7/9/2006

In case you haven’t noticed it (and there’s no reason you should have) the Japanese government has been wasting zillions of yen to promote overseas tourists to visit here.  In several polls, the Japanese public is unenthused about the  Yokosoo (welcome) Japan campaign which has been going on for some time. Anyway, the new Yokosoo poster, features PUFFY saying,  ”Come see our cool Japan.” 

Oddly, the poster  does not feature the primary distungishing characteristic of Japan, CONCRETE. I suppose since it is meant for use in overseas travel agencies they didn’t want to scare foriegn folks off.  The Yokosoo site offers many “real Japan” travel ideas. My favorite is the Shikoku pilgrimage of the 88 temples of my farm home of Shikoku island which is described as follows:

Shikoku pilgrimage: Walking involves about 1,200 km and at least 40 days of urban sprawl, wind-swept seashores and mountain passes cut deep by the feet of countless pilgrims…more…

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well not exactly. My “neighbor”, the author Alex Kerr, who owns a lodge on the other side of mountain from my rice ranch wrote a great expose’, DOGS & DEMONS, that describes the horrors of the modern Japanese lanscape.  Japan’s concrete-encased  mountains and seashores would make the Shikoku pilgramage a lesson in Japanese perfection in their techniques of country “uglification” as is picture of the true beauty of the Shikoku shows.