Travels - or 'Travels-are-us'

[Walter]

HH Many thanks. That was most interesting.

In Australia, one  of the first things I noticed was the brighter light and the sharper colours. Here I think colour is more sort of subdued. Can you say what the overall impression is in the cities in Japan?

a great observation SD, and a huge noticeable depressing sensation is what awaits when returning to England in winter especially 

[SusanDoris]

HH

Thank you. No, I was thinking more on the lines of: clothing, , plants and trees, brightly coloured flowers, and what sort of generalised colour hits the eye! 
However, from what you say about latitude and weather, it's probably more like the general low-key, non-flamboyant background impression we have here in England.

Sorry to sound a bit vague!!

[Harrowby Hall]

In terms of dress, the Japanese tend to be rather conventional. Well, office workers do.  The culture is generally one of conformity - men wear dark suits, white shirts and ties, women (office ladies) wear dark suits and white blouses. There is much more colour when people dress informally, and there are areas in Tokyo where there is a counter-culture (I suppose "emo" would be a good description of the style). In Kyoto, occasionally I saw women in brightly coloured kimonos.

School children wear school uniforms - often quasi-military in appearance, with girls wearing sailor-suits.

I went to join (what seemed like) millions of others in Ueno Park in Tokyo for hanami - contemplating cherry blossom - on one visit. Office juniors were sent out to bag the best places for office parties under the cherry trees with large blue groundsheets. Even though the cities are built-up there are open green places and parks, some with naturalistic gardens and plantations which are nothing short of stunning. There seemed to be a lot of street art and small sculptures on traffic roundabouts and so on. And everything was spotless with no graffiti or rubbish

A couple of times I saw building site workers doing morning PE exercises.

[SusanDoris]

HH

Again, many thanks. I've made a note to ask the Tech chap who helps me sort out and find things on the computer to see if he can find a couple of you tubes or something which I could peer at!

Interestingly, both my nephews have Japanese wives. One was travelin in South America and met a Japanese girllllll also travelling. He then went as a teacher of English as a foreign language in Japan for a couple of years. Her family were sort of upper middle class and took a bit of persuading to have this tall Englishman as their son-in-law! Both their sons are bilingual and the older one, having studied Chinese in school, went to China to do his degree. My other nephew also went a bit later on, after university, decided to teach in Japan where he met his wife. They are both lovely and get on very well with my two nieces.

[Harrowby Hall]

HH

Thank you. No, I was thinking more on the lines of: clothing, plants and trees, brightly coloured flowers, and what sort of generalised colour hits the eye! 
However, from what you say about latitude and weather, it's probably more like the general low-key, non-flamboyant background impression we have here in England.

Sorry to sound a bit vague!!

I'm not sure how good your eyesight is, SD. But if you google images of Akihabara and Shinjuku you should see garishness exemplified ... The two suggestions I made earlier, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, as well.

Japan is not grey, but it is very built up.

[SusanDoris]

I'll write again in a couple of weeks when I've had a look* at photos etc.

*a sideways peer! Peripheral vision to top, right and below of right eye only

[Harrowby Hall]

...  Her family were sort of upper middle class and took a bit of persuading to have this tall Englishman as their son-in-law! ...

Ah. Well, you see, he is a gaijin. This is a Japanese word which means something like the English ... bloody foreigner ... but, somehow, lacking the welcoming warmth and goodwill contained in the English expression.