Thoughts From An Asia Trip

Two weeks in Japan and Taiwan

The Japan Air flight, via Taipei and Tokyo to San Diego, provided its passengers with an extended version of New Year’s eve day.

Technically, we arrived before we left. Dinner at 7pm was followed by lunch at sunrise. Twelve hours in the air heading to Tokyo seemed shorter than the 10 hours coming home. (Tailwinds)

I’m exhausted from a jam-packed two weeks in Japan and Taiwan, where family and friends attempted to show us the highlights of their hometowns. We were four people, making conventional logistics about getting around a challenge, especially on days when we moved from one location to the other. We rode trains, faster trains, buses, tour buses, subways, Uber, and taxis, putting in an average just short of ten thousand steps daily. In both countries there were privatized fare cards giving users access to multiple modes and even convenience store purchases.

Both countries have infrastructure more friendly than ours when it comes to getting around by transportation. The major highways were litter free, well signed (major points in English), and bereft of potholes. Trains were on time; subways could be crowded but provided excellent coverage. And (yoo hoo! San Diego!) streets and even many alleyways were friendly to all types of transportation.

If you’re looking for differences between the two island nations, the biggest ones are personal presentation and culture.. Japan has people chock full of business attire, and in general it’s more orderly and formal than Taiwan, where anything goes…to a point. To the outside observer, Japan looks to be running well, proud of its past and organized by cultural norms.

The countryside is gorgeous, mostly well manicured and defined. Older sections of cities tended to appear run down on the outside, but surprisingly clean and modern on the inside. Poverty is well-hidden; I saw no homeless humans in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, even though the island’s poverty rate (15%) is one of the highest among industrialized countries in Asia.

Any tourism I’m involved in will inevitably involve food. I took chopstick lessons on YouTube, and resolved to make a (largely successful) effort to consume anything put in front of me. If you’re going to Tokyo and looking for a wonderful dinner of sushi and sashimi, you may as well bring your own fish to prepare in your hotel room. Even hole-in-the-wall restaurants are booked.

Google maps sucked when it came to searching for eateries, but the platform’s translation abilities were especially useful.

(Looking at a menu completely written in a foreign language? No problem. Simply point, shoot, and tell the app to do its thing. It’s also helpful in translating small bits of spoken information/dialogue, but be careful what you ask for.)

Plan B can always include convenience stores, which are well-stocked with not bad food choices. I was especially enamored by the warm bottle drink displays, featuring “Georgia” cappuccino (Coca Cola product). I came away with a different take on 7-11 stores, which are ubiquitous in cities.

In Kyoto, via high speed rail, we snagged a lottery ticket enabling us to view the country’s most prestigious tuna market. Buyers acquire the highest grade specimens at a 5:30 am auction. Thousands of carcasses are moved in less than two hours. Itb was cold as f, and spotless.

Our family friends had retired to Nara, one of the original capital cities in Japan. We celebrated Christmas with them, including attending a Catholic mass. (The island is largely Buddhist) The great one above sent no lightning to strike the building while I was inside, so maybe I’m not so unholy after all. The people were absolutely friendly.

In fact, I want to make a point here: people in both nations were just plain nice; willing to help strangers despite language differences.

We stayed as our friend’s guests at the Hotel Nara, an elegant facility built to accommodate dignitaries, diplomats, and wealthy travelers. It did not disappoint. We were guests of honor at a twelve course dinner, prepared by a French influenced chef, on starched linens underneath silver cutlery, and staffed to the nines. It was totally one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Speaking of Buddha, Japan’s shrines and temples are amazing locations. I’ve never been big on pious tourism, but the quality of the work and the power of serenity projected are not to be missed. And then there’s the Emperor’s once-upon-a-time palace, with extraordinary gardens and structures that took millions of workers to construct.

Japan has abandoned its economic strategy of limitless growth, replacing it with a do better with what we have outlook. Three decades ago, low fertility plus limited immigration finally caught up with Japan’s potential workforce; since then the working-age population has been declining at a fairly fast clip.

The Japanese decided to preserve their heritage and institutions over growth, calibrating that a surplus in trade was enough to soften the consequences of governmental deficit spending. That’s great for Japan, a relatively small player in the world. It’s not such a good idea for larger economies like the US and China.

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Six days went by in an instant, and so it was time for Asian island adventure number two.

Japan occupied Taiwan for 50 years and was later replaced as rulers by nationalist Chinese fleeing the rise of Chairman Mao. Eventually, Taiwan emerged as a sovereign nation and fledgling democracy, but the impacts of colonization have determined politics. The “original” inhabitants of the island now make up 3% of the population; genetically speaking they have more in common with the peoples of Pacific island nations.

What we hear in the US about Taiwan is all-too-often portrayed as a people living under constant fear of an invasion from their kin on the mainland. In fact, the island is one of the most prosperous in Asia, with a poverty rate in the low single digits. The inhabitants are proud of a culture built on hustle, meaning long days and work weeks made more tolerable by massive public celebrations.

I never heard mention of the threat Taiwanese are said to live under. What I heard were boasts of the island’s prosperity and successful transition into democracy.

I’ve never imagined so many purveyors of luxury wristwatches could be so densely situated throughout a city. Taipei is a great place to shop if you have the dough; I bought a set of Sony headphones for less than half of Amazon’s listed price.

Taipei is crowded. I mean really crowded. Its seven million (ish) metro area population all seem to be in motion at the same time. It occurred to me that maybe each citizen may be gifted at birth a motor scooter; the buzzing sound of dozens of tiny engines starting off at a stoplight is not to be forgotten. Owning a car in Taipei is not simply a matter of buying a vehicle; you also have to own someplace to park it, requiring a serious bank loan. The result of this real estate reality is that non-automotive transport is built into every aspect of culture and commerce.

Street markets, tourist attractions, and public transport are not places for people with claustrophobic issues. At a night market we were afforded no personal space, moving in whatever direction the crowd determined. There were lines of customers queuing up for popular food items, and it was easy to find oneself inadvertently waiting to buy something unrelated to your desires.

I loved my Asian experiences. Meeting new people and having new experiences is one of life’s uncalculatable gains, and I’m a better person/writer for it.

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So I’m back at it. Once I get my sleep thing right, I’ll get back to five days a week columns. There isn’t a whole lot to say about Trump 2 that I believe hasn’t been said before.

I’m leaning toward reporting on the broader political and cultural implications of the changes we’re bound to see. All this click bait and outrage stuff I’m seeing in social/legacy media doesn’t get to the larger issues involved. Are we going to row together or drown separately as we see a better future ahead?

Politically speaking, the preservation and/or restoration of democracy by itself isn’t a powerful issue—as much as I want it to be; promises and plans for the future need to be concrete enough to have staying power.

In 2025, San Diego Can’t Look Away from the Screaming by Scott Lewis at Voice of San Diego

• This New Year will have to be one of ambitious efforts to solve problems. If not, San Diego, the city and broader region, will take another turn down the spiral of decline and despair.

• The thing that scared me most when the man in our alley woke up to my voice was his statement: “I’m so sorry. I know, I know. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go.”

• It scared me because I also didn’t know what to do or where to go. I’m one of the most well-connected people in the city. I know more about how it works than almost everyone. And I had no idea what to do for him.

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The Plot to Poison Children’s Minds by Paul Krugman at Krugman Wonks Out

• So there’s a very good case for a social media equivalent to the minimum drinking age. In fact, that’s what Australia has just done, banning access to social media for children under 16.

• We don’t know how or if the ban will work in practice; it won’t go into effect for a year. But the rationale was clear. And at the beginning of 2024 America seemed on track to enact much weaker but still significant legislation to protect minors from some of the worst consequences of social media. The Kids Online Safety Act wouldn’t have banned minors from using social media, but it would have created a “duty of care” for social media platforms minors are likely to use, obliging these platforms to try to limit content that could promote bullying, eating disorders, suicide and so on.

• This wasn’t about ideology or politics; social media platforms would remain free to spread political mis- and disinformation to adults. In particular, this wasn’t an attempt to crack down on the conspiracy theories that have come to play such a large role in our politics, mainly but not entirely on the right. Adults would have remained free to use social media to proclaim that Jews are planning to replace white people, Covid vaccines contain microchips, lizard people rule the world, whatever. This legislation was narrowly focused on protecting the mental health of children, which is why a version of the bill passed the Senate by a 91-3 margin in July.

• But then Mark Zuckerberg and Meta got to work. After all, while most of us see social media addiction as a health crisis, for Meta it’s a business model.