No litter and ever-shining cars

The Japanese are not only polite and friendly, they appear to be a very clean people. We have f.i. seen how deliberately they wash themselves before stepping into an 'onsen' (hot public bath). But they are not only clean on themselves, they are so on their environment as well. 

F.i. it is as if there are only brand-new cars in the streets. But no, very often you can see people washing and rubbing their cars on a parking lot. The result is shining car paint all over.

Then the most striking thing to me is that there is absolutely no litter on the streets. There's no scrap of paper, cigarette-but, empty softdrink-can or bottle whatsoever to be found. Very nice and agreeable, we have seen otherwise in other parts of the world.

Now you would expect lots of garbage bins on lamp posts, railings etc. But again no, there are none! None at all. We don't quite understand how they do it. When we buy our coffee and sandwiches etc. to take away the only place where we can dispose of the packing and empty cup is in the shop where we bought it. We do see other buyers do the same.

That's it, you will find no garbage bin ever in a Japanese street, neither will you find any litter. 

Shrines, temples and kimonos

Travelling from Fukuoka to Kyoto by Shinkansen is fast and comfortable. Smoothly covering 650 kms in less than 3 hours. There's no enjoying of the scenery though, mostly the train moves between noise barriers or through tunnels. But, as the train does, time flies....and there's a lady selling coffee on board.

We will spend three days in Kyoto, this former capital of the country. Then we'll return to Fukuoka and take the ferry to South Korea, where we hope to disembark at 18.00 on April 20th.

Kyoto is famous for its places of worship. The two main religions of this country both have their biggest and most beautiful temples (Buddhism) and shrines (Shinto) here.

Today we visited two prestiguous ones and, when passing, by some smaller ones (as there are really many). We were not the only ones, crowds of Japanese joined us. They just wandered over the premises in awe, as we did, and really prayed (in the way I described in a former blog). But we were really surprised and pleased to see that many visitors were traditionally dressed. We saw hundreds of women and men in kimono. Mostly very elegant. We had the impression that most of these people were not used to wearing this traditional gear, they kept making photos and selfies and there were lots of kimono-rent-shops near the shrine. But it certainly gave a positive contribution to the atmosphere.

Round

Yesterday we arrived back in Fukuoka, where we started our tour three weeks ago. We rode 996 kms, and doing so we made 7630 altimeters. The latter is not surprising, as Japan is nothing more than a group of volcanic mountains rising above sea-level.

The scenery outside the cities, and especially the parts directly along the coast, were mostly beautiful and frequently even stunning.

There were good days and lesser ones. One day we got entirely wet because of the constant rain, another day we had to struggle against a gale-force head wind, that sometimes blew us from our bicycles. But most of the time the conditions were nice.

Because of Japan being so mountainous there are not many roads between the various settlements. Consequently all the traffic is concentrated on these few connecting roads. So fairly often we were amidst heavy traffic, which is not ideal for nice bicycle touring. But never dangerous or scary.

Cyclists here are supposed to use the foot path, but using the main road surface is not a problem at all and thus we mostly did. The Japanese seem to love their cars, you see everyone behind the wheel. Young and old, workers, salary men, house wives in aprons, they all move around in their cars. And they drive just as they are, very law-abiding and respectful. So we were never harrassed by annoyed drivers. On the contrary, we always got all the space we needed.

We don't consider the cities that we visited beautiful. Often really ugly. No comparison with our own continent, no historic and lively city centres, just high rise commercial buildings and lots of traffic. But places as Fukuoka, Kagoshima and Nagasaki were agreeable enough to spend some days, for their musea, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and atmosphere.

Mentioning that we find the Japanese law-abiding and respectful does not imply that we experience them as shy or humble. No, they are extremely polite and they bow a lot, but we find them friendly, helpful, assertive and witty. They just show a great loyalty to the rules and arrangements of their society. 

Nagasaki, August 9 1945, 11.02 am.

Fat man, 3.5 meters long, dropped from a B-29 bomber at an altitude of 9000 mtrs, detonated at alt. 500 mtrs.

Two layers of high-explosives round a kern of app. 1 kg of plutonium.

The hypocenter, the exact location of the detonation.

The effect

The result

Peace park

The elderly

Japan has 126 million inhabitants. That number is deminishing. Probably there is too little immigration and Japanese women don't have enough children, less than the necessary 2,2 per woman that is needed to keep the number stable. As a consequence the number of elder people is relatively high. Not that this is a visible phenomenon in the streets, but we do see many old people. And what strikes us is that many of them are in bad physical condition. They are often very short, o-shaped legs, more or less crippled, walk difficultly with sticks or another aid and, most striking of all, many have hunchbacks, noses close to the ground. I remember seeing such handicapped elderly people at home, but that was when I was a child. It seems that in our regions we have overcome illnesses like these, or have we comfortably hidden them in our care-centers? 
And there are exceptions......

Jazz music

Do you like jazz? Come to Japan.

In most places where we sit down to eat or drink something you hear this kind of music. It's everywhere. Even in traditional places, those where you have to squat on a floor of tatami mats at a low table. Initially I was surprised, later I remembered that many modern jazz artists from the Netherlands do well and are even popular in this country. So I should have known. Even David, a saxophone player that grew up in our street, has played here.

It's the kind of jazz that you will hear on all these radio stations under the category 'Smooth jazz'. Surprising, not annoying at all.

Convenient

We have been cycling in Kyushu island for 11 days now. We covered a good 550 kms. We are not hurrying. By now we should be experienced enough to find our way handsomely in this country., where we belong to the species of the analphabetic. But that is not said yet.
Still we do not recognize the signs on the buildings. So finding a place to stop for a break is difficult. And we do not recognize these places from their outer appearance. Not that that would matter, it's all food restaurants. Just having a drink is a thing not done here, as it seems.
So where do we stop and refresh when cycling? The answer is the convenience store. These are small supermarkets that sell just the things you need. A variety of fresh coffees, all kinds of small bites hot and cold, sandwiches, ready made meals and cold drinks. All of this take away, or consume in the car, as we often see. There's always a good and clean toilet, sometimes there is a place to sit and have your sip and relax for a while. For us the places to look for for a stop.There are plenty of them, with names like Family Mart, Lawson and 7-Eleven. This last one has a slight preference, since they have ATMs that accept our bankcards.