Japan: A Country of Wonderful Contrasts

In our two-week tour of the country, we went to the capital Tokyo, the former capital Kyoto, and Hiroshima, infamous for the events of August 1945, as well as visiting the Tokyo Disney resort. Add to that day trips to Nara, Nikko, Mount Fuji, and Lake Hakone (all easily accessible from Tokyo) and our trip certainly gave us a good chance to experience Japan.

To me, Japan is a country that is full of contradictions, and I love the idea of that. If you head to the right parts of any major city, you'll find young Japanese experimenting with the most way-out fashions they can find, many of them Western in origin, yet elsewhere in the same city, you'll also see women in traditional kimonos, taking pride in the history of their country. I can't think of any other country where you would see people in everyday life wearing such traditional costumes. They're hardly made for today's society, but the women we saw in them, without exception, looked elegant and seemed to relish the challenge of getting around in a kimono.

Think of any new kind of technology and the chances are that it probably originated in Japan, with cameras, TVs, and computers often debuting there first, before finding it into the rest of the world. Visitors to the country can see, and in some cases, try out that new technology, with many major companies having areas open to the public to market their newest inventions. The Sony Center in Tokyo's Ginza is one example, with floors full of things you've never seen before, with some clearly marked as not yet available on the market. All I'll say is keep an eye out over the next few months for Rolly, who plays music and dances to it. He's an adorable invention, the likes of which you've never seen before.