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      Visitors to modern-day Japan tend to be either impressed or depressed, depending on their viewpoints and expectations. Arriving at an international airport in Japan is no different from arriving, say, in London, Lisbon, or Los Angeles. The Hyatts, Hiltons, and Holiday Inns could be in Miami, Manchester, or Melbourne. Walks along the main streets of Tokyo or Osaka or almost any other Japanese city turn up little different from any Western city. The eyes are filled with tall buildings, designer-brand shops, and well-dressed people; and the ears are assaulted by traffic noise, loudspeakers, and the normal cacophony of urban life anywhere in the world. All in all, those arriving in Japan expecting Zen-like tranquillity and inklings of an ancient culture could well be disappointed.

      This need not be so. Stray just a little from the paved boulevards and traditional Japan rapidly reasserts itself. Narrow alleys, wooden houses, small temples and tiny shrines, statues of the major gods, goddesses, and thousands of minor deities, public bathhouses, mom and pop stores, beautifully manicured gardens the size of tea trays, paper lanterns, paper doors, paper street decorations, the call of street vendors, the gush of laughter, the scream of school children, and the shrill of insects all contribute to what Japan has always been, and what it remains today.

      It is often claimed, usually by the Japanese themselves, that Japanese culture is unique. In a way this is true, but not for the reasons often given. Japanese people, Japanese culture, even Japanese religion have not descended in unbroken lines from the actions and ideas of pure Japanese gods, goddesses, and gurus. The rich blend of cultures that comprises the Japan of today is different from that of any other country, but in actuality is the hybrid result of thousands of years of influences, initially from the early civilizations of China, India, and Asia in general, and later from Europe and the United States. Differences from the originals are myriad, as all cultural imports to Japan have faced century upon century of adaptation, refinement, and Japanization.

      Even Japan's imperial system, the longest unbroken line of sovereigns anywhere in the world, owes much to ideas borrowed from other Asian courts and countries and then adapted to the needs of Japanese people and society.

      Visits to the country's two most ancient extant capitals, Nara and Kyoto, reinforce this sense of Asianness, but also strengthen understanding of the variety and depth of the culture that can be said to be unique to Japan. Animistic Shinto shrines abut Buddhist temples, imperial residences are surrounded by warrens of artisan dwellings, aspects of Japan's violent and militaristic past lie cheek and jowl with memories of great poets and scholars. All of these, however, are not merely museum pieces, but are distinct, almost breathing descendants of the Japan of yesterday. No understanding of modern Japan is possible without at least a cursory knowledge of what Japan was and where its customs and mores come from.

      Prior to the founding of Nara (Heijokyo) in 710, Japan did not have a permanent capital city, and it was during the Nara period (646-794) that Japan experienced its first genuine flowering of indigenous culture. Even so, Nara, as was Kyoto later, was chosen because its situation met the requirements

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