Reflecting on our Trip: Adapting to the Culture

Let's Get Religious
It's no surprise that religion is different wherever you travel to but we still found other countries religions to be so interesting and thought-provoking. Japan has many popular religions, some that we'd never even heard of before and your religion seems to correspond to your age. Religions in Japan co-exist, even in the same household. One of our Japanese tour guides said he was Shinto, his wife was Buddhist and his kids are Christan. Although achieving religious freedom is arguably the reason our ancestors came to the "New World," different religions in the US are far from co-existing. However, we of course visited places in the Middle East (Istanbul and Dubai) where a single religion is so prominent there are prayer rooms in the airports and call-to-prayer heard through the streets.

When in Rome… or Tokyo…

When we were in Japan we got tired of seeing temples, when we were in India we got tired of seeing Mosques, when we were in Europe we got tired of seeing cathedrals, but the fascinating thing about wherever you are is how unique it is compared to everywhere else you go. 

Even in this age of globalization and high speed travel, each place is uniquely its own with a special sense of culture, social norms, cuisine, architecture and all the other arts that make humanity such a fascinating and confusing anomaly.  While you will absolutely see the impacts of global reach (for whatever reason KFC is huge everywhere, even for people who have no idea what Kentucky is), the world has remained remarkably local.

One of the great joys that we had on our trip was throwing ourselves into the places we visited and trying to live as they did, if only for a few days.  Learn how to say “hello” in Japanese; say “thank you” in Khmer; shake hands with a touring rural farmer in outside of Gandhi’s memorial in India; take a picture with an old Chinese couple.  These are simple but impactful experiences you can only get by allowing yourself to get immersed in a place.

And, of course, you must eat the local cuisine.  The pineapple in Cambodia is surprisingly unique, the sushi in Japan is truly second to none, the curry in India is not as hot as advertised (as long as you ask for it be made mild), the Peking Duck in Peking Beijing is crispy and delicious, but you have to be willing to dive in and try the local cuisines to learn anything about them.

Everybody Poops!
It’s true, and it’s unavoidable.  What’s amazing is the variety of contraptions the world has developed to accommodate this. 

In China, a baby’s or toddler’s diaper is literally a pair of pants with the butt cut out, and this is considered totally acceptable.  In India, the kids don't wear any pants, just shirts for the same reason. Also, the “squat toilet” (if you don’t know what a “squat toilet” is, just be happy and know that ignorance is bliss) on Chinese trains, is a hole in the floor that opens onto the tracks (not exaggerating). 

Bring your own toilet paper, especially in India.  The bathrooms aren't equipped with toilet paper, instead they use a hand-held sprayer (for lack of a better word).  However, the people of India know this is unusual for tourists and sell paper (napkin-like paper) to you in the bathroom. 

You will know we are successful when we finally have a Japanese toilet installed in our home.  If you haven’t seen one of these before, find a way to check them out.  They are amazing, and we’ll leave it at that.

It’s the Most Important Meal of the Day

For whatever reason, breakfast is terrible in every country outside of the U.S.  Bacon as we know it simply does not exist.  People advertise bacon on menus, but it’s always ham and it’s often boiled.  Sausage is always hotdogs, again boiled.  The Japanese serve miso soup and dumplings.  The pancakes in Thailand come with honey, not syrup (due to a lack of maple trees).

Country after country we raised our hopes for a piece of bacon with our eggs and time and again, we were disappointed.  We can’t explain why, exactly, the rest of the world has not discovered the glory that is pan fried American bacon, or spicy breakfast sausage, but for some reason, they have not.

That’s not to say that some countries haven’t developed their own version of a tasty breakfast, they certainly have. Chris liked the Greeks combination of yogurt and honey that is cool and delicious on a warm Greek morning.  And we both liked the Irish world famous breakfasts which are hardy and warm on a cool July morning. Still, all the charming adaptations the world has on breakfast fail miserably in comparison to the basics that you can grab at any Waffle House, IHOP or diner across the good ol’ US of A.