Our travel journal of Japan
Hong Kong 12th May 1998
On the 24th May we arrive in Osaka ( 2,6 million inhabitants) our first impression of this country and its people we had on our drive from airport to the hotel. The ride lasted 2 � hours and we saw only high-streets industry and residential areas.
When we arrived at last in this very clean town our first impression was of very well – dressed but very hectic people. The exotic signs on the streets and underground are very lovely to look at but for us unreadable, nevertheless we always manage to reach our destination.
We did not have to go hungry then one pointed to the plastic example of the menu displayed in the restaurant window and one became that what one wished. Eating with chop-sticks-better than not.
The journey from Osaka to Tokyo we made with the super fast train Shinkansen the punctuality and discipline of the Japanese astound us, for the boarding of a train they formen a queue one behind the other.
Tokyo is a huge and exciting city with 8.6 million inhabitants.
A German
Business-man explained to us that here people work very hard and informed us of daily
working plan which does not leave much room for free-time. The day begins very early as it
takes an hour to reach the office and the traffic is usually very heavy, they work
generally till 7 o’clock in the evening with a short pause for a sandwich. There is
again a long and tiring journey home and leisure hours or holidays are rare-normally one
takes 3 or 4 long week-ends for the whole year and one week holiday, this is very
difficult for us to understand.
School children
We where also very interested in visiting the Fish Market in Tokyo. They open at 3 am it is very hectic.
Our time is now over in Japan and our next destination is China, a country that we are very curious about.