I really loved Japan

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I really loved Japan and the Japanese people.

They are so polite…

They are so clean…

It is so affordable…

On top of that, there is no visa requirement for Turks.

Plane tickets are a bit expensive.

If you can manage the cost of your plane ticket, then Japan is the place to go!

Ask anyone these days; young, old, children, everyone is talking about Japan.

I really loved both Japan and the Japanese people.

Barış Manço is at the forefront of those who made us Turks love Japan.

Barış Manço's first trip to Japan was in 1990.

He went to Japan as part of the Turkish-Japanese Friendship Events organized for the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Ertuğrul Frigate in Japan and gave his first concert there.

Barış Manço's concert that made a huge impact was the one he gave at Tokyo Soka University in 1991.

Barış Manço also gave 17 concerts in various cities in Japan in 1995.

Barış Manço and his songs have played a major role in the brotherhood between the Japanese and the Turks.

TOKYO

A country without noise or commotion…

This was my third trip to Japan.

On my first trip, I followed the route of Beijing (People's Republic of China) and Tokyo; on my second trip, Tokyo and Osaka; and on my last trip, I followed the route of Seoul (South Korea), Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.

Remember; once you have sorted out your plane ticket, the money you will spend on your Japan vacation is no different from your trip to Mardin or Ürgüp.

The flight from Istanbul to Tokyo takes 11 hours.

The Japanese do not require visas from Turkish citizens, but it is not as if the Japanese government does not occasionally signal that it might impose a visa on Turks as well.

I definitely recommend that you take the train from Narita Airport to the city. The distance between the airport and Ginza is 75 km; going by taxi will be very expensive.

The train is comfortable, fast, and cheap.

The hotels are very comfortable. The rooms are large and functional.

Prices are around 200 euros, including breakfast.

Japan's population is approximately 123 million, while Turkey's population is 87 million. They have 36 million more people than us.

Japan is the 12th most populous country in the world.

Japan's surface area is 377,973 km², while Turkey's surface area is 783,562 km². We see that Japan, which has less than half the surface area of Turkey, has a much larger population than Turkey.

The population of the capital, Tokyo, is close to 40 million.

If we accept Istanbul's population as 16 million according to official data, Tokyo has a population 24 million larger than Istanbul.

Although Istanbul's surface area is 5,461 km², Tokyo's surface area is 2,194 km².

Despite a population of 40 million, there is no traffic in Tokyo.

I went to most places in Tokyo by subway, but I also used taxis.

Taxi prices are quite reasonable; they are even cheaper than in Istanbul.

Getting from one place to another is quite easy.

Most of the taxis are older models and are sparkling clean. Their seats are covered with white lace, and the drivers wear white gloves.

Almost all of the taxi drivers are Japanese.

Masks have not completely disappeared from their lives, even if they are used less. They are careful to use masks in indoor spaces.

The thing that caught my attention the most was the small device in the employees' hands. It translated what was being said into all languages.

The Japanese had almost eliminated the foreign language problem with these machines.

In their other hands, they were holding hand fans to cool their faces.

A SPOTLESS JAPAN

Japan is a spotless country.

It is as if Tokyo was founded yesterday and opened to the public as a city today.

Its temples are worth seeing.

You must see the Senso-ji Temple located in Asakusa.

The people are also very polite.

They are so polite that they hand things over with both hands.

THEIR LIVES ARE MACHINES

During my 10-day trip to Japan, I saw this:

The lives of the Japanese are machines.

Capsule machines and game machines are everything to the Japanese.

From children to young people, from young people to the elderly, everyone has become addicted to these machines.

Everyone is chasing the figures that come out of these capsule balls with the loose yen in their hands.

Speaking of machines; all the cash registers in the places where you shop are smart machines. You give your money for payment, and the machine counts the change and gives it back to you.

IF YOU LIKE SUSHI, YOU WON'T GO HUNGRY

If you like sushi in Japan, you won't go hungry.

Everywhere is full of either game arcades or sushi shops with 4-5 tables.

Also, you cannot return from Japan without eating meat.

I was going to say that you can eat world-famous Kobe beef at very reasonable prices, but I cannot say that this time.

The price of Kobe beef, which seemed reasonable to me on my previous trips, surprised me a lot this time.

The price of 120 grams of Kobe beef at the restaurant is 34,000 yen; that is approximately 10,000 TL. Thus, a kilo of Kobe beef comes to 84,000 TL, which did not seem reasonable to me at all.

Unfortunately, everything we ate in restaurants, except for Kobe beef, is cheaper than in our country.

Believe me, paying half of what I pay for a meal in Istanbul in Tokyo does not feel normal to me at all.

Tokyo, which we called the "most expensive city in the world" for years, is now cheaper than Istanbul.

I am very curious, just like everyone else, about when we will return to normal prices as a country.

TOKYO NIGHTS ARE ALSO VERY COLORFUL

Since it is very hot during the day in this season, the nights are extremely colorful and crowded.

While it gets dark at 21:00 here, it starts to get dark at 19:00 in Japan.

One of the things that interested me most in Tokyo was the cat cafes.

For a certain fee, you can enter cat cafes and sip your drink while petting and feeding the cats.

TOKYO TO OSAKA IS 2.5 HOURS BY HIGH-SPEED TRAIN

The biggest reason I went from Tokyo to Osaka was to ride the Japanese's famous "Bullet Train."

We arrived in Osaka from Tokyo in 2.5 hours by high-speed train.

Osaka's population is close to 20 million.

Osaka's population is also 4 million more than Istanbul's population.

NINTENDO AND POKEMON CRAZE

If you ask what the biggest craze of the Japanese is, let me tell you without hesitation:

The Nintendo and Pokemon craze!

Nintendo and Pokemon stores are a frequent destination not only for children but also for adults.

They wait in line for minutes to get their hands on the products they want to buy.

They play games for hours in specially prepared halls.

Children in Turkey have also kept up with this craze.

I also went from Osaka to Kyoto. Only 15 minutes by high-speed train…

Kyoto is one of the most important cities in Japan. It has a population of 1.5 million. It is the capital of capitals. It was the capital of the country between 794 and 1868, which is why it is referred to as the "thousand-year capital."

My trip, which started in Seoul, ended with my return from Osaka.

The flight from Osaka to Istanbul takes 13 hours.

Turkish Airlines has direct flights to both Tokyo and Osaka in Japan every day.

Economy class round-trip ticket prices are approximately 2,000 euros, and Business Class prices are around 7,000 euros.