How to bring the best of Japan back home

Everything I need to know about life I learned at a Japanese onsen. Let me tell you, that hot spring will put things into perspective real quick. Like when the bath attendant gets past language barriers and demonstrates that towels are forbidden from the bathing area by kindly, yet swiftly, removing one directly from your nervous and naked body. Uh huh, that happened. 30+ Japanese women and I have now seen each other exposed. Neither of us care. Nerves gone. Let nudity ring.

Onsen visits aside…

I could list out everything we’ve seen, eaten, or attempted to say in local dialect the past several days, but that feels a bit boring. It also feels like I’d be missing the point. I don’t want these days to come and go as quickly as the bullet train does from city to city. There are life lessons to be extracted from the Japanese in their everyday cultural practices. For me, it all connects to one thing.

RESPECT. Simple enough, yet I think, grossly underrated and of critical importance for society to not merely function, but to thrive. Respect brings with it a few other things: patience, empathy, kindness. And the greatest of them all — love.

Through attempting to make wishes at Shinto shrines, preparing local food and seeing how sake is made, to losing my train ticket twice (required to exit the station!), Japanese have proven to me that respect makes everyone’s lives easier. It’s what makes foreigners feel so welcome. Respect on a mass scale. It may be what I find so enviable about the culture. It’s what I want to bring back “home” with me.

Japanese respect…

Tradition: shoes off! Ryokan. Tatami.

Each other: bowing is the handshake. Silence is golden. Cleanliness. Simplicity.

Nature: shinto beliefs reinforce the connection humans have to nature. Celebration of the seasons like whoa.

Their bodies: dudes and dudettes know how to relax at onsen! All Body shape and sizes welcome. Balance and harmony are key in traditional meals. …the old, the expecting, the young. The rich. The poor.

Respect to japan, and respect to you too. I’m curious, if you’ve spent time in Japan, are my experiences consistent with yours? Write and let me know!

Domo Arigato! #japan #tokyo #kyoto #sushi #shrine #shinto #japanese #foodie #food #local