visitor's impressions

well, my family came over to visit a few weeks ago, and I asked my Dad to jot down his first impressions... here's what he says:

First impressions of Japan – the breakneck speed at which every transaction is completed, coupled with an extraordinary desire to be helpful. When, at Narita [airport], we asked the station attendant where we could buy a phone card, he conducted us to the kiosk, helped us buy the card, took us to a phone, raced back to the kiosk to check that the card was suitable for the type of call that we intended to make, and then returned to insert the card and call the number for us. He only left us when I assured him that the phone was ringing.

In the U.K. clock watching is synonymous with slacking, but in Japan nothing could be further from the truth. Clock watching is something of an art form. Straighten your arm to its full extent as though saluting, bend the elbow, and tap the face of your watch for good measure. When the unthinkable happened, and our Shinkansen train was running one minute late at one station stop, the platform attendant checked his watch seven times in the course of a minute, in between bouts of semaphoric arm waving and button punching on his control box.

Another first impression was the Japanese custom of bowing which began when, on leaving the plane, we were greeted by a repeatedly bowing attendant. The practice was to be repeated everywhere, by the train cleaning waiting to board a train as we alighted, in shops irrespective of whether we made a purchase, and indeed at the end of most casual encounters. In the end, we found ourselves doing the same. But I will never forget the waitress in our hotel at Sendai who repeatedly bowed as she passed our table, without for a moment slackening her hurried pace. Japan; what a place!