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Published: August 13th 2009
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Hello from Japan!
I think I have figured out the time difference between here and Texas, finally. Add two or three hours to whatever time it is, and then switch the am/pm. I am writing this at 8:55pm here, so I think it must be 6:55am there. So that, combined with 20+ hours of travel through continuous sunshine has amounted to the worst (and first) jet lag I have ever experienced. Nevertheless. Japan, you are worth it.
So far I really like Tokyo. A lot of things really surprised me about the city. Here are some things that did not:
1. It smells bad. Ranging from pretty bad to horribly bad. Sometimes it smells like car exuast, or human sweat, or dog and human pee, or trash. Sometimes it also smells like curry and incense, which is strange and reminds me of Morocco.
2. It is very very big. It took us 1.5 hours to get from the airport, which is in Tokyo, to our metro stop, which is also in Tokyo. Today it took us almost an hour by metro to get about a quarter of the way across the center of the city.
3.
It is insanely hot and humid and sunny. It is so humid it feels like you might breath out steam.
4. There are lots of very cute animals informing me of not so very cute messages. For example- a cartoon dog holding a big pink heart tells you to- “Please Fill out ALL material in Customs Declaration Form!”, or a pouchy eyed panda in a red cape and fanny pack warns “Do not rush onto the subway or get arms caught in the closing doors!”
Here are some things that surprised me (and I'm sure you too):
1. It is so so quiet. It is about as quiet as Virginia Lane in the middle of the night. When walking around the city, John and I whisper to each other so as not to cause to much of a disturbance. I think this is due to two factors- the first being that Japanese are generally quiet people, and that all the cars are so eco-friendly that they no longer make any noise at all.
2. It is extremely clean- but there are no trash cans at all anywhere. How can this be? I dont know. I read
that whenever people have trash they carry it around with them until the get home. Also it could be that they clean the streets all the time.
3. There aren't that many people around. I haven't seen a street with more than a hundred or so people yet, and we've been to several parts of the city.. including the ones that are supposed to be super-populated.
For the most part, Japan seems to be a pretty regular place. Very easy and relaxing to travel in, and not nearly as weird as I had thought it would be.
We are staying in a capsule hotel here, and it is very traditionally Japanese. When we come into the hotel, the staff makes us leave our shoes at the front and trade them in for appropriate indoor wear- green plastic slippers. These are not appropriate everywhere in the hotel, such as in the bathroom when you are supposed to take off the green hotel slippers and put on the white bathroom slippers. I haven’t followed this rule so far, because the white slippers have the man/woman figures that are usually associated with public bathrooms printed on the front, and it
is just to gross for me to put them on my feet.
Also the bath situation is a bit different than I have ever seen. On the top floor of the hotel there are the women’s and men’s baths. I can’t speak for the men’s baths, but the women’s is three stools in front of three faucets, where you fill a provided bucket with water and bath yourself in the company of whoever else happens to be bathing at the time. For me it was two large Japanese women. Luckily, Spain helped me to get over any fear I had of being naked in front of random strangers. After the rinse, you can sit in a large, very hot bath tub, or just slip into the Japanese style pajamas that the hotel lends you- appropriate indoor clothing- and go up to the balconey on the top floor for the lovely view of the river and city.
This is what John and I did, when we encountered something I have to take as a typical Japanese experience. We were sitting on the balcony, chatting with a Dutch woman who had been traveling in Japan for a month when we
heard a woman screaming hysterically across the river from us. Very soon after approximately 2 firetrucks, 2 ambulances and 3 cop cars arrived and began running around shining flashflights everywhere. Then three patrol boats quickly sped onto the scene from upriver, at it became clear to us that someone had attempted to commit suicide by jumping off of the bridge- and that the many river rescue people were pulling him/her out of the water on a stretcher into a waiting ambulance. It was hard to tell whether or not the person was successful, but I am going to assume that they were not- as I’m not really sure what seeing someone trying to kill themselves on your first day in a foreign country means.
Stay tuned for more adventures and misadventures from the Orient.
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Mom
non-member comment
Glad you are OK and not wearing the ...
bathroom slippers. It looks like a great place. I am surprised too of not being in crowds. That is definitely not the picture in my head about Japan. I am not sure I could sleep in the capsule - but and glad it looks safe and is clean. Looking forward to future blogs! Love you!