Text / Lin Ai
Before 2019, millions of tourists from the mainland traveled to Japan every year, in addition to the relatively cheap price of a strip of water, there was a deeper reason, that is, the war of aggression launched by Japan in the thirties and forties of the last century brought great disasters to the Chinese people. What kind of country is Japan? With all the doubts, I set foot on a foreign land on April 30, 2019.
We were transiting from Hohhot via Jinan to Osaka, Japan, and the plane took to the blue sky at about 4:30 p.m. The Yellow River under the wing is like a yellow dragon winding on the land of Qilu, flowing endlessly. The earth intertwined with water nets is like an old man's face full of wrinkles. The sediment it carries creates more than 200 hectares of land every year, and it won't be long before the outlet of the Yellow River becomes a mulberry field.
Compared to the narrow land of Japan, Osaka Kansai Airport is still a reclamation project. It was already more than eight o'clock in the evening, and it seemed that there was no busyness of our domestic airports. Seeing that there were many Chinese tourists, the customs export staff immediately opened five or six gates, and it took less than ten minutes to complete the customs clearance matters.
This reminds me of the efficiency of Russia and the United Arab Emirates, where tourists waited more than an hour to check in at the Russian hotel bar, and the east of the room was already showing the white color of the fish's belly. The UAE customs staff are chattering and doing things, it is said that it is not easy for women here to come out to work, and in a high-income "rich" country like people, it is natural for men to support women.
We were greeted by a middle-aged woman at Osaka Airport, who introduced herself as Huang and a native of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Everyone got on a medium-sized bus under her leadership. It was around nine o'clock in the evening, and there were few pedestrians on the street. Xiaohuang said that we were just in time for the 10-day long holiday during the May Day period, and most of the people went out to travel, so the streets seemed quieter.
There is a hotel in front of a half-slope of a mountain bay, and the tour bus stops in front of the door. It looks like we're staying here tonight. The male boss looked about fifty, short in size, and kept talking with the tour guide Xiaohuang about something. He had a lovely smile on his face, a little low. From the customs staff to the small owner who opened the shop, it is not at all like the fierce and evil Japanese devils in the movie.
Then the male boss sent us the key to the room, and Xiaohuang told us not to wear slippers into the room, follow the customs, and walk around the house barefoot.
Although the two-person standard room is not large, it has a rich national style, dark red roof, light gray wallpaper, and a few small landscape glass frame paintings, giving people a quiet and elegant feeling. I immediately felt that the cheesy wallpaper at home, the decoration did not cost much, and the overall feeling was particularly important.
The hostel's toilets are so small that you can barely turn your body. The bathtub is also small and exquisite, and everything in small Japan is small, which is also in line with their national conditions of many people and few places. Japan is only the size of one province on the mainland and is home to more than 100 million people. Like our Ulanqab Square, there are many parks, and urban construction is not inferior to Japan. In major cities such as Tokyo, Japan, power lines and transformers are hung outside, while our lines are buried underground. When we asked the guide why she didn't renovate, she said that both sides of the street were privately owned and could not be taken up casually.
After breakfast the next day, our group took a minibus to Kyoto, and the highway signs along the way were all Chinese, just like in China. In ancient Japan, envoys were sent to learn the Tang Dynasty culture, like the imperial palaces in Kyoto and Nara and the Sui and Tang architectural styles on the mainland, all of which are thick and heavy eaves and the text is also borrowed from Chinese, although the pronunciation is different, but you can also guess that eight or nine are not far from ten.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan learned Western science and technology culture, and they were humble and studious. At the beginning of this century, in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Japan defeated its opponents. The "918" incident occupied the three eastern provinces overnight, not from abroad, but they have long replaced Russia as the "master" of China. If we lag behind, we will be beaten, and now our country is rich and the people are strong, and no one dares to bully us.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the political and administrative center of Japan's Heian period, and was the residence of successive emperors from the move of the capital in Nara in 794 to the mid-Meiji Restoration in 1868, and later became the residence of emperors. Miyagi Castle is surrounded by stone walls and white sand inside, with a width of 700 meters from east to west and a length of 1,300 meters from north to south, covering an area of about 110,000 square meters. The palace is surrounded by four walls, with 9 gates, 10 main halls and 19 halls. The palace is surrounded by pines and cypresses, and plum cherry blossoms. During World War II, the entire promenade was demolished to prevent the danger of being destroyed by fire, and the rest of the buildings remained intact.
Japanese palaces are not allowed, so we just know a little from the ticket description. It gives the impression that Kyoto's palaces are small and exquisite, unlike the Chinese Forbidden City, which is as spacious and deep as the Imperial Palace. But a few small things are still fresh in my memory, and most of the people who maintain order in the scenic area are elderly people in their seventies.
Tour guide Xiaohuang said that these old people are all volunteer workers, and they can work as long as they want according to their physical condition. Japan, like the mainland, has a severely aging population, and men retire at the age of sixty-five. Some petals fell in front of the house, and the old people immediately cleared them into the trash. Sanitation workers are rare on the street, sweeping the "snow" in front of their doors. The old man who drove the bus for us was seventy years old, with a clean shirt and tie, and he had to put away the suitcases of tourists in the morning and evening. We thanked and people nodded politely in return.
At the hotel in Nagoya, we met a dozen boys of fifteen or sixteen years old, sitting quietly on couches in the lobby waiting to leave their rooms. Japan does not have the habit of making loud noises, and both sides can talk as long as the other party hears them. The children bowed to the hotel staff under the guidance of the teacher, and one of the boys handed the key to the room to the waiter in his hand and left the hotel. They look polite and do not look at all like Japanese devils who kill without blinking.
In the early nineties of the last century, I read an article in the Ulanqab TV newspaper about summer camps held by Chinese and Japanese children. Children in Japan are not accompanied by others, but our children are accompanied by parents or grandparents. When we arrived at our destination, the Japanese children were busy fetching water and making fires, while our children lay down and cried out endlessly. Our children are so pampered, how to fight the Japanese in the end.
On Yokohama Beach in Japan, parents lead their seven- and eight-year-olds to play in the water. The sea before and after May Day was cooler, and the children went into the water barefoot. A little boy fell into the sea, and the adults helped him up and finished. The child complains loudly and cries, and the parents do not look at it, and he always has a time when he cries enough.
Once we had breakfast at the "Heguang Banquet" restaurant in Jining New District, opposite a six or seven-year-old boy playing with his mobile phone, and there was an old man with a grandmother or grandmother next to him who stuffed food into the child's mouth like a duck, and said while stuffing, what should I do if the child does not eat well? The boy stared at his phone as food was brought to his mouth for a bite.
Wouldn't it be harmful to the next generation to nurture and educate the next generation in this way? Thinking of danger in times of peace, we can't always forget the pain of scars, let alone just pay lip service to patriotism, and it is important to cultivate children's hard-working qualities from an early age. Modern weapons need strong perseverance to operate, and before the devils come, they run first, and how to fight the aggressor.
The day's itinerary was from Nagoya to Tokyo, where the cherry blossoms had faded in early May. The tour guide Xiaohuang pointed out to the cherry blossom trees, which are not much different from the mountain peach of our hometown, and there is not even the desire to look at it. Today's main attraction is Mt. Fuji, and the sky is cloudy along the way, and Xiaohuang said that such weather may not be able to see the true face of Mt. Fuji. Japan has a maritime climate, with a lot of water vapor, and the visibility is very small in case of rainy days, which depends on everyone's luck.
The bus traveled about 100 kilometers, the dark clouds gradually dispersed, and the green satin blue sky revealed its true face. The tour guide Xiaohuang pointed to the left side of the vehicle for everyone to quickly see, that is, Mt. Fuji. I saw that the distant like a pot-shaped mountain loomed in the clouds, and before I could fully see its shape, the dark clouds were like a curtain covering the mountain tightly, and then it fell rain, and Mt. Fuji was more like a girl who was not yet out of the blue.
The minibus drove us to Fuji Five Lakes, where flowers bloomed brightly on the trees four or five meters high on the shore, is this cherry blossoms? The tour guide Xiaohuang said that you are lucky, here is more than a thousand meters above sea level, cherry blossoms bloom a month later than in the plains. Everyone got out of the car and went straight to the cherry blossom tree, where the pink, purple, and pink cherry blossoms welcomed the guests from China in the most beautiful manner, and we watched and took pictures. A few women who looked like locals stayed and waited for everyone, and we were embarrassed to let the family pass first, but the Japanese women waited for us to finish taking pictures before crossing the street.
Spring rain is not like the lightning and thunder like summer and autumn, stormy rain, and drizzle is more like a confidant friend touching your feelings, making you forget all troubles and calmly enjoy the gifts of nature. The big swan in the lake is in harmony with the big carp, and the swan is eager to try it, and it can't swallow a carp larger than it. Swans also come ashore from time to time to be fed by people, they are the princesses here, they may never have been bullied or "tortured", and they frolic with tourists close at hand.
The warm drizzle did not know when it stopped, and the sun appeared like a shy maiden in the clouds. I don't know who shouted "Mountain Fuji"! When people looked in the direction they were pointing, they saw a snow-covered canopy not far away, a dark mountain below, and the entire Mt. Fuji had no vegetation, just like a strong man naked and open to welcome tourists from all over the world.
Unlike the quiet Mt. Fuji and the three pioneers of Lirang is the tour guide Xiaohuang, a middle-aged woman from Shaanxi, China, who discriminates against Singaporeans. It doesn't matter if everything is good in Japan, because Xiaohuang became a Japanese citizen. Isn't there a saying in China that takes people's hands short and eats people's soft mouths? After many years in Japan, I see everything that is pleasing to the eye. But the discrimination against Singaporeans is really difficult to compliment.
Whenever the bus is in neutral gear, it is the moment when Xiaohuang brainwashes the Chinese people. Xiaohuang said that the Japanese teacher asked the middle school students, once China and Japan go to war over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands, will you still sacrifice your lives for the country? The students said that just give them a small island. She compares the belly of the next generation of Japan to a grand belly, so don't we have to worry about it.
Xiaohuang gives everyone half an hour of free time, and he can't time out for a minute. At Yokohama Beach, my wife and I watched Japanese children fall into the water and cry, but the parents were unmoved, and the children cried enough and went back to playing. As soon as I looked up, I found that none of the people in the team were gone. I asked my wife, and she said she seemed to follow the path. We chased in a panic, and the minibus just started, and if it was a little later, we would have to catch up ourselves. Because of the rules of the tour guide Xiaohuang, the taxi fee is at your own expense. I am not familiar with life abroad, and I don't understand the language, where to find us!
From the highest floor of Tokyo, hundreds of tourists line up to take the elevator. Xiaohuang canceled the project casually on the grounds of the large number of people. Our team is composed of scattered groups from all over Inner Mongolia, let Xiaohuang live blindly, if you meet the team in Guangdong, people will be benevolent and fight for legitimate rights and interests.
I wanted to buy a semiconductor radio in a commercial building and asked Xiaohuang if she could use it when she returned to China, but she refused. Or Baotou, a knowledgeable tourist helped me choose. The quality of Japanese home appliances is guaranteed, and radios are still in good use.
This woman who marries Japan is the moon and the circle of Japan, and there is shame between the words to laugh at the rudeness and low quality of the countrymen. After three consecutive years of coronavirus epidemic, few people go to Japan, and Xiaohuang is waiting to drink the northwest wind! Without Chinese tourists driving Japan's economy, will she not be laid off as a tour guide? What a traitor is hateful than a devil!