I have fantasised about Japan since Pico Iyer took me to his Kyoto and shared his adventures in The Lady and the Monk. I have loved Japanese art and food since and then came Haruki Murakami and his sometimes sentimental, sometimes magical, always intriguing japanese characters. More recently Japanese Lady volunteers at the SYVP ashram showed their true steel: working hard and joyously at keeping the ashram clean and organized. They worked from 4 am, always smiling, always sensitive to your needs: no one could clean the pool weeds like them and later the kelp like weeds were circled around the young trees as compost. They wore sarees and got the best and the beautiful from India – singing vedic hymns and learning to play the harmonium.
Then came my layover at Narita airport: the walkways had beautiful art panels from classical illustrations of life a few centuries back. The descriptors were cryptic but many were back lit and lush.
The most popular stores were the confectioners: sweets in lifelike fruit shapes were selling fast, as were some flavoured chocolates. I was amazed at the prices- Nama chocs are a steal and my longtime favourites. Comparatively the luxury stores looked forlorn. Restaurants were expensive with starting prices at 30 dollars… japan is quite out of reach of the indian pocket. There was a capsule hotel with lovely baths and toilets and its the Japanese with early morning flights as the main clients. Fitted with tvs, reading lights, the little tubes looked comfy enough for a lie in but again at 1500 yen per hour, a bit steep.
I loved the technology everywhere- light adjusting windows, automatic toilet flushes, charging plug points at every seat- i mean each of the hundreds of seats. The ANA airline staff were a revelation in politeness specially off the aircraft where they sought out elderly to make sure they were in the right gates and boarded first.
I am coming back for more experiences to this country.
