Dear Friend,
The trip to Japan was very short, but very impressive! I arrived to Tokyo last Monday, in a bright, cold, blue sky winter morning. From the plane we had a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji and that gave me the taste that I was arriving to Japan.
* * * * *
As a matter of fact, this was one of the very few icons that would make me immediately recognise where I was. Before going there I could not imagine how Tokyo was. I even doubt whether I knew that it was on a bay on the Pacific coast. It is very different from cities like Paris, London or Rome that have very well known monuments. You say Paris and probably lots of people will immediately associate it with the Eiffel Tower, the Triumph Arch, the Sena River or Notre Dame.
* * * * *
Being an economist, I knew many things about the Japanese economy before this trip. I also knew many things about its XX century history. But I didn't know what to expect from the city, and had no mental image of it. In reality, the only place that I recognised when I was there was the corner of Chuo-Dori and Harumi-Dori in Ginza, that you can see on the photo beside. Maybe you also have seen it before, in pictures, films or live.
* * * * *
I asked myself why that. The first obvious answer is that, being a westerner, there are lots of things that I just don't know about Asia. Second, the Japanese film industry is not popular in the countries where I have lived. Everybody knows NY before going there, because most of us have certainly seen hundreds of films that where shot there. The opposite applies for Tokyo. Third, due to earthquakes, the War and the post-war modernisation, many places were destroyed or demolished and then reconstruction took place. Almost all that one day was historic or picturesque today doesn't exist anymore. In this sense, there are not so many places that are old enough to be well known around the globe.
* * * * *
I left Japan with this idea: Tokyo is a huge and impressive city, mainly in western style. The most modern, cleanest and best organised of all that I have seen in its scale. The most silent as well, what is absolutely unique. You may walk during hours without hearing one single car driver honk the horn! That is a tremendous contrast with places like NY or the Indian cities, just to mention two examples - or even with European cities, like the Spanish ones, where the traffic is so loud.
* * * * *
Sometimes the modern things were surprising: they have machines for almost everything. In some cases it is just a matter of getting used to them, like first time I took a taxi: you don't open or shut the taxi door - the driver does it automatically from his seat. Other things are a lot more complicated: it took me some time to find out how to use the electronic toilet in my hotel room. As you can see on the picture, the instructions were in Japanese and despite of the drawings, the results of pressing the different buttons were not always the expected ones. It took me days to find out how to flush after peeing standing. Somehow the censors only recognised me when I was sitting… I admit that I was too embarrassed to ask the hotel staff.
* * * * *
I would have left Japan with a very high concept of its modernity and efficiency had I not come across Alex Kerr's book "Dogs and Demons - The Fall of Modern Japan". I started reading it on Friday afternoon at Narita airport and continued during most of my flight down to Sydney and then Auckland. I highly recommend this book! Alex Kerr explains such incredible stories about Japanese politics, economics and daily life, that sometimes you just think "this can't be true". He is extremely critic with the bureaucrats that, according to him, run the country with extreme incompetence. He argues that Japan is not only destroying its nature, the beauty of its landscapes, but also ruining its economy and its own future. The book is very well documented and the part about the financial and construction bubble of the eighties and how it went bust (the only thing that I was informed about previously and therefore could judge) is well written and in general a correct description of the facts. This makes me suppose that the rest may well be as exact as this part. Should this be so, disaster is just around the corner, although a rich country can decline for decades before it becomes evident its decline.
* * * * *
The current issue of "The Economist", that I bought on Saturday morning at the Sydney airport, reads on the cover page: JAPAiN - Why you should be worried about the world's second-biggest economy. Again, the comments about the short and long term perspectives for the Japanese economy were rather bleak. That is a shame! Such a nice people like the Japanese deserve better politicians and also a better future.
Wish you have a nice week!
Mauricio
The trip to Japan was very short, but very impressive! I arrived to Tokyo last Monday, in a bright, cold, blue sky winter morning. From the plane we had a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji and that gave me the taste that I was arriving to Japan.
* * * * *
As a matter of fact, this was one of the very few icons that would make me immediately recognise where I was. Before going there I could not imagine how Tokyo was. I even doubt whether I knew that it was on a bay on the Pacific coast. It is very different from cities like Paris, London or Rome that have very well known monuments. You say Paris and probably lots of people will immediately associate it with the Eiffel Tower, the Triumph Arch, the Sena River or Notre Dame.
* * * * *
Being an economist, I knew many things about the Japanese economy before this trip. I also knew many things about its XX century history. But I didn't know what to expect from the city, and had no mental image of it. In reality, the only place that I recognised when I was there was the corner of Chuo-Dori and Harumi-Dori in Ginza, that you can see on the photo beside. Maybe you also have seen it before, in pictures, films or live.* * * * *
I asked myself why that. The first obvious answer is that, being a westerner, there are lots of things that I just don't know about Asia. Second, the Japanese film industry is not popular in the countries where I have lived. Everybody knows NY before going there, because most of us have certainly seen hundreds of films that where shot there. The opposite applies for Tokyo. Third, due to earthquakes, the War and the post-war modernisation, many places were destroyed or demolished and then reconstruction took place. Almost all that one day was historic or picturesque today doesn't exist anymore. In this sense, there are not so many places that are old enough to be well known around the globe.
* * * * *
I left Japan with this idea: Tokyo is a huge and impressive city, mainly in western style. The most modern, cleanest and best organised of all that I have seen in its scale. The most silent as well, what is absolutely unique. You may walk during hours without hearing one single car driver honk the horn! That is a tremendous contrast with places like NY or the Indian cities, just to mention two examples - or even with European cities, like the Spanish ones, where the traffic is so loud.
* * * * *
Sometimes the modern things were surprising: they have machines for almost everything. In some cases it is just a matter of getting used to them, like first time I took a taxi: you don't open or shut the taxi door - the driver does it automatically from his seat. Other things are a lot more complicated: it took me some time to find out how to use the electronic toilet in my hotel room. As you can see on the picture, the instructions were in Japanese and despite of the drawings, the results of pressing the different buttons were not always the expected ones. It took me days to find out how to flush after peeing standing. Somehow the censors only recognised me when I was sitting… I admit that I was too embarrassed to ask the hotel staff.* * * * *
I would have left Japan with a very high concept of its modernity and efficiency had I not come across Alex Kerr's book "Dogs and Demons - The Fall of Modern Japan". I started reading it on Friday afternoon at Narita airport and continued during most of my flight down to Sydney and then Auckland. I highly recommend this book! Alex Kerr explains such incredible stories about Japanese politics, economics and daily life, that sometimes you just think "this can't be true". He is extremely critic with the bureaucrats that, according to him, run the country with extreme incompetence. He argues that Japan is not only destroying its nature, the beauty of its landscapes, but also ruining its economy and its own future. The book is very well documented and the part about the financial and construction bubble of the eighties and how it went bust (the only thing that I was informed about previously and therefore could judge) is well written and in general a correct description of the facts. This makes me suppose that the rest may well be as exact as this part. Should this be so, disaster is just around the corner, although a rich country can decline for decades before it becomes evident its decline.
* * * * *
The current issue of "The Economist", that I bought on Saturday morning at the Sydney airport, reads on the cover page: JAPAiN - Why you should be worried about the world's second-biggest economy. Again, the comments about the short and long term perspectives for the Japanese economy were rather bleak. That is a shame! Such a nice people like the Japanese deserve better politicians and also a better future.
Wish you have a nice week!
Mauricio
