Japan is an intensely emotional place. The people carry so many feelings around inside of themselves, and rarely let them show, especially to a stranger.
But their gentleness comes out in their art forms, and even in the workings of their infrastructure. The trains do not lurch about the tracks as in New York; if you have to stand, you barely need to brace yourself as the train pulls into or out of a station.
The gardens are breath-taking. I have visited this country in springtime and the beauty of the cherry blossoms could never be overstated. Even the phone booths are like little Pagodas -- so pretty.
It is a land of beautiful women. They move their hands with lyrical grace as they speak in soft, clear voices. None of which is meant to imply that Japanese women are docile or passive; they are not. Today's modern woman in Tokyo could be in New York or Los Angeles or London quite easily.
They are serious career women, educated, fashionable, worldly. What Westerners often mistake as subservience in fact is a certain refinement of sensibility that Americans -- men and women -- would be wise to emulate.
Japanese men are also very gentle and often very kind. Modern Japanese men can make great fathers -- rarely have I seen fathers so openly affectionate and loving as here in Japan. The one public display of affection that seems permissable is for a Dad to nuzzle, and kiss his little child on the train.
On my other trips, I perceived some of what I have written during this visit, but never in any depth, because I was working most of the time here, giving speeches, participating in conferences, touring factories,conducting interviews.
Also, now I am older, I think I see more. My eyes gather a different kind of information now. These may be the most gentle people on earth, and it is easy to love them.
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