I don’t know how to organize them into coherent information so I am doing bullets:

- Be prepared to pay for lodging and transportation. It’s true for all foreign travel, but definitely more so in japan and especially if you want to run between the bit cities. Just the Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto costs 25,000~ yen, and that is after I happened across street vendor that sell at a 1000~ discount. I think that is close to a 2-way plane ticket half way across U.S.

- The other taxi fares, bus, and metro rides will eat you up pretty fast too. If you are also going to shop in Japan, oh boy, good luck with your wallet.

- Allocate extra time to figure out your transportation for bus, metro, and train ride. Unless you are a local or with a local peron who is from that particular city, I’d say you will be reading a lot and asking around a bit. Or you can pay the premium for taxi…

- Food is delicious and not that much more expensive. In fact, ramen is really cheap, yet still very very yummy. The only bad-tasting food I had was a plain yogurt on the side for one breakfast. On the right is eggplant with 2 kinds of miso on top.

- Total expense out of my own pocket is $700~ including the Shinkansen tickets, 3-night hotel, some food and parking in Kyoto. Not bad.

- If you like fruits, definitely eat their produce there. If you don’t like fruits, eat their produce anyway! It’s that good. The melon on the right is called Yubari Melon. It’s the best I’ve ever eaten, and it came from the town, Yubari (duh!), in Hokkaido.

- Japanese are polite and friendly people, especially if you can speak a little Japanese, then they open up more. However, Tokyo is observably less so probably because of big-city-people-syndrome.

- On average, more of them know how to dress suitably and fashionably.

- If you want to know what fat or obese means, do not go to Japan.

- Following that thought, I hypothesize that obesity and many other of our social problems in America have a lot to do with our wastefulness, versus Japanese non-wastefulness (partly because they must on less land and therefore resource, and I am not saying they don’t have their short-comings). Wastefulness has to do with the willingness to understand how to do things effectively, resulting in quality. Conversely, majority of Americans have no genuine desire for quality for their own bodies. I am talking about true intention here. Topic for another day?

- I was lucky and got spoiled on the trip by my friends and their family. They were very hospitable. That reinforces the idea of sharing with others emotionally, mentally, and materially in my mind. It is one of the best gift we can give, and it must come from the heart. And that, I will do.

- Once again, I know that it doesn’t matter where I am. I will be okay, and that I can get used to any place. Of course, I have preferences and things I am used to, but that’s besides the point.

- Finally, I need to take another trip to Japan to go to Okinawa!

Well, because I heart the food in Japan, here’re a few more pictures.

Best miso ramen ever! And it’s only around 600 yen. Plus, it’s not like I haven’t tasted plenty in California.

My favorite dish at Yaki-niku (grilled meat?) — some extremely tender raw beef at Yaki-niku. This place only serves cow related meat. Mmmm, organs.

Even the waffle looks awesome, at a random small restaurant at Kyoto station.

Now look at the cake! You know you want it :) Japanese are using their innovative energy in the right area, me think.

One thing I notice in Japan was smallness. No, I am not insulting their people. No, I am not insulting their men, either. Actually, many girls there are very cute… uh, yeah, getting off track.

I should say — large space does not matter.

Take a look at this picture.

It is a picture of my hotel room in Kyoto. There is barely space between the bed and table for my butt. It reminds me much about the living space from my past years in Hong Kong.

But, I am not complaining.

The common sense we have is — “Oh, we got so many things, we need more space”

In a way, our desire for space is directly related to our desire for things. Conversely, when we get more space in the house, we often want to fill that space with more things. Oh, what a dilemma.

Perhaps, we can consider the following chain of thought — “Oh, we got so many things, perhaps we need to make space by getting rid of things, that we don’t need, or use.”

Personally, I loooooove having space, and also cleanliness. They are very soothing.

Let’s face it, most of our stuffs end up sitting around collecting dusts. Instead, why don’t we carefully consider what we reeeeeeeeeally need, and if we are getting something, make sure it is something we will use frequently?

Oh, I am such a genius. Just kidding.

Another thing that is small is the portion of a meal. Each dish and even hamburgers from McDonald’s are smaller, which sucks for me because I am constantly hungry from my intense gym’ing. But for most Americans, who sit most days in office and sit some more in front of TV at home, can be a great idea.

That leads me to my final thoughts.

Perhaps we can use more limits. Yes, you heard me, limits, instead of more freedom.

Perhaps too much freedom had lead us to lots of indulgence, and indulgence is a result of not being clear about what is truly important. More limits in our environments force us to value what we have and cherish the resources that are available.

In other words, physical limits can be a great catalyst for internal growth.

Using the living space as an example, if you have so few square feets, there are only so many things you can have. And what you have will be what you need or truly find important.

Or if parking size is like this, you think twice before getting an SUV!

Ok, the car example is not very good. The living situation is too different. But about driving in Japan, most people from America probably can’t drive in Japan, uh, due to poor driving skills. I personally DON’T want to drive there.

Anyways, I want to say this…

Evolving the idea on limit. Next time when we are frustrated and want to complain, or feel like we are suffering immensely, or seem to have insatiable desires for other things, consider that, there will forever be somebody somewhere else who are a lot worse off than we are.

Maybe things could be better, but they can be a lot worse. Look at this picture featuring the tight quarters in Tokyo Metro’s human sardines.

I guess that is why seeing the world, experiencing different things, how people live differently, are so important. So we realize how things can be worse.

On this note, I attribute my non-narrow perspective and sometimes unique and bizarre mentality to my fortunate experience (well, also unfortunate because it sucked big times sometimes) of having moved and lived in drastically different places at an age (12) that I could make my own perception already. However, I give myself credits for choosing to look at both sides of things rather than seeing only the green on the other side.

Last thing, totally unrelated, is a picture near the famous cross section in Shibuya, Tokyo by Center Gai (センター街). Pretty, eh? (It was shot in Lost in Translation too — one of my favorite movies)

I had returned from my Japan trip this afternoon. In a few words, the trip was wonderful with the company of friends and their utmost kindness. Despite only a few days, it was very enjoyable, and that definitely includes the food.

On the other hand, it is also good to be home, comfy room, everything I need, and money stop flowing out. But I must say, Japan and California are both hot, the only difference being humidity, which makes it a little worse in Japan.

To deal with jet lag, I am forcing myself to be awake until now which is my local bed time. I am stubborn like this. One of the things I did to during my attempt to stay awake is customizing a theme for a new look for my blog. Geek! Yep! But it’s been awhile and since I am just sitting around, here it is.

Hope you all like it, let me know if there’s any change to make it better. I plan to also rewrite the “About” section and post a little bit more on Japan. Hopefully, I get around to it tomorrow.

So I am travelling in Japan for work and then leisure. To the right is a night shot of Tokyo from the hotel room.

A few observations I have on the Japanese frugality, or rather I should say, effective use of resources, that’s worth mentioning…

• Automatic door — The sensor is a lot less sensitive, meaning, it will only work when someone get much closer than the ones in the U.S. That means a risk running into doors if unprepared.
• Air conditioning — A/C is turned on at warmer temperature than in the states and also if turned on, is moderate and not full-blown such that it turns the room into a freezer. (me like!)
• Recycling — I think most people had heard of this one already. In Japan, recycling is done for more materials and more categorically and had been implemented way before the U.S.
• Toilet flushing — For most toilet, you can choose to flush with a “weak” or a “strong” flow of water. One for… each type of toilet business we can do, I presume, heh. Preservation of water, how clever!

I am still travelling and will stop for now. More report on Japan later. Here is a picture of me when first arrived at Tokyo, but grossly underdressed compare to the [real] white-collars in Tokyo, though overdressed compare to the [unreal?] white-collars in the States, ha!

Oh yeah, did I say this is my first time in Japan?

I’m sure that’s what all the banks think. “If only we can somehow make it 0% interest and still get people to deposite their money…”

This post is provoked as I am doing my monthly accounting and noticed this in my ING Direct Saving account.

So 1.5% is not low enough and they make it 1.4%, whaaaa….

They are really being unhelpful for those of us who are saving their money.

There are those people who think, “I will lose my money if I put them in stock market. I will not make any interest if I put them in saving. I will also lose money to inflation if I put them under my mattress. To hell with it, I’m going to spend it all.”

For sure that is not the right mentality to have, respective to saving and being frugal, but surely, we can all see why people feel that way, no?

PS. Hope everyone had a good July 4th weekend.