January 24, 2001
The adventure begins in the Far East: Japan
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
The lure of the Far East propelled two young men to make a sudden decision to visit the Land of the Rising Sun.
David Craft, a Columbian High School senior, and his friend, Cale Dunlap, a junior, decided to throw caution -- and planning -- to the wind and traveled to Japan over Christmas break.
Craft has studied the Japanese language in post-secondary options classes at Heidelberg College. Dunlap, who was an American Field Service exchange student last year to Norway, had met two Japanese students while he was there.
"We had talked about it awhile, since mid-October,'' Craft said of traveling to Japan. "I'm going into the Marines in June, so it's my last opportunity to do something. So we just decided to pack up and go to Japan.''
They made arrangements to stay with Dunlap's friends and with a family that had been referred to them by Craft's teacher at Heidelberg. Armed with Craft's limited Japanese and Dunlap's more advanced language skills (he knows seven languages), they embarked on an adventure.
Their trip began in the city of Yokohama, the third-largest city in the island nation.
''Japan is basically one big city,'' Craft explained. With rail passes, they could travel easily from one location to the other. "There really aren't any divisions,'' Craft added, unlike the United States, which has clear delineations between city, suburb and rural areas.
"We took a two-hour train trip and never saw any clear, open spaces. And Yokohama is 55 miles in diameter; it's just huge,'' he said.
While in the big city, they took in some of the sights and night life.
"We just hung out and went to some karaoke places,'' Craft explained. "Most of the songs are in Japanese, but they had some in English. It's not like here, there's not a stage. Everyone has their own room that they rent by the hour and go and sing. You just go with a bunch of people.''
Traveling to Nagoya, they saw the Nagoya castle, home of past emperors. Surrounded by moating, it was the one part of the city that had "green space.''
They spent New Year's in the city of Fukuoka, a seaside area on the northernmost tip of one of Japan's four main islands, where they could see the outline of Korea.
"On New Year's, most people go to a Shinto shrine,'' Dunlap explained. "We were the only two Americans in the line for the shrine.''
The traditional ritual requires those paying homage to the shrine to "throw a coin into a can thing. Then you ring a bell, clap twice and bow your head,'' Craft explained. "It gives you good luck.''
Street vendors also sold arrows at, according to Dunlap, very high prices. "Supposedly, if you buy an arrow, it saves a soul of someone who has died,'' he said.
Throughout their trip, they visited Japan's version of cafés: tea houses. "You sit on the floor,'' Craft explained. "In most houses, they have a table like a coffee table.''
"They even sleep on mats, and they sit on mats at the table,'' Dunlap said. "When you sit down, you cross your legs when you eat.''
"And you eat bowls of rice and soup with chopsticks,'' Craft quipped.
Both said they slept on straw mats during their visit and that they were comfortable.
"They are padded inside,'' Dunlap explained. "And they put a comforter underneath, a sheet on the top and then another comforter on top.''
Also, most Japanese families homes have a regular dining table and a more traditional, smaller one.
They also used a communal spa, another activity unique to Japan.
"It was considered a faux pas to wear clothes,'' Craft said. "They had some where the men and women were separated. But it was also common to bathe together. It's called co-spaing.''
Wandering the streets after dark, the students would be enticed to enter a shop by its flashing neon lights which Craft said were on everything. "Something would look interesting, and we go in and find out it was a shoeshop or dry cleaners,'' he said.
They also attended a Japanese party with one of Dunlap's friends where they could participate in making rice cakes.
"It was an office party,'' Dunlap explained. "And everybody went around and would pound rice into a dough with a sledge hammer.''
"They would take a huge wooden mallet and mash it up,'' Craft said. "And another person would go after that until it is mush.''
After it becomes dough, it is combined with bean and a sweet red sauce, then baked.
The two experienced other culinary delights, such as octopus.
"Just imagine a whole octopus, they don't clean it or anything,'' Dunlap said. "Then they cut its legs off, but you can still see the tentacles, and you eat it like that. It's surprisingly good, though.''
They also sampled octopus and squid jerky, and snails.
"You use a toothpick and pick up the shell. Then you stab the snail, take him out and eat him,'' Craft said.
They also ate rolls of rice, or sashami, and raw fish, or sushi.
"There were lots of different types of that,'' Dunlap said.
Dunlap would like to live there sometime and Craft hopes to be stationed there while in the service.
"They are extremely considerate of each other,'' Dunlap said of the Japanese. "They see themselves as part of a collective group, rather than as individuals. If they are sick, they will wear surgical masks so that their germs will not get on everyone.''
Both said it was an extremely clean urban environment, with clean streets and sidewalks practically shining.
"And everyone is extremely punctual; it's a clockwork society,'' Dunlap added. "Their schedule is extremely important, so that one day seems exactly the same as everything else.''
Even though it is heavily metropolitan, Japan has a small-town feel and friendliness.
"In Yokohama, families live in one certain area, and they would buy their food from a certain store and share it with another family,'' Dunlap said. "If someone needed something, they would just go over to that house and pick it up. They think of what's best for everybody.''
They were recognized and given special prices and privileges as Americans. And both saw the influence of West on the land and its people.
"They all wear American clothes to be cool,'' Dunlap said of the youth. "We thought it was funny, but they call their problem children 'Yankees,' '' Craft added.