How A Trip To Japan Can Provide What's Missing Back Home

Above, Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

An interesting take on why Japan is a draw for visitors, especially those from the United States.

The country has many things to offer a visitor, but there's one thing in the U.S. that is sorely lacking and Japan has it in spades.

Telegram.com (of Worchester, Massachusetts) has an article by George Horbica that nails it.

Here's a snippet:

In “Talk to the Hand,” author Lynne Truss, who previously wrote “Eats, Shoots & Leaves,” a book on punctuation that has sold over 3 million copies worldwide, decries people who talk long after the movie has started, groups of friends sauntering four-abreast on the sidewalk, people spewing vulgarities in public and other incivilities too numerous to mention or rail against. Amen to all that. 

In “How to Travel” the anonymous author explains, “Every destination has a character. It emphasizes and promotes a particular aspect of human nature. The destination we are drawn to reflects an underlying sense of what is missing in our lives. We are seeking to become fuller, more complete beings. The place should teach us lessons that we know we need to hear.” 

Both books got me to thinking why I like Japan: What aspect of human nature does Japan emphasize? What does Japan’s culture have to teach me? What is missing in my life, in our lives, that Japan could offer? 

After several visits, I began to figure it out: Wherever you go, Japan is well-mannered, polite, kind: on the trains and in the airports, in the cities and in the mountains. Even when you visit a post office.

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