Past

Japan: What You Won’t Hear From Your Travel Agent

This class has passed
This class has passed

What’s it all about?

Japan is an increasingly popular tourist destination. Its festivals, cherry blossoms, temples, gardens, shopping, bullet trains, food and powder snow attract visitors of all ages. It will come into international focus more as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics get closer.

Travel brochures abound featuring all the usual images of modern-day Japan, a mix of old and new. To some extent this is an accurate portrayal, but there is far more to the real Japan that is not shown in these glossy pictures. And usually isn’t seen during a short stay there.

What will we cover?

We’ll be going on an armchair ride through numerous other aspects of everyday life in Japan, and be shown a few things about this fascinating country most tourists never see or learn about.

How many tourists:

  • stay in a love hotel;
  • consider purchasing their underwear from a vending machine;
  • buy a freshly-cooked sweet potato from a street vendor;
  • know the procedure for taking a bath in a hot spring (onsen) or private residence;
  • play pachinko;
  • wonder what those long fish-shaped flags (koi no bori) flying on flag poles from late April into early May signify?

Join us to learn a little about these and other common aspects of daily life in Japan – the country to our north that went from almost nothing to world superpower, twice, in the space of little more than a century. It is still the world’s third largest economy, and its society is the most homogenous of all the advanced economies on Earth.

What you learn at this session might just add a further dimension to your next trip to Japan, or help you decide that you actually do want to go there!

Who will be teaching?

Stephen Peterson

Stephen Peterson has spent nine years of his life in Japan. He married, raised a family, set up two small businesses, made numerous friends, travelled around, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time there.

Drawing on this experience, he wants others to learn more about the Japan beyond the glossy travel brochures. This will be through a power point presentation of photos, supported by Stephen’s commentary.