Tokyo subway is a cheap thrill ride

Tokyo's Metro makes it easy to get around this amazing city.

TOKYO – Like most Asian subway systems, Tokyo’s Metro is clean, safe, inexpensive to use and very efficient.

Known here as the “Wonderground”, Tokyo’s underground network whisks you to the city’s iconic landmarks and tourist attractions in just a few minutes.

Getting a ticket to ride the Metro is easy enough – the ticket machine switches to English at the push of a button and the step-by-step instructions are the easiest this long-time traveller has ever seen. Once on the subway, station calls are given in both Japanese and English.

The distance you travel determines the fare – the major lines within the city centre cost about $2 Cdn. for a one-way ride and the most I paid during my visit this week was about $4 to go from one end of this sprawling city to another.

When exiting the stations, it’s important to take note of where you want to go – sign posts at every station indicate the exit that’s closest to the tourist attraction, hotel or neighbourhood you want to visit.

One car on every subway train is for “women only” – Japanese men are notorious gropers and city authorities decided to give females a place where they can feel safe and secure.

On a recent visit to Taiwan, I was amazed at how courteous Taipei subway passengers are to each other – waiting passengers form a line to the left of the door and wait for every passenger to exit the subway car before entering. Tokyo commuters are not so polite and it takes a few days to get the hang of their routine. However, trains pause for a long time at each station, so there’s no need to rush the entrance.

Overall;, considering the cost of taxis and the traffic congestion in Tokyo, taking the subway is the only way to get around this amazing, fast-paced city.

Japan's population is shrinking

Japanese are having fewer children
and with the population aging, the
country's population is dropping rapidly.

TOKYO - One interesting trend I'm hearing and reading about while travelling through Japan this week is that the country's population is dropping drastically because of the its rapidly aging population and decreasing birthrate.

Japan's current population of 120 million is expected to drop to 100 million in the next few years because of the higher death rates due to aging - Japan has one of the oldest populations on Earth - and a birthrate that now stands at 0.8 per cent - one of the lowest in the world.

According to the people I've been speaking to, women are waiting longer before having children thanks to new opportunities being offered in the workplace to females in this still male-dominated society, and when couples do have families, most limit it to one child due to the rising cost of education and housing here.

While the Japanese remain the healthiest population on the planet, many elderly are now well into their 80s and the natural dying process is occurring at a faster rate among that group.

Population growth has always been a concern in land challenged Japan and while the decrease in population may relieve overcrowding in cities like Tokyo, the concern is that Japan, because of its tight immigration laws, won't have enough skilled labourers in the future to keep up the country's economic engine running smoothly.

The things you learn when you talk to people in a sushi restaurant!

Turning 20 in Japan is kids play

Young women celebrate their advancement into
adulthood by dressing in traditional kimonos.

KYOTO, JAPAN – I was looking to snap a picture of someone wearing a traditional Japanese kimono when I turned a corner and spotted literally thousands of kimono-clad girls walking towards me.

I’ve hit pay dirt, I thought, as the army of kimono girls eagerly posed for the stranger; some pushing others out of the way to get their chance to be photographed.

It was one of the most unusual sights I’ve ever seen but it’s an annual event every January in Japan – all part of Adult Day ceremonies when the country’s 20 year olds celebrate their passing into adulthood and become of legal voting and drinking age.

Adult Day actually kicks off a five-day festival throughout the country and this ancient city’s neighbourhoods hold street parties, highlighted by food fairs, to help celebrate the event.

For their part, the 20 year olds dress up in colourful kimonos and parade around the streets; creating traffic jams when people stop and wish them well or ask them to pose for pictures.

No expense is spared on Adult Day – parents fork over large sums of yen to buy or rent the traditional kimonos and beauty salons fill up early as the young men and women get their hair arranged for the big day; which usually stretches well into the night with the “legal drinkers’ stumbling out of the bars in the city’s renowned Gion (Geisha) District in the wee hours of the morning.

Turning 20 in Japan looks like child’s play to me.

Kids get kicks at karate ceremony

Boys and girls stand in bone-chilling Kyoto river as part of Karate training.

KYOTO, JAPAN – You see the strangest things while walking around the streets of this imperial city with the 1,400 year history.

Kids very young take part in event.

For instance, while strolling around Kyoto’s Arashiyama District – a tourist area located 25 minutes by cab from the city centre which once served as cottage country for royal courts when Kyoto was Japan’s national capital – I was distracted by the sight of dozens of youngsters clad only in white pajamas standing in the frigid waters of the Oigawa River.

Intrigued, I ventured over and discovered the pajamas were actually karate uniforms and the kids were being baptized, so to speak, as part of their training regime.

The “baptismal” ceremony is carried out every January and those who can last one hour in the ice-cold river, which is fed by the snow capped mountains which ring this beautiful area, you get a passing grade.

While standing in the water, the kids carry out exercises like kicking and punching and most of them seemed to be having a good time.

Kids as young as 4 years old were being persuaded by their parents and coaches to enter the frigid water but some were having reservations and expressed their displeasure with some loud cries.

Smiles greet visitors coming to Japan

The Japanese finally have reason to smile again.

KYOTO, JAPAN – Smiles - lots of smiles.

That’s what I’m seeing on the faces of the lovely people as I tour this resilient country that is finally recovering from the 1-2 punch Mother Nature delivered last year - first an earthquake and then a devastating tsunami.

After a year of staggering from the physical and mental scars left from those overwhelming events, the Japanese are beginning to smile again.

They smile at the tourists like me who are finally returning to this sacred land of temples and traditions – foreigners are actually coming back much faster than anyone expected, according to data released by world tourism bodies.

They smile because their officials are again providing the necessities of life after a year of rationing electricity.

They smile at the outpouring of concern and love nations like Canada provided after so many lives were swept away in an instant.

“No pay – I thank you,” says the server in a Kyoto restaurant who refuses to take payment for the coffee I order – she spots the Canadian Maple Leaf on my jacket and wants to repay Canada’s kindness it showed this country last March when the tragic events took place.

It’s never easy to get tourists to return to countries where political upheaval or natural disasters occur. But Japan appears to bucking that trend because foreign tourists are eager to show their support to this nation, which has suffered so much in the last 100 years.

I know I haven’t stopped smiling at the wonders I’ve seen since arriving here.

Japan tourism recovering fast

Japan will soon be celebrating
cherry blossom season.

After spending most of the year reporting bad news about Japan, I finally have some good news to share - international tourists are returning to the land of cherry blossoms faster than anyone expected.

While scanning a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) report that landed on my desk today, I noticed figures that shows tourism to earthquake and tsunami-ravaged Japan has rebounded faster than anyone ever expected.

In a report the WTTC entitled "The Tohoku Pacific Earthquake & Tsunami: Impact on Travel & Tourism - Update December 2011", analysis shows that domestic and outbound tourism in Japan is now back to pre-March 2011 baseline, with inbound well on the way to recovery.

In a separate report I read today, the Japan National Tourism Organization says Japanese domestic and outbound tourism has recovered ‘losses’ to levels consistent with or better than forecasts made prior to the earthquake.

Due to the dominance of domestic tourism relative to inbound tourism, this implies that total Japanese tourism demand and GDP will have recovered by the end of 2011.

Furthermore, airline data from Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways suggest a quicker recovery in demand for long-haul destinations than for travel to other Asian destinations.

However, inbound travel to Japan has yet to fully recover and for 2011 as a whole, foreign visitor arrivals are expected to be around 25 per cent lower than in 2010.

That said, it's good to see tourists are feeling much more confident about returning to one of my favourite places in the world.