While I can understand the sentiment behind the concern, I'd have to every so respectfully disagree. Never mind that Japan is the country of my birth. Never mind that no matter how long I live in the United States, Japan is always somewhere in my heart. Never mind whatever bias you might see creeping into this post already. I offer you the following: a "Japanese Manifesto" to detail the reasons Japan is a destination that is, and will continue to be, forever fresh.
In the minds of most people Japan is a small country, which is neither correct nor incorrect. Japan is what it is: no where on the scale of the United States or Russia, but it still roughly the same size as Germany or the state of Montana. Despite the minimal amount of land mass, one of the advantages Japan has is its length. Stretching from eastern Russia all the way down to the Tropic of Cancer, a tourist to this island nation can spend a few days frolicking at the snow festival in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido and then catch a 3 hour flight and bask in the tropical sunshine of Okinawa's beaches, never leaving the borders of Japan.
Every year starting in January until the last week of April, the Japanese watch with giddy anticipation as the "sakura zensen" (translation: cherry blossom front) makes its way from the southern tip to the northern end of their lengthy nation. Grab a picnic basket, a blanket, a bottle of sake, and your 5 best travel buddies and snag a patch of ground beneath the silky pink canopy of cherry blossoms. If celebrating the arrival of spring isn't much to your liking, try hitting up the snowy slopes in the north. Or surfing off the coast of Japan's rural and often overlooked island of Shikoku. No matter the time of year you arrive in Japan, there is always somewhere you can go that will suit your climate needs. That's difficult to find in a lot countries that aren't massive in size.
Old Means Old
I remember walking out of my downtown office one afternoon and attempting to discreetly sneak my way through a stationary group of tourists viewing what I admittedly agree is some of the beautiful architecture of Chicago. As I sucked in my stomach and slithered past the group, I couldn't help but overhear a woman comment that it was so amazing that these ancient buildings were still standing today. Bless her heart for being so awestruck by my hometown, but I beg to differ.
As an American, I often find it amusing how some of my fellow citizens interpret age. We use the term "old" a little too loosely. That 1980's concrete monstrosity is ancient. The writing desk we found in Grandma's attic is a relic. One of the advantages (or disadvantages depending on how you look at it) of living in such a youthful country is that we often forget what it's like to have thousands of years of history and tradition backing just about everything you do. At home I can see a document written 300 years ago and a beach front all-inclusive hotel built in the last 15 years. All nice and lovely in their own right. In Japan, I can see an illuminated manuscript that is thousands of years old, and walk on a beach that Genghis Khan's army was repelled from. There's amazing things about the New World, but sometimes you just have to marvel at how old the Old World is.
Technology as a Destination
You've heard it all before, but I'm going to tell you again. Every time I step off the plane in Japan there is another new gadget, invention, or gizmo that makes me scrunch up my face in glee and giggle under my breath. While innovation is rampant across the globe, the Japanese seem to have a peculiar penchant for the obscurely useful developments I've come to adore. Most recently I learned that in order to combat the limited space that is always an issue in Japan, they have begun installing robotic bike storage "huts" in some public parks. You mosey up to the contraption, feed your bike into a loading mechanism, and it stores it somewhere in the multi-storied building leaving you with only a receipt to retrieve it. It's not the Empire State Building, but it's intriguing and entertaining in its own right.
This is the country that brought us the Nintendo and the Tamagochi. A country where you have 5 story shopping malls devoted to just digital cameras. A country where bullet trains zip across the country while its riders do a million tasks on their comically large cell phones. A country where you can test drive Toyotas on a man-made island accessed by a driver-less monorail in an air conditioned warehouse that has roads criss-crossing its 4 stories of open space. Whatever your technological need or dream, somewhere in Japan you can find it. Or at least meet the people working on inventing it.
Backpacker or Big Baller: Budgets for All
Generally speaking, the Japanese have a pretty good reputation. They're clean, polite, and hardly ever have a temper. The one thing Japan has been vilified for in recent years is what most would call some of the most expensive and outrageously priced goods a tourist has ever laid eyes on. The rumors are endless: $200 taxi cabs from the airport, $1000 hotel rooms, $200 lunches, $100 melons. Yes, you heard me right. Melons.
As a frequent visitor to Japan, I can confirm it all for you. These things are all true. A taxi from the airport can cost you over $200, some hotel rooms are priced as if they're toilets are lined with gold, lunch in some restaurants can cost you a week's wages, and the Japanese do sell individual melons for $100 a pop. Yet these are the extremes of Japan, the cost of things that an average Japanese shopper wouldn't dream of buying.
Reality check - You don't take a taxi from the airport, you take the train or bus for $10/$30 bucks. You don't insist on staying at the Park Hyatt just because it's a recognizable hotel name, try the discounted Japanese Prince hotel chain or even bed down in a hostel and you'll save yourself hundreds of dollars and be surprised just how comfortable it might be. You don't get a Western style steak dinner in Tokyo, you stop in at an okonomiyaki joint and drop $6 bucks on a massive seafood pancake. You don't buy a $100 melon. Period.
If I wanted to, I could tell you all about how I spent $3000 in a weekend while vacationing in Miami, but chances are you'd recognize that whatever I was doing wasn't the typical tourist activity. Same goes for Tokyo. It's not any more expensive then a modern city in the United States. Which also means it gives you the flexibility of enjoying all that this country has to offer on the cheap, or on the cha-ching. Your pick.
And There You Have It....
At the end of the day, I know I haven't given a single reason to visit Japan that can't be said about another location. Realistically, no one location on Earth has the market cornered on anything though. Everyone has a diversity of climate, historical sites and artifacts, mechanical wonders, and affordable buys.
For me, what Japan possesses that no other location has is that unmistakable feeling of being a home away from home. No matter where I go on those islands, I know I'll meet people, see sights, and experience events that will make the money spent and the long flight across the globe worthwhile. It was my first travel destination, and I have a sneaking suspicion it will always be my favorite.
Give Japan a thought, and as always.....
Safe Travels,
Leo
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