Four Weeks And Counting

Four weeks today, I am leaving for Japan. I am excited. How privileged I am to travel to places I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I live vicariously through Jackie. I have looked through several travel books for Japan. I have read a few traveller's tales books on Japan. I love to read at least a little about the places I am going to. My readings add to my excitement. These readings teach me more history than I could have ever learned during my school years. Japan is intriguing. Japan is only 150 years out of its isolation from the outside world. And yet Japan is the most technologically advanced country. Although according to my readings, it is steeped in traditions such as the tea ceremony. Bullet trains and capsule hotels speaks to its efficiency. Through my readings I get the feelings of hurried mass of people in the larger cities of Tokyo and Osaka. I feel the laid back lives of the rice farmers of the less densely populated inner islands. The cities are modern new buildings peppered with shrines and castles.
I read the people are polite and kind and ever helpful.
I hope to layer my preconceived notions of Japan with its reality that I shall experience very soon.
Jackie tells me to be prepared to experience culture shock. Be prepared to be stared at. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by the people. Be prepared to eat food that I do not know the names of. Be prepared to not understand the signs. Be prepared....
No one can be prepared for a culture so diverse in opposites. However I hope to be prepared to be blown away by Japan. To know it less than I thought I did. To experience it with my eyes wide open. To live just a tad outside of my comfort level. And by so doing enjoy my time in Japan with my daughter.
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