I live in the grand ‘ol state of Nebraska in the great United States of America. Except for two major cities, Lincoln and Omaha, most of this state is what people consider flyover country. It’s basically smack dab in the middle of the country with not a lot of majestic scenery.
Compare this to Japan. They’ve got the sprawling urban centers. Fast transportation. A freaking volcano. Cherry blossoms. Ancient castles. Mountains. Forests. BEACHES. Everything I could ever want.
This is one reason why I consider Japan my second favorite country outside of the USA. Why am I not living there, you say? Well for one I can’t speak Japanese. In my 10 years of watching subbed anime, I can only speak maybe 10 words that I’ve heard repeatedly in various shows. I can’t even form a basic sentence since I only know specific words, like arigato gozaimasu, hai, and itadakimasu.
Why am I still in Nebraska? Most of my family and friends live here in this state…anddd that’s about it. It’s the home I’ve known for my entire life, so it would be somewhat difficult to pack up and leave.
Now that’s not to say I enjoy the scenery here. There’s hardly anything to look at. Have you ever driven through Nebraska to go west to, say, Colorado for the mountains? I have! It’s freaking boring! It’s just flat, flat, and more flat. However, the further west you travel, eventually it becomes a little less flat with something to actually look at besides flat grassland. It turns into golden grassland. With more hills! Super exciting!
Nebraska has three areas: rolling plains, sandy hills, and farms. Farms, farms, farms. Go outside the city — farm! Travel two hours in one direction? Farm! And guess what you smell when you drive by all these farms? Nasty cow crap! Ugh. Disgusting.
If you somehow don’t come upon a farm, you’ll come across rural villages and towns. The major cities are to the southeast and east, and every place north and west of those are tiny in comparison.
Now what landscapes does Japan have that Nebraska doesn’t? Uh…everything! The drive through Japan would be much more exciting. Mountains, forests, rivers, Mt. Fuji. And there’s my personal favorite: the OCEAN! I love the ocean. I could drive around the entire country if I wanted to, and I could have the ocean in my view the entire time!
Driving in my city of Lincoln is a breeze. Everyone I’ve met who visits Lincoln compliments the grid layout we have for easy navigation. Driving from one side of town to the other takes around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic and which streets you take.
What about driving in Japan? I imagine it to be an absolute mess. The major cities are some of the most jam-packed and populated on earth. I already have difficulty navigating through our largest city, Omaha, which only has about 400,000 people. Driving through Tokyo would enormously pile on the large amount of anxiety I already have just trying to drive through Omaha.
So who wins this battle of landscapes? Japan wins by a landslide. They have every type of majestic terrain visualization I could want.
However, there’s one thing that Japan doesn’t have that Nebraska has in strides: the Nebraska sunset.
Look at that! You can see the entire sky over you while gazing upon that evening beauty.
Just kidding. Japan has ocean sunsets. Automatic win.
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