Japan: 10 days of reflections on living vs vacationing in Tokyo

Having spent the past 10 days living in Japan and with five more days of my trip I sit back and think about how this experience has quite significantly differed from my last one a year ago.

Last year I had an opportunity for the first time in my life to spend 8 days in Japan. Like any happy go lucky otaku I went crazy. Japan has been in the heart of my travel goals. Being a well seasoned traveler for my work I knew that Japan would have been an experience like no other, and it did not disappoint. I was in awe of the sprawling metropolis, looking from Tokyo Tower out to see a vast sea of concrete. I went from one location to the next taking advantage of the short time I had to take in as much sites as I could. I tried to experience everything from places, people and particularly my love, food. I wanted to try everything once from authentic Japanese cuisines, to common every day foods. I went even as far as try American foods here such as McDonalds and KFC. I was amazed at their rendition of pizza and how they treat and appreciate food. Lastly I was amazed at how this sprawling metropolis worked so efficiently through their mass transit system. Needless to say, it was an overwhelming experience that I think everyone should have once in their life.

This year I had the opportunity to visit once again. This time it would be for a longer period, approximately twice that of the last time. It will be a very different experience in that my wife procured an apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo.

This time I came not as a starry eyed otaku but with a familiarity of the area. For the first eight days I spent it at the apartment living in Japan. We would go visit the grocery store every day and buy the food we need to make. We would shop for supplies at the 100 yen store instead of eating out. We only went out on occasion to visit places that were necessary instead of going for sites. We used the public transportation system to get to where we needed to go. We lived efficiently and economically not as tourists but as residents. It was an entirely different experience than the last.

Even though our time here is short, it gave me a taste of what city life is like here in Tokyo. It amazed me how so many can live in harmony in such tight quarters. Respect is the key element to keeping this metropolis thriving. It is like a well oiled machine. There is an order to everything and everyone follows the rules because if they didn’t, there would be no way for so many to live in such harmony in such a small space. As an island nation, they had to adapt to this style of life.

I sit back and ponder our own existence back in the United States. In contrast, we live in excess. We have land o plenty and an abundance of food. We have an abundance of luxuries we take for granted that would be so difficult for the average Japanese to attain. And despite all the things we have, we complain, bicker and sneer about what we don’t have, always wanting more, doing more and needing more. I’m not saying that everyone lives in excess but by the standards of the life we live, we are in excess.

Taking a page from the Japanese simple life we should treasure what we have, live in harmony and not focus on what we don’t have. Life continues on and we should be happy for living in such a developed country where we do have those luxuries that the majority of the world does not have.