No Regrets!

As preparations for our Japan trip wind down, I turn my attention to more thoughtful ponderings on the place we are going, a place with rich history and a culture perhaps more different from my own than any other.

Any good trip starts with at least a basic history of the place you’re going to. First, why is it called Japan when the native Japanese call it Nippon? Turns out the word “Japan” is essentially a European distortion of how Chinese and then Malay and then Portuguese traders rendered the Japanese word Nippon.

Here’s my ChatGPT-generated quick and dirty history of Japan:

Dawn of the Islands (Prehistory to ~300 CE)

Imagine some volcanic islands bobbing out of the Pacific, full of bears, giant salamanders, and a whole lot of rice potential. Early hunter-gatherers (the Jōmon) made funky pottery and lived on acorns. Then came the Yayoi, who turned up with rice farming, metal tools, and probably a knack for pushing the Jōmon aside. Rice meant surpluses, surpluses meant hierarchy, hierarchy meant: congratulations, you’ve got your first Japanese state!

The Emperor Steps In (300–794 CE)

The Yamato clan muscled their way into charge, and they had the genius idea of inventing a divine ancestor, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. Boom—instant legitimacy. Buddhism rolled in from China and Korea, bringing temples, writing, and the first bouts of “copy everything China does.” By the Nara period, Japan had an emperor, a capital, and enough court intrigue to make Game of Thrones blush.

Aristocrats & Poets (794–1185)

The Heian period: Kyoto was the capital, and aristocrats spent their days writing poetry about moonlight and shading their teeth black for fashion. They perfected art and literature (The Tale of Genji—world’s first novel, written by a woman, thank you very much). Meanwhile, out in the countryside, samurai were rising. Spoiler: the sword guys will matter more than the poetry guys.

Samurai Take Over (1185–1600)

The Minamoto clan won a massive samurai smackdown and set up the first shogunate. From here, emperors basically became pretty mascots while shoguns ran the show. Mongols tried to invade in the 1200s—twice. Typhoons wrecked their fleets, giving us the word kamikaze (“divine wind”). Civil war broke out, samurai fought samurai, and the land burned for centuries. Out of the chaos rose three warlords—Oda Nobunaga (ruthless innovator), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (peasant-turned-ruler), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (the patient schemer). Together, they bashed Japan into unity.

The Tokugawa Peace (1600–1868)

Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun and set up shop in Edo (Tokyo). For 250 years, Japan was basically locked down. Foreigners? Nope. Christianity? Get lost. Travel? Forget it. But this isolation meant peace, booming cities, kabuki theater, ukiyo-e art, and some of the strictest social hierarchies ever. Samurai became bureaucrats, merchants got rich, peasants got taxed to death. By the 1800s, people were restless, and the samurai code was starting to feel like cosplay.

Guns, Steamships & Revolution (1853–1912)

Cue Commodore Perry sailing in with “black ships” and cannons in 1853: “Hi, Japan. Trade with us, or else.” Japan blinked, signed unfair treaties, and realized they’d fallen behind. The shogunate collapsed, and the Meiji Restoration (1868) put power back with the emperor. Overnight, Japan went from feudal backwater to “build factories, railways, and an army NOW.” They borrowed Western ideas like magpies and used them to beat China and Russia in wars. Suddenly, Japan was a modern empire.

Empire of the Rising Sun (1912–1945)

Japan industrialized like mad, gobbled up Korea, parts of China, and Pacific islands. World War II? They bet on expansion, attacked Pearl Harbor, and rampaged through Asia. But the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs in 1945, ending the war—and the empire. Millions dead, cities in ashes, emperor stripped of his divinity. Ouch.

From Ashes to Sony (1945–Present)

Post-war Japan reinvented itself. With U.S. help, they got democracy, rebuilt their economy, and churned out cars, cameras, Walkmans, Nintendo, anime, and sushi bars. By the 1980s, everyone thought Japan would own the world. The bubble burst in the ’90s, leading to decades of economic slowdown (the “Lost Decades”). But Japan remains a powerhouse of tech, culture, and quirkiness—mixing samurai spirit, karaoke bars, bullet trains, and the world’s best vending machines.

My cultural education continues. After years of travel through the Western world, much of it has started to feel a bit homogenous. Japan promises something different, and with a trip long enough to be immersive, I’m eager to dive into a culture that’s truly foreign.

I have supplemented my Japanese movie education with further education on social media. Here’s the gist of what I’ve learned:

• Everyone’s short and courteous.
• Social conformity is the norm. A Japanese proverb sums it up: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
• Alternative lifestyles and crazy behavior (wild fashion, niche subcultures, sex clubs, after-work drinking) are compartmentalized into accepted spaces.
• The food is so fresh and healthy, you might lose weight without even trying.
• No one litters, but public trash cans are mysteriously rare. People carry their trash home.
• Public transportation is absurdly clean, punctual, and efficient, down to the second.
• Silence in public is golden. (Can’t wait to experience this.)
• Hospitality is sacred. Guests are revered, tea is ritualized, hierarchy is deeply respected.
• Relationships can feel superficial, with many people reporting a sense of loneliness beneath the politeness.
• Disagreement is seen as confrontational. Openly challenging someone is considered rude.
• If there’s a woman in the room, she serves the tea—regardless of title. If only men are present, the youngest serves.
• Youthful appearance is heavily prized, sometimes at the expense of the elderly.

Some other random facts and logistics that I researched for this trip:

• All tap water in Japan is safe to drink. The country’s municipal water systems are extremely clean. Some cities even boast “bottled-water-level” purity.
• We will not be affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. None of our destinations are close enough to Fukushima for any radiation risk. Environmental monitoring shows that radiation levels in Tokyo and almost everywhere else in Japan are normal. Only the restricted zone immediately around the Fukushima Daiichi Plant (within ~20 km) is dangerous.
• Japan uses Type A plugs and electrical outlets, the same as the U.S. and Canada. Even though the voltage is slightly different (100 V vs. 120 V), our laptop and camera chargers should work just fine without an adapter.
• As a country perched right on edge of Ring of Fire, Japan has a history of volcanism and frequently experiences earthquakes. There are about 1,500 earthquakes per year that can be felt by people. The chances of experiencing an earthquake while we’re in Japan are fairly high, but the odds of it being dangerous are very low. In any case, Japan is one of the safest places to be during a quake thanks to world-class engineering and preparedness.
• Godzilla is not real.