Japan update (at last)

Hey all,

It took me ages to make my update. This mostly because of the orgy of pictures I shot in Japan: more than 1,300 in 26 days so more than 50 per days!! Who said I was not integrated?
I hope you will have a bit of time to go through the albums on the right hand side that I have divided into parts of usually no more than 150 pictures and WITH comments.
If you should look at only one I really recommend the best of and reading the posts about the anecdotes and why I love Japan.

If you want to read everything I wrote an explanation why I changed the title of the blog as well as the anecdotes and my favourite things in Japan.

These 3.5 weeks have gone so fast, I have visited 17 cities. The typical day was visiting by myself during day time and spending the evening with people from the guesthouse, who were my hosts or whom I had just met randomly.

I had a taste of Japan and what I saw/heard/experienced just gives me the feeling I want to know more and come again.

I really hope I can share this with you and if you have any question about Japan I will delighted to answer.

The blond effect

(Feminists if you want to attack me please note that this post is completely "second degré" as we say in French (= ironic) and that nothing is against the blonds)

After more than three months of almost continuous sunshine in SE Asia my hair is much more blond than when I left and the change is not only to my hair. What follows is a description of the blond effect (the theory comes from a famous philospher named A.) Contrary to what many people think this is not limited to women (although statistics show that the effect is much more present with women) because this is a concept. The blond effect is like the candy kiss cool in France there are two effects in one name.

The first effect is the feeling to be quite dumb (being completely dumb without knowing it is called the "golden blond effect"). I really felt it as soon as I arrived in Japan as I got lost 10 times per day in Tokyo, I kept coming back on my steps and I was usually unable to find by myself what I was looking for. The other moment I felt really stupid is when I was asking to Japanese where is XX in Japanese (this sentence is really easy, it is XX wa doko desu ka) and that they were starting to talk for 2 mns and obviously I did not get a word of what they were saying so I was just smiling and pretending I understood (and I had to ask again 100 meters further).
Another instance is when I did not take my umbrella one morning whereas all Japanese people had theirs and later on that day I had to buy one to protect myself from the rain or the day after when I took mine and no one did I decided to keep it and the sun came so I had to carry it all day for nothing. Finally the top is probably when I was trying to find places to eat and if there were no pictures and if even the figures were in kanji (one of the three Japanese alphabets) I knew I simply could not eat there.

The second effect is that people stare a lot at you (and usually in a positive way). Well this was the case in Japan and somehow maybe even more than in SE Asia. People do nt twave at you but it is sometimes obvious people are talking about you (when you hear the word gaijin), pointing at you or like these men in Shimosuwa that thought I was cool simply because I was blond and I had a beard. There are also these two young girls who started to picture me as if I was an object in Shibuya. The attention is nice but feelign like an object is definitively not my cup of tea.

Anyway this is to say that I understood a lot about why it is also difficult to be blond and that I will probably do less jokes about blonds in the future (maybe...)

What makes Japan special to me

OK, I will not hide it I really had a fantastic time in Japan and this despite coming at one of the worst times of the year: the monsoon.

I know this is hard to explain everything but here are a few elements why I fell in love with the country and i really hope I will go again there (and you too!!!).

Japan is beautiful and I am sure this is mind-blasting in Autumn or during the cherry blossoms. The country has the same diversity as France with sea, mountains, plains etc...

Japan is unbelievably safe and it is so relaxing. I never felt myself threatened in any respect over 3.5 weeks wether I was walking in the streets at 18.oo or 3.00. I got used to take my eyes off my belongings (bag and camera for instance) and nothing bad happened. There is no aggressivity in the Japanese society (at least in the open) because this is seen as a sign of weakness (remember all Asia is about not losing face). The last example is when I visited the small village of Tsumago; I was in a hurry with 30 mns only before the last bus. I then decided to leave my big backpack unattended (just telling some people in an opposite booth) on the bus parking and when I came back I was not surprised that it was still there.

The people are just so nice (see anecdotes and pictures). I do not mean here only the Japanese people but also the expats and tourists.


The Japanese have a really strong culture and they defend it. This culture is really exotic to us even if we are also modern countries. I find it really impressive that they do not copy the American model but adapt it to their specificities. This is something I mostly feel but for which I cannot really give examples because I should speak the language to understand better. Anyway this feeling of not understanding is really nice and challenging and this why I travel.

The food is simply excellent (no comment).

All in all I think there are many parallels between Japan and France: both countries have a strong culture and carefully protect it, both countries have very good food because they care about eating, both countries have a beautiful country, both countries are regarded as special (yes this is French arrogancy but this is also the truth) and both have beautiful women (which is never bad).

New title

From Round the World trip to World Bakery Tour.
After 3 months in South East Asia I noticed that each time I see a good croissant, paint au chocolat or baguette I get really happy and I feel I have to try them.
I then realised that I could classify countries between the ones with good bread and the ones with bad bread instead of developped or developping. This is why I changed the title of my blog that I had chosen only because I had to put something.
So far, the rankings are:
1) (Best) Japan
2) Laos
3) Vietnam
4) Cambodia
5) Thailand
And I can already say Australia is unlikely to go in the top 3.

Japanese anecdotes

To explain why I loved Japan so much I have to narrate a few anecdotes (sorry no pictures) because they show how Japanese people have been kind to me and this makes such a difference.

There are first the people who spontaneously propose to help you when they see that you are lost. If that was to happen in Europe (this is a big if) they would not do like I saw several times asking everyone around for help if they do not know or making calls hoping the person on the other side of the phone would know.

I remember also the man of the metro for the fare adjustment (when the ticket you took is not at the right price you have the possibility to pay the difference after you tarveled) diminished my fare because I did not have the right change. This is a classic in Japan but still very pleasant.

There are all these Japanese people who offered me something just because I was a foreigner:
- a drink in a bar;
- a postcard when I went to the tiny post office of Magome only because the manager there who spoke bits of English had visited Paris 3 years ago and loved it at the time;
- a small gift when I went to a temple and I saw I had to pay to get in so I went out and the employee came out to show me how to use the vending machine. She thought I wanted to get in but I did not because I was not interested. When she understoodin my bad Japanese that I would not come she went to get me a small gift.

The cops in the small city of Shimosuwa gave me a lift. I was going to the house of my hosts for the evening and when I arrived at the small train station I was just checking I was going in the right direction so I asked one young man just outside the station. I started then to walk and it seemed easy to find (on the map at least). 50 meters later I heard steps of someone catching up with me. It was a teenager who stood next to the one I had asked and dressed a bit like a bad boy. He told me to give him the map and he would come with me to where I had to go. Obviously in any country I would take this with caution but this is Japan so I decided to give it a try. At the same moment a car of police stopped next to us and two cops got off with a big yellow book (full of maps). They told the teenager they would take care of me and after understanding where I was heading they told me to go in their car and they simply drove me there!!!!

Finally the kindest thing that happened to me. I met Keiko on the temples of Angkor in April and if we talked two minutes, this is the really the max. I just saw she was from Japan and I thought I know no one there so let's try to get a contact with a local. Obvisouly this was weird but she game her email. When I contacted her and when we met she organised these two really nice evenings with her friends that you can see in the pictures of Tokyo and when I did some typical Japanese things. All this for someone you absolutely do not know I can just take my hat off and thank you.

First news from Japan

This has been 10 fantastic days here in Japan but not too much time to upload pictures and update the blog so I will just make a comments about some topics that struck me:

The first thing is that Japanese people are really friendly: I have numerous stories of people helping me, smiling and coming to me just to practise English, especially the young pupils:

In Japan I am really blond, not only because after 3 months in SE Asia my hair has become lighter but also because I keep getting completely lost, I ask a question in Japanese (I learnt how to say "Where is ...?") but I understand absolutely nothing of the answer so I smile stupidly as if I had understood (for the feminists readers this is a joke, no need to denounce to some sort of NGO for the equality between men and women). Furthermore even the maps are complicated since the North is not always on top

The Japanese love toilets (or maybe they cannot hold a pee), you can find themselves everywhere and I love their comments. I have not tried yet the specific features of the typical Japanese toilet but I will do.

The food is excellent, here is the Okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake that is really delicious (I am convinced this would be a hit in Europe)

In Japan you can sleep anywhere (this was 10 am on a sunday morning)

In Japan deers are protected even when they eat maps of the tourists (you even have posters to warn you not to hold bills in your hand because the deers eat them as well).

Dogs are also really loved by their owners who dress them against the cold

Japanese have old-style way of doing advertising (the first one is probably for a maid cafe (that I have not tried yet) and the second is even more dodgy

Japanese are so efficient that they had to invent some jobs to avoid unemployment: here is the man who folds plastic bags for another use after one has used them to hold one's shoes in temples. Another one is the person to stop the traffic to let cars go out of parking places.

Finally there are the typical activities in Japan:
Karaoke

Prikura (taking picture on a set background and then adding comments/drawing on it)

or going through pillars (it brings good luck)

I have many more pictures of temples and cities but I will make an update later.

I really love Japan and I really hope I have the opportunity to come again.