Japan
Trans-Pacific Flight
The strangest part about comming to Japan wwas probably the initial shock at seeing so much foliage. Comming from Boise I had never seen so much greenery. Going from literally a desert to a place with some of the heaviest rainfall on Earth was very cool. I would get used to the weather very soon as I would be spending my whole summer in East Asia. Before I even landed the difference in climate was remarkable. It was my first trans-oceanic flight, and it was really shocking to fall asleep and wake up with the screen showing I was located over the northern-most island of Japan. I actually started to panick a little bit. Leaving the country, The Western Us even, felt as if I were travelling to some fantastical realm of my imagination previously relegated to online discussions of world history or Japanese animations.
Narita Airport
I came to Japan very unprepared. I had no idea how to leave the airport. I tried and failed to buy a ticket to leave the airport. I stood in line for a long time behind other confused tourists, and then my card simply didn't work. Then I saw a huge line outside a travell information center. So I waited a long time there and a lady eventually helped me. She had to just buy the ticket for me and point me in the right direction. This would turn out to be something that I became very aquainted with doing myself. I huried to catch my train and met a station coordinator who told me to hurry onto the train because it was about to leave.
This is one of the only times in my life I've ever rode a train. I found it really stressfull and awkward finding a seat. I was afraid that I might be on the wrong train or breaking some rule. Eventually I found a seat only to have someone point out that I was sitting in a seat assigned to them. I didn't even know that the tickets corresponded to particular seats. The ride was awesome. the narita Airport is located in an airea outside the Tokyo metropolitan area. I saw hills, dense trees, shrubbery and rice feilds. Soon the landscape started to look more urban as we came closer and closer to the center of Tokyo. There were many messy telephone wires and flats. The streets were very narrow with bright neon signs. The cars were small and people walking around homogenous.
Itabashi
I would be staying in a local area by the name of Itabashi for my first week in Tokyo. I had some trouble taking the right trains to find my hotel but eventually I made it there. I stayed in a capule hotel. It had an onsen, lockers, slow wifi and a toilet that sprays down your bum. I would highly reccomend staying in the Hilltop Hotel in Itabashi. The capsules were very cozy and it was easy to sleep in with few foreigners or noises. It had everything I needed except for food.
Finding Something to Eat
I was very nervous to order in Japanese. In my local area I was staying in it was somewhat necessary for me to use the local language. I had taken an introductory Japanese course before but although I was a good student, that little university course alone wouldn't help me much. What really helped was my previous work with spaced repetition software like Wani Kani and Anki, as well as some dedicated reading of the Genki I textbook and Tae Kim's grammar guide. Tofugu's Hiragana and Katakana resources tought me the two basic Japanese scripts long before I took my university course. Basic 'tourist' language turns out to be very easy to learn. I had some awkwardness at first ordering or speaking with staff but after that initial hurdle I started to open up more and found it easier to remember some of what I learned. Younger Japanese were likely to have better English than my Japanese, but I was surprised how much Japanese I could understand after spending a week in Itabashi and operating solely in a foriegn language during that time.
My first meal in a Japanese restaurant was awesome. It was cheap, simple, and delicious. I ordered extra rice because apparently the regular serving of rice is quite small. I ate cold soba noodles and tempura. These things have spoiled sushi for me, which turns out to consistently dissapoint me after trying meals such as this in Japan. Japanese food was very simple, elegant and hearty. It reminds he of American soul food for some reason. I think next time I am in Kanto I would like to eat at this particular restaurant again and maybe stay in the same hotel even. I really enjoyed Itabashi a lot.
Unlikely Friends
One of my best memories was meeting lapanese man by bhe name of yabe. I met yabe in my hotel when he approched me in the kitchen. He started to talk to me ar if he already knew me. I was surprised that a random middle aged japanese men was speaking to me in proken english. I didnt understand what he was trying to say to me at first. Soon he realized he was talking to the wrong person and he apologized profusely. Then he left promising to come back saying he would bring something. When he came back there was a young american with him. His name was Hayden. The three of us talked for a while in a combination of broken english and broken japanese. eventually we agreed to meet the next day for dinner.
The following day I went to our agreed meeting spot at the lobby of the motel. The clerk was an old japanese man who didn't speak a bit of english. I showed up on time but didn't see them for many minutes. The clerk was talking to me all the while trying to figure out what I was doing loitering in the lobby after my checkout date. It was probably the longest uninterrupted time I've had someone speaking to me in a foriegn language. Just like when He turned out to be confuring me yabe ti mean, the olcd clerk was confusing me for Hayden agin. Once i realizev his confusion, he was able to communicate to me that the pair Yabe and Hayden had left already. When i realized this, i told him goodbye and gave up on meeting them.
I then set out to find something to eat, so i went to this first restaourant where I tried my first meal. When I got up to grab utensils thats where I saw Hayden. I don't know why they decided to leave early but by complete coindidende we had gone to the same restrauraent for dinner. They apparently didnt mean to leave me behind and so I joined them at their booth. I tried a raw white bait fish dish for the first time and it wasn't bad at all. We ate lots of rice and soup and enjoyed a hot pot dinner. Yabe ordered ice cream after ice cream and bid us to eat it at with lots of rice and other dishes. Hayden was responsible for grabbing any additional water as the younger between us. Later, Yabe took us to the local store to look around. As we said goodbye, he did not let me go before buying me various treats from the convenience store. It was a blessing to have met them.
Wandering Around
I had a lot of fun being alone in Japan. I certainly could have come more prepared but instead I decided to find my enjoyment by discovering things myself. The country was different enough from what I was used to that I could practically go anywhere in the city and still find it novel. I had the idea of setting aside a few days to just walk from one location to another for several hours straight. My destination was the busiest business district of Tokyo and my starting point was the central Tokyo station.
Central Tokyo
My first location was the famous tokyo station building. I didn't find out until later that this was a goto destination for tourists. For me, it was just the place I had to pick up my sim cards. If anything I found that building a bit frustrating.
The area around the station was filled with tourists. There was a plaza with lots of people sitting around and relaxing. Japanese businessmen were standing around talking on their phones. I could hear confused or slightly lost tourists discussing where to go next. The plaza was surrounded by some tall and wide buildings.
This was perhaps the first time in my life that I realized that a city could be so big as to warrant an administrative center and a business center. I tend to assume that big buidings mean big businesses, but in this case the surrounding buildings were likely almost all for administration.
Whilst in Japan, I would not be participating in any protests or rebellions against the government. I was surprised to see police in the streets holding staffs. I assumed that they must be for the case of riots, but it seemed totally unlikely to me that there could be riots in such a harmonious culture. Although it's probably very naive to assume that riots can't happen in the largest metropolitan area in the world. It reminded me of some of Japan's past history with political violence. Where the police holding these weapons just for show? If not, are they intended for defense against individuals or just protestors?
The emporer's palace wasn't far from the station. There was a moat and a big stone bridge over it into the Imperial palace park area. A married couple were having their pictures taken there. Unfortunately for them, it began dumping rain. At this point, I had still not even bought an umbrella. Probably it should have been the first thing I did once I got there, but the rain didn't hurt. I needed to use the bathroom really bad, so I marched over to what looked like a cafe inside the park. The public restroom attached to the building had just closed. I was surprised to see a man wearing a full yellow suit which looked like hasmat. Apparently in Japan they give the guys who clean bathrooms this kind of gear. It looked awkward and I felt a bit bad for the guy that he had such a dirty job.
There was no shortage of strange looking trees in the park. Actually, the park basically only consisted of these trees. It seemed like such a waste of space and water to have so many of the same exact tree being planted all around. I speculated that the purpose of the park was to show off the emporer's power or influence at some point in time. The palace itself looked very fortified with a moat and situation upon a steep hill. The walls around the palace were very thick and made out of huge peices of stone. There were lots of guards posted near and on a bridge over the moat to the palace. Conveniently, there was also a restroom right in front of the palace which was a relief.
The rain began to get completely ridiculous. I left the palace area and started looking for a store that I could buy an umbrella. I had limited data on my phone so I was careful to find the convenience store I was looking for and to walk as far in the direction of it as possible before turning on my data again. I found a small store. For a while I couldn't figure out where the umbrellas were. (By the entrance of course). Some stores sell slippers and others don't. Some sell umbrellas and slippers or neither. It really didn't matter much since another store was always nearby and likely had what you wanted.
I decided to buy a tiny and very portable umbrella. It turned out to not be the greatest in very heavy rain as it covered less of my body. It was also inferior to umbrellas since it wasn't see-through. That might seem not very important until you realize that sometimes the wind can blow hard enough to pelt you from the side. It was also necessary to angle the umbrella when the wind blew because the umbrella frequently turned inside-out. This small umbrella was particularly vulnerable to being turned inside out. Regardless, it served me very well. Although I would later buy two or even three larger umbrellas, I actually kept forgetting them because they were just big and inconvenient. My small umbrella on the other hand, was super tiny and I would carry it with me even on days when it wasn't expected to rain. With some of my baggy pants, it actually fits in my pocket. I still have it and keep it in my backpack at all times even though it hardly rains in Boise.
Learning the Ropes
The rain got to be too much so I decided to come back the next day. This time I was determined to walk all the way to the commercial district to see the Shibuya crossing. The day started out without rain. I planned to eat and snack at the various stores I passed by along the way. Before I left, I got lost trying to find the entrance to a separate line from the one I normally take. There was a girl about my age calling out and selling snacks. As I walked by, she switched to English and made eye contact. I started talking to her about the snacks. I spoke to her in a mix of Japanese and English, but mostly English. When I asked about the snacks she was confused. She refered to them very casually, so I had to ask her what it actually was. She didn't believe I hadn't tried it before. She actually affirmatively told me I knew what it was. When I told her that I had never been to Japan before she didn't believe me. She swore my Japanese had to be good enough to be a student or something here. I bought a snack and she bagged it for me. I don't remember the name of it but it was like a dough and egg omelett with vegetables mixed in. It is served in Korea and Japan, but this particular young woman and her snacks were Okinawan. Her praise made me feel very proud of my accent in Japanese, but at the same time I was hesitant. My effort and time learning Japanese was comparatively small. I did not feel like I deserved praise.
When I sat down with my bag on the train I felt an unusual amount of people looking at me. Probably I was doing something wrong but there was no sense worrying. I was bound to make mistakes unknowingly while I learned what is acceptable. Once arriving in central Tokyo I started on foot once again. When I came to crossings, I watched the locals carefully so that I could follow their rules. Just about every time someone came to a crossing they would wait for the sign. It did not matter if no cars were around, they nearly always waited. One woman wore a hijab and she was the exception. She did not stop or think twice before going across. She wasn't Japanese but I speculated she wasn't a tourist either.
I remember wanting to locate an internet cafe or cafe of some sort so I could have internet access. Most likely I waled past many places that offered internet access but I had no idea. My search in English on google maps did me very little good. I came across a building with some strange architecture. I found the cafe, but before going in I wanted to find something to eat and look around. I bought two soft and chewy snacks from a convenience store and had it put in a bag. I then got back to the cafe and sat down. The barista approached me and at first tried to speak Japanese. Then she pulled out her phone and began typing in Google translate for a long time. A couple times she revised it, before eventually deciding on what to show me. The whole long winded paragraph she wrote translated to "please do not bring food from other stores here". She was very young, and seemed maybe slightly irritated.
For a moment I considered if this might be a policy specific to this store. I left the store and was able to read online that in Japan not only are you expected to not bring your food from one store to another, but you shouldn't walk around with food at all. In fact, if you buy food from a convenience store, you should probably just eat it right then and there. When I learned this I was a little embarassed. I decided to sit down on a curb and scarf down everything I bought. All the while, I was anxious that someone would come by and scold me for breaking some other unspoken rule which I had yet to learn.
Now I had a bunch of trash, and I came to the second realization. There were no trash cans anywhere! I looked everywhere in the street and couldn't find any whatsoever. I was actually at a loss at how to get rid of the trash without littering. I resorted to walking all the way back to the convenience store where I bought the goods in the first place. I was very doubtful that I could even find trash there, but wouldn't you know it? There was trash and recycling in the store! The only problem... there was seperate trash for different categories of trash. I made my selection as I might without knowing the answer to a multiple choice quiz.
I went back to the cafe. I was able to order something and get wifi. Although the barista seemed a bit irritated having to use google translate to communicate with me. I ate curry and rice with pork cutlet. I used the wifi for whatever I needed to accomplish, I called my girlfriend and told her about my lessons and how everyone looked upset with me on the train ride. She speculated that my food likely had an odor. That was my third realization and lesson of the day. Don't bring food or anything with odor on the train!
Shibuya
This was the most I've ever walked in pavement or cement. My left pinkie toe got smushed underneath the other toe and a crease formed. Eventually it turned into a painful blister that I would be dealing with for the rest of the summer. I walked through many different areas. One store had a ton of Anime-looking stuff on the outside so I went in. It turned out to be a store for pornography. It had two floors and there were tons of men of all ages going in and out of the store. There were kids and elders alike. Nobody seemed judgemental or timid in checking out what they wanted. I wasn't in there for very long after realizing what it was for but with a very quick glance I saw some very shocking DVD covers.
As I moved my way towards the commercial districts I heard some faint crowd noise. I followed the noise of what sounded like drumming. There was a stadium. Outside I could hear deep drumming and the occassional clacking of drumsticks or something. Alongside a sporting event, these instruments were being played. I also heard chanting, but it was unlike the cheers I hear in American games. The chanting was more coordinated and in unison. I did not see what was inside but I thought it mush be a baseball game. Maybe it was not a sporting event after all. Whatever was happening, the sounds reminded me of Japan's martial and war-like history. It gave me an ominous feeling.
In this part of the city there were some fancy restaurants and offices with lots of greenery. These restaurants had yards with intricate landscaping and huge glass windows. The plants were sometimes labelled with Japanese and English to say what kind of plant it was. It all had a very luxury feel. At the same time, there was a loudspeaker being blasted making constant noise. These were little vans driving around. They had megaphones or something attached to the car. The picture of a politician was pasted on the sides. One or two women were situated in the back with a script. They said the name of the politician over and over and then repeated the same phrases. It was very noisy and irritating.
Once it got dark there started to be lots of rain. I had been out for so long that my phone eventually died. I didn't know where I was going, but I basically gave up on finding the exact famous crossing. I came across more and more clothing stores. One of them I went into and tried on some pants. The staff were super friendly. I really liked the pants, but I realized they were 200 bucks. I told them I didn't like the fit as an excuse to which they offered to try different sizes. I kept making excuses and got the hell out of there.
I kept looking to see if maybe there were some kind of rain shoes or something that could be worn in the rain. I didn't find anything. I asked stores if they offered shoes to be worn in the rain and they all said no. I think I was in denial. I thought there must be some way that Japanese get around the rain soaking there shoes. With the exception of girls wearing doc martins, it seemed like Japanese accepted that their shoes would get soaked. They would rather look fashionable than wear sandals or anything like that for the rain. People might have ways to hang the shoes to dry or take them to clothes cleaners.
Shibuya was very cool. It was dark out and it started to rain more than I have ever seen. There were basically no foreigners. Most if not all of the Japanese were young, as the area specializes in youth fashion. The young Japanese were in groups of friends. Generally, there were a coule guys and a couple girls shopping together. Everyone was freaking out and the girls were crying out as the rain picked up. I was very out of place. I wasn't even shopping but just taking the opportunity to look around. Meanwhile, my little umbrella did next to nothing to protect me. I was a bit worried that it might become too late and the trains would stop running. Although my phone was dead I managed to take shelter in the first station I found and chart a way home using the maps inside the station.
I got soaked in the process of my adventure. The only pair of shoes I brought on the plane were a pair of white and gray running shoes. My umbrella didn't protect my shoes and socks from the onslaught of rain and puddles. It quickly became apparent the utility of traditional Japanese footwear as my shoes filled with water and my feet started to cramp and wrinkle. It was remarkable however how rare it was to see people wearing sandals or thongs. Particularly with men, any kind of open toed shoes were almost unheard of. I myself resorted to buying a pair of slippers meant for use in the house or bathroom because my shoes were completely unwearable and didn't dry out for multiple days.