Random Thoughts at the End of my First Week

Well, I have been in Japan for a week now and I thought I would share a few random thoughts about my trip so far. First on agriculture, the overwhelming issue on everyone’s mind (and I mean everyone) is Food Security. Everyone that you talk to whether they are involved in agriculture of not is thinking about the fact that Japan is only 39% self sufficient in producing food. Much of the heightened concern has been brought on by the poison dumplings that were imported from China. This issue has caused consumers to be suspicious of all imported foods no matter what country they come from and the majority of the population is just realizing that Japan can’t produce enough domestic food for its people. Obviously, there is very little land available and a lot of people to feed. Also, their farmers are even older than the ones in the U.S. And to make it worse from what I have been able to tell so far the Japanese government’s agricultural policies may have caused production to decrease. For example, several years ago the subsides for rice production were raised so high that the old farmers no longer needed to drain the rice paddies after they harvested their rice and plant either wheat or soybeans as a double crop. For a culture that loves soy products so much, the fact that they currently produce almost no soybeans is a big concern. I have been told that I am here at a critical time for their agriculture and food industries because of these very issues.

I also have some very random thoughts to share on several everyday observations about Japan. There are several things that are different about Japanese hotels. The rooms have doorbells. They all have very fancy toilets with bidet and spray options and the hotel in Sapporo had a heated seat on the toilet. One thing that I think is really cool and we need to learn from in the U.S. is the mirrors in all of the bathrooms have some sort of anti-fog treatment right where you would normally stand to look at yourself, so you can take a hot steamy shower and still use the mirror afterward. All of the indoor spaces in Japan seem very warm to me and you don’t always have control of the temperature in your hotel room. Several of the rooms have the very deep Japanese style bathtubs. Like in China, in most hotels you have to insert your room key to turn the lights on.

The back door on the taxis opens and closes automatically. As I previously mentioned, the steering wheel in the cars are on the right hand side and they drive on what we would call the wrong side of the road. I still can’t get used to right hand turns being like left hand turns in the U.S. It is a good thing I don’t have to drive here. The convenience stores here are very small but they carry an incredible variety of items including in some cases man’s dress shirts. There are still cigarette vending machines everywhere here. And for a country that seems so concerned with its health quite a few people still smoke. Several people here wear masks over their nose and mouth; I guess this is because of air pollution. I haven’t really noticed much pollution, certainly nothing like we saw in China. I saw a man driving a truck and he had his mask pulled down and was smoking a cigarette. That seemed a little strange to me. They sell food in the airports and I don’t mean restaurants or convenience stores. I mean actually grocery store like food stores. Noko bought crab and other seafood in Sapporo and carried it back on the plane and when I landed at Narita Tokyo International Airport there were vendors selling vegetables. Also, people leave their bags unattended in the airport, both in the departures and arrivals areas, but they require you to show a claim check before you can take your bags out of the baggage claim area. Last but not least – Business cards or as they call them name cards are extremely important here. There is a ritual that is required when you meet someone in Japan. You must hand them your business card using both hands and receive their business card using both hands and then lay the card on the table and stare at it for a while. Being a farmer from the U.S. this is very strange to me; most U.S. farmers don’t even have business cards.