ArticleThe Prologue: An Exercise In Creativity

Japan is widely known in the West as the “Land of the Rising Sun”. What is, quite likely, less known is that the metaphor is, in fact, a direct translation of the country's actual name as it sounds in its own language - “Nihon”. Japan's ancient name is “Yamato” - “Great Harmony” - and it might be a rare occasion when the past and the current names of the same country have literally nothing to do with each other.

The above names are official, and there are only two of them. Slight variations provided by a different reading of the kanji (the borrowed Chinese characters constituting the main bulk of the Japanese writing system), when “Nihon” becomes “Nippon”, and “Yamato” turns into “Wa”, might be disregarded because the meaning remains exactly the same.  While Japan seems to have no official nicknames, it offers almost endless opportunities to create unofficial ones - simply because the Rising Sun shines on a striking variety of just about everything, so that everybody should be able to find something right up hir alley there. As an exercise in creativity, one might try to put a professional spin on the task of supplying Japan with a nickname. For instance, a cook (or gourmet) might go for “The (Blossoming) Cherry on the Cake”, a musician could choose “A Symphony in J-Major”, while a psychologist would rather prefer the simplest possible “J for ”Joy"". Miniaturists, designers, botanists, train drivers - all of them would find something inspiring to come up with a completely original nickname (in particular, train drivers!)

If I were a Sci-Fi writer, I would be extremely tempted to call Japan “A Place Where The Future Has Already Arrived” - yet, being a wonder-hunter/travel writer, I can't help seeing that country as a treasure box protected by multiple locks, each of them requiring its own unique key. To complicate matters even further, some of the keys are hidden in a locked section, and they can be found only after the corresponding lock has been removed.  In other words, for me, the story of Japan is a story of keys - be they physical or metaphorical, minor or major…