Adventures in Japan

Not being fluent is exhausting

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see much last night because it was dark and rainy and I was too nauseous to look out the windows most of the time, but today I can confidently tell you that everything you’ve heard about Japan is true. All commercials are crazy, it is very easy to get lost, there are indeed lots of bicycles, and people are allowed to smoke pretty much anywhere. Okay, that might not be everything you’ve heard, but that sure what it felt like as we were wandering around this morning.

And wandering was pretty much what we did. I had all sorts of plans for being productive today, but a lot of the things we wanted to do were dependent on our being officially registered as aliens (to the Japanese, we’re aliens, that’s foreigners to you and me). We were advised not to bother until we have a more permanent residence, so the new plan is to look for one of those in the next few days.
The one thing I did accomplish was the purchase of a power adapter. My laptop is happily charging as I type this. At least, I hope it’s happily charging. It may actually be ready to explode. Maybe I should take it off my lap...

As for yesterday’s typhoon, it passed through during the night and neither of us really noticed. Some places in Japan were pretty badly flooded, but everything around here seems to be fine.

First Full Day, Mainly Spent Sleeping

Nothing like Japanese television in the morning to wake you up. I’m not sure it will make any sense, even after we can speak the language.

We didn’t really get up to much today. I don’t know about Carla, but my brain was overwhelmed.

Our one goal for today was to get registered as aliens. It turns out that we should find a place to live first, as any time we move, we have to re-register. So instead of getting anything done, we returned to our teeny, tiny room and took a nap. You’re all like, “That’s a bad idea. JET LAG!” I’d have to agree. The nap took longer than anticipated. Then again, that always happened when I napped at home.

Some observations: the McDonalds here don’t seem to stink. The Subways (where fresh is the taste) here have weird stuff on their sandwiches. Curry for breakfast is good. Jerry would like it here, there are cigarette vending machines on almost every street. Ry would like it here because there are almost as many beer vending machines. Also, there are cigarette burns all over the place, but you never see any butts. Didn’t see a lot of litter around either. A lot of places had displays full of goods outside of their establishments, with no one watching after them. Theft doesn’t seem to be that big a problem here. I didn’t ever not want to eat. There is cheap food everywhere. Contrary to what I heard, Western food does not cost an arm and a leg. Melon buns (or melon bread) tastes yummy, even though I don’t like melons.

When Japanese people talk to us in their native tongue, we usually don’t understand them. I look at Carla, she smiles and blushes and we apologize. Sumimasen means sorry.

Also, pachinko parlours are very loud, and there are very risque games in the arcades here.

I’m sure there’s more, but it escapes me right now. Plus, there’s still a fair bit of day left to go. It gets dark early here, even earlier than over there, so do me a favour and tell Bob Hughes to shut his yap.

That Movie With Charlie Sheen, Where The Aliens Are Changing Our Climate

So we’re here and here is wet. Yeah. People be saying there’s a typhoon comin’. A’yuh. Not the best time to be trying to figure out how to get to our hotel. Hotel Kinki. Say it, it’s fun.

The flight was fine. No crying babies, the food was edible. The movie choices were odd. We had already seen Zatoichi. But not butchered in such a manner. Zatoichi is a film about a blind swordsman. The version on the plane had most of the swordplay removed. Also shown: Man on Fire, the movie about Denzel Washington kicking ass. Most of the ass kicking was removed, I reckon. I can’t say for certain, as I hadn’t seen it before. And I don’t feel the need to rewatch it and find out. Why show violent movies with all the violence removed?

Everything in Japan is cute.

We met a nice guy from New York. He helped us out. He also warned us not to trust anyone who’s not Japanese. Chilling portent?

I’m sure there’s more, but I am dead beat. Jaa mata.

The Arrival

Tuesday/Wednesday was a long, queasy day, but we’re finally here in the land of the rising sun. We haven’t seen much yet, but we managed to get through customs, out of the airport and to our hotel without major incident, and that’s an accomplishment in and of itself. We might have explored a little more, but it’s raining kinda hard, what with the typhoon on the way. I guess we’re not as close to the end of the season as I thought. Oops.

Oh well, we’re still here and it’s still incredibly cool. Yay Japan! Boo room almost too small to hold all of our luggage. On the bright side, the bed is surprisingly large. My feet don’t hang over the edge like I was expecting. And for a mattress, it’s got a Japanese futon on top of a box spring. Comfy.