Lost in Translation - the First Five Days
JAPAN | Thursday, 5 November 2009 | Views [51] | Comments [1]
November 5,
2009
Well,
Although I’m not quite finished the first week in Japan, I
figured I’d make a post to my travel blog because so much has happened already
that everything is starting to blur into itself. Sufficed to say, Japan has
been a rather engrossing experience, and I’m sure it’s going to stay that way
for awhile.
The flight into Japan from Calgary would have been much more
enjoyable were it not for the fact that I pulled an all-nighter the evening
before packing. It’s amazing how much stuff there is to get ready when you
realize that you are packing not for a week, or a month, but an entire year.
Despite this, I think I packed everything I could conceivably need on my
person, and even if I didn’t Japan is (thankfully) an extremely well-developed
country, so purchasing additional goods shouldn’t be a problem.
Some notable things I packed:
- my Macbook Pro (this is essentially my mobile
lifeline to Canada)
- my Xbox 360 (sadly, this is calibrated to North
American systems, so I will have to figure out if there is a way to get it
modded, and even whether that’s worth it)
- my best suit and four dress shirts (job hunting,
of course)
- a portable DJing console (a future hobby
perhaps?)
- a Japanese phrase book, which I bought the same
day I left
- my toothbrush
- eight pairs of underwear
My close friend and companion on this crazy adventure, Sean
Chow, met me at the airport when I touched down after a grueling 10-hour
flight. Boy, was I ever glad to see him. If you haven’t seen the videos of my
first day and night in Tokyo yet you probably should. They’re pretty funny,
though only in hindsight.
At this point I need to say that Sean officially wins the
prize, in every way possible. Beyond simply meeting me at the airport, Sean has
provided nothing short of a stellar introduction to Japan. In the one month
he’s been here, he has found an amazing apartment, sketched out the location of
local amenities, and even cultivated a burgeoning social circle focused around
his colleagues at school and our guest house. The degree to which Sean has integrated
himself into Japan is slightly scary, to be frank. He can converse with most
any Japanese person we come across about a myriad of subjects, and is
constantly telling me what or what not to do in order to ‘blend in’ (this
includes not blowing your nose in public, not eating or drinking while you
walk, and generally toning down the more brash aspects of my otherwise
soft-spoken personality). However, I think I have a great deal to figure out on
my own beyond even what Sean can help me with. Every day I count how many other
white people I see in my travels. The most I’ve come up to is around 12 so far,
and that was when I went to Shibuya, which has a) Japanese language schools and
b) English language schools. It is also one the most popular tourist
destinations for travelers to Tokyo. So, needless to say, I am anticipating a
great deal of interesting experiences as one of Canada’s few representatives in
The Land of the Rising Sun. But again, it must be noted one more time that I
would most likely not have the presence of mind to even write this entry were
it not for everything that Sean has accomplished in my absence here. He has my
unending thanks, to say the least.
My initial impressions of Japan are, on the whole, quite
good. The Japanese are a studiously polite people – even though I am viscerally
aware of how much I must stand out, very few people actively stare at me, and
even then they quickly look away once we make eye contact. However, if you
attempt to ask questions, greet them, etc. in their native language, they
quickly become quite friendly and polite, and are extremely accommodating.
Sadly, my Japanese is absolutely terrible, so the most that I can ask for
usually is, “where is this”, “do you speak English”, or “a beer, please”. Nonetheless, most are usually
quite willing to help me out with hand gestures, broken English, or, if I’m
really lucky, a sympathetic smile and an awkward goodbye. I look forward to
learning more Japanese in the future so I can actually integrate myself into
Japanese society.
Most of what I’ve focused on accomplishing in the first few
days has been limited to helping Sean set up our room in our guesthouse moreso
than it is already. Some of this is for both of us (for example, purchasing a
space heater – most Japanese homes do not have any central heating to speak of,
and very poor insulation). Other aspects are distinctly for myself (getting a
futon and storage shelves for my personal belongings). I’ve also been getting
to know the area a bit more. Because Sean has been so focused on school and
getting established thus far, this has actually been a joint process, with both
of us sometimes deciding to randomly strike out and see what we can find around
a random street corner. There is crazy stuff everywhere in Tokyo, from loud,
glitzy pachinko parlors that feature
notable anime such as Neon Genesis
Evangelion to smoky 50s-style cafes where Japanese businessmen congregate
for a morning cigarette. Yesterday I spent an hour looking for the Machida
International Centre (Machida being the suburb that Sean and I live in), and in
the process thereof found an incredible music store with one of the best stocks
of funk, hip-hop and soul LPs I’ve ever seen in my life. With Tokyo being a
city of over 12 million people, I am sure this is not even scraping the tip of
the iceberg.
However, there have been some more frustrating aspects to my
time here, beyond the cold night-time conditions I alluded to earlier.
Apparently cockroaches are a problem throughout all of Japan, and two nights
ago I found and killed my first one. When you dispose of a cockroach, you can’t
simply step on them – if they’re female, the eggs will be protected by their
thick carapace and get ground into the floor to hatch later (to your infinite
horror). The best way is to flush them down the toilet, which necessitates catching
them. I am not sure if any of you have ever tried to catch a cockroach (or even
seen one for that matter), but they are fast, skittish, and insanely creepy. I
just about had a stroke my first time. To add insult to injury, I am not sure
if flushing them down the toilet actually kills them, so they might simply
become someone else’s problem. Sean has discovered an extremely effective way
of dealing with cockroaches that involves boric acid – apparently the little
S.O.B.s eat it and are then dried out from the inside. Even better, most of the
time the offending cockroach returns home to its nest to die and its remains
are consumed by its compatriots, which then also dry out and die. So a few
well-placed pellets can make all the difference. But this does not excuse the
fact that I never though I would ever have to deal with something as disgusting
as cockroaches in a place like Japan. Who knew?
For those of you who remember my earlier promises to get
this blog rolling two days ago, please accept my sincerest apologies as it has
been almost impossible to find the time for reasons which are not entirely easy
to grasp right now. However, I will do my utmost to keep you all in the loop as
interesting or noteworthy events occur. Doubtless there will be many more of
them in the near future, and I look forward to sharing them all with you.
Until then,
AM
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