With almond eyes

Marco Polo described the island of Cipango, without even having seen it but only by hearsay, as < a land so rich that the roofs of the houses are of gold >. Geographical distance, together with cultural distance and the total closure of the Japanese people towards the West, fuelled these and other fabulous tales.

Yet even today Japan remains a journey into the truest and most extreme East. The millennial culture and refined cuisine, the landscapes and gardens, the temples and palaces, the ancient villages and futuristic cities, traditions and rites, continue to fascinate the traveller, above all the Italian one, by nature outgoing and noisy, whose behaviour clashes so much with the habits of the Japanese people that it heightens the differences.

In short, one senses from the very start that Japan astonishes for its differences even more than for its landscapes or its temples… then the Japanese have a unique quality: no sooner do you think they've already done their utmost to amaze you than they astonish you again. Here are other surprising things. It's rude to sneeze or blow your nose in public. When they have a cold, the Japanese cover their nose with a mask like the one doctors use in the operating theatre. You meet many of them; so know that they're not wearing it because of pollution. The cities, the stations, the streets, the toilets, everything in Japan is clean, indeed spotless. Thanks to the army of cleaners who every day polish everything that can be polished! It must be said that no one would ever throw paper on the ground, cans and even less cigarette butts. One thing is certain: in Japan you don't die of thirst.

On every corner you find vending machines for cold and hot drinks. The prices are cheap, usually around 100-140 yen, that is about 0.80-1.20 euros. Bowing is their way of greeting; depending on how deep it is, it expresses appreciation, respect or regret. You mustn't open the taxi doors because the driver does it, but not by getting out of the car — staying comfortably seated, by means of a button. You can smoke inside public places, but not in the street, except in rare little areas reserved for hardened smokers. Tokyo's television antenna is a copy of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They bathe after washing themselves. To eat they don't use cutlery but chopsticks. There are no street numbers. Yet the post works in an astonishing way.