I mean, you've got to draw the line somewhere, right? I was shocked the first time we were asked to pay $6 to see an ancient (but still active) temple. I'm still not really clear on how Japanese religion (a combination of Buddhism and Shinto) works, but it just seems so bizarre to me to have these ancient holy places essentially become $6 tourist attractions. My impression though is that much of religious observance there is a personal at-home sort of thing, rather than an organized congregation like I'm used to here. I guess paying each time you visit isn't really any better or worse than paying bigtime congregational dues once a year...

Although I enjoyed Tokyo as a sort of shopper's paradise for technogeeks, I was truly disappointed by the sheer heights to which consumerism had risen within the city limits. What few parks we found had admission fees. Most of the city resembled a cross between the bleak future of "Blade Runner" and everything I don't like about contemporary New York. To my eye, Tokyo was one GIGANTIC shopping district, broken into smaller specific districts - all nearly identical except for the goods being sold.

What I hated the most about Japanese cities was the way businesspeople relax. Basically, Japan appears to have become a culture of alcoholics (at least the men.) There are beer, whiskey and sake vending machines pretty much everywhere, even in rural areas. In every city I visited, it seemed like each night the entertainment districts were packed with drunk businessmen singing karaoke through clouds of cigarette smoke. These districts were basically blocks upon blocks of strip clubs, arcades, karaoke bars, and "love hotels", really not my kind of scene. As far as I could tell though, that's everybody's scene there.

So, why did I come back feeling that I had had a really good time?

Well, mostly, the rural areas that I saw (mostly on Kyushu, to the south) were really pretty amazing. The countryside is beautiful, it's rural in a way that nothing here in New England is rural anymore. And it's mountainous! I love mountains! We saw volcanoes, we were in an earthquake (minor), we stayed in a bizarre hotel which was at once amazing and terrifying. (At one point, while wandering the winding hallways of this place, Josh (whom I was visiting) mentioned to me that this place reminded him of the hotel in The Shining. Immediately after that thought registered in my head, I looked behind me to find the hotel's tiny elderly proprietess following closely behind us, an almost demonic grin on her face.)

It's funny, I rank Japanese cuisine among my favorites, but somehow the genuine article just wasn't up to my expectations. Maybe it was because we were trying to eat inexpensively, but eating in Japan felt like buying a Model-T, you could get any kind of food you wanted, as long as it was Japanese. (More often than not, that meant as long as it was fried and slathered in mayonnaise and a heavy brown sauce.) There were a couple of exceptions to the rule of course, we had an amazing meal at a Yakitori bar one night. (Where an older guy kept buying us sake, go figure.) Most of the time tho, it was more of the same. My advice to you: stay away from the octopus balls. Much tho I like some Japanese food, I found myself pining for the variety of choices here at home.

In fact, that was what struck me most about the trip. Everything in Japan was Japanese. The people I met there simply couldn't understand or accept how familliar I was with certain aspects of Japanese culture (chopsticks, futons, sushi...) I got the impression that my world, which is made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds, would be difficult to understand to most of the people I met in Japan. For the first time in my life, I really felt proud of the United States. For all our faults, for all our prejudices and injustices, we are all different here, and more often than not we respect those differences.

I did manage to bring back some cool stuff - a new camera lens, some pocket tetris games, Godzilla movies (duh!), and lots of more 'traditional' stuff - and still it all fit in just one backpack! I'm doing my best to never check bags through again.