I am in a 5 story all-night internet cafe that is filled with hundreds of video games, neon lights, pool tables, a climbing wall, a recording studio, a mechanical bull, walls of Japanese Anime comics, massage chairs, computers, a soccer field, and showers. It’s outside of Kyoto and is where Haji and I are spending the night after coming down here to meet up with his friend Kataro.
Haji is a Japanese friend of mine who I met in Tennessee while playing soccer. He has come back to Japan for the first time in three years to renew his work visa and go to a friend’s wedding. As far as part 1 of Tokyo goes (Haji and I were in Tokyo for 3 nights), it is one crazy story so without further ado…
Haji & I are staying with his Aunt in a suburb of Tokyo called Tsuruse (about 40 minutes on the Metro from Tokyo station). His Aunt, who I call ‘Mama-san’, is awesome. Haji has two nieces; these two nieces have four children. Mama-san has been taking care of all four of the kids - ranging in age from 3 to 11 - since we arrived in her small two bedroom apartment. It is cramped but lively to say the least.
I met the four children, Mama-san, and one of Haji’s nieces when we finally arrived at Mama-san’s apartment around 7:00 PM on Thursday. To get from Narita Airport in Northeast Tokyo to Mama-san’s apartment on the western edge of Tokyo took probably 2.5 hours on three different Metro trains. To say Tokyo is HUGE is like saying Brian would be lost without Haji in Japan; both would be an understatement!
There are so many people in Tokyo it is breathtaking and yet they all seem to get along amazingly well. Japanese people are polite. Really polite. And really clean. Tokyo has to be the cleanest big city I have ever visited. From what I can tell, it seems really safe. It is also the most difficult to navigate for a Westerner as the general lack of English characters (although I am told that English characters on the subway are a recent addition), the lack of spoken English, and the general lack of street signs make it very very difficult to easily get one’s bearings. I have said it once and I will continue to say it: Without Haji, I would be 100% lost. Utterly confused. Dumbfounded.
One of the main reasons I really appreciate being around Haji is because on the first full day we were in Tokyo I was unfortunatley not around him. Not too smart. Haji had his visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy the day after we arrived. I took off walking by myself once we arrived at the Embassy with an agreement to meet back up with him in three hours. I got lost. I didn’t have a cell phone. My map was wrong. I felt totally out of my element. It is funny looking back on it now but at the time it was very frustrating (and this was after less than 24 hours in Japan!).
During those three hours, I visited the Dojoji Temple in Tokyo along with Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower is a larger, Japanese-version of the French Eiffel Tower painted in red & white stripes with big satellite dishes strapped to the sides of it - le horreur! It has some pretty smoking views of Tokyo which made me appreciate just how big the city really is. I will post pictures from the Tower (along with the rest of the trip) when I get back to the States. I have some pretty funny videos of electronic toilets, TV cell phones, super-smart vending machines, and a whole bunch of weird food that I also want to compile and post when I get back.
As far as sticking with Haji goes, I didn’t learn my lesson the first time and promptly (and purposely) separated from him later (in the same first day no less!) only to find out that I had written his cell phone number down wrong. This caused us to be separated again without a way to find each other when we were supposed to meet back up on Friday night. We separated because he wanted to go back and get a Japanese haircut by Mama-san’s house so I stayed in the center of Tokyo and wandered around eating food that I couldn’t name, taking pictures of buildings I couldn’t believe, and oogling electronic things I couldn’t quite understand. It was really cool (except for the part about Haji & I having trouble meeting up for the second time in 12 hours).
The buildings and technology in Tokyo are so…Japanese. There are neon lights on everything. Daytime could be nighttime and vice versa. Ginza (one of the poshest areas of Tokyo) is packed with hundreds of fashion designers who sell outfits no Japanese person would wear (for the most part, the Japanese people dress pretty conservatively although there are young girls with some really outrageous outfits). The average person carries around a cell phone that would put most of our laptop computers to shame. They watch live digital TV in the subway and receive animated customized text messages from McDonalds on their cell phones. They take pictures with their built-in 5 megapixel cameras, record movies, pay for things, e-mail, surf the web, and do a hundred other things for 40 bucks a month all while traveling 200 MPH on bullet trains which don’t require you to take off your shoes and belt to board.
I went to the Sony Showroom in Ginza on Friday and was blown away by some of the items Sony offers in Japan. The size & weight of the notebook computers on display were amazing (they would put the new Apple MacBook Air to shame). HUGE 1080 Hi-Def televisions. Cameras which take a picture automatically when someone smiles. 4 floors of stuff which Sony puts out there to just show how crazy small they can make things.
On a more personal level, Haji has tons of friends in Tokyo. Many of these friends have lived in the States and knew Haji when he lived in Atlanta. We met up with two of them, Yuusuke and Miwa for drinks & dinner on Friday night. The way the Japanese socialize is very nice (and a cool blend of old traditions and new technologies). They tend to go to restaurants where you can sit 4 to 8 at one table instead of a bar to have a drink. The table is equiped with a touch screen menu. You order the drinks and food from the menu and, honestly, the food and drinks show up within what seems like 15 seconds by servers who are exceedingly polite (of course the are polite, they are Japanese!).
As far as socializing goes, the Japanese can drink. They are not sloppy in their drinking (I doubt they are sloppy in anything) but just about everyone seems to drink. Young. Old. Happy. Sad. It doesn’t matter. There are so many ways to turn rice into alcohol that there doesn’t really seem to be a reason not to partake in a beverage!
Not many people drive so there is no real enforcement of ID laws (you must be 20 to drink or buy cigarettes in Japan). Haji tells me that there is virtually no drug use here (although I would guess 65 to 70% of people smoke cigarettes). You can drink in public on the streets (just don’t litter!) and you can bring beer with you on the trains (including the bullet trains). Karaoke is really just an excuse to drink and sing and be merry. It is really a lot of fun and I am surprised it hasn’t taken off more in the States (although the ‘all you can drink for 2 hours’ setup isn’t really conducive to a culture that relies so much on cars). Three of Haji’s Japanese friends and the two of us rented a karaoke booth on Saturday night and it was a blast.
Food prices in Tokyo are OK by big city standards. You can eat for 5 to 7 dollars (ramen noodles & meat). Sushi = Amazing. They have these conveyor belt sushi bars where you can easily eat a small school of fish for 20 to 30 bucks a person. Hot bitter green tea is really growing on me as is the spicy wasabi paste you can mix with soy sauce to give anything a little extra kick. Haji really likes Tamago-yaki (Japanese omelet) along with shouchuu (rice vodka) - although not at the same time! - and I like both of these things as well.
It is getting late here and I am tired. There is so much to write about but I guess the underlying emotion I want to convey in all that I have written above is three-fold: A profound sense of gratitude for how Haji is sharing his country with me, an admiration for Japan (and an indication as to how much I like it!) and my frustration at my inability to communicate or even remotely understand 90% of what is going on around me.
For now, domo & sayonara (thanks & goodbye!).
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Otto me trataba muy bien cuando vivi en su casa durante mi primer semestre en Argentina. Me mostró como cocinar un asado, como tratar los amigos que venian a su casa, y como disfrutar del buen vino. Mas que todo, me hizo comodo. Me di cuenta que no pudiera pedir por una familia mejor que la suya. Le vamos a extrañar amigo!