I got up before everyone else, before breakfast started, so I decided to look for food at Kyoto Central Station, across the street from our hotel. I was expecting scenes like those from the movies Babel i Lost in translation, and I got something that I immediately liked: everything was absolutely clean, organized, people were kind, and all the signs were in English as well as Japanese. I looked at the map and saw that the nearest attraction was the Shosei-en Garden, a 20-minute walk from the hotel.
KYOTO
The streets I passed through reminded me of American cities and it wasn't until I reached Shosei-en Garden that I saw Japan in all its glory. It is about a property of 35.000 square meters that Senio Šonin received in 1653 for his military merits. Blooming cherry trees, two artificial lakes, beautifully landscaped paths and a view of the Kyoto TV Tower have made this oasis of peace in the heart of the city a real tourist attraction for which you pay an entrance fee of three euros.
Milan is a student of the Japanese language, a native of Crvenka in Vojvodina, he has been in Kyoto for several years on postgraduate studies and he was the guide for our group on a tour of the most visited city in the empire. Kyoto is not only a mecca for foreign tourists, it is also the most frequent destination for domestic visitors, so in April, when the cherry blossoms bloom, you will meet Japanese couples walking in traditional kimonos on the streets of the city at every turn. As it is possible to rent a kimono in shops near the most important tourist attractions, it is not rare to see foreign tourists walking around dressed like this and taking photos in front of temples and blossoming cherry trees.
Kyoto, a city of 1,4 million inhabitants, was visited by as many as 2023 million domestic and foreign tourists in 32, injecting as much as 1,1 trillion yen ($7,3 billion) into its economy. As many as 17 UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites are located in this city, out of a total of 25 in all of Japan.
Milan is an unusually nice and quiet guy, people from the group comment that Japan made him like that, and I explain to them that the boy is simply from Vojvodina and that's why he is like that. I couldn't answer the question "Then why aren't you like that?"
So nice and quiet, Milan led our group on, for many, quite an exhausting multi-hour walk around the city. The first stop was the Buddhist temple Sanjūsangen-dō founded in 1164. It is famous for its 1001 sculptures of the goddess Kannon. You must take off your shoes at the entrance to the temple, as in mosques, and photography is also prohibited. When, a few weeks earlier, during our visit to India, they confiscated our mobile phones at the entrance to a temple complex, we were angry, but later we realized that such a measure was completely justified. Namely, today, at a time when everyone has mobile phones with cameras, and most people have social networks, every visit to museums, temples and other attractions turns into endless selfies, searches for location data on the Internet, answering messages... Like this, without a phone , we could dedicate ourselves to observing, listening and enjoying the 12th century ambience unencumbered by 21st century technologies.
TOKYO
The next day we got up early because our train to Tokyo from Kyoto Main Station left at 9.01:8.55. With the purchased tickets, we went to the designated platform and set up to film the "train entering the station" like the Limière brothers. The train arrived at 8.56 and we got on it, started putting our bags, and when I asked a Japanese man why he was sitting in my seat, he asked to see my ticket. "This is not your train! Yours is next! This one leaves at XNUMX!” As quickly as possible, we grabbed our suitcases and jumped out of the train, which left a few seconds later!
Our train arrived at 9.00:7 a.m. and a minute later we left for Tokyo, where we arrived in two hours, covering a distance almost identical to that between Belgrade and Podgorica (which our trains take XNUMX and a half hours). There is also something that is worse than here, in "Sokol", for example, we "spoiled" everyday travelers on the route Novi Sad - Belgrade noticed. Namely, no one offers you coffee in second class carriages, refreshments are only possible if you are sitting in first class.
Mutsuo Iwai is the president of the Board of Directors of the company "Japan Tobacco" and also the president of the Serbian-Japanese Business Club, which has been active for years, ever since the tobacco factory in Senta was sold to this Japanese tobacco giant in 2006. For years, JTI has been declared the best employer in many countries of the world, including in Serbia, because of the specific Japanese attitude towards people and employees. Iwai-san, as the employees call him, (Mr. Iwai) tells us about the world exhibition Expo 2025, which will be held next year in the Japanese city of Osaka. When asked by his colleague Milan Ćulibrek from "Radar" what will happen to the buildings that will be used for Expo 2025 after the World Exhibition, Iwai-san replies: "We will demolish them and build some other facilities in that space!"
Later that day, in showroom- at this company, we had the opportunity to get acquainted with their new product - "ploom", a device based on "heated tobacco" (heated tobacco), which this company launched on the Serbian market. After that we went to the first Starbucks coffee shop opened outside of North America, in Ginza, a neighborhood in central Tokyo.
A day later we drink tea at the Embassy of Serbia in Tokyo, our host is Ambassador Aleksandra Kovač, an experienced diplomat who has been in this position since 2021. There are not many Serbs in Japan and they are scattered on numerous islands within the empire, however, several times a year a large number of them appear at receptions at the embassy. Although Japan was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Kosovo (on February 18, 2008, the day after the declaration of independence), bilateral relations between Serbia and Japan are traditionally very good, primarily due to the large humanitarian aid that our country received in many situations from these distant Asian nations.
HACHICO
Hirokazu Tanaka, my "old friend", the man whose Guinness record I broke a little over a year ago, joined us for dinner at a sushi restaurant. Namely, on October 31, 2022, 178 people named Hirokazu Tanaka met in a movie theater in Tokyo. I looked on the Internet the same evening as the most common names in Serbia: Milica and Dragan. Then the surnames: Jovanović, Petrović, Nikolić, Marković... I crossed "Milica" and "Jovanović" and wrote the news: "We are breaking the Guinness record: If you know a Milica Jovanović, tell her to contact us!" The next day, more than 300 people left a comment on the Facebook group of the Telegraf.rs portal, and each of them tagged a Milica Jovanović from their environment. In just a few days, we had more than 300 applicants. Two months later, on February 4, 2023, we broke the Guinness record by gathering 256 Milica Jovanović in TC Big in Belgrade. After that, I was approached by a number of Japanese media to see who the man from a country with exactly 20 times less population than Japan (6 to 120 million) broke their record. I was also invited by Hirokazu Tanaka, the organizer of their record breaking, and in the traditional Japanese way he honored me as a "winner".
A few words about Japanese food, which in Europe we usually associate with sushi, although it is much more diverse and very tasty. My favorite is ramen, and there is also miso soup, tempura, edamame (soybeans cooked in the shell), gyoza, udon noodles, donburi, okonomiyaki, tendon and many others. The concept of Japanese teppanyaki-restaurants, in which chefs prepare food in front of guests sitting at the bar around the work surface where the food is prepared, is particularly attractive.
photo: Robert ChobanShibuya Crossing
That the world is small, especially for us globetrotters, was proven here in Tokyo, where our travel writer Viktor Lazić contacted me, who happened to be in that city at the time of our visit. We went for a beer at a small restaurant near the Shibuya intersection, perhaps the most famous in the world. The intersection is known for cross pedestrian crossings, over which 3.000 people can cross at the same time, during one "green" for pedestrians. The intersection "played" in many films such as Lost in translation, The Fast and Furious: Tokyo drift and others. I talk to Victor about how Tokyo looks like New York to me without the garbage, the homeless and the smell of marijuana on the streets.
There, near the intersection, is a statue of a dog named Hashiko, who went down in history because of his great loyalty to his owner, Japanese professor Hidesaburo Ueno, a lecturer at Tokyo University. Hachiko, who the professor got in 1924, went every day to the nearby Shibuya train station where he waited for his master when he returned from work. However, in 1925, Professor Hidesaburo Ueno suffered a heart attack at work and died as a result. However, the dog's loyalty was such that Hachiko came to Shibuya station every day to wait for his master. After almost ten years, the dog Hachiko was found dead in front of Shibuya station, where he went to wait for his master until his last day.
photo: Robert ChobanHachiko Monument
At Shibuya Station, there is a monument to Hachiko, erected during his lifetime in April 1934. His mummified remains are in the Japanese National Science Museum in Tokyo. The monument was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1948. In 2015, the University of Tokyo erected a second monument in honor of Hachiko and his favorite man, depicting their final meeting. In the town of Odate, on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Preservation of Akita Dogs, a museum dedicated to Hachik was opened. In Tokyo, at Shibuya station, every year dog lovers organize a ceremony in memory of this faithful dog.
