Kyoto

The train from Osaka to Kyoto: one and a half hours of depressing urban sprawl, grey and surprisingly drab, with the odd skyscraper in the distance. Not an impression of great wealth or modernity. The economic crisis of the last 25 years has taken its toll.

Kyoto: islands of beauty and peace in the midst and in the margins of a busy modern city.  At the foot of the mountains surrounding the city are the Buddhist temples: some mere tourist traps; others, especially in the northern neighbourhoods, huge compounds with different temples, discreetly integrated in the life of the city, with marvellous zen gardens tucked in the back.

Zen Buddhist temple gardens: cool and peaceful, places to look at and meditate. Rocks, carefully trimmed trees, waiting for the spring bloom, pebbles carefully raked symbolising the passage of time: a landscape honed in centuries of work, devotion and discipline.

Zen Buddhist cuisine: delicate vegetarian dishes with the lightest and whitest tofu in clear broth. "From ancient times, it has been recognised there must be offered a harmony of the six basic flavours - bitter, sour, sweet, salty, light and hot - and moreover, the three qualities of light and flexible, clean and neat, and conscientious and thorough. Ingredients with strong odours, such as garlic and onions, are forbidden. ("Zen cuisine of Tenryu-Ji")

The Japanese: friendly, helpful, smiling, bowing but the big surprise is: hardly anyone speaks english!  Obsessed with purity and cleanliness: even in the mountains, where the air is fresh, a huge number walk around with facial masks, like doctors performing surgery. A general air of dignity and reserve. Youth are highly fashion conscious. On the street, women, always carefully turned out, are much more present than men, who are probably busy at the office. Taxi drivers wear white gloves. Japan railways personnel wear uniform and proud caps. Ticket controllers bow to the passengers before leaving the carriages. 

Japanese classical aesthetics are spare and elegant - wood and white panels, marvellous evocative paintings on the sliding doors of temples and palaces surrounded by austere  courtyards and carefully trimmed gardens. But Japanese popular taste tends to the colourful and cute.

Food is ever present: the nation seems to love sweets, displayed in impeccable packages in numberless stores, each with its speciality. Countless tiny restaurants serve noodles, tofu, sushi over the counter. All kinds of rice concoctions, fish products and fish sauces compete for attention in the Nishiki market.

The atmosphere seems curiously calm and composed, even in the midst of the urban jungle and the tourist crowds: windless, noiseless. Hardly a voice is raised. The values of discipline and courtesy seem paramount. Even today, Japan seems to be a strongly homogeneous society, curious about the outside world, but turned mainly inward.