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KONICHIWA!
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone here is Kung Fu fighting,
but man some of these cats are as fast as lightning…
Instructions on how to locate Japan, set your compass to
these Geographic coordinates: 36 00 N, 138 00 E and look for
lots and lots of people.
The total area of Japan is 377,835 sq km. To put it all in
perspective, Japan is just slightly smaller than California.
California however has a population of about approximately
33 million, Japan has over 126 million people. I figure that's
about forty million salary men who read adult comic books
and fall asleep on the trains, and about fifteen million teenage
girls who each wear nine inch platform shoes and more face
make up than the combined members of Kiss. Japan seems
even more crowded because 2/3 of the land is forests and woodland.
In my short time here, I have observed that Japanese people
don't seem to be big into the Tarzan way of life. I figure
it has to do with the poor cell phone reception and lack of
coffee in a can vending machines in the mountains. So if 2/3
of Japan is forest then why is it that everywhere I look I
see pavement? I remember that one of my first impressions
from travelling from the airport to my new home in the Osaka
suburb of Ibaraki was that this place was all one big
city. After two months of pure pavement, I realized it was
time to escape the city and in Von Trapp fashion, time to
head for the mountains.
A student of mine recommended a day in Minoo (pronounced
Min-o-o). The town is only about forty minutes by train from
where I live and it is full of beautiful forests. Being slightly
pessimistic and believing that there really is no such thing
as a secluded sight in Japan I figured Minoo would be a few
trees with many Japanese people walking around. My student
assured me, I would find exactly what I was looking for, but
he did warn me that the area is infested with macaques. Before
you go digging into your Encyclopedia, a macaque is an Asian
monkey. The ones in Minoo have been known to attack tourists.
If people never fed them in the first place, they would ignore
us. (A lesson I learnt while in the Galapagos Islands a few
years back).
So I figured I would take the risk, and run for the hills.
A few friends of mine joined me, and sure enough upon arrival
we were greeted by thousands of Japanese whom had the same
idea. "We just can't escape the crowds" I hissed.
But my friend had a theory. The higher up the mountain the
less people.Really having no other option, I felt we had to
march on. As we moved further up the mountain, the strangest
thing happened! The trees became thicker and thicker, and
suddenly we realized that we were alone. The leaves were all
starting to change colours, and from the look out points all
we could see was more trees covered mountains. Every little
once in awhile we were greeted with a neat little Japanese
monument. It was outstanding! Quiet and peaceful, not to mention
that the statues and monuments were quite impressive. Although
I wish I were able to read any of the three written Japanese
languages.
After the day in the mountains, we met up with some friends
in Osaka, went for conveyor belt sushi and went into a photo
club picture booth to make souvenirs…ah Japan, you gotta
love it!
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Travel Writers: In Search of Tranquil Japan by
Andrew Gryfe
Globe
Trekker: 
