This year, I am
going to Japan!
The trip will begin May 3rd, 2018 and is expected to end on June 30th 2018.
I will start in Naha airport at Okinawa and head north to the main islands via a set of small islands between Okinawa and the main island Honshu.
I have no specific route. I will find my way as I go along. I intend to go via Nagasaki, Hiroshima, the temples of Shikoku, Osaka to Tokyo (maybe) via the Japanese Alps, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji and whatever else catches my eye along the way.
Unlike my trip across America, where my goal was meeting many people while cycling coast to coast, this trip will focus on the cultural aspect of Japan.
Not knowing the language, I cannot expect to have conversations with people I meet on the trail, in restaurants, in campsites or motels. This time I will have to observe and try to take in as much as I can while the language is in fact a barrier between me and the locals. And not only the language. The culture in America was not foreign to me. I had met many Americans prior to my visit to the U.S. and Canada and had spent three years in the Midwest in the 1980's. Movies and TV give us another angle on American life and besides, there is not that big a gap between the Israeli and American cultures. So I was not expecting to be surprised by what I would be running into there.
Japan, on the other hand, is foreign to me. I know a very little from movies and TV shows about Japan, I do not understand the culture or language and I am not familiar with the geography or history. I expect to have new experiences that I cannot begin to imagine. That is the adventure I am seeking.
I will be posting here every few days.
At the top of the blog, you will be able to find the link to a map that will show my location.
See you then,
David
The trip will begin May 3rd, 2018 and is expected to end on June 30th 2018.
I will start in Naha airport at Okinawa and head north to the main islands via a set of small islands between Okinawa and the main island Honshu.
I have no specific route. I will find my way as I go along. I intend to go via Nagasaki, Hiroshima, the temples of Shikoku, Osaka to Tokyo (maybe) via the Japanese Alps, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji and whatever else catches my eye along the way.
Unlike my trip across America, where my goal was meeting many people while cycling coast to coast, this trip will focus on the cultural aspect of Japan.
Not knowing the language, I cannot expect to have conversations with people I meet on the trail, in restaurants, in campsites or motels. This time I will have to observe and try to take in as much as I can while the language is in fact a barrier between me and the locals. And not only the language. The culture in America was not foreign to me. I had met many Americans prior to my visit to the U.S. and Canada and had spent three years in the Midwest in the 1980's. Movies and TV give us another angle on American life and besides, there is not that big a gap between the Israeli and American cultures. So I was not expecting to be surprised by what I would be running into there.
Japan, on the other hand, is foreign to me. I know a very little from movies and TV shows about Japan, I do not understand the culture or language and I am not familiar with the geography or history. I expect to have new experiences that I cannot begin to imagine. That is the adventure I am seeking.
I will be posting here every few days.
At the top of the blog, you will be able to find the link to a map that will show my location.
See you then,
David
