Angela Buljan Šiber

I and husband visited Japan 17 years ago as backpackers on a road trip. I know, it's hard to imagine, but I guess our trip was such that we instilled love for that country in our children and wanted to bring them along. On our first trip we were there for two weeks, 10 days on the second. What impressed us most were Shiretoko National Park and skiing in Niseko. What struck me on our first visit while we were out for dinner was that the Japanese, if they have a cold, do not blow their noses, but snort their mucus hard instead. I also realised that they are quite xenophobic. But I like their orderliness, patience and life in harmony with nature. And the food, not at first. It is a world completely different from the one we know. It might be the grass is greener somewhere else kind of thinking, but I felt a non-Western hustle and bustle there, you know, always faster, higher, stronger, better...