Back in Japan for the first quality time in many years! (I stopped over for ten days three years ago in solidarity after the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdowns, but before that it had been five years.) What will I find? I'll be seeing it with different eyes, of course - in part Chinese ones! Certainly nothing in my time in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s prepared me for this (from the Narita Express train) - "Tokyo" in four
languages, Japanese and English, Korean and Chinese. A land open to the rest of East Asia - though the government likely to be reelected in tomorrow's snap election has contributed to the souring of relations with its neighbors. (Incidentally, today is the first national holiday in China remembering the Japanese assault on Nanjing, which began this day in 1937 - one of three new patriotic holidays since I arrived.)
languages, Japanese and English, Korean and Chinese. A land open to the rest of East Asia - though the government likely to be reelected in tomorrow's snap election has contributed to the souring of relations with its neighbors. (Incidentally, today is the first national holiday in China remembering the Japanese assault on Nanjing, which began this day in 1937 - one of three new patriotic holidays since I arrived.)