Before I forget and they become completely out of date…
- stands everywhere along the Inca Trail selling beer (called chicha, locally brewed along the track). Just what you need at the start of a casual walk up several thousand steps up a 4200m hill…
- a religious ceremony in Copacabana in Bolivia involving the local clergy blessing people’s… cars. Not just cars of course… cars decorated with flowers and covered in champagne with the hood open (so the engine could be blessed too)… who needs road-side assistance really
- dried Llama foetuses for sale at what is known as the Witches Market in La Paz. Not sure what they’re used for. Not something I figured I needed to at some point in time…
- soccer pitch at 5040m above sea level at a pass we drove over in the Altiplano in Bolivia. I was almost out of breath just sitting on the bus, would be interesting to see how long the people last that get together for their weekly runs on that soccer pitch…
- a rocket launch style count down from 10 to 0 as the Perito Moreno glacier (in Argentina) came into view… from our bus. It was a big glacier, but we weren’t exactly heading for outer space.
- wearing our goosedown winter jackets in mid-summer in Ushuaia. Apparently they were having a good spell of weather when we were there.
- celebrating New Years Eve in daylight (admittedly fading somewhat, but still) in southern Argentina. Could definitely make out the fireworks, but had the event been one hour earlier, there would’ve been some disappointed customers…
- British phone booths (you know, the red ones that everyone takes photos of in London) in… Buenos Aires. Apparently the Brits occupied the place for a bit at some stage (not sure when that was with the whole Spanish occupation, but anyway) and built some infrastructure as the Brits tended to do during their colonising days.
Anyway, not that many for two and a half months around South America. I guess they just don’t have as much originality as the Japanese when it comes to these things…
Yup, doesn’t take long, but I figured I’d mention a few “interesting” things we’ve seen so far (which reminds me, I should probably do the same for South America too… only issue it was such a “normal” place compare to Japan!):
- Vending machines at some restaurants: think a candy vending machine near the entrance of an otherwise normal restaurant, but instead of a bunch of chocolate bars, it has pictures of meals and you after you’ve paid and pressed a button, a ticket comes out which a waitress then takes once you’ve sat down. Not that hard in hindsight, but try working that one out in Japanese.
- Bowing of train conductors to the entire carriage when entering and exiting the carriage. I thought the Canadians were polite…
- You pay for bus rides at the end of the trip. Reason is that your fare is worked out down to the last yen based on the number of bus stops you’ve gone past (each additional stop incurring a higher cost). Fortunately a big board at the front of the bus will tell you the fare so far for ANY of the stops you could have started at so far. Our 2 hour trip to Sandan-kyo included 57 of these, but it still dilligently displayed all 57 separate possible fares! And once you know the exact amount, you have to pay the driver in cash as you leave, which is another story…
- Cosmetics being sold under a Manneke Pis name and logo. For those unfamiliar with this Belgian (that’s right) national symbol: Manneke Pis is a statue of a little boy pissing in a fountain. Great image that conjures up when trying to sell cosmetics. I’m guessing I’m not the target audience envisioned by that marketing strategy.
- Walking around in general (bewilderment) it becomes very easy to notice English signs in amongst a sea of Japanese characters. Especially for instance at a train station where this seemingly random room had been labelled the “Excellent Room”. Didn’t have time to check what was going on in there. Or this rather posh looking hotel in Hiroshima which had called itself the “Grand Intelligent Hotel”. Maybe something was lost in translation. Maybe the name was compensating for the marketing people behind it.
- I have now, in two days here in a hotel far from the most touristy areas of Japan, seen more NBA basketball on TV than I did in Canada or New York in two weeks. We only have 7 channels, all with the usual weird shows, etc, but one feels the need to show an hour of NBA every night! Giddy up! But I won’t mention the commentary…
I’m sure more will follow over the next few weeks…