LUNCH IN IZUMISANO ,ON THE WAY TO OSAKA -JAPAN JOURNEY

BLOG POST 2
As we were speeding towards Osaka I was talking to my guide about Japan , she was around 35 and looked 25 ,apparently she was not married ,had an affair but broke it as it was too much of an effort Growing number of Japanese women are now postponing or forgoing marriage, as they want to escape domestic drudgery.
The percentage of women who work in Japan is higher than ever, yet cultural norms have not caught up and Japanese wives and mothers are still typically expected to bear the brunt of the housework, child care and help their aging relatives
So they are increasingly opting out of marriage altogether, focusing on their work and newfound freedoms
Statistics reveal that in 2015 one in seven women remained unmarried by 50 years , in women aged 35 to 39, the percentage was even higher
At present the norms have changed so much that businesses cater to single women in particular. There are single karaoke salons featuring women-only zones, restaurants designed for solo diners, and apartment complexes that target women looking to buy or rent homes on their own. Travel companies book tours for single women, and photo studios offer sessions in which women can don wedding dresses and pose for solo bridal portraits.

Our guide said shrugging her pretty shoulders “when I have a good job and am enjoying my life why should I get married ?”I tried to give a covert meaningful glance at my husband and the other two male members as we come from a country where single women norm is still a novelty but they all conveniently were admiring the landscape around us. LOL !
I felt if this is the mood of women and though some men want to pitch in and help more, employees are still expected to devote most of their waking hours to the company, making it difficult for many husbands to participate much on the home front, no wonder the birth rate was declining .
We stopped at a place called Izumisano for lunch

The restaurant was very small almost like an Indian dabha

There were frames of Indian idols on the walls along with an elephant figurine outside

We sat down at the tables, only we  two were non vegetarians and the other two couples were vegetarians
Immediately covers of yellow towels were placed before each one of us ,we were told they were Oshibori, these were hot towels offered to clean our hands

The practice of offering a wet cloth to guests apparently dates back to the Heian period in Japan when households would provide a wet cloth for visitors to clean their hands before entering the home. I was reminded of our Indian custom of washing the feet and hands with water kept in a bucket before stepping into a house
Throughout our travel in Japan we found these towels hot ones when it was cold and cold when weather was hot. Some places had special herbal smelling towels and were invariably pristine white

 We were supposed to unwrap the little white towel, use it carefully to wipe hands and could place them against our eyes or temple to refresh before the meal. Luckily we were used to getting these towels in a few airline flights so managed this ritual gracefully
We were given menu cards with the items printed on them and prices given,this lunch we had to pay and the travel agency would be giving us the rest of the meals till we returned ,though we were fore warned that Japan was a costly country ,we reeled under the shock of the bill for rice and chicken curry

Our guide and driver were having their Japanese food and using the chopsticks very dextrously , around 25 billion pairs of Waribashi  (disposable chopsticks) are used in Japan each year, equivalent to the timber needed to build 17,000 homes

  I found them loudly slurping their soup and found out that it indicated their appreciation for the soup
I came out of the restaurant and saw to my surprise  delicious food items displayed in glass cases outside ,I was wondering as to why intricate food bowls were displayed which would invariably perish and have to be thrown away at the end of the day

This I came to know was sampuru  or “sample,” this waxy, fake food now being made of vinyl resin and silicone has been around for nearly 100 years and, over time, has evolved beyond restaurant windows.

This plastic food is exquisitely created in Tokyo in a place called Kappabashi, in fact those samples are very costly

A simple cup of green tea is 3,600 yen and a single Onigiri rice ball is 7,000 yen. Full main dishes go up into the equivalent of hundreds of dollars, like 52,600 yen for a platter of sushi for four.

Wherever we traveled in Japan we found these Sampura displayed and we found it very easy to select a piece and ask for that item

TRAVEL FROM BEIJING TO OSAKA - JAPAN JOURNEY

JAPAN HERE WE COME , BLOG POST 1
Since a very long time I had been dreaming of seeing Japan which for me meant pretty cherry blossoms ,beautiful gardens , graceful Ikebana , colorful Kimonos ,intricate hand held ivory fans and a famous Hindi song  from movie “ Love in Tokyo "
Finally the day came and we booked for a combined tour to China and Japan through SOTC, last June
We had to fly out of Beijing to Kansai International airport
Once the security was done, we happily roamed around in the Beijing airport ,I noticed a lot of  Chinese school kids with backpacks and passports in their hands very sincerely following their group leaders

When the call came for us to get into the Air China flight, we got in and as we were settling down we suddenly realized that we had forgotten our small laptop and dongle in the tray while going through the security check .
It always is better that we remain very alert while going through the security checks as we literally have to strip ourselves during the check ,if only we had realized before getting into the flight ,but alas it was not to be! we consoled ourselves that it was a very old one
 Kansai International Airport is located on an artificial island in Osaka Bay about 40 km from central Osaka where our hotel was booked.
 Like dozens of airports already built on land reclaimed from water, since it opened in 1994, Kansai has sunk 38 feet , a thought which was quite scary as we stepped off the plane after a 6 and half hours flight.

Kansai International Airport is the world's first offshore airport and is built on a completely man-made island. With multiple 4,000-meter-long runways, it meets the global standards of a truly 24-hour operational airport. It handles flights connecting 23 countries and 82 cities, 194.6 regular service flights per day, and roughly 28 million travelers per year .

The immigration and customs clearance process was quite fast and efficient and we could see that most of the tourists were Chinese coming for a holiday to Japan

There were trains from the airport along with shuttle services and cabs
As we came out, our lady guide and a middle aged male driver were waiting for us ,as soon as they saw us they bowed ,we found that bowing is the way of greeting for the Japanese ,we were then guided to the currency exchange counter ,1 Japanese Yen equals  0.71  Indian Rupee

We were a group of 3 couples , one from Mumbai ,the other from Chennai and we from Hyderabad ,all of us had traveled vastly and one couple from Mumbai were seeing Japan for the second time after nearly 30 years .
The vehicle was a 10- seater Toyota Hi-Ace, which was going to be our  mode of transport throughout Japan  ,we put our luggage in the back and settled down for the 50 minutes journey to Osaka hotel

In Japanese, the name “Japan” is Nihon or Nippon, which means “Land of the Rising sun” as it was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sun rise in the East in the morning
 Japan consists of 6852 islands,  so it is an island nation typically referred to as an archipelago,

The four biggest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which together makes up about 97% of the total land area. While only 430 of those islands are inhabited — Honshu is considered the main island. The archipelago stretches about 1,869 miles or the length of the East Coast of the United States.

Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world with men living to 81 years old and women living to almost 88 years old. The Japanese live on average four years longer than Americans.
Japan is one of the few countries in the world where the elderly outnumber the young and twenty-one percent of the Japanese population is elderly (over the age of 65), the highest proportion in the world. There are more elderly than there are children in Japan today.

It is said that the Japanese have such a low birth rate that there are more adult diapers sold than baby diapers
Periods between March to May and October to November are best suited for tourists as they are filled with calm days and comfortable temperatures
Spring is Japan's most famous season, and is symbolized by the iconic sakura (cherry blossoms), Trees in the south begin to bloom in mid-March.

 The blossoms peak marches steadily north, concluding in the country’s northern reaches in May .The trees bloom for about a week in each location. .As we had gone in June we had missed the sakura unfortunately

 Japanese have largely originated from southeast Asia and Indonesia. Due to country’s “Sakoku” self-imposed embargo period where no outsiders were allowed in the country at all, Japan has not had much migration, as a result they are quite homogenous with little genetic influence from other places.
According to research, their skin is more resistant to aging, their porcelain skin tends to be clear and smooth and remains so for longer as a result we often underestimate the ages of many people there
Japanese tend to be of a short stature and slim build compared to people from other parts of the world. The average height for men in Japan is 171.2 cm compared to 178.2 cm in the USA.
The Japanese face is generally longer and wider, their eyes are often bigger and angled downwards
Japanese people value harmony and uniformity, hence when they dress up, they aim to blend in with the majority. People find it difficult to sometimes distinguish Chinese and Japanese

 Plain, simple and subtle colors are the key to typical Japanese attire. Wearing suits is very common in Japan with white shirts and black ties.
I was surprised to see many Japanese wearing masks this was much before the corona pandemic and found that it was the flu season, so sick or not, everybody was wearing a mask to avoid catching and spreading the virus.
As soon as we got into the van our guide told us that seat belt was compulsory specially on high roads
Working hours in Japan are from 9 am to 6 pm,  they have a 5 day week , 21 days holiday in a year , however most of the employees stay beyond their duty hours to work , retirement age was 65 yrs
Men pay dowry to women and were supposed to provide a house for his bride
Due to the high work pressure diabetes is more common in Japan along with suicides
Of all professions doctors and lawyers are more highly paid , Men are more dominant and inherit the ancestral property
Health insurance is 8000 yen ,as the birth rate had come down drastically ,each child is given 4000 yen since last few yrs to encourage child births
We saw many fields  and came to know that major crops preferred and produced are rice, potato, pumpkin, onions and cabbage
 We were passing by houses and in certain places apartments. In Japan a mansion is typically a concrete apartment/ condominium complex of three or more floors. Buildings with at least five floors usually have elevators, and more modern buildings often have a main entrance with auto-lock doors.

An apāto (apartment) is the Japanese term for a two-storey apartment building, usually made of wood and iron. Each housing unit is generally small, and many apāto use an elevated mezzanine or “loft” as sleeping space.

 Because the structure is wooden, insulation and soundproofing tend to be poorer than mansion apartments.
Loud TV/stereo or voice, parties, use of musical instruments, banging the doors, and showers or laundry late at night are all considered noise that may lead to troubles with neighbours.
Tatami flooring is available in some mansion and apāto properties and  others have wooden flooring

Most Japanese residential buildings do not have central heating, and are very cold in the winter.  Air conditioning units have modes for both cooling and heating. Electrical space heaters and standing fans are used where there is no air-conditioning.
 In winter some people sit with their legs under a kotatsu , a Japanese heated coffee table for warmth ,though it doesn’t heat the entire room the Kotatsu provides warmth for people sitting at the table