Russian highlights

I departed Russia after a good month in the country. Did it meet my expectations? Well it's hard to say as I really didn't know what I was letting myself in for. Certainly Moscow wasn't the dark, crime-ridden city I was led to believe. Although I saw others being checked, in the near ten days I spent there I escaped the much talked about police scam. The cities along the trans-siberian weren't bad, but then they weren't that good either! This said each did offer something distinct to the next; Kazan had Tatar history and culture and its impressive Kremlin; Ekaterinburg...well there's a city which in my opinion could easily be skipped if it didn't make for a handy stopping off point; Tomsk has it's wooden houses and was pleasant enough and had kept a charm other mainline cities has lost through development but was plauged by the crap ancient half-length Russian buses that clogged the roads and belched out clouds of stinking fumes; Baikal was pleasant as a lake and let down only by the weather, while Listvyanka was absolutely nothing to write home about; Irkutsk was briefly skimmed and I'm unsure whether it deserved more as it seemed primarily an industrial workaday sort of a place; Khabarovsk was a real surprise as while there was little in the way of attractions there it's actually a good looking small city with a European feeling main street and amenities finished to a standard seldom seen outside of St Petersburg and Moscow (and even then it was a surpise), plus a riverside location and beaches to boot; while at the end of the line Vladivostok is everybit an active port, but in an unexpectedly picturesque location when you look down upon it from the hills.

The test will be comparing Russia with Japan and the other the countries I visit, as it's one thing to compare a place with the comforts and familiarities of home, but for a true comparison you have to compare foreign destinations with each other. Although it's only day three in Japan Russia is fairing badly. It's not that it was bad per se, it's just that it wasn't that good! Here you go into a cafe and everyone welcomes you! The trains are bilingual either in signage or with voice messages and there's English written in a lot of places even if it's a bit random sometimes, but it's enough to get by and almost everyone can speak a little or tries very politefully to help you as best they can.

What I realised when I first got to Japan and was sat at Fushiki train station (this is the town where the port my ferry arrived at) was that for the first time I felt at ease. There were elderly Japanese sat around me waiting for train as it was the middle of the day, it was peaceful and the train station had a nicely kept garden. All of those things, and I mean all of those things have been absent in Russia, but it took the change of scene for me to completely realise it. I think I'd never felt totally at ease around Russians and it's a shame, but it's a result of the mood on the street and there mannerisms. Also in Russia you find men of working age on the streets and driving about throughout the entire day. The roads in the cities are also jammed throughout the day. It's begs the question what these people are doing and why they're not gainfully employed in some nine to five workplace. In Japan in contrast it is much more like at home. During the working day you see mostly older people on the streets and on the public transport. People are where you expect them to be and doing what you expect them to be doing. It's this familiarity that helps add to the feeling of ease. In addition the mannerisms of people in Japan don't make you feel uneasy, whereas in Russia you feel very conscious about being picked out as the westerner and when you are in normally results in the people you're trying to deal with laugh about you in Russian. Hardly welcoming.

Russia has had its highlights though and it would be remiss of me to overlook these. Although I had sadly little interaction with the native Russians on account of the language barrier, I could never forget downing about five shots of Russian Cognac in quick succession with a career Russian army man. There was the hillarious translations too, the salad bar which offers "unlimited approach" or the dessert called Grenoble, described as "The most gentle biscuit with walnut, almond cream and fresh plums. The dessert is topped by sand crumb". The attempts too of waiting staff trying to make themselves understood: "the tomato - you want fresh or FIRE" or the time we tried to explain to the waiter that we needed time to read through the immense menu and he returned with the manager looking anxious! There's the bizarre side too, such as seeing people dressed up as a Ninja Turtle, Tom (of Tom and Jerry) and Shrek in forlorn attempts that people might want their photo taken by them outside the Kremlin! The ladies selling all manner of foods and items on platforms lived up to expectations too, the most memorable people just after Irkutsk when half the people on the train bought some of the vast quantities of smoked fish being sold on the platform. It was quite a sight - and a smell - to see it being brough on board. Finally one of my favourite bits of the many train journeys was the arrival into a couple of the terminus train stations to this upbeat patriotic music - what more could you ask for to greet you in a new city. If you ask me the Frenchies should be welcomed to Waterloo station to some rousing Elgar!

That was Russia that was. I could write a lot more, and may do in due course, but now I feel the need to get down on paper the here and now - the Japan that is around me, so that's what I'll do.