"WORLD OF ITS OWN... " a Kyoto Travel Page by bkoon

Travel Mates : Younger Sister, Mummy and Auntie Christina
Duration : 1 Week (13 - 20 May 04)
Satisfaction Level of Trip : Extremely Satisfied
Salient Impression of Japan : Extremely Helpful Japanese People
Mode of Transport : Public Bus and Railways

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I.M.P.R.E.S.S.I.O.N.S.

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A country where I will go back again for 3 main things, the beautiful sights, the unique culture and of course, the people. This was my first trip to Japan and I briefly explored the Kansai Area. Been to Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe and Himeji and all these places done in a week. Incredible. It was spring time when I was there. Nope, I did not get to see the Cherry Blossom as I was there in May, not April. Missed it this time.

There were some observations which I made when I was there. How should I start? First and foremost, the people, the Japanese. Compassion, being considerate and sincere, helpfulness, respect another human being, etc are all in their culture. I shall assume that most of them are gracious human beings. I am quoting a few examples to illustrate my observations. There was once when I was trying to figure out the map which I got at the Umeda, Osaka, a girl who happened to walk pass stopped and asked whether I needed assistance then. Another time, when I asked for directions, the man whom I approached, instead of directing where I should go, he brought me and my travel mates there personally and he had to turned back to where he was heading after that. There were so many of such occasions.

The birth place of "good customer service" must be Japan. There are so much talk about the "FISH" philosophy, a great story about a fish market in Seattle and how their customers are attracted to the fish market. Well, those people must have learnt it from the Japanese as everybody do that in Japan, offering the best service with sincerity and concern to their customers and guests.

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TO ME, JAPAN IS ABOUT ...

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Sushi. Udon. Soba. Green tea. Geisha. Mobile phones. Uniformed students. Temples. Shrines. Zen gardens. Nice hairstyles. Bullet trains. Okinawa. Shabu-Shabu. Ryokan. Tatami mats. Airport on reclaimed land. Animation. Comics. Cartoons. Yoshitomo Nara. Castles. Cherry Blossom. Packaging. Baseball. J-League. Astro Boy. Hot baths. Kimono. Yukata. Pocky. Glico Boy. Pachinko.

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The Terrible Thing Which Happened During My Trip

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Eager to take good pictures in Japan, I brought some 20 rolls of films for my SLR camera (non-digital). My camera started to give me problems and it did not work anymore on the 4th day of my trip. (It is still not working.) Sigh. I had my digital compact camera with me and I thought it was a consolation. Guess what? I brought the wrong adaptor and I could not charge my camera battery and it took me quite some time before I found the adaptor (extremely costly at more than 1100 Yen at Isetan).

What a mishap!

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SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING VTers
A2002 (Lina)
AyurinHiro (Ayuri and her hubby)
heywinks (Sonia)
colleenc66 (Colleen)
Those who replied in the forum.