A First-time Visit To Japan

Above, Kyoto's Kinkaku-ji "Golden Pavilion". Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Now that it's summer vacation season, one had better get on the ball and head to Japan before the season is over.

One of the first things I noticed about Japan when I first went there in 2001, it is a clean (despite having a difficult time to find a trash can) and polite country.

Denys Blakeway wrote of his first time experience in visiting Japan for the Daily Mail (U.K.).

He begins with:

Let’s go to Japan, my wife said. ‘Why Japan?’ I asked. ‘Because it’s an old civilisation, we see its products everywhere and I don’t know anything about it. And, anyway, you love the food.’ 

So that was it. We went — and what an experience it was. 

If you want a holiday in a safe, ultra‑modern country where everything is both familiar and utterly strange, then Japan is the place.

To read more, go here.