Gaijin

I remember when I first came to Japan as a middle schooler, I was very excited to imagine myself being mistaken for a local. It was an exciting idea that in my “home country,” in a place with so much culture and beauty nonetheless, I would be accepted, and not just as a minority. I also remember my mom telling me that the local Japanese would certainly not mistake me for a native, even by the way I walked and the clothes I wore, let alone if I tried to speak Japanese with a mangled foreign accent. I felt sad hearing this, but it made sense, and coming into Japan this time I’m assuming I won’t be accepted.

Therefore, I was surprised to learn that atleast superficially, I don’t appear completely alien. I didn’t experience that “freezing effect” that my friend CJ described. She lived in Japan for several years, and explained that as soon as she approached someone and spoke Japanese, to her disappointment, they would freeze and respond in broken English. So far, when I’ve asked local Japanese people a question, they responded back in Japanese – also, speaking very, very quickly. For now, when I don’t understand, I sort of look back at them and smile and respond to what I thought the question was.

Totemo konde imasu! (It's very crowded)

I arrived in Tokyo station, and as I was warned beforehand, it was really crowded! Using the English signs, I found the line that would take me to Shinjuku, the lively section of Tokyo where I would be staying. When I got out of the station, it was still pouring rain, and I regretted not bringing my umbrella. I walked in the direction of the hotel, which a friendly Japanese station worker pointed out to me.

Japanese rain is weird. Atleast last night it was, because although it seemed to be raining very hard I didn’t seem to be getting very wet. I walked toward where I thought my hotel was, and the lights of the signs and buildings were becoming brighter and more extravagant, and I quickly realized I had no idea where I was. I looked at the crude map I had drawn on notebook paper, where I had written down a few US landmarks near the hotel– McDonalds, AM PM, although these were not helping very much.

With my two suitcases feeling heavier, my shoes becoming soaked, and still no umbrella, I was starting to feel discouraged. Every flashing neon sign around me was in Japanese, and I realized I didn’t even know how to get back to the train station.

Then I saw it – McDonalds! There have been many times in my life when I’ve been happy to see McDonalds, but probably none more than this one. I rushed pass the sign for the new “California Burger,” and found my hotel around the corner.

An yung ha say oh!

The flight over was long, as I expected. I flew on a Korean airline, because it was cheaper than flying directly to Japan. The food was surprisingly good – I had a beef steak with some kind of Korean sauce, and they even gave a custard pastry for dessert. The flight was uneventful except for the Korean lady who sat next to me who kept opening and closing the window, even though I was sitting in the window seat. At first I thought it was rude, but she also handed my finished food tray to the stewardess, so maybe she was just acting motherly.

So after about 13 hours of flying, I arrived safely at my hotel… in Korea! Because of my flight delay, I missed my plane to Osaka, but the airline was nice enough to buy my in Seoul hotel tonight, and a pass for dinner and breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

After I put my stuff in my room, I went to the lobby and met an older lady from my flight who also missed her connection. We ate dinner at the hotel together, and I found out that she also lives in Pasadena, a few blocks from my house! She is a political science professor at a small college in Orange County, and she is going to Cambodia to attend part of the Khmer Rouge trials. I didn’t know a whole lot about the Khmer Rouge incident, but apparently over 5 million people were killed over the course of four years, in the Communist Party’s attempt to demodernize the country.

It was very random meeting someone from Pasadena in Korea.

After dinner, I walked around Seoul for a bit. It looks sort of like how I remembered Japan.

On the bus ride into Seoul, I passed by a KFC, an Outback Steakhouse, and a lot of H&M bus stop ads.

The bidet! This is the coolest part about hotel Asian rooms.

This was on my TV in my hotel room in Korea. Professional Starcraft players and commentators discussing strategy. Oh my.

disaster strikes!

I've decided to keep a blog of my trip to Japan to record my thoughts during the trip and have a place to post pictures! Hopefully it will also be entertaining.

I spent all of last night and this morning packing, and I ended up getting only 20 minutes of sleep. In this dazed state, I arrived at the airport to find that my flight to Seoul was delayed for 2 hours, meaning I would miss my flight to Osaka. Not only that, but apparently I'll have to pay a fee to switch to a different airline to fly to Japan. I told the guy behind the desk that they should pay the fee, but he didn't agree with me. I haven't even boarded and there are already problems!