A stark contrast

 It has been a little difficult to collect my thoughts about China in the last while; part of this can be chalked up to the general busy-ness that accompanies the job, but the greater part really falls into the lethargy/depression camp.  I wouldn’t say that I’ve become actually personally or professionally depressed – it’s just that the ‘what the hell!’ moments that still occur on a near daily basis have led to more sighs than tapping keys.  Allow me to explain.

 I went to Japan for the greater part of my spring holiday period, and it turns out that I both love and hate that country.  Allow me to explain, with the help of some visual aides:

 This is a picture of the gates that organise admission to subway cars in Tokyo.  When the train comes it stops exactly in front of the doors, which then open to allow people out.  Meanwhile, people have been standing in straight lines in front of these doors waiting to get in… once the people leave, they file on.  The whole thing is remarkably efficient.

 It was fun to watch before I realised that it was throwing China into a bleak relief.  In a similar situation in China everyone would be clustered around the gates, which would be stuck open (or operated by a dirty piece of rope) and covered in spit marks.  Once the train stopped 9 inches off the target the fight would begin, and with it the concurrent seagull-like screaming of Chinese people moving inordinate amounts of baggage behind them on the quality of dolly that you see only in fish market back rooms in the real world.  The whole thing would take 3 times as long, and given that it is public transit you would be bathed in halitosis the entire time.

 This is a picture of the canopy along the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Meiji Jingu park, Tokyo.  What you see are wonderful old trees and blue sky over an expansive walking area as well-constructed as it is meticulously clean.  What you can’t hear is the serene atmosphere, quiet but for the hushed speech of friends walking and the birds of the forest.  It’s one of the biggest tourist draws in Tokyo, and always busy.

 This would be different in China, or I’ll eat my Yomiuri Giants hat.  The path would be crumbling due to the constant passing of motor scooters and the ‘chinese mini-vans’ (three wheel motorbikes that have been encased to protect the rider from the elements, rather like a very dirty popemobile), and the trees would be a quarter the size – and leafless.  Every 20 yards or so there would be a stall selling plastic garbage or some kind or other, or some kind of food stand with a mechanized voice stridently proclaiming the same 8 words over and over on a 6 second loop.  Garbage would be everywhere it collected from the wind that the denuded trees couldn’t block, and toddlers would be running around in ass-less pants urinating and screaming about how great they are (one assumes).

 This view of Tokyo – I believe facing south east towards the rainbow bridge – was remarkable in that visibility (in this city of 13-14 million) stopped just short of the curvature of the earth.  The cars are kept under strict emission guidelines, the power for the city isn’t generated by burning coal, and the industries are kept in line by crazy things like environmental laws – rather than abject individualistic profit.

 Nijo-jo castle in Kyoto, the former residence of the Shogun.  This is an austere wooden building with some minimal gilding, and for some reason completely without hundreds of people smoking or inflatable red fake gates run by never-off air compression units you’d expect to see on an illegal Phillipino pearl diveboat.  Note, also, the blue skies.

 This river in Arashiyama, a western section of Kyoto, does not have homemade motorboats running up and down it at all times… nor is it full of never-decaying plastic bags or discount-brand beer cans.  There were many types of waterfowl, and a variety of fish living without the benefits of pens and nets – to keep people out, mind you, rather than fish in.

 Ah, a glimpse of bad English writing on a product… nothing better than an unnecessary use of ‘The’…though I wouldn’t put it past the Japanese to just be trying to be ironic.  Irony here is how you describe the sky, not a mode of address.  Also, hooray for DIP HOP.

 It was so great being in Japan (I’m currently considering a return in early May, as evidence of this), that it left me a bit dumbstruck on my return.  So many of the issues with everyday life in China could be ameliorated if anyone took a bit of pride in the products they make or the systems they devise for organisation/transport/etc… but everyone is too busy trying to make money and get places/RMB before others do to notice.

 The depression I felt upon returning from a country designed by – and for the easy use of – grown-ups to an embarrassing free-for-all was palpable, but receded with work and time.  I think I know what astronauts returning to the space station after a relaxing/luxurious recess back on earth might feel like now.  The first week you’d really be wanting that Caesar salad with the brick oven-baked focaccia bread, but eventually you’d settle back into your synthetic chow and do what must be done.

 Thus, I returned to The China.