WHY I LIKE JAPAN

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82

July       1       676    4857        1057      438         92

             5       251    3572          535       421       173

             7       993    5504        1312       479       192

           12       380    4118          659       500       108

           14       935    5414        1341       586       174

           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107

           19       412    4606          715       675         85

           21     1119    5669        1346       671        195

           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572

           26       450    4307         556       715        114
           28    1266     5589         955       776        190
           30    1485     7023       1544       779        240
           31    1465     6418       1189       783        315
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
            2     1123     5601       1048       852        148
            3       467     4430         514       514        213

            4       567     4366         572       810        173
            5     1362     6292       1394       849        345
            6     1311     6832       1322       919        414
            7     1203     6452       1226       899        306

            8     1250     6448       1058       940        305

            9       976     5612         841       875        301
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          11       569     4575         721       887        213
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          13     1386     6816       1164       950        129
     
Summary:  Nothing new.  Still bad.

On to the topic of the day, I've landed in Japan a 150 times...on a plane, that is.  I once came because of my profession.  Since my retirement, I have gone there two or three times each year, mostly to catch the bullet train around the country during cherry blossom and fall color periods. 

That is my family kamon (crest) to the right. The lower part represents the ocean, while the top a high bridge to connect people and countries.  The meaning of Takahashi is high bridge.

I was dabbling with that BW mon one day, resulting in this colorized version below, which I began to use on the cover of most of my SIMPLE SOLUTION books.



My ancestors came from Toyama and Hokkaido.  I've done a thorough roots search of my father's father, Kenjiro Takahashi, who it is rumored, had a grandmother that was a samurai.  My middle name is Kenji, so I had a special desire to learn more about him.  The jiro ending means he was a first son.  My ji means I am a second son.



Kenjiro was sent to the USA around 1890 for educational purposes.  On his way back home, he stopped off in 1901 on the island of Kauai, in the town of Kilauea, to supervise building the first major hydroelectric facility in Hawaii.  He died at the site just before the commissioning in 1906 at the age of 33.  However, in the interim he got married, resulting in my father, and why I grew up in Hawaii.  115 years later, essentially the same system above is still running in Wainiha, producing the same number of megawatts.

Thus, I like Japan because that is where my family began.  A second reason, and one never quite mentioned in ads, is traveler safety.  There are minor danger spots in major cities, but just keep away from them.  Then, the possibility of some cataclysmic natural disaster like earthquake, tsunami and typhoons is legend.  The Fukushima area around that crippled nuclear power plant will be blocked off into the foreseeable future.

Here is one rating that places Japan as #10 in safety.  Don't agree.  Australia is #1...that's fine.  But Italy is #4 and France is #6.  In my experience, I rate them as dangerous and won't go back again.  Especially Milan, Rome and Paris.  In Milan, the train I was on was blatantly robbed by roving bands.  In Paris, groups of mostly Gypsy youths (male and female) surround you to pick your pocket.  While Mexico and Central America can be added to this avoid list, it can be worse.  Nairobi, Kenya, for example, where you are warned not to walk outside your hotel in the daytime.  Almost as bad is Rio de Janeiro.  Those Middle East cities like Doha, Qatar and Dubai, UAE are safer than Japan.

In Japan I have a routine.  Generally I stay at the Tokyo Westin, leave my large suitcase there, and use a small roller to get around the country on Japan Rail Pass.  Sign up for the Green Car.  If Star Alliance ever introduces a direct flight to Nagoya, I would use the Marriott Associa located at the Nagoya Station as my headquarters.  This might today be my very favorite hotel in the world.

From Japanese wagyu beef in Miyazaki (way down south on Kyushu) to Utashinai (way up north on Hokkaido from where Kenjiro came), I have trained just about everywhere.  Sushi at Jiro's in the Ginza Station, Robuchon across the street from the Tokyo Westin and a range of kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto, to just simple dishes of curry rice anywhere and tonkatsu in Nagasaki, the cuisine is as important as the sakura blooms and change in fall colors.

They have good lifestyle ideas here.  Here is a list of 35 brilliant things the world should adopt.  I'll write about just three:

• Take-out meals for consumption on trains.

• Some of these bentos provide a lesson:

• Advanced modern toilets, and some play sounds so you can pee better:

• Here is one more not in the above list of 35...Japanese wagyu beef:

By the way, that's $227/pound.  When was the last time you bought a pound of steak for one-tenth that price?

Japan has long been #1 for a long life.  In particular, Okinawa stands out with the highest.  Something to do with attitude, like ikigai, and diet.  I'm about the only one who knows that Japanese males living in Hawaii have a longer life expectancy than a Japanese man in Japan.  They are too dedicated and work too hard.

Watch the 20 genius inventions only found in Japan.  I've never seen this old man on a train, but he is entertaining.

Nature's greatest artist might well be a Japanese puffer fish:

There were two periods when Japan threatened the USA for world leadership.  World War II, of course, where the U.S. prevailed.  Half a century ago, futurist Herman Kahn predicted that Japan could become #1 with The Emerging Japanese Superstate.

Then in 1992 the Japanese economic bubble burst.  In 2011 came the Great Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Cataclysm, to end for the foreseeable future any greatness potential for Japan.

As economically compromised as the country is today, the cuisine, natural beauty and nature of the people remain alluring.

During the past few months I've been posting on another fearsome rise from the Orient, that of China.  Here is just another reason why China looks formidable.  From nothing to shooting past the USA to now dominating in vehicle production.  An amazing clip that is worthy of your time.  Who could have guessed just a few years ago that China would produce 2.5 times more autos than the U.S., and more than the U.S., Japan and Germany combined?

Here are some good ideas from China.

For those who have nothing better to do with their life, or have returned to being stuck at home, become one of the 5% by finding those six items:

Nothing worth worrying about today, but there is a tropical depression, 10-E in the East Pacific, that could strengthen into a hurricane and head for Hawaii. 

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