May's Travelogue

Just as every region or country has its own traditions and every village has its unique customs, each country has different beliefs, behaviours, and policies. When you visit another country, you may notice that some things are better than at home, while other things may be less convenient. This is natural, I think. When we arrived in Tokyo, we found it hard to find trash cans. Even before going, I had heard that it was difficult to find places to throw away trash and that people often had to carry it home. But I didn’t see people carrying trash bags around. I couldn’t find trash cans either. Yet, the city was clean, and I rarely saw street sweepers. I did see garbage trucks, though. This experience made me reflect on how we also don’t have many trash cans in Myanmar. Personally, I find it quite troublesome because even something as small as a tissue can be difficult to dispose of properly. My bag ends up filled with litter. Since trash cans are scarce, they accumulate. In Singapore, I

I felt like the richest entity in Japan was Washrooms.  We can find them easily everywhere and they are very clean and fanciful. (In Singapore, it is always shown as "Toilets" but we can see it as " Washroom" in Japan.) However, one problem is to flush out. There are plenty of switches which are mostly described in the Japanese language. Designs are also different from one place to another. As we foreigners cannot read the descriptions, it is very hard to find the flush button. Therefore, I take much time to come out of each washroom. It's not working taking note of symbols and word styles because designs vary depending on places. Sometimes, I fly blind to press any button, but the water splashes out at me. "Hmm ..., quite interesting!" We the tourmates sometimes share information about the location of the flush button in the specific washrooms. In this situation, we don't need to take time to use it and just relax.  One day, after a few hours of s

I am not sure people how to define the Highway. My personal understanding is just simple. "It's ‌a city bypass and always constructed far from town or city. It connects one town to another which are distance of miles. It is wide and has several lanes so that the vehicles can drive safely and swiftly." If you ask, "Is that all?"  I would say, "That's all"  According to our country's situation and my experiences that I passed through, I am not able to define more than that. It's true. When we visited Japan, we chose to hire a private coach as our group size was medium. It can not only save our time but also our expenses. We had no plan to take the bullet train at this time due to many reasons. It took more than 6 hours from Fuji to Kyoto even though the bullet train would take only 3 hours. But it was still a better option to visit many attraction places.  As a writer, taking a coach along the journey is the most precious experience as I can

"Drinking water is available for free in Japan." Some will say, "Really!", but many will laugh at me, "Oh dear! it's normal; Why did you mention it?"  Yes, I almost forgot about it by living many years on the Island of Merlion, Singapore where the water resources are wisely used.  One time I visited my home country when I saw my mom about to throw away a half glass of water that nobody had yet drunk, I quickly stopped her and said, "Wait, Mom. Don't throw it away. I'll drink it all." At that time, my sister asked, " Is there water scarcity in Singapore?", and she didn't understand my weird action.  After her question, I realised that I was accustomed to caring about water and not wasting it.   However, there is one problem concerning buying mineral water in Japan even though they treat water for free. We shouldn't consider every clean and transparent liquid in the bottles as mineral water that we usually drink. The r

Everybody knows Sake as a traditional Japanese alcohol. Most people in Japan used to drink alcohol because of its cold weather. When I watched Oshin, a Japanese movie series in my childhood time. I noticed that the characters were always drinking warm Sake. They put the bottles in the steam pot for a while and serve them like Tea. Those scenes made me curious about what kind of drink they are. In this way, Sake was introduced to the world by famous movies. However, Umeshu is less popular globally than Sake because it is rarely revealed on TV series. When I arrived in Japan, my friend introduced me to Umeshu and I found it fun. It is similar to wine as it is made from a specific fruit, has a sweet and sour taste, a thick consistency, and contains around 10-15% alcohol. Most people including some ladies who don't like to drink fall in love with its smell and flavour.  It is extracted from Ume fruits, a kind of Plam which has a sweet and sour taste. We can also find other food product

There are many deer in Nara Todai-Ji Temple; they are wandering in the park freely. We can buy food for the deer from street shops selling deer food. I wonder if deer are very tame and friendly as this type of animal doesn't like to be close to humans. Local believes that they are approaching only people who have goodwill. Therefore, we said a joke to each other, "Your actual mind will reveal when you meet with deer" When I entered the park of the Temple, I noticed that they were very clever in understanding human behaviours. If people who walk in a hurry neglect them, they avoid those crowds, but some people who buy deer food are their target to approach. As they seem to know taking pictures, they always stand without any movement beside the people who care about them while taking photos. They never run away as well as they never strive against human hug. They turn their face towards the camera while Safi.  People in Japan believe that those legendary deer are marabout.