Not Just Ninjas

Wednesday was kind of a freaky day, as I prepared to say goodbye to my little Tokyo safety bubble. The stark reality of JET started sinking in, as we started splitting off into smaller and smaller travel groups.

At least I got to spend a little quality time meeting my fellow Akitans… the night before, the new JETs from our prefecture went out for a night of kareoke/all-you-can-drink madness. But I thought it was much more fun to fall asleep at 9:30, so I was meeting everyone for the first time today. We went to a little regional airport instead of Narita, and had like 4 hours to kill until our puddle jumper took off.

There’s plenty to peruse at the airport, because there’s this huge souvenir (omiyage) industry here. Whenever you go on a trip, you are required by Japanese etiquette to bring back stuff for your family, people you work with, etc. Ideally the omiyage will be a specialty of whatever region you have just visited.

Also, on the top floor of the airport, was an open rooftop spot for congregating, where you could watch the planes take off. This spot was right next to an “American Diner”, which tickled me pinkish.

I’ve been lugging my cane from Ghana around with me (just in case I need it here later… also good for educating about Ghana :) ). I was very impressed… I took it through airport security, and they had to x-ray it. Imagine my surprise when I was offered a replacement cane to cross the x-ray threshold! How terribly thoughtful! Maybe they do that in the states too, I don’t know… cane users out there, let me know.

The other surprise was onboard our flight. When the flight attendant came through the cabin, I was offered orange juice, green tea, coffee, or *beef bouillon* as a refreshing drink. Awesome. I am told by my seat-mate that it was surprisingly refreshing.

Once we landed, I was met by two Japanese men from my district, who drove me the 40 min. or so back to Noshiro. Chris was a big surprise for them… apparently they had planed a welcome dinner at a hotel, where they had booked me a room for the night, while Chris meanwhile had successfully taken the bullet train (Shinkansen) to Noshiro and was waiting for me at our new house with my predecessor Nate. My hosts had to scramble a bit, but recovered beautifully. Chris joined us for the welcome feast, and they got us a hotel room for two.

The hotel, i have to say, was pretty ghetto, Motel 6 style. Perhaps they were trying to make us feel at ease by booking us in a Western style hotel, but all I felt was depressed. If I fly halfway around the world to be booked in a ghetto hotel, at least make it Japanese-style, yo! At least we were provided yukatas, the cotton lightweight answer to kimonos. See video: Noshiro Dance

The next morning, we partook in the complimentary hotel breakfast, where we found, lo and behold, the infamous natto. This is the dish that all westerners are required by law to try when they come to Japan. Natto consists of fermented soybeans, which appeared in this case, to have a fine film of rubber cement on them. This stuff is gooey and sticky like you wouldn’t believe, which makes for difficult eating in polite company. We both decided to have a small bite of natto in the safe confines of the hotel eatery, where we would offend no one with our reactions. Chris was a more enthusiastic experimenter than I; I simply put two beans in my mouth and washed them down as quickly as possible with coffee. But the end result was the same for us both: dame (no good, forbidden). Now we could, in good conscience, refuse natto for the rest of our sojourn here.

The rest of the day we spent running efficient errands. We were accompanied by Sakura-san (english speaking female) and Sato-san (non-english speaking male). First we picked up some passport photos in an automatic vending machine (awesome), then stopped by city hall to file for our alien registration card. Also visited were the water department, the gas department, and the electric department. We also stopped to get our personal seals made for signing official documents (called a hanko). I guess most Westerners will approximate the sound of their name with kanji, and get these for their stamp. Chris loosely translates to “meringue learner”… so he broke with tradition and just picked the kanji for “learning person”. I ripped off my AIM screen name of nomadicsiren, and got the kanji for “traveller” and “singer”.

And then the landlady. Here are the stats, I kid you not. She lives 3 doors down amidst a little hooverville made of blue corrugated tin, is missing her front teeth, has a mentally challenged son who handles the money, and has 2 blind cats that ooze stuff from various body parts. Totally disgusting and creepy. For some reason, cats here don’t seem very happy or healthy…. not sure why, as I have yet to see any free roaming animal other than crows… anyhow, I hope the landlady doesn’t play too large a role in our time here. On the way out of her place, Sakura-san leans over and says, “Yeah… watch out for her.”

Then we returned to the office to do… nothing for 2 hours. Well, everyone else worked but I didn’t have anything else to do (hence this blog).

I have to admit, I wasn’t really looking forward to Tokyo. Its size and general craziness level scared me a bit, not to mention its gargantuan subway system with multiple overlapping train companies and signage in 漢字. The first thing I had to do on landing (right at midnight by my body’s clock) was get to my host’s apartment in downtown Tokyo on the train during rush hour.

But Tokyo has surprised me. Within hours of arriving I already loved it. Perhaps this is because our host (fellow Mudder Andrew Hughes, who is now a lawyer at the Tokyo office of a New York firm) lives in the “embassy district” of Roppongi, a rather upscale part of town.

Many of the common perceptions of Tokyo and Japan I have already found to be true, but it’s surprised me in some ways too:

• Everything is illuminated and/or automated. Sleek, silent sliding doors grace the entrances of almost every building. Escalators stop when no one is on them and rumble to life again as you approach. Even the luggage delivery ramp at the Narita baggage claim would pause when it sensed there was luggage in the way on carousel. Small signs above subway doors illuminate to indicate which set of doors is going to open at the next stop. The list goes on.
• Spotless society. There is almost no litter anywhere. The sidewalks and subways are both impeccably clean. Part of the reason for this is that it’s considered rude to eat or drink while walking, a fact I remembered this morning as I sipped my coffee. An annoying side-effect of this is that it’s really difficult to find a trash can anywhere. However a pleasant result is Tokyo actually smells nice, something I haven’t generally experienced in large cities.
• Obsequious service. Shopkeepers, waiters, and barristas do an excellent job of making it seem like you are the most important person in the world. I will definitely miss this when I return home.
• Restaurant impugnity. I’m sure there is bad food in Tokyo, but I haven’t found it yet. Just about any establishment you stumble into will serve you delicious and mostly healthy food. Case in point: I was aiming for a tonkatsu place yesterday but walked in the wrong entrance to the building. I ended up in a small one-room establishment run by a bunch of old ladies who spoke no English. I couldn’t read the menu, so I just pointed to the plate of the guy next to me. I ended up with a slab of fish with rice and soup, and the best sesame-garlic noodles I’ve ever tasted. I have never loved fish, but I thouroughly enjoyed this meal and so I am much relieved and looking forward to the Japanese diet more than I thought I would.

We have one remaining day in Tokyo; on Wednesday we travel to Noshiro and will see our house for the first time. I can’t wait!

I am loving Tokyo. Maybe it’s all the English signs, or the familiarity of a big city, but I feel very comfortable here. Or maybe it’s that I’m still on vacation. ;) It’s all fun and games until you’ve got a classroom of surly kids on your hands. I took the subway back to the hotel, and I was expecting a logistical nightmare, since I was traveling in Tokyo at rush hour. However, we didn’t experience any insane crowds; I guess the hotel is in a nightlife district, which means that there’s no big influx there in the morning.

There are lots of familiar establishments around town, some more expected, like Starbucks or Mcdonalds (“ma-ku-do-no-ru-do-su”), some more of a surprise, like AM/PM and Sizzler (!). We went and broke our fast at Tully’s, where Chris had the cutest little 6-oz-$5 shake ever. As a couple who’s used to sharing their gianormous American portions between themselves, the delicate Japanese portion will take a little getting used to.

Tokyo weather has been a dream so far, balmy and cool at night, sunny and warm in the morning. Perhaps the famous humid stickiness happens during the day when I am in my shmancy hotel? Andrew assures us that the weather is kind of freakish right now and to enjoy it while it lasts.

Orientation consists of lots of speeches from the head of this ministry or that, and most of the speakers are surprisingly funny! We are a grateful audience. They have lots of great resources for us, including a national JET association, books with ideas for teaching, and a career-fair room where you can learn about how to sign up for broadband, how to teach elementary school kids, or when you can travel to Southeast Asia for any number of social work/ responsible tourism trips.

I love the JET population… people are chosen for their friendliness and ability to make social ties with others. We are supposed to be a room full of diplomats, after all. Which means that everyone for the most part is approachable and interesting. There are delegations from Ireland, Canada, France, Russia, and Jamaica. But the socializing is killing me, because I can’t stop myself and I dearly need a rest. At this point, what I need most is a sensory deprivation tank, because you basically have the same conversation over and over and over… where are you from where are you going what did you major in what kind of teaching experience do you have how is your Japanese. Ug. I am puking these pleasant conversation starters all over the place.

For lunch, they fed us the very Japanese meal of curry and rice. In the afternoon, there were some optional break out sessions. I will be going to elementary schools between my visits to junior highs and high schools, so I attended the elementary school workshop, as well as one on financial advice for JETs. After that I crashed hard and barely woke up for the 6:30 banquet. It was a madhouse, with a crazy spread of food. I was about to faint (no joke) for want of food, so it was really hard to socialize. I ditched the JET activities and instead went out for some super tasty Indian food with my Mudd peeps.

The flight over here was relatively easy. Chris and I got to sit together, which made the flight much more bearable. Nik and Vivien drove us to the airport, and gave us our final sendoff.

The flight was only about 10 or 11 hours from LAX, and we had absolutely no problems with baggage or customs. There were a billion second and third year JETs throughout the airport pointing and waving and welcoming us to Japan, and so it was relatively easy to find our way through it all.

Here is where Chris and I temporarily parted ways, as I got on the JETbus, and he found his way to Tokyo via subway. Either way, the trip from Narita airport takes a good two hours, which was a huge surprise to me coming from San Diego, where the planes practically land on top of my house.

The scenery along the way was extremely green, but other than that I saw nothing particularly out of the ordinary. The freeway has tall blinders put up for much of the road, probably to discourage drivers from daydreaming and getting distracted while driving. I also thought it was interesting to note that it’s illegal to walk with a cigarette on the sidewalk here, not for health reasons, but for safety reasons (!). There is a little glass smoking booth open from 8-6 where people can partake, and smoking in clubs is acceptable as well.

I arrived at the Keio hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo around 6:30 pm local time, or 2:30 am PST. The jet lag that night was brutal. But again, the check-in process was seamless. For this orientation, there are something like 1500 JETs beginning a new life in Japan, as well as 5500 JETs working nationwide in Japan.

Chris lucked out; He’s not allowed to say with me at the hotel, so instead he’s staying with our friend Andrew from Harvey Mudd in the nearby Roppongi district. Andrew did a stint in the Peace Corps (Samoa), then 3 years with JET (Kyoto), then became a lawyer. He’s now got a job here and is living permanently in Tokyo. He’s been taking us out nights (after which he goes back to work) and lets us sleep on his futon.

So after getting settled, I arranged for Chris and Andrew to meet me at the hotel. While I waited for them to show up, I sated my ravenous hunger by going to the convenience store on the bottom level of the hotel. I (tried) to ask the clerk in Japanese: Which of your ramen is the tastiest? He got this big smile on his face and came out from behind his desk to identify the best seller: cup o’ noodles. There is no way I am eating cup of noodles for my first meal in Japan… so I took the ni-ban oishi (“second tastiest”) option, which was a dish of noodles with a sponge-like item floating in the middle. It actually was pretty decent, though the texture threw me off a little.

Joyously, Chris and Andrew arrived about 2 hours later, and Andrew took us out on the town. He is such a good-natured guy, and his conversational Japanese is pretty good, so it was fun for us to listen to him banter with the taxi driver, the waiters.

I told Andrew that i needed to eat something tasty that didn’t include soy sauce or noodles and to just pick something. We dove into a little traditional Japanese place, where he ordered for us fish paste squares, long tubes of shrimp spring roll, and a “sour melon” appetizer. All of which was pretty delicious. The sour melon was pretty crazy…. it’s as if you took slices of cucumber, and then grafted a broccoli head onto the surface. Also pretty tasty.

Chris and I finally crashed around midnight, which is like an all nighter ending at 8 am if you’re from California. I couldn’t believe how long we had lasted and were socially functional w/o sleep. We took awhile to figure out how to assemble the futon, which looked suspiciously thin and flat, but was amazingly comfortable.