It seems fittingly ironic that I studied Spanish in college, hoped to find a job teaching in Latin America or in Spain, and in the end, me and my Spanish language skills (deteriorated though they might be) are here in Japan.  We have been rekindling our relationship, my Spanish skills and I.  You can find us together in most places here in Japan, staring awkwardly at each other when can’t understand spoken or written Japanese, shaking our heads and thinking: “Damn girl, couldn’t you have found room for a Japanese first year series in your undergraduate courses?”

I did try to learn a few phrases from the audio Pimsleur language learning series before I left.  It was very useful, but I had a hard time fitting in time for learning because I was busy with the end of the school term and trip preparations.  But thanks to Pimsleur, I can say a few essential phrases:

-”Sumimasen” (Excuse me / I’m sorry)

-”Ohio gozaimas / Konichiwa / Kom ban wa” (Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening)

-”Nihongo-ga wakarimas-sen.” (I don’t know Japanese.)

-”Eigo-ga wakarimas-ka?” (Do you know English?)

-”Domo arigato gozaimas.” (Thank you very much.)

-”Domo” (Thanks)

-”Kudasai” (Please)

-”Oy-shi-katta” (That was delicious!”

-”[insert noun / toy-re] wa doko des-ka?” (Where is the (e.g. toilet)?)

-”Hai” (Yes)

-”Ei” (No)

These basic phrases are enough to get by and communicate most things politely.  But communication gets muddled or halted completely when the conversation gets more complicated… like checking for hotel room availability for a place that doesn’t do online booking.  Figuring out proper postage and asking questions for how to write on a special money-sending envelope.  Wanting to have more than a basic conversation, but not being able to.  Wondering if a bag of white powder food stuff at the grocery store is sugar or salt.  Desperately wanting to practice little phrases with store clerks, who narrate and guide the entire transaction with what I assume are polite little phrases.  Wanting to know the ingredients of the food that I’m considering for purchase, but not being able to read a damn thing.  Being able to answer back immediately when a group of drunken festival men dressed in white shorts ask you if you’d like to be hoisted up and blessed in their local festival way (they originally asked me in Japanese and I had no idea what they said until a coworker translated for me a few seconds later).

(It just occurred to me that I haven’t written a blog post about this festival that happened a few weeks ago.  I will get around to writing about this soon… it was lots of fun!)

Somtimes it’s just as well that I can’t speak Japanese, because even if I was able to, doing so here at the university would break the rules of the intensive English program that I work in, which maintains a strict “English-only” policy for students and faculty in the classrooms, cafeterias, and a few other instructional situations.  Much to my surprise and pleasure, the majority of these students actually follow the rule!  It’s rare that I want or need to speak or read Japanese on campus, but the desire to not come off as illiterate tourist is definitely felt when I’m out and about in the little villages around here or whilst speaking with the facilities staff members.

I’ve had a few interesting language interchanges with the university facilities staff.  Here on campus, there is an “energy center”, which is in charge of switching the air conditioning on and off for the entire university.  In response to the 3/11 earthquake and the nuclear power plant shut downs, Japan is making serious efforts to reduce their power consumption, so as to avoid rolling blackouts for lack of power resources.  Thusly, if you stay late in your office here or if you would like the air conditioning switched on or off in the gym, you must call the energy center and request for them to turn the AC on or off.

The first time I worked past 18:00 (6:00 p.m.), which is the magical witching hour for air conditioner shut-off in my office building, I called the energy center.  Someone answered the phone with a polite Japanese expression and I responded with “Kom ban wa” (good evening, remember?).  Then I proceeded in slowly paced English with my request: “Please turn on the air conditioning.  Research Center, room 205.”

…Cue the music for Led Zepplin’s “COMMUNICATION BREAKDOOOWN!”

Communication Breakdown

Needless to say, the air conditioning did not get turned on.  (Later I remembered that I was given a little phrase book by my the university for facility-specific essential phrases like this one.  Whoops.)

The next time I found myself in need of calling the energy center, I was in the gym and I wanted to have the AC turned off (for warm, stretchy yoga practice!)  I did not have my little aforementioned university phrase book.  But I did remember some advice that my friends who had traveled to Japan before gave to me, which was to “speak Engrish (speak English with a heavy Japanese accent) and you will be understood”.   I took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and called the energy center.

EC: “Polite-Japanese-greeting-phrase-that-Rachel-can’t-remember verbatim”

Me: “Konichiwa.  Hai, airo condishun, room one pifty (150), please turn off-o. Okay?”

EC:  “OH OKAY! Room one pifty, off-o. Hai, hai.”

Me: “Arigato gozaimas”

… within 30 seconds, the AC in the gym was shut off, as requested.

I couldn’t believe that speaking Engrish actually worked.  I felt so rude for using a mocked accent for real communication, but as far as I know, the reception with the person that I spoke with was positive, and the message was communicated.  So… win!  Right?  Maybe?  Who knows.

Whenever I go off campus, I’m always sure to keep my Lonely Planet phrase book near me and I should really be practicing some more Pimsleur lessons when I have free time in my dorm.  But knowing that Engrish is seemingly unoffensive to Japanese speakers (unless I’m completely misreading the cues) and that it can get the message across in a pinch is a nice little tool to have in the language tool belt.

Last Monday, at 04:00 (Japan time), the women’s soccer teams from Japan and the United States duked it out in the final match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.  Here are all of my thoughts on how the match turned out, A DEFINITE SPOILER ALERT if you are still waiting to see that epic game (and by the way, if you haven’t seen it, shame on you, it’s been almost a week, get to viewing that game already!)…

… (sorry, the more button tag is not working, so here is some awesome placeholding text)…

… JAPAN WON!

That game was one of the best soccer matches I’ve ever seen in my life.  I didn’t get up at 4:00 a.m. here to watch it, but my coworker, who is a Japanese woman and a hard core women’s soccer fan, did wake up to watch it and in retrospect, I wish I had joined her.  She and other male Japanese students in my class were thrilled at the outcome!  I, being the sleep wuss that I am, watched a replay later that day at 6:30 p.m. on the “BS” television network (bahaha!)  What a game!  Tied 1-1 at the end of the game, tied 2-2 in 30 minutes of OT, and then what a dramatic shoot out win with penalty kicks!  Supposedly, the USA women are ‘effing awesome with the PKs… but not that night.  3-2 was the final winning score.

Both the USA and Japan fought equally hard and brought their best skills to the field.  The USA team was more aggressive in the first half of the game, but they lost some of their steam in the second half.  There were no fake injuries to slow the game down, and only one “magic spray” analgesic application by the medical team for an actual, legit, gross and bleeding scrape on the knee.  Both teams played so well together and both teams played appropriately aggressive.  Japan’s team captain, Sawa, tirelessly motivated her team in the final match while also playing her heart out.  And Japan’s goalie, Ayumi Kaihori, made SO MANY AWESOME SAVES; catches, punches, and even a kick deflection during one of the PKs in the end!  I’ve never seen anything like that before.

I thought the red card on the Japanese player in OT was unnecessary… yes she tackled a player close to the box, but it was an appropriate and legit tackle.  Oh well.

Man, that game was great.  I was an edgy bundle of nerves for most of the second half and all of the post-game play AND I KNEW what the final score was already!

I think overly-aggressive male soccer players around the world, especially in the professional leagues, should take notice of the fact that soccer can be played without unnecessary aggression, violence, jersey-pulling, and fake injuries to slow the game down.  I really hate watching men’s soccer these days for those very reasons; it’s a giant testosterone festival instead of a game, in my opinion.  The MLS league is all right, those guys don’t get so aggressive and they play smart for the most part.

I think it’s very worth mentioning that both teams made it to the final match while playing on a continent which neither of their countries is on (the tournament was held in Germany).  Japan also beat the host country on their home turf… an amazing feat to say the least.

I got a little teary-eyed watching the celebration ceremony for Japan at the end of the game  This country has suffered so much this year and to have a win like this is a real moral boost for them.  I’m so happy for them!  And I’d like to get a women’s soccer t-shirt or something to commemorate the fact that I was here when they won the 2011 Women’s World Cup!

If you’ve been reading this blog the past few weeks, by now you likely know that I am intrigued by Japan and I am having a love affair with this place and all of the fun idiosyncrasies it has to reveal.  There is so much to like here and there are so many unique-to-Japan sights, so many in fact that it is impossible to photograph and share them all.  I’m definitely putting forth my best effort to capture as many images and write as much as possible about my experiences here, but even then it’s hard to capture just how charming this place is.  Case in point, just a few nights ago I saw this wonderful sign while out on a bike ride:

However, there are a handful of minor things that have continually irked me since I arrived here three weeks ago.  Since the majority of these blog posts will likely be about the numerous positive aspects of being Japan, I feel that it’s okay to kretch about a few things.  I’ll start with the first thing that I noticed:

(1) Floor Ledges

With the exception of the way that the sidewalks slope nicely down to street level without requiring  curb cuts, this country is not very alter-abled accessible, at least from what I’ve seen.  In doorways mostly, and in other areas where flooring medium types transition (from linoleum to tile, for example), there is almost always a ledge, like this one:

I have tripped on ledges like these more times that I am proud to admit.  In hotels, restaurants, subway stations, shopping malls, everywhere.  They were hard for me to get used to, even though I have the advantage of being short and not that far from the ground!  I feel a little embarrassed and afraid for tall newcomers to Japan who may not be aware of these trip hazards.  I thankfully haven’t experienced a full-on, sprawling face-plant yet, but I still have many weeks left here, so I won’t rule out the possibility entirely.  Hopefully my newfound wary awareness for doorways will pay off while I’m here and save me from extreme embarrassment!  And speaking of doorways, my next area of complaint is…

(2) Doors

My complaining about doors is reserved only for the giant, mammoth heavy doors that are everywhere on the IUJ campus.  The doors in most public places in Tokyo and at restaurants here in Urasa are very cool.  Most places in Japan have these glass slider doors that will either open automatically or quickly at the push of a button.  They are profoundly aesthetically pleasing, energy efficient, and just cool all around.  I haven’t taken any pictures of them yet, but here is an example of said cool door from our hotel in Tokyo:

The IUJ doors are completely different animal.  To be fair, it gets damn cold here in the winter time and the snow piles up very high, so having big thick doors to protect entry ways and keep the warm air indoors makes complete sense to me.  However, those practicalities don’t keep me from hating on the user-unfriendliness of these doors.  They are heavy and gigantic.  The ones in my dorm look like they are made of steel and old heavy glass and I feel like I need 10 times the upper body and core strength that I currently have in order to open and enter though these doors gracefully.

The worst doors on campus are the ones into my office building: made of heavy glass and the handles are in completely the wrong place for the leverage needed to operate them smoothly.  There is not one, but two sets of glass doors to enter this building.  Again, two doors is great for energy conservation, but two heavy, hard-to-open doors are not great if you don’t feel like getting assaulted by a giant chunk of glass while trying to pass through a doorway.  Even if you muscle them open, they will quickly reassert themselves and show you that their closing speed is the same, whether you use your arm and shoulder brawn or not. These doors give me about, oh, one and a half seconds to get myself and my bulky shoulder bag through before they close.  Note: during this sliver of time, it is imperative not to forget about the aforementioned floor ledge trip hazard (see gripe #1 above).  These glass doors always give me nice pat on the rear on the way in, as if to say: “Welcome, we just wanted to make sure that you got in quickly.  Now get to your office and get some work done.”

As if opening and walking through doors wasn’t challenging enough, most entry ways have two sets of two doors.  Easy enough, right?

Not so much.  Notice the “push” signs on the door.  These signs are not to be ignored.  Frequently, the first door on the left will be locked and the door on the right will be unlocked… most of the time (not in the case of the doors in the photo above, but you get my drift).  The unlocked doors are labeled “push” or “pull”.  In the case of the photo above, both of the first doors are “push” doors, but as for the second set of doors, only the one on the left will open to the outside (and the photos is blurry, but it is a “push” door, for your information).  The door on the right is locked.  You can know that, because there is no “push” or “pull” signage on it.

My central thesis for successful door operation here on the IUJ campus without tripping, getting stymied by a lock, or squished is to a.) look where you step, b.) pay attention to which door has the “push” or “pull” sign, c.) become okay with the idea that the doors will probably hit you as they close.  If you ignore the little signs and choose your door based on the logical walking traffic pattern, you’ll likely be met with a locked door and you’ll look like a fool.  I have tried to anticipate and predict which doors will be locked or unlocked by not looking at the signs and I have had fruitless results.  Near as I can tell, there is no rhyme or reason to when doors are unlocked on the right or left, nor is there logic as to when “pull” or “push” signs are used.  What’s most important is to not ignore those signs.  It’s like a mini intelligence mind game.  It is still a guessing game for me and because getting through doors here is awkward enough for me as it is, I’ve defaulted to reading all signs while using doors, so as to avoid moments depicted in this famous Gary Larson cartoon:

(3) Excessive packaging for everything

The wonderful philosophy of of Japanese culture that all things should be aesthetically pleasing is very sweet, but it also has a dark side: many goods come wrapped in excessive packaging.  I’ve never seen food covered in so much packaging.  For example, I tried hard to find some rice snacks that came in a bag, but it turned out that they were all individually wrapped:

I bought peaches that not only came with their own little individual styrofoam jackets, but what you don’t see in this picture is that they were place in a styrofoam tray and wrapped in plastic wrap:

Just yesterday, I went to a little cake shop and bought two muffins.  I unwrapped one this morning and discovered this little “stay fresh” pack wrapped up with it.  This came from a specialty shop that sells fresh, homemade goods, and still, so much packaging:

The amount of packaging that I alone have gone through during my short time here is staggering.  I hate to think about how much is wasted on a national level.  Yikes.

You might think that in a country as organized and detail-oriented as Japan that they would have an epic recycling system in place to recycle or reuse all of this packaging some how.  If such a system is in place, I have not had the privilege of seeing it.  Which brings me to my fourth gripe about Japan:

(4) Burnable and unburnable trash

As the above title denotes, there are two disposing options for discarding waste: burnable or not burnable.  The only two items that cannot be burned are glass and cans. 

That means that the following goes in the burnable can: plastic (all of the many kinds), paper, cardboard, aseptic containers, foil, and food scraps.  I shudder to think about all of the dioxin-like compounds and other toxic gases that are released into the air when all. that. plastic. is burned.  Here is a picture of the trash piles in my dorm alone (18 rooms, some single and some family occupancy):

There is ONE pet bottle recycling place on campus next to one vending machine and for some reason pet bottle cap recycling is big here, so there are a few locations around campus for caps.  There is ONE paper recycling location, next to the copier.  I’ve been saving most of my paper recycling and cutting it into note-sized scrap paper and whatever paper I don’t use by the end of my stay here will definitely find its way into the recycling pile.  But all of that burned plastic… ugh.  It hurts my Pacific Northwest nerves to the core to have to throw all that plastic away and not recycle it, especially because I know that the technology exists for that material to be recycled!  But this is not my country, so all I can do is hope that the energy conservation trend that has spread so rampantly across Japan ever since the nuclear plants have been inoperable from the 3/11 earthquake will encourage people to push for better recycling efforts.

(5) “Seven Bank” ATMs diagrams

This last complaint is minor, as it has been resolved.  Before I get into detail, please look at this photo:

How would you opt to insert your debit card based on what you see in that picture?  Magnetic stripe up?  Or magnetic stripe down?  To me, it looks like magnetic stripe up.  It looked that way to Micah too.  But no, the proper way to insert your card into the ATM is mag stripe down.  Hurr.

We learned this after a few mishaps with our debit cards: it turns out that Seven Bank (located all over the place in 7-11 convenience stores) is seemingly the only bank that will accept our credit union debit card.  After learning that, we were profoundly frustrated that none of the Seven Bank ATMs would take our damn debit card.  Let me tell you that it’s not at all settling when you are in a rural location in a foreign country that is still very cash-based (read: many places don’t accept credit cards) and your debit card refuses to function.  On a side note, it’s my firm belief that all ATMs worldwide should be of the “swipe-only” variety, and not of the “suck-your-card-into-the-machine” variety.  Every time I’ve used my ATM card here, I take a little leap of faith and say a little prayer: “Please don’t let the machine eat my card”.  So far, so good. 

So there are my five gripes about Japan.  I tried hard to think of more than those five, but that’s all that there really is to complain about.  There are hundreds of other great things about this culture, so five gripes out of a few hundred likes is a good ratio I think.  Have you had any funny travel gripes in Japan or elsewhere?

We celebrated the 4th of July by getting up and going up for a run, trying our best to simulate the Butte to Butte 10K tradition that happens every 4th of July in Eugene.  We enjoyed our time in Ueno Park the morning before, so we got up again, early in the morning (thank you jet lag!) and went for a run. We ate our delicious Japanese hotel breakfast, hung out at the hotel for some down time, and then took advantage of our early morning rise and headed out to the Tsukiji Fish Market.

The Tsukiji Fish Market is a huge tourist spot in Tokyo.  Prior to the 3/11 earthquake, many tourists exclaimed to other tourists: “you MUST get up early and go see the tuna auction!” It was apparently a sight to see back in the day, but we had read on wikipedia that the tuna auction was closed to tourists after the earthquake.  I don’t really understand how the earthquake has anything to do with needing to close the tuna auction… it seems to me a good excuse for keeping tourists away from where the fish vendors didn’t want them to be.  Maybe, maybe not.  Either way, this sign confirmed that we would not be seeing the infamous tuna auction:

We did not exactly refrain from visiting hall of the public.  But neither did many other people.  So we tried our best to stay out of the way and be aware of our surroundings as we gawked and the sheer volume of fresh fish and seafood and watching the hundreds of workers who were moving, packing, cutting, and otherwise processing all of the fish and seafood for Tokyo.

I learned later that our hotel fish of the day came from here, which was pretty cool.  Here we have whole slabs of tuna, just waiting to be consumed.  NOM.

As is the touristy tradition, we stopped into a local izakaya after taking in the mayhem of the fish market and plopped down to a small sushi bar just outside of the auction.  The chef was friendly and gave us lots of complimentary salads that we didn’t order and that he didn’t charge us for.  We made friends with a couple from Japan who were on a three day weekend holiday (he was pretty blitzed, but he was friendly and shared his beer with us… at 10:30 a.m.!)  We tried out our rudimentary Japanese and the local customers spoke some English with us.  It was great fun and a very Japanese experience.  I wish I had remembered to take pictures inside this place, but there was a huge line of people waiting outside the restaurant (a good sign, I think!) and I didn’t want to make them wait to fill their bar space… plus the people outside looked miserably hot and in need of some sushi and a cold biru.  Here’s a shot from the outside:

After we felt cooled down, we ventured out to the Akihabara of Tokyo and visited Yodabashi Camera.  En route, we popped into a Starbucks for a cold drink and a hit of AC (remember what I said about the “walking tax” in Japan?)  The drinks tasted exactly the same as they did in the United States… franchises are so very interesting like that.  But back to Yodabashi Camera…

…holy crap (the picture shown is of the Ueno store, but it’s just as big as the store in Akihabara).  That whole building is the department store.  The whole thing.  You read correctly.  This place is an eight floor department store, filled with electronic goods for computers, mobile phones stereos, cameras, household appliances, you name it, if it’s powered by electricity or it’s some sort of accessory for an electronic, it’s there at that store.  It was like viewing an entire internet electronics retailer in person, complete with competing loud sounds, televised advertisements, sales people trying to get you to buy their mobile phone contract, all in Japanese.  I’m learning that this is a theme of being in Japan: wanting to flee in order to prevent mental overstimulation, yet not being able to just for the sheer curiosity and novelty that is to be absorbed from the experience.  I believe that this is an extension of the duality of cultures in Japan and the phenomenon has definitely infiltrated my mind as well. 

This link is great… it’s a video of Micah trying out noise canceling head phones in the loudest most appropriate environment to do so:

Micah in Yodabashi Camera

We stayed there for three hours (did I mention that there was free AC?), just gazing at the sheer amount of different and fun things   I tried to get a pre-paid mobile phone plan, but since I’m not staying in Japan for 3 months, it is nearly impossible and perhaps too difficult to get a plan.  The three giant mobile companies here have great names: “Soft Bank”, “Docomo”, and “Au” (amusing, yes?)  At hour 2.5in Yodabashi, I plopped down into a shiatsu massage chair and closed my eyes.  Thank you, electronics, for facilitating relaxation.  Before we left, I purchased a hair dryer, a hair straitening iron, and a USB drive (I couldn’t find mine at home and I paid through the nose for it at this place… $15 for a 4GB USB drive… ouch).  Here is a picture of the box that the hair dryer came in, there is some great Engrish on there:

We were told that the food courts at the top of department stores were awesome and this department store did not disappoint.  We were finally able to order a cold noodle lunch.  We were sat next to an older salary man and what looked like to be his assistant (who looked profoundly bored and sad while he was writing dates in a calendar and listening to his older counter part rattle of details).  Dinner later that night was somewhat uneventful… we tried to pick a good place, but we were tired and overwhelmed, so we ended up eating dinner in a smoky and overpriced izakaya.  My food came out late and I was pissed off in general that no one could seemingly go out and eat dinner at a restaurant anywhere in Tokyo without involuntarily inhaling second hand cigarette smoke.  Yuck.  Bed time for the cranky, jet-lagged traveler!

Micah, being the train enthusiast that he is, badly wanted to see Tokyo Station, one of the largest and oldest train stations in the world.  We got on the JR (Japan Rail) Yamanote line; a train route that runs in a big circle through the center of Tokyo.

The Yamanote line is unique in that it is an above ground train.  Traveling above ground is a nice way to see a city visually when you are traveling in a new place and you are used to taking the underground train and popping up from portal A to portal B without any context for what sites were in between.

Unfortunately, Tokyo Station was covered in plastic and scaffolding, and so Micah was disappointed that he was unable to see the station in all its beautiful glory.  We surmised that it might have been under repair because of the 3/11 earthquake; most of the building is brick.  Here is a shot of it undercover and who knows, maybe we’ll get to see it again in September.

The Imperial Palace was a short walk from Tokyo Station, so we braved the ever oppressive heat and humidity and enjoyed a change in the size of the streets: these streets were wider, with giant sidewalks.  We saw this map and I wondered if it was referring to people who are homeless or people who were made homeless by the 3/11 earthquake.

Most of the Imperial Palace is closed to visitors, so we walked slowly from shady spot to shady spot and had a look at the outside of the palace.  There were very few tourists around and I snapped a few pictures.  I was impressed by the solar panels on the palace and I knew that my mom would be so excited to see those.

Since there wasn’t much to do but stand in the heat and be miserable, we made our way back to Tokyo Station and took the subway to Harajuku.  We made a stop at the Meiji Jingu Shrine, a famous Shinto shrine in Shibuya, which is one of the most highly regarded, government-supported shrines in Japan.  It was a lovely respite from the heat and from the noise of the city.

We walked for quite awhile around the grounds and the gardens at the shrine.   They were so peaceful and lovely.

When we finally found the shrine, we participated in the hand washing ritual.

Some of the shrine was being restored, but we still got to see it.

We got to see prayer cards that people wrote in hopes for various aspects of peace for themselves or others.

What’s really sad about this place is that the original buildings were destroyed in the Japanese air-raids during WWII.  As beautiful and peaceful as it is, it’s sad to think that it had to be rebuilt.

When we were finished with at the shrine, we took a long walk back through the park to Harajuku, an area of Tokyo which is famous for edgy fashion, school kids, cosplayers, and in Kat’s words “disaffected youth”, but we didn’t see many of them.  We did see many new apartments and buildings being built… perhaps Gwen Stefani has changed this area from edgy to trendy.

We finally sat down for some lunch at an izakaya and watched fashionistas and school kids walk past, but unfortunately no cosplayers (supposedly that happens on Sunday and we missed it… oh well).

We people watched at Harajuku for the longest time and then we made our way back.  En route, I was feeling adventurous with my beverage choice and I finally gave in to curiosity and selected a “POCARI SWEAT”.

It is a surprisingly refreshing electrolyte replacement drink, not too sweet, and with a slight lemon flavor.  I really enjoyed it, despite its funny, unappealing name.

On our last night in Tokyo, we had the privilege of meeting up with some of my former students from the UO in Tokyo!  I had these students in my class in the fall of 2009 and I hadn’t seen many of them in almost a year.  It was a real treat to see them and I was so happy that they could all take time out of their busy schedules to meet us for dinner.  They organized a dinner at an izakaya and I got to hear all about their impending graduation, their thesis writing, and their new jobs that they just secured, but that they won’t start until almost 18 months from now.  One will go to work for IBM, the other will be a newscaster for a Japan TV network, and two others are taking their tests and preparing to be teachers.  I’m immensely proud of them and we really enjoyed having dinner with them.  We even tried raw chicken, which I swore before I came to Japan that I would never try it.  But I did and it was delicious… it tasted like sashimi.

The evening ended somewhat unfortunately: we didn’t have enough cash to cover our portion of the bill, which we knew going into the evening.  Japan is a very cashed-based economy still, so using a credit card to pay wasn’t an option.  But no problem, we can get money out of an ATM, right?  Wrong.  Even though we had gotten money out of an ATM two days prior, none of the ATMs would accept our cards (and yes we had informed them that we would be traveling internationally).  We tried several different ATMs, called our bank, but there was no record of any problem on their end.  Grrrrrr.  We later realized that only “Seven-bank” ATMs (in connection with Seven-11 convenience stores) would take our ATM cards for some reason.  I need to mail one student some cash in the mail still, but the special envelope that I need to send cash is not available at the student store here at the university, only from the post office in Urasa (which I have been too scheduled at work to get to before they close, arg).  We even had to borrow money for train fare ($2.00 or so) from another student to get home on the last train of the evening and we felt so terrible for having to do this.  But they were very understanding of the situation and they had similar experiences during their time in Eugene.  I really need to get into town and send that money in the mail…

Our first morning in Tokyo had an early start; we were both wide awake at 4:30 a.m.  After trying to go back to sleep, we finally gave up and decided to go on a walk through Ueno Park.  Not without first acquiring some coffee first…

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan.  They sell alcoholic and non-alcoholic (seriously!) cold drinks year-round and hot drinks during the colder months.  Seeing as to how it is unbearably hot in the summer here, Micah and I estimated that the “walking tax” in Tokyo was about 240 yen (about $2.50) per hour, the total estimated cost for two cold beverages, needed about once an hour.  There are dozens of novel-to-foreigners brands of cold coffee in a can, including but not limited to Tully’s, Black Wonda, Glacier, and a few other gems.  These cans can also be heated up in the winter months… I found that out by grabbing a can of hot coffee in a convenience store, thinking that it was the cold variety.

So enough about coffee… we obtained some through our first Japanese vending machine experience and it was fun, to make a long story short.  We wandered across the giant footbridge at Ueno Station and into the park.   I was feeling extremely winded just walking up the stairs and I was shocked as to how affected I was by airplane travel / jet lag / humidity / heat.  The day previous, I had taken a 2.5 mile run in Eugene with no problems, but on my first day in Tokyo, I felt like I had JELL-O legs and like I hadn’t done any cardiovascular exercise in months.

It was 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning and even though the streets were full of people the night before, there were plenty of people getting their exercise in before the heat and humidity got really miserable.  It was already suffocatingly hot and humid at 5:30 a.m. in my northwestern United States perspective and I was impressed that people were dedicated enough to get their walking / running / tai chi / baseball game with friends in at such an early hour and on a weekend.

We saw all sorts of people in the park, including homeless guys sleeping neatly on flattened cardboard (they were dressed so nicely though that it made me wonder if they just had partied too hard on Friday night and missed the last train).  Unlike homeless people in Eugene, I did not feel threatened by them, for some strange reason.  Perhaps it was because they didn’t try to engage in conversation, like so many homeless people in Eugene do.  Micah wondered if the homeless population in Tokyo had increased since the tsunami destroyed so many homes in Sendai in March.

Ueno Park treated us to so many lovely sights, including shrines, temples (and by the way, I’m not sure how to tell the difference between those two things yet), new and interesting signs, and a lovely pond.

We were both so impressed with the city and the culture and we hadn’t even been there for 24 hours.  I remember thinking “this is a great culture… I am so lucky that I get to stay here for 2.5 months… I could really see us living here, having jobs here, raising children here for a year or so…” (infatuation culture shock phase 1 anyone?!)

We finished our walk in time for our 7:00 a.m. Japanese style breakfast back at the hotel.

I’ll admit that I was slightly nervous about whether Micah would like “Japanese breakfast” before we got to the hotel restaurant, even though I read about it beforehand and it seemed great.  It was most definitely great, even by Micah’s non-breakfast-person standards. It was hard for us to locate breakfast restaurants in Tokyo, so I’m glad I opted for the Japanese breakfast included option when I booked the hotel.  We each got a bowl of rice (Micah was always served a larger bowl of rice than I was, WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?!), miso soup, some Japanese-style pickles, natto (fermented soy beans) and a bowl with potato salad, a slice of ham, cucumbers, and tomatoes (?).  The little old lady who was in charge of serving then brought us a fresh catch of grilled fish from the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, green tea, and finally coffee.  We joked that we had to earn our coffee by finishing our breakfast first.  Me being the breakfast fiend that I am, I was extremely pleased and satisfied by this tasty first morning meal in Tokyo.

After breakfast, we went back to our room for down time (read: a cold shower and air conditioning) and then ventured out into Ueno to the open air market.  There were tons of people out and about, doing their food shopping for the week or just shopping in general.

We later moved our shopping endeavors indoors… browsing would be a better word for what we did.  There were so many new and interesting products, signs, and cultural differences to note about shopping and we didn’t buy much.  It was satisfying enough to be immersed in the experience.

Many stores will have Japanese women who, at different intervals and for their different stores, will deliver invitational messages for you to come and shop at their stores in this pinched, high-pitched tone.  I wanted to do the opposite of come and shop at the store after hearing all of the screeching, but it was an interesting cultural difference for sure.  I did end up buying a cute HOMEWORK OKAY! stamp and an ink pad.  Japanese stationary stores are out of control stocked with cute, novel things.  I wanted to flee out of visual exhaustion and yet I was entranced with all the little things to look at.  I felt weird taking pictures at indoor stores, so I have nothing to show for this experience… I’ll try to take some video of the loud shop girls later… that is an experience that is not to be undocumented, nor missed.

I completely agreed with Micah when he noted during our shopping outing that “the Japanese win at capitalism”.  The sheer number of different kinds of products in all of the stores is amazing.  I now understand why so many of my Asian students go shopping on the weekends, but now I feel sorry for them too, because the shopping experience in Japan is so much more varied and interesting than it is in the United States.  But perhaps they feel differently and they are satisfied by American consumer availability… I should ask them. After a few hours of shop browsing, we went back to the hotel again (you can’t resist the cold showers and AC exposure in this kind of heat, or at least we couldn’t).

After shop/browsing, we came back again for another dose of a cold showers/ angry birds playing / air conditioning.  We felt the need to balance the intake of so much visual / aural stimulus in Tokyo with a some brain off time, especially so early on in our trip.  We had plans to go out and get some dinner somewhere, but we unfortunately both got sick.  Probably the cooked shrimp salad that Delta served us… I did have second thoughts before I put that in my mouth, but I ate it anyway.  Whoops.  Probably not the best decision in retrospect.  I woke up from a nap at 5:00 p.m. with some serious tummy grumbles and a fever and thought that I might vomit, but I never did, thankfully.  I did however get very scared / irritated that I had only been in the country for one day and I got sick.  I felt like a broken traveler.  I thought: “how can I ever travel to any other place in the world if I just get sick on the first day, HERE in Japan, where the food and water is generally considered safe?”  It was at that point that I also realized that I forgot to pack probiotics and I was even more frustrated with myself.  I was so uncomfortable, so I just laid down and did some deep yoga breathing to deal with the discomfort of the tummy grumbles and fever and guess what, it worked.  I fell asleep for 12 hours and felt like my normal self the next day when I woke up, as did Micah.

In the next post: we become early-morning Tokyo exercise people!

After a few months of planning, an endless number of preparation tasks, and a lot of anticipation, we are finally here in Tokyo.  Just as everyone said I would, I have fallen in love with this place.  Not without first experiencing a few apprehensive moments, but all in all, this place is great.

Our journey started in the morning of Friday, July 1st.  The night before, our friends threw us a going away party, complete with Americano staples such as hot dogs and s’mores (thanks you guys!).  We stayed up past midnight the night before making our final packing adjustments and I intended on sleeping in until 7:00 a.m. the next morning at least, but the sun had other plans: it came gleaming through our window at 6:00 a.m.  I got up and went for a short run along the Willamette River path to try to clear my nervous head and body of unnecessary stress and that helped a lot.  Micah mowed the lawn.  It was a lovely final day of summer for me to experience in Eugene; I’m so thankful to call such a beautiful place home.  I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t sad about leaving Eugene that morning, but I tried to remind myself of what great opportunity and new beautiful place was in store for me somewhere else.

We drove up to Portland, met my mom and step dad at my grandma’s house and left the car at my grandma’s.  My mom and step dad drove us to PDX and we said our goodbyes:

When we got into the airport, the first of three emotional moments for me occurred in the course of getting to Tokyo.  Emotional moment #1 was triggered by feeling overwhelmed by the check-in process at the airport.  I think that I was worried about my suitcase being over the weight limit (even though I weighed in the night before), having trouble checking in, missing our flight, having trouble at security, etc.  As a last minute plan change, Micah convinced me to check the big, crushingly heavy bag (2 suitcases were allowed to be checked for free) that I intended on carrying on, so I was nervous about making sure that I had taken all of the essentials out of that bag that I needed on the flight (which I did).  I think I was nervous / panicked / anticipating that there would be big lines during holiday weekend travel and hiccups that were out of my control that would delay or prevent us from getting on our flight smoothly.  Air travel can be such a pain in the ass these days, but as it turns out, we were fortunate and none of the worst case scenarios happened and it all worked out.  Once we got through security and to our gate, I felt a huge sense of relief that we had hurdled over those potential obstacles without any pain and suffering.

We boarded our plane on time and left at 2:20 p.m. (PST) with no hiccups.  Except for a surprise power failure in the plane as we backed out (probably a communication break down between the ground crew and pilots), all went swimmingly well on the flight.  Emotional moment #2 was triggered by the funniest thing: a picture of an outdoor cat tunnel in the Sky Mall catalog (so that indoor pets can experience outside without running away, etc.  It made me think of my pets and I got so sad that Lucky and Jeeves might not understand why Micah is the only one to come back next week and that maybe I’ve abandoned them.  I hope to “talk” to them on Skype to convince them that I haven’t left them.  I also got sad that Micah would be on this same flight in a week and that we would have to spend so much time apart, so I had a little crymax in my seat and then tried to focus on the fun that we’re going to have in the next week (which is challenging to imagine when you’ve never been to the place where you’re going, so you have to trust everyone else who has said so many positive things about the new place to which you are traveling to).

But back to the flight… it was great.  I’ve heard nothing but negative things about Delta, but we had a great experience on our economy class flight.  A decent amount of space, frequent and delicious (by airplane food standards) food and drinks were served, no excessive, obnoxious, and loud announcements, mostly clean bathrooms, and incredibly friendly flight attendants.  There was plenty of space to get up and walk around once an hour or so.  The flight was 9 hours and change and I wish that I had been able to sleep more during the sanction airplane “blackout” time, but alas.  I filed a “compliment” report on their website because I was that impressed with the experience.

We landed on July 2nd at 5:30 p.m. (we lost a day!)  We got off the plane and slowly, carefully, without any sense of urgency, navigated the Narita airport.  We made it through immigration, baggage claim, had our first experiences with Japanese toilets (more on those later!), and went through customs.  We found the luggage shipping area and negotiated for my big suitcase to be delivered to the university where I’ll be working in Japan.  Micah bought us train tickets on the Keisei Skyliner train, which took us from the airport to Ueno station, which is a 5 minute from where our hotel is.  We watched the seats being rotated from one direction to the other (the airport is the end of the line).  We got on the immaculate train (which left promptly at 6:09 p.m.) and got excited as the rice fields around the Narita airport slowly turned into the city of Tokyo.  It was thrilling at first, and then I got a little motion sick and a very different, infrequent, and curious headache in my left eye brow area that was curable by closing my eyes.

We arrived at Ueno station and Micah navigated us with his data services on a GPS to our hotel.  We walked through the hustle and bustle at Ueno station on a Saturday night and it was awesome and disorienting.  We found our hotel, and even though it was supposed to be non-smoking, it still smelled faintly of smoke.  This is where emotional moment #3 happened: I had been up and awake for almost 24 hours with no sleep, a lot of changes, and I was tired and cranky.  We still had to go get something to eat before we could crash for the night.  I remember feeling weird saying things like “excuse me” when navigating crowds… shouldn’t I be speaking Japanese?  But I’m American, so it’s okay to speak English, right?  We dropped our heavy stuff down, I asked for a chiropractic back adjustment, and we were on our way to finding an izakaya (a Japanese style pub).

There was an izakaya right down the street from us.  We ate delicious pork, chicken, veggies, and tofu.  Such friendly waitstaff and people at the restaurant.  We checked our a local convenience store (which are awesome and of slightly higher quality than what you’d expect of a convenience store in the USA).  We got some cold beverages and then walked back to our hotel, where we crashed hard.  Being up for almost 24 hours straight is challenging for sure.

We slept well that night, but we were wide awake at 5:00 a.m. (12:00 noon-ish).  We did an early morning exploration of the Ueno area, which I’ll tell you all about later!

Needless to say, having not even been here for 24 hours, here are my first impressions of Japan:

1. It is impeccably clean (you were right, James!)

2. The brilliance of this culture is in the details.  They have thought of everything (especially with regards to service culture).

3. The food is delicious (you were right, everyone!)

4. The people are friendly, even to weary-looking foreigners who barely speak Japanese (you were right, everyone!)

5. No one was embellishing on the fact that it’s hot and humid here in the summer.

6. It’s completely possible to navigate Tokyo if you have zero to little Japanese language grasp.

7. Vending machines are everywhere and they serve delicious drinks (you were right, Kat!)

8. I love this place and I would totally live here more long term someday.

9. Having a phone here would be really convenient.  We’re off to go research that for me today.

10. It seems that people in Tokyo whisper a lot when they are talking… very interesting.