
For years, domestic travellers provided all the business that the tourist
industry could absorb, and Japan had little interest in attracting foreign
visitors. But the bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s has created
openings for foreign tourists. Avid for foreign currency, the Government has
launched a Visit Japan Campaign, spearheaded by its long-haired Prime
Minister, Junichiro Koizumi.
Most importantly, price deflation has taken the sting out of the factor which
most often deters potential holidaymakers from visiting Japan — its expense.
Japan will never be as cheap as India or Thailand, but neither need it be
ruinously expensive and, compared with the bedlam of many East Asian
destinations, standards of service, safety and hygiene are unsurpassed.
The Japan Rail Pass, which allows unlimited travel on a nationwide network of
trains, is one of the great travel bargains. Some of the best deals — the
homely izakaya restaurants, and traditional ryokan and minshuku
inns — are cultural experiences in their own right, and even the most
cash-strapped traveller will find accommodation that is clean and secure,
trains which run on time and food that will never give you a bug.
Japan is the world’s most underrated travel destination. No one who visits
Japan will be disappointed, even if they return less sure what to make of it
all than when they arrived.
- Richard Lloyd Parry is also author of the guide books Japan and
Tokyo, Kyoto and Ancient Nara (both published by Cadogan, £15.99
each).
