How good is language

Bereft of any language skills I am nervous about travel in Asia, at least in Europe I can order a meal or a beer, or as I like to call it, I can speak Food. But Asian languages are just too hard: I managed to learn only two words in Korean, hello and thank you. Korean is a somewhat heavy on the syllables, 5 syllables to say goodbye was simply beyond my scope, but luckily we found the Koreans in the tourist service industry had abundant English to understand our needs.

Less so in Japan. Luckily I know considerably more Japanese words than Korean - double the number in fact - meaning I know 4 Japanese words. And the Japanese are not great English speakers, despite learning the language at school. Apart from being a homogeneous society where Japanese is the only language one theory is the culture of being afraid of making mistake inhibits the locals from using English.

But lack of a common language of communication is not all bad, as we found last night at dinner. Despite very precise pointing by us at the menu our dinner order got a bit lost in translation: our waitress informed us the chicken came with 3 different sauces, but could only get out teriyaki and was at a loss for words to describe the other two, so, showing excellent problem skills we choose the teriyaki sauce. Cathy and Tom enjoyed lovely skewers, and Terry and I choose meat dishes. In what is becoming a theme of this trip my meal did not arrive, and we tried to query this. Again our waitress was at a loss to comprehend our crazy western gesticulating and she went away despondent, but returned soon with more beer. Not exactly what we were after but hey, you can’t wrong by bringing an Australian another beer can you. A great night all around.

Westerners trying to work out what the hell they are doing.

Engaging a local guide for the day certainly helps navigate around Tokyo - and one who can find a bar in the subway serving craft beer is worth every yen.

It is important to keep up with local culture, particularly photography poses - let’s face it, other tourists are endlessly fascinating and as keen observers of social behaviour we like to be on trend. In Korea it was the V finger sign accompanied by the cheesy grin, in Japan we have replaced it with the two-handed W sign from the popular Japanese entertainment TV channel, Wakuwaku.

Within reach of the bustle of modern Tokyo we visited the serene Hamarikiu gardens and enjoyed matcha and Japanese sweets in the tea house.

 

The Imperial Palace gardens were, well.... imperial. Monet was influenced by Japanese woodblock painting and irises were one of his favourite flowers, and I instantly thought of Monet when we came across this magnificent display of early summer irises in Tokyo. In a great example of the world turning full cycle, a Japanese banker turned gardener has won a French award for recreating in Japan Monet’s Japanese influenced garden. And a Chevalier award no less - just like our own Tina Arena.