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 amulets, and Buddhist temples. I didn’t see mangoes, anime, or haikus there. In compensation, I walked on the nightingale floor in one of the palaces of Shogun Togugawa!
On the second day, I was going to the collective ofurô with the naturalness of someone going to the beach; on the third day, eating rice with radish for breakfast seemed correct. On the third day, I was eating raw fish and claiming to be oishi (delicious).
Following the trail of cherry blossoms, I discovered the furoshiki, a type of fabric origami used for various purposes: wrapping gifts, carrying hot food, bottles used as canteens, and even as bags. How can one not ire a people who can make everything from rice, green tea, and flowers, to paper and sweets?
Alimentação
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 didn't make me rush to the supermarket in search of ingredients or look for recipes on Google, but it inspired me to walk, meditate, and appreciate the singular beauty of the mountains surrounded by the rough sea.
The funniest comment was made by our guide. She told us about the centuries-old 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 scary. Then the guide rounds off the matter with a logic-defying comment:
- Japanese does not die, but neither is born, right?
To be better, only with signs, maps, and folders 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 Japanese are great at miming! By gestures, I crossed two islands and managed to get along with the traders. I am going to suggest to the UN that it shelve Esperanto for good. In my opinion, the universal language that can unite our Babel will be the sign language.
A final caveat: don't believe anyone who tells you that you can see Mount Fuji from anywhere in Tokyo and perfectly from the viewpoint Skytree. Mentira! Fuji-san, as it is affectionately called, hid in the clouds surrounding the capital. It became Mount Fugiu... The Japanese are in their own world, I am in mine, that's why I felt so good there. I intend to go back. Autumn awaits me... Dewa kills...
Written by: Sonia Regina Rocha Rodrigues
