Submitted by Exploration Leader Melissa Smith, currently aboard the Spirit of Oceanus in Japan
The first thing you notice about
Japan is how incredibly clean everything is. There is no evidence of dust at the Hotel Okura. Upon entering the hotel lobby you are greeted by a large cherry tree in full blossom. No petals rest upon the floor below. I had to touch the tree to determine if it was real because not one single blossom had begun to brown. Someone must take care to prune and nurture the tree but I never saw it done.
This tree represents all things at the Okura Hotel and all things about Japan really. Overall the tree, the hotel, the country is pristine, picturesque and well preserved.
The people are incredibly efficient but they do not move with a grand sense of urgency. Their steps are quiet, their movements are hushed and their words soft spoken. The hairdryer in my hotel room is nearly silent. The elevator that took me to my room was quiet as well.
I feel loud in Kobe. I haven’t spoken much but even my gestures seem too big. The way my arms swing when I walk seems too gregarious a movement.
Japan, like the Hotel Okura, is a very quiet land. Each place you travel to has its own rhythm. Shortly after you set foot in this country your internal metronome begins to reset itself. You, like the country, begin to tick more slowly. Your mind begins to quiet down and everything becomes still. In the stillness we learn, we learn . . .
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