Bluelist is a fairly newish title from Lonely Planet. It collects the hottest travel trends from around the world, based on suggestions from LP readers, and extrapolates them into top-ten lists and feature articles. I worked on the title firstly as a consultant, testing out prototype formats and templates, adding feedback and future directions, and writing mock copy in order to see what would fit and how. With the testing complete I then supplied around half the lists (17,000 words) and five country profiles to the finished product: Australia, Japan, Iraq, Slovenia and Croatia.

Following is the Japan profile.

‘Country Profile: Japan’ by Simon Sellars from Bluelist 1, Lonely Planet Publications, January 2006.

JAPAN

Name this country…
When you think of Japan, do you think of a place that’s too expensive to visit, too remote to get to and too difficult to get around? There must be a few of you, because Japan attracts just 5 million tourists per year, placing it in 33rd position in the ‘World Tourism League’ behind much smaller nations like the Ukraine and the top attraction, France (with 77 million visitors annually).

But actually, it’s shaping up to be a good time to visit Japan. Now that the Japanese economy is into its second decade of decline, the government is aching to redress the balance after years of neglecting tourism in favour of pumped-up banking and manufacturing sectors. While the rest of the world has been in the throes of a long-standing love affair with tourism, Japan now wants a piece of the action. Better late than never.

Wising Up to the World
The current Prime Minister Koizumi is the first PM to bother with tourism, and he’s pledged to get 10 million visitors per year into Japan by 2010. This is good news for travellers, because it means that a few crucial areas will be rethought and redeveloped in the near future, like the lack of foreign language-signage and information kiosks at airports and key tourist attractions. Japan also suffers from a surfeit of first-class hotels (two-thirds of Japan’s visitors are on business trips), and there’s a drive to increase the number of budget and mid-range options. Tourist boards will be standardised, a relief for those travellers who find that the current system, split between multiple government agencies, means that information is often contradictory and out of date from region to region.

Japan is also starting to realise the marketability of its enduring influence on Western popular culture; there may come a day sooner than you think when Astroboy, Godzilla and manga museums take pride of place in tourism brochures alongside geisha girls, sake and Mt Fuji. Japan’s rich tradition of incredibly diverse and colourful regional festivals is also being promoted, rather than an exclusive focus on the hoary old national tradition of cherry-blossom viewing. And the tourist board is starting to push its attractions that lie beyond the main island of Honshu – like Okinawa, with a culture developed often independently of mainstream Japanese life, and Hokkaido, home of ice festivals, the Ainu race and yet more untapped tradition.

The Song Remains the Same
But for those that already know and love Japan, it’s the same as it ever was; the country, as always, is a glorious contradiction, a sprawling, untameable beast that consistently wrong-foots the unwary. Sure, there’s all that wonderful tradition – samurai, geishas, the whole bit – but layered over the top is a furious modernism, where trends appear and disappear in months, weeks – sometimes days. It’s easy to forget that Japan has only had its borders opened to the rest of the world for less than 150 years; it’s had a lot of catching up to do, and (in Tokyo, especially) the place seems on permanent fast forward (as in the Japanese obsession with bleeding-edge technology, so often associated with Tokyo). Elsewhere, you might stare in amazement at replica Statues of Liberty that perch atop many business hotels, or contemplate the surrealism of the Seagaia Ocean Dome, a 140m enclosed ‘beach’, with its own ocean, under a permanently blue, artificial sky.

Pack an open mind when you visit Japan. Now, more than ever before, it’s highly advisable – for all sorts of reasons.

VITAL STATISTICS
• Population: 127 million
• Visitors per year: 5 million
• Unit of currency: yen
• Cost of a cup of coffee: ¥350 to ¥500
• Capital: Tokyo
• Language: Japanese

DEFINING EXPERIENCE
Posing for a photo with a schoolgirl who is dressed as Little Bo Peep while listening to Japanese noise-punk band The Boredoms on your iPod as a group of little old ladies dressed in traditional kimono race past you to catch the bullet train.

RECENT FAD
For her, the ‘Boyfriend Pillow’ is a pillow with a difference – it’s a life-sized replica of a male torso, complete with outstretched arm to snuggle into. For him, the ‘Lap Pillow’ is shaped like a kneeling woman’s lap. The makers claim the pillows ‘fulfil a primal need’.

FESTIVALS & EVENTS
• Wakakusa Yamayaki; Nara, January. The ritual burning of the grass on Wakakusa Hill, during which the whole 342-metre hill is set ablaze.
• Golden Week; the agglomeration of Green Day, Constitution Day and Children’s Day, from April 27 to May 6.
• Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing); February to April. A beloved institution, as Japanese of all persuasions gather to celebrate the blooming of the country’s famous cherry blossoms.
• O Bon (Festival of the Dead); July 13-16 and mid-August, countrywide. Lanterns are floated on rivers, lakes or the sea to signify the return of the dead to this world, supposedly to visit their relatives.
• Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival); July 7, countrywide. A romantic festival based on an old legend concerning two lovers who lived in the Milky Way and turned into stars.
• Hounen Matsuri – March 15, Komaki – and Kanamara Matsuri, Kawasaki, late March or early April. During these celebrations, two among Japan’s many fertility festivals, giant wooden penises are paraded through streets to the local shrine.

HOT TOPIC OF THE DAY
Increased leisure time – many Japanese are beginning to question the national obsession with unyielding, unceasing work.

DO MENTION
The World Expo of 2005, a recent source of Japanese pride and seen by the nation as the perfect showcase for the country’s newfound attitude towards its natural environment and towards the world outside of Japan.

DON’T MENTION
Japan’s poor showing in the 2002 World Cup, which it co-hosted with South Korea – it’s still a sore spot.

RANDOM FACTS
• The Japanese associate the number four with death, and therefore refrain from buying products in packs of four. You might occasionally find the number four missing from hotel room numbers.
• In feudal Japan, women blackened their teeth to beautify themselves.
• German prisoners of war during WWII are credited with introducing sausages to the Japanese palate.
• Japan is the world’s biggest manufacturer of zippers, with around a quarter of global production.
• Japanese superstition teaches that if you whistle at night you’ll be attacked by a snake.

MOST BIZARRE SIGHT
The Meguro Parasitological Museum in Tokyo, the world’s only museum devoted to human and animal parasites.

THINGS TO TAKE
• Cash – despite its technological prowess, Japan still hasn’t fully embraced ‘plastic money’.
• A strong stomach: you’ll need it for visiting the Meguro Parasitological Museum (see ‘Most Bizarre Sight’), and in case you are offered one of Japan’s more unusual regional dishes: raw whale sperm.

HOT TIP
• Invest in a Japan Rail Pass, for slashed discounts on Japan’s notoriously expensive rail system.
• Two websites for two different views of Japan:
1) Quirky Japan (http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv), for those who are ‘tired of shrines and temples, reconstructed ferro-concrete castles and tea ceremonies’. As the site says, ‘Japan, behind the conservative grey suits and formal bows, is a country quirkier than you can ever imagine’.
• 2) The Japan National Tourist Organization (http://www.jnto.go.jp), for shrines and temples, reconstructed ferro-concrete castles and tea ceremonies.