For me, Japan was a dream of a teenager, wanting to discover the culture of the country. The japanese society intriged me,  and i felt attracted by the fact to discover this place . And many years after that, this has risen at the surface on my mind and   i was successfull to take my ticket Paris-Tokyo for a nice first trip in June. And what a great trip.  In fact Japan is the best country that i have visited. Everything is great in Japan. It was definitely a cultural enrichment to go in Japan. I was so attracted by the country and everything.

I’m a big space enthusiat and i like nature, currently i don’t like big city… currently, why i say that? Because in despite of this i felt very nice in Tokyo. Tokyo is the biggest city in the world and planning the travel i have to confess that i was a little affraid at the idea to be in the biggest city. And at the end Tokyo was very pleasant and never i felt bad in the city. Becauce there is a special atmosphere there, because you feel very safe, because all people around you seems nice, because everything seems very respectful. It is so much different than in my country…It is unbelievable from the beginning until the end. I will have so much things to about this. Generally we have this view we have this view of a modern country and modern cities when we don’t know, but there are plenty of things to explore, the country is rich of diversity.

In Japan it is amazing the diversity of landscape that you can find. You will find the ocean with beautiful beaches, you will find few lakes, you will find many moutains with the famous Japanese Alps, you will find forest, you will find old cities and you will find modern cities with the biggest capital in the world.

I was very lucky because i travelled in June, and normally it is the beginning of the rainy season. But i just had two days of rain, one of the middle of my travel an an other the day of my departure. So it was rather exceptionnal this year. The rest of the time i had a sunny weather, sometimes a little hot  but it was totally bearable. I really felt the humidity at the end of the month when finally the temperature could be just around 27 degrees and i had the feeling that it was 33/34 degrees.

I sleept in many different accomodation ; i made few days in hostel, few days in guesthouse, few days in Campsite, and few days with the local inhabitant, who is become my friend.

On the place it is not easy to communicate, because English isn’t very spoken by the population. However they know few words which generally are enought to have the base of the conversation.

In many way when you are like me the inhabitants know  that you are a stranger. And sometimes it is funny when you are in a supermarket  because the cashier talk to you in Japanese with a nice smile knowing  that you don”t undersand but you have the same treatement with the same respect .

Never i saw a country with as respect as there. Just for examples, when you want to cross the pedestrian crossing in the city with the traffic lights, never people cross before that the indicator be green. And sometimes you can’t wait one or two minutes before this, and without any car, but it is like that, it is respected. The city is reguraly overcrowded and in the subway or at the station you cross many people. Every body be avoided without ever touching. When you are at the station naturally people wait in indian thread and it is each turn. Never you will overtake an other people to earn time and to take the subway before. Greeting is recquired in all places…

 

Moreover i can add that people are very friendly and nice. It is not for nothing that the country is pacific for the international policies. In kyoto i need help the fist day to find my hostel and a woman on the street help me walking 500 meters with me to arrive in front of the hostel. I had a pass for the train, the japanese rail pass, and one day without to be aware of this, i used a train unauthorized with the pass, from Kyoto to Tokyo. The controller was conciliatory with me, saying to me to be carefull with this in the future, but for this time it is okey.

The last last day i had a problem of money, my credit card was blocked. At the airport a guy accepted to offer me a ticket to link the good terminal. On the path walking a worker at the counter gives me un umbrella, because it was rainy outside and explaining my situation he wanted to help me with this. I was also late to take my airplane to return, fortunetely at the airport a worker accompanied me to advance faster and to find the right gate, and to return my pocket wifi in the right counter. Without these different helps, i will have missed my airplane to come back in France.

The train is the perfect way to move in Japan. Never it is late you can have a train between Tokyo and Kyoto every ten minutes and never it is late. We have many things to learn from them. If you are late it will be your fault never the fault of the train. But at the opposite of a perfect railway network, the roads and motorways are not very developed . So it will be not a good idea to rent a car. I tried to drive just 2 or 3 days and it was difficult, moreover i had to spend around 3 or 4 hours to make no more than 100km. With my experience stay with the train it is the perfect way and forget the car. I took a japanese rail pass that i bought before in my country. It is the best things to do because with this pass after you will be able to advance freely on the network. Just respecting the appropriate trains.