wealth — Blog — Jo Teasdale FRPS

Good evening Japan.

So we landed in Japan and had a couple of days in Tokyo which were a blur, and not a great beginning as now appears customary for our initial entry to a country.

Late at night our miserable taxi driver literally dumped us on the freeway because he couldn’t find our Ryokan. Thank goodness for the wifi router that was delivered to us at the airport - perfect efficiency - together with google maps, we eventually found our place over the freeway, hidden in a maze of backstreets. Our Ryokan was a matchbox of heavenly bliss, ruined only by us and our luggage. Westerners were not designed for spaces like this.

Our first impressions of Tokyo are not wholly great, somewhat uncomfortable to be honest, but we are returning here for longer at the end so our opinions may very well change.

Travelling down to Osaka on the bullet train was quite an event - so many jobs, all requiring a uniform. Meet the team…

Flight Cleaners. 8 minutes per 120 seated carriage and its like new

You never travel facing backwards on a bullet train. Each seat is swivelled round after the carriage is cleaned.

Three hours, 552km later… Welcome to Osaka.

Gone are the incredible colours, rich light and the unexpectedness of India. Gone is the warmth and friendliness of Taiwan. Osaka is silent, slow, clinical and predictable.

Umeda, is a white backdrop with a few shades of grey through to stark black of business suits a plenty. This is Osaka’s business hub, similar to the city of London. Its cold and bland.

Namba, is a huge entertainment centre and caters for everyone from youth ‘Amerikamaro’ sub culture to the seriously mega-wealthy shoppers and a few tourist spots thrown in for good measure. It has giant shops, malls and high-rises housing intimate bars and restaurants each for about 6 people.

Boy-band Mania. Album release concert. The girls take the dolls into the concert.

Shopping, betting, gambling and slot machines are amongst Japans biggest leisure activity and like Tokyo, Osaka is no different. Huge sky-rises and malls are filled with multiple floors of casinos and slot machines. This is where the noise is, the sound of bubblegum music and money being thrust relentlessly into the machines.

Poor lady is mortified that the claw dropped her toy.

Maid bars and Cosplay shops are in abundance highlighting a culture I don’t really understand.

The maids are all very young women working in bars and the cosplayers are teenagers dressing up as ‘fictional characters’ and victorian dolls. In some cases these can be very extreme. Its a ‘look and don’t touch’ experience for males.

Young maid give out bar leaflets late at night.

Many of the images and sounds surrounding us are what we would associate with our own childhood that appear to carry on into adult life here, which is peculiar and takes time to get accustomed to. The Magic Roundabout tune, for example, informs you its rubbish collection time.

Osaka’s city starkness and sanitised structures are punctuated with colour,in the form of uniforms for multiple jobs, manicured trees and drinks machines - found on every single street.

Each school has a different coloured hat.

The entertainment areas of Namba are about gigantic high-rise neon lights and giant mechanised signs, fairy lights and paper lanterns, many bleached out by fluorescent lighting. Its harsh, brash and dripping in wealth.

The Glico running man is one of the most well known landmarks in Osaka. This huge brightly lit sign has glowed over the Dotombori canal in Osaka's premier shopping and entertainment district for more than 80 years. The running man advertises Glico, the manufacturer of one of Asia's most famous confectionery companies.

Japan’s cleanliness is like nothing I have ever seen. No car is marked, dirty or noisy. No dog messes in a public space. No rubbish, no eating in public spaces.

Chewing gum marks are removed from the pavement.

No-one speaks, there is human silence everywhere, except that is until 10.00pm when the soulful karaoke begins.

A tale of two cities. A whirlwind couple of days back in Delhi, this time to the Defence Colony in New Delhi. Our final stopover before Singapore. A tranquil, modern Indian suburb, quite a difference from our previous destinations. Once everyone had woken up, we hit the deafening hustle and bustle for one last time.

Delhi’s bypass is noisy, heavily polluted and home to a number of families. Home is just a tarpaulin and a campfire situated underneath the bypass. We have witnessed the poverty in India, but it wasn’t in your face. However, this bypass is desperate and dystopic. To try and make money, families attempt to sell flowers and cheap toys to the drivers, as they wait at the lights. Men, women and children go knocking on the car windows, starring at you through the glass. It breaks your heart.

Our taxi driver took a big bunch of flowers home to his wife that afternoon.

Having passed through Delhi Airport without any issues this time we felt a huge weight lift. Arriving in Singapore Airport you quickly realise that you ‘waft’ and ‘glide’ through. There is no stress in this airport. In fact there appears to be no stress anywhere.

The cars in Singapore are on the correct side of the road, travelling at a slow steady speed. it’s unnervingly quiet, no horns are beeping, no revving of engines. Its very, very calm. Not a cow, buffalo or goat to be seen.

The roads are smooth and everywhere is planted, pruned and manicured. Ugliness is hidden away or disguised. Colours are considered and harmonious. There is no chaos. Singapore looks like an advert for Utopia. There is a population of about three million people living on this tiny island. High occupancy flats and offices and yet it is so quiet and uncluttered. However, there’s no wildlife around us anymore, just an occasional dog on a lead.

Our AirBnB didn’t quite workout, infact it was disastrous, so we vacated and took a punt on a hotel downtown. As we squeezed into our super-deluxe, top of the range ‘value’ room, it dawned on us that our palatial, generous rooms in India were now a thing of the past. We would be downsizing from now on.

We also realised that food was going to become challenging, especially if your vegetarian like me. However, we preferred the challenge of the Chinese hawkers markets to the sterile city restaurants. It’s really clean here, no litter, no shoving or pushing, everyone is so polite and helpful. It’s very easy. The trains are driverless as are some cars. There is WiFi everywhere and its super fast. Everyone is on their phone, all the time.

Our first menu in Singapore was quite challenging.

Singapore is not a particularly attractive city in the daylight, its very sanitised, clinical and a bit dull, but when the night draws in it’s transformed into the city of tiny lights, millions of twinkling lights. Its stunning and magical.

And since we’re in town we brought rain. Not just any old rain, 24 hours torrential rain. John’s nickname in India was Johnny Monsoon. He’s beginning to believe it.

'It's a wild leather heaven'. - Google translate Japanese food menu

‘Drivers are requested not to urinate on the roads and walls in the colony’ - Order by DOWA

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