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Oriental
Adventure by Jean Taylor After a thirteen hour flight from Heathrow to Tokyo, I embarked on the RCCL ship Sun Viking which was to be my home for the next eleven days. I went out to look at the shopping situation and quickly noticed that Japan was an horrendously expensive country. Another immediate impression was that the people were friendly and polite towards us: children especially wanting to try out their English The next day, I took a guided tour of Tokyo, visiting a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple. The tour also included a stopover at the Emperor's residence, though all that was visible of that was a green roof - and even that was almost hidden by trees. The guide stressed that the Emperor now lives as an 'ordinary' person, but none of the ordinary people I know live in a very well-guarded residence surrounded by a wide, deep moat. Our next port of call was Osaka from where we were able to visit Kyoto. Osaka, one of Japan's oldest cities, has been its capital several times. Kyoto was the Imperial City for more than 1,000 years and has the reputation of being the cultural fountainhead of Japan. Nagasaki was our next port of call. We were met at the shipside by their official Welcoming Committee and supplied with free packs of postcards, maps etc. High on a hillside is the oldest Western-style building in the country - Glover House. Known as the location for Madame Butterfly, the gardens have many small lakes where the fountains spout to the score of a Puccini aria. Visiting the Bomb Museum was a very harrowing experience. So much of it reveals pure horror and I was unable to visit it all. The utter devastation, the blackened bodies - and sometimes the only thing that remained of a person was a silhouette against a wall - was too much to bear. The surrounding Peace Park, with its 10 metre high bronze statue, is symbolic. The right arm, pointing skyward, warns about the threat of bombs while the left hand, stretched horizontally, symbolises world peace. So on to China and first to Shanghai. The old part of the city with its maze of cobbled streets and superb gardens, such as the Gardens of Content where the Willow Pattern design originated, are worthy of note. The currency of China (RMB or People's Money) is the sole currency and the RMB is expressed in yuan. The exchange rate is the same, no matter where one changes money, and the rate is formulated by the State. From Shanghai, we headed for Korea to visit Seoul. Sadly, this was a non-event as the port was closed due to dense fog. Inchon port must be entered by way of a lock. The ship waited at anchor for a while but, when the fog began to lift, we saw that we were surrounded by other ships also waiting their turn to negotiate the lock; so the captain decided, wisely, to depart. We disembarked at Tianjin and made our way to Beijing. The Shangri-La Hotel was to be our base for the next four days while I saw as much of Beijing as possible. The hotel was quite superb with more provided than is normal in UK or US hotels. I noticed with amusement that the beautiful carpets in the lifts were changed every day to display the day of the week I took the opportunity to visit the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square and (of course) the Great Wall. Tian'anmen Square is the largest public square in the world and it really is vast. There is a large clock counting down the time in days, hours and minutes until the Chinese take over Hong Kong. The highlight of the trip was the Great Wall. Had I seen nothing else, the grandeur of the wall would have made the journey worthwhile. It snakes through high mountains and the most difficult terrain and stretches from West to East for more than 6,000 miles. According to the American astronauts aboard Apollo 11, the only man-made structure visible from the Moon was the Great Wall of China. Lingering memories? The Japanese are extremely high-tech in terms of personal hygiene. In hotels, a control panel appropriately placed can (a) adjust the temperature of the toilet seat (b) relay music or the sound of running water (c) become a bidet (d) blow hot air etc. etc. etc. In China, avoid loos in museums etc. at all costs. (Public conveniences don't exist, but are under construction.) The toilets are more disgusting than words can say, though hotel toilets are pristine and very modern. In both Japan
and China, bicycles are everywhere. This is old-fashioned by our standards,
but purely practical. Also, tipping is actively discouraged in both countries. First published in VISA issue 22(autumn 1996) |