Early Impressions of Japan

This will be my first post about the adventure that is discovering Japan. For the remainder of this semester I will explore and report some of my experiences and views while here in hope that others might understand Japan from a different perspective, my own. For this first post I will go into my first impressions, what surprised and amazed me when first entered this country.

Surprisingly my first thought when I arrived was “wow... So many Asians in one place...” Even knowing that I am in Japan and that it makes perfect sense that I see Japanese people around, actually seeing it is a completely different story. The picture above was taken from wikipedia since it portrays the confusion i first encountered when going outside the airport. Personally I come from Portugal, a small country in west Europe whose overall population is lower than that of Tokyo prefecture alone. The Asian community is quite small so I have never been around that many Asians before. Since I arrived at Osaka, the second largest city in Japan, I was struck by the sheer amount of people living in a big city and all of them being of Asian origin.

In the Osaka district the cities stretch out as far as the eye can see and the boundaries between each become nothing more than a line on a map. Yet I was surprised to see the mountains untouched. I have learned that in Shinto, the native “religion” of Japan, mountains may be considered gods due to their awe inspiring nature. Such preservation of heritage is quite formidable and provides us with magnificent views. Japan has a strong tie with religion and throughout the country we can see old temples and if we are lucky with timing witness century old traditions.

On the other hand Japan shows a rather highly technological side. Toilets equipped with heating and spray mechanisms, the generalized used of gps navigation systems on automobiles, televisions that can store everything that was showed the previous day, and the list goes on. This harmonious mix of old and new, of tradition and advancement are perhaps what surprised me the most when arriving here at Japan.