My trip to Japan – Sonia Regina

I bring good memories of Japan. I traveled through this beautiful country with a dozen sanseis, these “stateless people” who in Brazil are Japanese and who in Japan are Brazilians.

The only “negative” experience of the trip was the helplessness of not being able to read the horrible feeling of being illiterate. The immense desire to decipher those mysterious signs, without being able to ask for or understand the speeches around me…

Japan is more than electronics, sashimi, Shinto charms and Buddhist temples. I didn't see mangas, anime or haikus there. On the other hand, I walked on the nightingale floor in one of the palaces of Shogun Togugawa!

On the second day I was going to ofurô colectivo con la naturalidad de quienes van a la playa; al tercer día, comer arroz y nabos en el desayuno parecía correcto. Al tercer día estaba comiendo raw fish and claiming to be oishi (tasty).

Furoshiki
Furoshiki

Following the cherry tree trail I discovered the furoshiki, a kind of origami cloth used in fabrics for different purposes: wrapping gifts, carrying hot food, bottles used as a canteen and even as a bag. How can we not admire a people that makes rice, green tea and flowers from paper and sweets?

Food

The western palate clashes with Japanese cuisine. At the beginning of the first week, I looked around, covertly, looking for a cheese bread ... but I ended up noticing the difference in the body - more disposition, better digestion, a sense of fullness and well-being.

This exotic diet did not make me run to the supermarket for ingredients or search for recipes in the Google, but it inspired me to walk, meditate and enjoy the unique beauty of the mountains surrounded by the wild sea.

Japanese food

The funniest comment was made by our guide. She told us about the centenary Japanese and the low birth rate, less than two children per couple. In Japan everything is of excellent quality and expensive; the cost of raising a child must be frightening. Then the guide concludes the subject with a comment to defy logic:

- Japanese does not die, but neither is born, right? 

To be better, only with signs, maps, and brochures written in other languages. I didn't understand their monosyllabic English accent, and my French accent didn't help me to be understood by them, but the Japanese are great at charades! Through gestures, I managed to communicate with the merchants by crossing two islands. I will suggest to the UN to shelve Esperanto once and for all. In my opinion, the universal language that could unite our Babel will be sign language.

Japan osaka

A final caveat: do not believe anyone who tells you that you can see Mount Fuji from anywhere in Tokyo and perfectly from the top of the lookout Skytree. Lie! Fuji-san, as it is affectionately called, hid in the clouds that surrounds the capital. It turned Monte ran away ... The Japanese are in theirs, I'm in mine, so I felt so well there. I intend to go back. The fall awaits me ... Dewa kills...

Written by: Sonia Regina Rocha Rodrigues

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