Un viaje a Japón, para los que vivimos en Europa, siempre suele ir marcado por un mismo patrón: un vuelo de larga duración y un desequilibrio por la diferencia horaria al que muchos tardan en acostumbrarse días. Todo, o prácticamente todo; al llegar, es vistoso para los ojos, provocativo para el oído y atractivo para el olfato y el paladar. Lo que más suele llamar la atención de Japón es la sorprendente e impecable fusión entre una cultura milenaria, plagada de tradiciones, arte e historia; con la más desarrollada evolución plasmada en la tecnología, el transporte y en la mentalidad de los jóvenes japoneses que viven siempre cobijados en el último grito de la moda.
Tokio, su capital, es la mayor área metropolitana del mundo con 36 millones de habitantes, la urbe donde todo parece caótico, y digo parece, porque dentro de ese caos existe un orden funcional desconcertante. El sistema industrial y el sector de servicios funcionan al milímetro, de manera puntual, sin fisuras, al unísono y gracias a una población activa y trabajadora como la que más. La mayoría de los recién llegados a Japón encuentran las horas de trabajo de un japonés increíblemente largas, muchas veces debido a la cultura de no salir del trabajo antes que el jefe. Cuenta la leyenda que el presidente de una empresa multinacional, abandonaba la oficina, se escondía directamente en la azota durante media hora hasta que todos los trabajadores se marchaban a casa, para, de este modo, volver a la oficina y poder terminar su trabajo libremente. Las estadísticas apuntan que sólo un 33% de los japoneses aprovechan el total de las vacaciones a las que tienen derecho, ¿necesidad o mera tradición? . La respuesta está en el sacrificio de los intereses particulares por la consecución de un bien común del grupo: el beneficio de la empresa de la que forman parte imprescindible. Tal es la diferencia, que en cualquier país occidental, contaríamos los días hasta irnos de vacaciones, lo celebraríamos por todo lo alto, colgaríamos las fotos de nuestras 3 semanas de vacaciones en las redes sociales y escribiríamos a nuestros colegas de trabajo desde la hamaca para informarles de lo poco que les echamos de menos. En Japón, en cambio, se cogerían a lo sumo una semana de vacaciones, antes de irse de vacaciones, se excusarían ante todos sus compañeros y les agradecerían la deferencia de hacerse cargo de su trabajo; una vez de vacaciones, llamarían para comprobar que todo va bien, e incluso muchos regresarían un día antes de lo esperado para ponerse al día.  |
| Noche en Tokyo |
Comer en Japón es toda una experiencia, no sólo por la barrera idiomática, sino por la propia dieta nipona, que a pesar de su exotismo, es de las más equilibradas que existen en el mundo, destacando su ligereza y la ausencia de grasas. Puede que esta dieta sea tanto el secreto de la longevidad de los japoneses, y es que Japón es el país con mayor esperanza de vida del mundo, como de la poca incidencia de la obesidad en hombres y mujeres.
Dentro de la amplia gama de restaurantes en Japón, muchos de ellos son monotemáticos:
- Bento, cajitas con un surtido variado de alimentos;
- Ramen, los famosos fideos japoneses en sopas con sabor a carne o pescado;
- Okonomiyaki, sentándote alrededor de una mesa con una plancha central desde donde, con los ingredientes que escojas, te preparas tu propia tortita;
- Tempura, fritura de alimentos rebozados;
- Yakiniku, donde los clientes se cocinan sus propios alimentos en un parrilla de carbón instalada en la mesa;
- Tofu, también conocido como queso de soja;
- Shabu-Shabu, restaurantes donde cada mesa cuenta con una olla caliente donde cuecen diversos ingredientes frescos.
 |
| Restaurante de Sushi |
Antes de entrar en los restaurantes, nos daremos cuenta de que, muchos de ellos, cuentan con un reproducción exacta de plástico en el escaparate de la entrada, lo que ayuda sobremanera la labor de entendernos con los camareros una vez dentro. Los platos se servirán todos a la vez y en pequeñas porciones, a diferencia del servicio, uno tras otro, de occidente. El arroz, como en la mayoría de países asiáticos, es el ingrediente esencial y el fundamento de la gran mayoría de los platos, tanto es así que un proverbio nipón proclama que para saber si alguien es buen cocinero, es indispensable que sepa cocinar bien el arroz.
No sólo la comida es excelente, sino que el servicio y el trato son exquisitos, pero lo más sorprendente es que, la japonesa, es una cultura que no entiende de propinas, pudiéndose incluso ser considerado insultante si se intenta dejar unas moneditas.
A la hora de dormir las elecciones son múltiples: desde los hoteles de corte occidental hasta los Ryokan, un albergue tradicional japonés donde se puede experimentar su tradicional estilo de vida, pero los más llamativos son y serán los hoteles cápsula, donde aparcando tu claustrofobia, dormirás en un habitáculo un poco más grande que un ataúd y con televisión incluida, o los conocidos como hoteles del amor, ofreciendo a las parejas privacidad durante la noche entera o las horas que se deseen, seleccionando la habitación favorita desde un panel, entre las que puedes encontrar todo tipo de temáticas, desde una habitación convertida en consulta del doctor, una clase de colegio con traje de colegiala incluido, pasando por una oficina o una habitación ambientada con "hello kitty". En la habitación, nos daremos cuenta que los japoneses no dejarán nunca de sorprendernos y es que hasta para usar la taza del váter, necesitamos manual de instrucción y así descifrar los cerca de hasta 15 botones con los que puede contar un inodoro.
Con una reverencia a la que tanto están acostumbrados los japoneses, ¡que digo una! una, dos y tres reverencias o todas las que hagan falta, nos despedimos de Tokyo y con el tren bala (shinkanshen) nos marchamos a Kyoto, desde donde escribiré el próximo capítulo.
'¡¡ Sayonara !!! さようなら :)'
English version
Japan with instructions manual.
A trip to Japan, for those who live in Europe, always seems to be followed by the same pattern: a long flight and a jetlag that, for some people, it may take days to get over. Everything, or almost everything, when someone arrives to Japan, is eye catching, provocative to his ears and attractive to his nose and palate. What most draws the attention in Japan is the amazing and flawless fusion of an ancient culture, full of traditions, art and history, with the most developed technology embodied into evolution, transport and within the minds of young Japanese living always sheltered in the last trends of fashion.
Tokyo, the capital, is the largest metropolitan area in the world with 36 million inhabitants, the city where everything seems chaotic, and I say seems, because within that chaos there is an amazing functional order. The industrial system and service sector work accurately, always on time and thanks to a hard-working labor force. Most newcomers find the working hours of a Japanese incredibly long, often because of the culture of not leaving work before the boss does. As the legend goes, the president of a multinational company was leaving the office every day to hide in the penthouse for half an hour until all the workers went home, so, in this way, he could return to the office to finish his work freely. Statistics show that only a 33% of the Japanese workers enjoy fully the holidays they are entitled to, necessity or tradition? The answer lies in the sacrifice of individual interests in order to achieve their group’s common goal: the benefit of the company of which they are an essential part. Such is the difference, that in any Western country, we would celebrate the day we go on holidays; we would upload our 3 week vacation photos in all of our social networks and would write to our colleagues from the hammock informing them of how little we miss them. In Japan, by contrast, they would take at most a week of vacation, before going on vacation, They would excuse themselves for being absent for a week and all of them would thank their work mates all over again for taking over their job, once on vacation, they would call to check out that everything is all right, and even many of them would return a day earlier than expected to catch up with work.
For this same reason the Japanese have to make the most of his spare time, practicing sports or trendy activities, and always staying true to those traditions purely Japanese: dining out, singing karaoke, playing pachinko or visiting the hot springs. Karaoke, union of the words "empty" (kara) and "orchestra" (oke), is one of the most internationalized Japanese inventions and can be found in nearly every neighborhood of every city in Japan. Singing not only helps them relax, but also helps them to lose an innate shyness to interact with outsiders. It is said that in karaoke, after relieving tensions, many of the big deals are closed after long days of negotiations, but it is not unusual either to find individuals who come alone to the karaoke rooms.
Eating in Japan is an experience, not only because of the language barrier, but also because of the Japanese diet itself, which despite its exoticism, is one of the most balanced in the world, highlighting the lack of fat in their dishes. Maybe this diet is both the secret of the longevity of the Japanese, being the country with the highest life expectancy in the world, and the low incidence of obesity in both men and women.
Among the wide range of restaurants in Japan, many of them are single-dished:
But among all these restaurants, the king, for a Westerner, is the Sushi and within sushi’s world, we can find different varieties to suit all tastes and palates: nigiri, make, sashimi, temaki, inari, sasa ... and within these varieties, we can also find subtypes which are essentially ingredients that compose it: maguro, sake, toro, ebi, ika, etc..
Before entering the restaurant, we will realize that many of them have an exact plastic replica of the dishes in the outside window, which greatly helps us to point the waiters what we feel like eating. The dishes will be served all at once and in small portions, unlike the service, one after the other, we are used to in the West. Rice, as in most Asian countries, is the essential ingredient and the foundation of most of the dishes, it’s so important that a Japanese proverb proclaims that if you want to find out if someone is a good cook, you have to know if he can cook rice perfectly.
Not only the food is excellent, but the service and the treatment are exquisite, but more surprising is that Japanese culture does not understand about tipping, sometimes considering it insulting if you try to leave a few coins.
For bedtime the elections are multiple: from the western-style hotels to the ryokan, a traditional Japanese lodge where you can experience their traditional way of life, but the most striking are and will be the capsule hotels where parking your claustrophobia aside, you can sleep in a space slightly larger than a coffin, and of course inside that tiny space there is television, or the so-called love hotels, offering couples privacy during the night or just a few hours, choosing your favorite kind of room from an interactive panel where you can find all sorts of topics, from a room converted into the doctor's office, a college class with schoolgirl outfit included, to a subway car or a room set with "hello kitty" stuff. In the room, we realize that the Japanese will never stop surprising us and even for using the toilet, we will need the instruction manual and thus decrypt the 15 buttons that a toilet may get to have.
With a Japanese bow, why do I say only one? one, two and three bows and all the bows needed to show our gratefulness to this city, we say goodbye to Tokyo and with the bullet train (shinkanshen) we go to Kyoto, from where I will write the next chapter.
'Sayonara!さようなら :) '
.jpg) |
| Cruce de Shibuya |
Con una reverencia a la que tanto están acostumbrados los japoneses, ¡que digo una! una, dos y tres reverencias o todas las que hagan falta, nos despedimos de Tokyo y con el tren bala (shinkanshen) nos marchamos a Kyoto, desde donde escribiré el próximo capítulo.
'¡¡ Sayonara !!! さようなら :)'
Japan with instructions manual.
 |
| At Shibuya's crossing |
A trip to Japan, for those who live in Europe, always seems to be followed by the same pattern: a long flight and a jetlag that, for some people, it may take days to get over. Everything, or almost everything, when someone arrives to Japan, is eye catching, provocative to his ears and attractive to his nose and palate. What most draws the attention in Japan is the amazing and flawless fusion of an ancient culture, full of traditions, art and history, with the most developed technology embodied into evolution, transport and within the minds of young Japanese living always sheltered in the last trends of fashion.
Tokyo, the capital, is the largest metropolitan area in the world with 36 million inhabitants, the city where everything seems chaotic, and I say seems, because within that chaos there is an amazing functional order. The industrial system and service sector work accurately, always on time and thanks to a hard-working labor force. Most newcomers find the working hours of a Japanese incredibly long, often because of the culture of not leaving work before the boss does. As the legend goes, the president of a multinational company was leaving the office every day to hide in the penthouse for half an hour until all the workers went home, so, in this way, he could return to the office to finish his work freely. Statistics show that only a 33% of the Japanese workers enjoy fully the holidays they are entitled to, necessity or tradition? The answer lies in the sacrifice of individual interests in order to achieve their group’s common goal: the benefit of the company of which they are an essential part. Such is the difference, that in any Western country, we would celebrate the day we go on holidays; we would upload our 3 week vacation photos in all of our social networks and would write to our colleagues from the hammock informing them of how little we miss them. In Japan, by contrast, they would take at most a week of vacation, before going on vacation, They would excuse themselves for being absent for a week and all of them would thank their work mates all over again for taking over their job, once on vacation, they would call to check out that everything is all right, and even many of them would return a day earlier than expected to catch up with work.
 |
| Tokyo's fish market. |
 |
| Plastic replicas outside the restaurants |
Among the wide range of restaurants in Japan, many of them are single-dished:
- Bento, boxes with an assortment of foods;
- Ramen, the famous Japanese noodles in soup meat or fish flavored;
- Okonomiyaki, which consists on sitting around a table with a central hot plate in which, with the ingredients you choose, you prepare your own pancake;
- Tempura, breaded fried foods;
- Yakiniku, where guests cook their own food on a charcoal grill installed on the table;
- Tofu, also known as soya cheese,
- Shabu-Shabu, every table having a hot pot where different ingredients are boiled fresh.
But among all these restaurants, the king, for a Westerner, is the Sushi and within sushi’s world, we can find different varieties to suit all tastes and palates: nigiri, make, sashimi, temaki, inari, sasa ... and within these varieties, we can also find subtypes which are essentially ingredients that compose it: maguro, sake, toro, ebi, ika, etc..Before entering the restaurant, we will realize that many of them have an exact plastic replica of the dishes in the outside window, which greatly helps us to point the waiters what we feel like eating. The dishes will be served all at once and in small portions, unlike the service, one after the other, we are used to in the West. Rice, as in most Asian countries, is the essential ingredient and the foundation of most of the dishes, it’s so important that a Japanese proverb proclaims that if you want to find out if someone is a good cook, you have to know if he can cook rice perfectly.
Not only the food is excellent, but the service and the treatment are exquisite, but more surprising is that Japanese culture does not understand about tipping, sometimes considering it insulting if you try to leave a few coins.
For bedtime the elections are multiple: from the western-style hotels to the ryokan, a traditional Japanese lodge where you can experience their traditional way of life, but the most striking are and will be the capsule hotels where parking your claustrophobia aside, you can sleep in a space slightly larger than a coffin, and of course inside that tiny space there is television, or the so-called love hotels, offering couples privacy during the night or just a few hours, choosing your favorite kind of room from an interactive panel where you can find all sorts of topics, from a room converted into the doctor's office, a college class with schoolgirl outfit included, to a subway car or a room set with "hello kitty" stuff. In the room, we realize that the Japanese will never stop surprising us and even for using the toilet, we will need the instruction manual and thus decrypt the 15 buttons that a toilet may get to have.With a Japanese bow, why do I say only one? one, two and three bows and all the bows needed to show our gratefulness to this city, we say goodbye to Tokyo and with the bullet train (shinkanshen) we go to Kyoto, from where I will write the next chapter.
'Sayonara!さようなら :) '
Really like this article!
ReplyDeleteThank you Helen. Hope you are ok!
Delete