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

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 and had an affair, but broke it off as it was too much of an effort. A 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 freedom.
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 came from a country where the norm for single women is still a novelty, but they conveniently were pretending to be admiring the landscape around us. LOL !
I felt that if this is the mood of women inspite of some men wanting 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 dhaba.

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, neatly packed yellow towels were placed before 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 when it was cold and cold when the 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 place it against our eyes or temple to refresh before the meal. Luckily, we were used to getting these towels on a few airline flights and so managed this ritual gracefully enough.
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 forewarned 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 dexterously. 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 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 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 travelled in Japan, we found these Sampura displayed, and we found it very easy to select a piece and ask for that item.

THE LAND OF THE RISING FUN - 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 handheld ivory fans and a famous Hindi song  from the 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 that was quite scary as we stepped off the plane after a six-and-a-half-hour 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 rupees.

We were a group of 3 couples, one from Mumbai, the other from Chennai and we both from Hyderabad; all of us had traveled vastly, and one couple from Mumbai was 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-minute 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 make 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, 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 and May and October and 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 blossom 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 the 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 belts were compulsory, especially on high roads.
Working hours in Japan are from 9 am to 6 pm,  they have a 5-day week and 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 their brides.
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 years 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-story 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 in 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