Backwardness of Japan

Birthplace of highly intelligent robots, high-speed railway system, pioneer in high tech electronics and fashion trends and the source of some of the world's craziest and newest concepts and ideas, you can hardly call Japan "backward"...can you?

But in fact there are still many backward practices and things in Japan. They're not all necessarily bad. They're not all necessarily true for all parts of Japan but certainly true for where I've lived for almost two years.

At almost all of the schools I've visited, a few things have come to my attention
1. No intranet / central network
2. Use of blackboards and chalk
3. No computer and projector in classroom
4. No divisions in classes according to ability
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1. Most teachers have their own laptops, but at most they are connected to the printers, and not the internet. Notices are circulated in old-school paper form, and not internet/intranet. Most of these notices don't even concern many of the teachers. But it is imperative, in Japanese culture, that every single teacher knows what every single thing that's going on in school.

I'd imagine the same in any Japanese company or government department, which diverts me to another point - the high collectivity value, or group mentality, or team concept, in Japanese culture, which is deeply rooted within all Japanese people. There was a meeting in the staffroom a couple days ago about the Taiikusai - Sports Festival. For ages each teacher who was designated the P.I.C. (person in charge) of each even would explain in detail about how each game is played to the entire staff.

(In Japanese junior high schools sports festivals, students don't do 'real sports' as we know it, but more like 'games' that involve physical input, e.g. 25-person jump rope; 3-people-4-legs, throwing beanbags in to a basket hoisted high up in the sky, a massive relay etc...And the point is that most of these games are not inter-grade competitions, but rather inter-class. So the 1st graders only compete with 1st graders, 2nd with 2nd etc.)

But beacuse of this need-to-run-everything-by-everyone-mentality, 1st and 2nd grade teachers end up having to listen to 3rd grade games' explanations, and vice versa, when in fact they have very little to do with it. I suppose this is just so that every single person knows exactly what will be going on that day and don't have the excuse of not knowing any single thing.


2. Chalk & blackboard. I don't know about other schools in other well-developed countries, but in my school in HK we gave up chalk and blackboards ages ago (10 years ago maybe?) and we used white boards and markers instead and don't have white dust flying all over the place or accidentally have big white hand marks on our bums. But not here in Japan. Not even in the school that was NEWLY BUILT (as in we moved into that school 5 months ago) - they had in built air-con, heaters in every classroom, new desks for teachers and students, BUT they still installed blackboards, and squat toilets - even in teachers toilets too. Sigh.

(others to come later...at a time when I don't have to get up in 6 hours time and make a 3 hour train ride)

Stinking Foreigners (Nagasaki. Days 6-9)

We stank in the car on the way the Beppu Mazda shop to return the car (it’s about time, I hear you say); we stank on the 3 hour bus ride to Nagasaki; we stank on the street-car to our hostel; we stank in the hostel even after showering; we stank in the pasta restaurant; we stank in our sleep.

The next morning we were supposed to be booked in for a cruise to Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), but just as we were leaving the hostel at 8am, I got a call from he cruise company saying that the weather conditions weren’t good, it would be too dangerous to go out, and they had to cancel that day’s trip. LUCKILY, we managed to get booked into the next day’s morning cruise.

[We were up and out so early, that none of the restaurants or cafes around the A-bomb monuments were open, so we had to settle for combini breakfast. And it took us forever to find that combini. And it was out of the way from the monuments/attractions that we wanted to see that day. Ah well.] We packed in lots of things that day - Nyokodou 如己堂, Urakami Cathedral, Peace Park, A-bomb Museum, A-bomb epicenter, the old Dutch housing (‘Holland Hill’ オランダ坂), Confucian Temple (孔子院), Ooura Cathedral, China Town, and wrapped it up by filling our tummies with famous Nagasaki Champon (Chinese style noodles).

Saturday 3rd April – We woke up to our last full-day in Kyushu. 8am, clear blue sky; we didn’t get a call from the cruise company, so we rented bikes from the hostel and rode down to the pier. We got to Gunkanjima in about 45 minutes.

Gunkanjima’s original name is Hashima. Gunkanjima literally means Battleship Island, because of the shape and its silhouette. It used to be a thriving coal-mining island, with mines going as deep as 1000m below sea level. It was once the most densely populated island in the world, but now it is a ghost town with crumbling buildings. The island's most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it. At one point, over 5000 people lived in this tiny island, 9 times the population density of Tokyo at that time. But as petroleum replaced coal in the 1960s, Mitsubishi stopped its mining activities at Gunkanjima and announced the closure of the island in January 1974. By April that year it was completely deserted.

We went ashore the island and were divided into three groups and were taken to three designated observation spots, and some members of the crew explained about the history of the island and what we were able to see and showed picture what it was like back in its ‘glory days’. It was creepy and strange but also wonderful. Surrounding the newly built concrete observation platforms of the observation areas were crumbling buildings and structures. Buildings with no glass, half falling apart; dilapidated structures, empty frames, a dried up swimming pool…It was hard to imagine how so many people could have lived here. But the existence of these buildings – apartment blocks, school, offices, gym, bath house, movie theatre, shrine etc. is stimulating and makes you want to imagine the sounds and the activity that happened here all those years ago. The whole experience was not so much creepy, but bizarre and extraordinary.


Back in the Nagasaki mainland, after lunch, we mozied on to Dejima. Dejima used to be an artificial island that stuck out from next to Nagasaki port. It used to be the Dutch trading zone, Japan’s only outlet to the outside world during its self-imposed isolation of the Edo period. But it’s no longer an island anymore due to land reclamation. And most of the buildings were knocked down. Only recently did the government make an effort to revive this significantly historical part of Nagasaki with reconstructed buildings and exhibitions of what the rooms might have looked like, with dug-up artifacts and donated or reconstructed equipment and exhibits etc.



After some tea and cake and shopping, we cycled to the bottom of Inasayama, a hill in the West of Nagasaki. A cable car ride took us up to the top of the hill, and offered us a spectacular view of the city of Nagasaki at night (apparently called the 10 Million Dollar Night View). Wikipedia says that “This is also a common place for young local couples to break off relationships.” Aahahaha. Aww dear.


On Sunday morning, we explored some of the local temples near our hostel, visited Meganebashi ('Spectacles Bridge'), bought last minute omiyage (souvenirs), had our last Nagasaki Champon and bid sayonara to wonderful wondeful Kyushu. It was truly an amazing trip. Kyushu has absolutely everything you need for a good trip - mountains, rivers, cities, volcanoes, castles, gorges, priceless views, abandoned concrete islands...! Amazing amazing amazing. I would readily go back anyday. Thank you Kyushu. Thank you God for his amazing grace and awesome creative power and giving me the opportunity to go and experience it. BIG LOVE!

“Fumikiri ga arimasu” Near death experience 3 of 3.

(Fumikiri = railway/level crossing)

(Kumamoto, Oita. Day 5)

I realize that when you put 3 easily excitable girls together, they get excited at almost anything. If you saw how wakuwaku we were in this random but utterly delightful bakery we found, you’d think we were high. High on yesterday’s sulphur perhaps.

Breakfast sorted, we journeyed to what was known as the ‘Las Vegas of Japan’ – Beppu, Oita Prefecture. I wish I had appreciated the fresh air more during our drive towards Beppu. We went from one sulphur-stinking town to another, even more stinky one. Beppu is literally covered in onsens and hot baths, with steam coming out from many of the buildings and even street gutters.

As soon as we arrived in Beppu, we headed straight for ‘Hell’. We bought our 地獄めぐり (Jigoku Meguri – hell tour) tickets and started at 海の地獄 Umi-no-jigoku (Sea hell), where the minerals made the water blue (hence the name). We proceeded to Oniishibozu jigoku (bubbling pools of hot mud); Yama-jigoku, where they had random animals (peacocks, hippo, llamas, elephant, flamingoes, chipmonks…); Kamado-jigoku (hot water pools that change colour); Oniyama-jigoku (here they had lots of crocodiles); Shiro-ike-jigoku (white pool); Chi-no-ike-jigoku (blood pool – red hot water); and lastly Tatsumaki-jigoku (a geyser that gushes out boiling hot water every 30-40 minutes for 5 minutes – we were lucky *again!* since the moment we stepped in the geyser went off, as well as the flashes of the dozens of cameras from a big tour-bus group of Chinese tourists and Japanese tourists, who had probably been waiting for ages to see the natural geo-thermal fountain.


After checking into our hotel and dara-dara-ing and deciding what to do, we set off to find this famous onsen (‘Hyotan onsen’) recommended by our hotel. We were already pretty tired, so after a hot SAND BATH and a good (normal) outdoor onsen bath, plus several plates 100-yen kaiten sushi later, we were so fura-fura during the drive back to the hotel that we didn’t realize the car navi telling us that there’s a fumikiri (level crossing) ahead. By the time we did, it was too late. “WAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!” we yelled, while Reicho ducked (yes, inside the car). Not only did we not stop, but we ran right through the crossing just as the bars were coming down. We had escaped death and destruction (of our rental car) once again.



Next morning, still a little shocked by the reality of our “giving Death the finger” experience, we drove (very carefully) to Beppu Hoyo Land, a famous (but somewhat dilapidated) onsen for a mud bath to take our minds off yesterday’s episode. Yes a MUD BATH. It was the strangest sensation. It wasn’t like the whole bath was filled with mud, but under a meter-deep of murky water is hot, soft, slippery mud. Your feet would sink into the mud a little bit, up to your ankles perhaps, and it would be quite hot at first, but if you stay still your feet get used to it, and its actually quite nice. But it was a mixed (men & women) open air onsen, and no towels were allowed in the water, so as long as you kept your body (and ‘bits and bobs’) under the murky water, you were OK. There was a special entrance for the women to let us immerse into the muddy murky water before going out into the ‘open/shared space’. The water was just about the right depth for your hands to reach the bottom, grab a handful of mud and spread it over your arms and neck and face. To be honest if I had known better I probably wouldn’t have done that – I don’t think they actually ‘clean’ it. You find all sorts of things in the mud – sticks, stones, leaves, hairs…let’s just leave it at that.

Another down side to the mud bath is that we REEKED of SULPHUR for the next 36 hours. Even after two showers.

LENS CAP! And near death experience 2 of 3 (Kyushu Part 3)

(Miyazaki, Kumamoto again. Day 4)

Next morning, after a full Japanese breakfast (fish, rice, miso soup, natto, mentaiko, umeboshi, yogurt, mysterious things…), we visited Amano Iwato Shrine, said to be THE place in the creation myths/stories of Japan. From the main shrine building there was a trail down to and along the river, which led towards a cave where there was some kind of altar. All along that trail we saw piles and piles of stones stacked by visitors over time. (I read that the higher you stack the more likely your dreams will come true…unfortunately I ruined some ‘dreams’ when I was stepping over the stones to get better shots of the view and river). Although they were just stones, I found them somewhat fascinating, and decided to change camera lenses. And to me it somehow didn’t seem stupid to change lenses whilst standing right next to the river. A fast-moving river, too. With a slip of a hand, I dropped my lens cap, and it rolled like a wheel right into the rapids. And by the time I yelled “LENS CAP!”, and by the time Reicho and I looked into the water, it was no longer reachable, and making its way down down down the river somewhere.


Thus the two words “lens cap” became probably Banana and Reicho’s most hated words, since I didn’t shut up about it for the rest of the trip.

A bit more walking and sulking later, we came to a massive cave in this (what seemed like a) hidden part of the river valley, which housed an unpainted torii gate and like a mini shrine. And more stacks and stacks of stones and pebbles. Loads of them. The whole atmosphere of the place was just incredible. And indescribable. We spent quite a bit of time there just absorbing the energy and tranquility. And taking photos. Photos that can never capture the awesomeness of that place.



“Left here! LEFT LANE!” Near death experience 2 of 3

Our car was already too far into the cross road to turn left, but Reicho decided to turn anyway, only too meet a car head on in the right-hand lane, before swerving and narrowly avoiding him to go back into the left lane.

On our way from Takachiho to Mount Aso, we had narrowly escaped death (and expeeeeeeensive insurance damage costs) once again. I admit car navi maps aren’t always easy to figure out, and sometimes the turning seems later than you expect. We picked up Cali (who happened to also be traveling around Kyushu around then), and took a much-needed break from driving (and dying), and had lunch at a jidori (home grown chicken) yakiniku place, where we cooked raw meat on a metal gauze above our own little coal-powered-fireplace in the middle of the table (yum). Reassured and confidence in automobile-operation restored, we journeyed up the “World’s No. 1 Crater” – Aso.

Excitement and sulphur was in the air up top. On the ground, nothing but stones and volcanic ash and dead vegetation and tourists. Like something out of a movie, almost. We were lucky and got the green light and clear skies! (Green light meant 0.2ppm gas levels; aka ‘Those with asthma take caution. Otherwise safe’ read the sign.) We were also very wakuwaku to read the sign saying how Mt Aso is highly activating and (maybe less wakuwaku about) producing sulphurous acid gas.


On Mt. Aso, you can walk right up to the edge of the crater and look into it. AMAZING. Jade green bubbling water, BLUE-ISH PURPLE smoke, white smoke, colourful layers of volcanic earth…it was like a violent-earth/geologists’ wonderland. It was an experience for all senses – sight, sound, SMELL, touch, (perhaps not so much) taste…HIGLY RECOMMENDED. But don’t forget to bring a bit of luck since Aso is quite temperamental and isn’t accessible on its high-sulphur-activity days. Good weather is also recommended.


We stayed in Aso Base Backpackers hostel – spanking new hostel from November 2009, equipped with an open kitchen, kotatsu, central heating-type fireplace powered by logs, carpet, cubical showers, thick mattresses and a reading light. It was undoubtedly THE best hostel I’ve stayed in. It was clean, easily accessible, friendly, warm and well-equipped. And it still had the new-wood and new-carpet smell. All at a good price too. WIN WIN WIN.

“UH GUYS…I’M GOING TO FAINT” – Near death experience, 1 of 3. (Kyushu Part 2)

(Day 3, Kumamoto and Miyazaki)

What I love about mom-&-pop-run hotels is they’re cheap, simple, clean and make you feel warmly welcomed even when you’re only staying for one night.

Also, I am so grateful my travel buddies don’t mind getting up early to do things and they don’t faff around much, and that they can DRIVE!!! :P




Kumamoto castle was already quite busy even at 9am. I suppose it’s because it was the perfect season then – the Sakura were pretty much all open, and with a light breeze, soft pink Sakura petals gently fluttered and floated down like pink snowflakes under a cloudless blue sky. It was simply beautiful. And romantic.

At about 11:30am we were on the road again, with our spanking new rented Mazda Demio, complete with a car navi, mozying our way out of Kumamoto city and into the open fields and mountains dotted with wind turbines and telephone cables, towards Takachiho in Miyazaki Prefecture. We had (what seemed like relatively) fresh ice-cream from a farm where children (and curious young traveling adults) petted goats and mini ponies, before stopping for lunch, and combini for snacks and drinks. Stomachs filled with chicken, car full of chocolate and biscuits and juice, we continued our journey to the ‘land of legends’.

“Uh guys, I think I’m going to faint…”, said Reicho, clutching the wheel, foot still on the pedal, car still in motion. At that time I didn’t think it was as dangerous as it could’ve been. Luckily, as soon as she said that there was a restaurant carpark to turn into right away and quite easily. But thinking back if that happened in a tunnel (which there were quite a few on that journey) or yama michi (hill roads), it could’ve been disasterous. God’s grace was firmly by our side. She lay in the backseat for the rest of the way. To this day we still don’t know what happened. But thank the Lord we’re still walking.

We arrived Takachiho late afternoon, just as most of the tour buses were leaving. As soon as we started walking I could already feel the ‘power’ in this place. It’s known to many Japanese people as a パワースポット – a ‘power spot’; ‘a place where all the gods gathered’; and 神話の里 – ‘a mythical/legendary village’. It certainly was serene, beautiful and almost mythological. We walked along the top of the deep Takachiho gorge, a national natural monument. The gorge was formed by thousands of years of erosion by the Gokasegawa running through a valley formed by lava-flow from Mount Aso. Manai Waterfall gushed out from the wall of the gorge, flowing into the turquoise river down below. Up and down the gorge we walked, dumbfounded by the beauty we were surrounded by. Waterfalls, rapids, crazy rock formations, serene waters, the sound of birds…Words can never justify the experience of wonder and emotions and praise for an awe-inspiring and loving creator.













After dinner at an izakaya, we made our way to Takachiho Shrine to watch the Takachiho Yokagura 高千穂夜神楽 – traditional dances depicting the legends and mythologies of Japan. Even though we got there 15 or 20 minutes early, we were still beaten by a bunch of fura-fura (probably onsen & sake-ed) ojiisans, who were as excited about seeing Kagura as a bunch of toddlers going to see a pantomime. During the dance where the god tries to roll away the rocks to open the cave, one particular ojiisan was saying gambatte to the performer as he was trying to make lifting a piece of cardboard look difficult. It was quite amusing nonetheless.

“Tea, juice, or soup?” (Kyushu Part 1)

(Day 1, arrive Kagoshima, Kyushu)
“Soup…?” I asked.

“It’s Consommé soup”, the flight attendant replied.

Banana, Reicho and I knew this trip was going to be full of surprises. (We’ve never been served soup on a plane…have you!?) And it was indeed.

As we got off the airport bus at Kagoshima station late Saturday afternoon, we turned around to find smoke fuming out of a mountain in the distance. That was Sakurajima, an active volcano just 20 minutes by ferry away from the coast of Kagoshima city, Kagoshima Prefecture, at the bottom of Kyushu.

The next day, we made our way to visit my first ever active volcano. It was overcast in the morning, so it wasn’t easy to differentiate between cloud and volcanic smoke. We rented a little car from a little mom-&-pops car & bike shop right outside the ferry pier, (their only car), was given a map with a few red circles and had our first road trip in Kyushu. Although our mini journey was not without mini mishaps and inexperienced map-reading, we did a loop around the island and saw most of the Sakurajima must-sees, such as the lava field, the lava-buried torii gate, the specified memorabilia-photo-spots, some guy’s random sculpture…

('Warning: Beware of rocks when the volcano erupts. Please be careful.')

And as the sky cleared up and the sun came out, we realized it was ‘drizzling’ volcanic ash and we were probably breathing in lots of it whenever we got out of the car to take photos of the coast and volcano etc. I can’t imagine it being too pleasant living here, having to clean out the day’s volcanic ash everyday and not being able to open windows, not to mention living in the shadow of an active volcano that can explode and bury your house anytime. Nonetheless, it was a fun visit.










By late afternoon the sky was all clear and blue and we ended our excursion with a nice session of ashiyu, or foot bath, a Japanese favourite, probably heated by the same geothermal energy that’s making the volcano rumble (apparently it has already erupted 429 times this year, with 365 of them being ‘big eruptions’ – i.e. fire-spitting eruptions!)



Collecting our luggage from the station lockers, we made our way up to Kumamoto City on the Shinkansen that evening, tired but ‘wakuwaku’ for the rest of Kyushu.