Learn Japanese in Japan

“Most of all, don’t plunge and be trapped in the glue of respect”. After a trip through Japan, writer and traveller Nicolas Bouvier warned us against that inhibiting tendency that can cause us to miss a lot of opportunities when travelling abroad. Japan can certainly be disconcerting sometimes. It is difficult to know the difference between yes and no, to act in an appropriate way in different circumstances or to deal with the differences in body language. But in the end, Japan is just inviting us to be ourselves. Whether you wander through Tokyo or Osaka’s flashy neon districts and crowded streets, or you relax in one of Kyoto’s water gardens and incense-perfumed temples, you will discover how surprising this country is. Ever since the 19th century Meiji era, Japan has been exporting its up-beat pace to Western countries. High-speed trains, indoor skiing tracks, malls that sell the latest designs, everything seems to be on a large scale. But then again, it is also a very intimate place. Once you enter the heart of its huge cities, you can go in any theatre and find a Nô play that will lead you, through its sensuous gestures, to the core of Japan’s mysticism. Or go into eating houses that eschew the exorbitant prices of many restaurants, and be delighted by the vast variety of the country’s gastronomy. Japan’s cultural vertigo was built between typhoons and gentle morning breezes, between flower arrangements and car manufacturing, between Imperial dominance and independence. To penetrate its soul, you definitely have to let yourself go.