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11/03/2006 Jet hand dryerI almost forgot about one interesting little experience I had in Japan...
Have you ever left a public restroom with damp hands because you were too much in a hurry to use the noisy blow drier for the full 30+ seconds it takes for that weak breath of air to mostly dry your hands? Well Mitsubishi has improved on the automatic air hand dryer so much that it makes those weak ones we have here seem absolutely primitive.
In a few public restrooms in Tokyo, I encountered this awesome hand dryer. From their website:
So true! In my first-hand experience, it quietly blows a super-fast jet of air that is so effective your hands are truly dry in only five seconds. Apparently Japan has had these for some 10 years, but fortunately for us damp-handed Americans they are finally starting to sell them in the U.S. I wonder if I can get one for my bathroom at home... 25/10/2005 Japan photo albumAll the photos I took in Japan, as well as a few I got from other people, are now available here. I setup some simple web photo album software on my personal server, dumped all the photos into it, and labeled most of them. While MSN Spaces constrains the resolution of any photos posted in my blog, in this album you also have access to the full-resolution originals (up to 5 megapixels). 23/10/2005 Imperial palace gardensOne day after class we walked around the imperial palace gardens, a large green area right in the middle of Tokyo. In the Edo period (16th - 18th centuries) there was a large castle atop the hill in the middle. The castle was destroyed, but the area is still surrounded by multiple moats, large rock walls, and gates. Within the walls now are a few scattered small government buildings and a few smaller historic buildings and museums, but most of the area is a very well-kept and tightly patrolled botanical garden.
21/10/2005 Last day in JapanAfter three weeks in Japan, I return home tomorrow. I would love to stay here for another month or three, but I vaguely recall having some daily activity back in Redmond that allows me to keep my house...
There are still more blog entries and photos about my experiences in Japan that I just haven't had time to write and post yet. So check back here in the coming days.
Tonight (Friday night) my friends and I went out to karaoke in Shinjuku. While I have been to authentic Japanese karaoke places before in Seattle, this was a first experience for most of them. Anyway it was a very nice place, and they had plenty of American music in their library. Sara had a very pretty voice, and the others were equally enthusiastic. I gave a few semi-decent performances myself (it's easier when I don't have to be compared to the likes of Mike and Josh).
It was hard to say goodbye, and I'm sad that I won't be seeing these people again tomorrow, or perhaps ever again. We may try to keep in touch, but we'll see how that goes... 19/10/2005 Old bridge, new bridgeBelow is a photo taken from the middle of the Nihombashi bridge, a historically famous bridge in Tokyo. (Nihon = "Japan", hashi = "bridge".)
I like the juxtaposition of old and new here. On the old bridge, there are beautiful sculptured dragon lampposts. But the lampposts stick up between the lanes of the new highway. The highway was built over and along the small river because that was the only way it coud fit through the middle of the city.
This bridge happense to be right near Mitsukoshi Depaato, one of the largest department stores in Tokyo. The store spans a couple blocks and is nine stories high, including a very impressive supermarket in the basement. I continually find, at least in Tokyo, that the Japanese have taken retail to a scale far greater than anything I've seen in America. I guess that's only possible because of the population density. Second quake this weekThere was another earthquake in Tokyo this evening. This one was a little stronger and longer than the one last Sunday, but still no injuries or damage as far as I know. 16/10/2005 Earthquake yesterdayI almost forgot to mention, yesterday afternoon around 4pm local time there was a magnitude 5 earthquake centered near Tokyo. This was the second one I've experienced, after the 6.2 Washington Nisqually quake in February 2001. A magnitude 5 quake is easily strong enough to feel, but not really enough to cause any damage, and this one only lasted for 15 seconds or so. While earthquakes are relatively common in Japan, this was still unusually strong especially for Tokyo. Apparently stronger quakes are more common further north near Hokkaido. Sample food -- not to be eatenIn Japan, it is a nearly ubiquitous practice for restaurants to put out on display models of the food that they serve. The models appear to be made from real food prepared in the regular way by the restaurant, then lacquered (?) to form a semi-permanent display. The labeled models are displayed in the outside window to entice people passing by on the sidewalk. As a side benefit, this makes it easier for foreigners who don't speak the language to know what they want to order.
For dinner in Tokyo Disneyland yesterday we went to a moderately-nice restaurant that served American food sort of cafeteria-style with a limited menu. For one fee I had my choice of a few pre-prepared salads, entrees, desserts, etc. and the staff would put my choices on a tray. After we sat down at the table, I picked up my fork and prepared to grab a bite of my salad. But it was... hard? Upon closer inspection, I had obviously been served a sample dish, with fresh French dressing. The others noticed my puzzled expression and we all had a good laugh before hailing a waitress.
The waitress was not apologetic (it wasn't her fault, after all), but simply asked me what kind of dressing should be on the replacement salad. A few minutes later, she brought out the server who actually gave me the inedible salad. He apologized in his best broken English, while giving me a new salad. (While we had been waiting for a table, I noticed they were switching around the display samples for some reason. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but apparently they got some things mixed up. As I discovered myself, it's difficult to tell the difference at a glance.)
I wonder how often this happens... Casual speech and Tokyo DisneylandYesterday (Saturday) I went to Tokyo Disneyland. As with some of the other excursions, we were accompanied by a few locals who are around our age, who I guess are interested in hanging out with foreigners. They didn't speak any English, so it was a great chance to practice more casual Japanese speech, which isn't normally appropriate in a classroom when talking to a sensei. Unlike English, the Japanese speaking style changes quite dramatically depending on the social status relationship with the person/people you are speaking to. Especially the verb conjugation is completely changed in casual speech (shorter but a little more difficult) compared to the semi-formal speech I am more used to using in class. There is also a very formal/humble/polite style that I haven't really learned yet that is extremely verbose, which is used when speaking to someone who is of far superior status or sometimes to someone you are serving in some capacity (as a waiter, shopkeepr, etc.). It goes something like "won't your esteemed self please do this thing that I humbly request for which I will be forever thankful..." Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
The Tokyo Disney Resort is about a 45-minute train ride from central Tokyo, and is split into two separate parks, Disneyland, and "Disney Sea". Disney Sea is supposedly more romantic but from the brochure it looked to me like that means it doesn't have as many fun rides. The group of students and locals split up with some going to land and some to sea. Six others besides me chose land, all girls. While the souvenir shopping breaks were a bit too long and too frequent for my taste, I still had a good time.
Previously I had mostly talked and hung out with Mildred, but she chose to go to Disney Sea. I guess that was good, since at Disneyland while waiting in the many lines I finally got to know Sara better. You know I'm not the most outgoing person in the world, so yeah, it can sometimes take a tight situation for me to really talk to someone.
Sara is the girl on the right, in yellow, in this previous photo. I didn't think before that she spoke much English, since she had mostly spoken in Japanese (hers is far better than mine), or in Chinese to Lin, the girl in the middle in that photo -- they are both originally from Taiwan, so their native language is Chinese. Anyway, Sara and I had only spoken in Japanese, but our conversation eventually reached the limit of my abilities (which is not all that far), and then I found out she lived in Australia for some 7 years and therefore speaks very good English. Though it is with an interesting Australian-Chinese accent that is quite cute.
Tokyo Disneyland was almost exactly how I remember it from when I went there 11 and 20 yeas ago. Only before, it was the Magic Kingdom in Disney World, Florida -- Tokyo's Disney is pretty much a direct translation of the American version. Space Mountain and Splash Mountain are still fun. And seeing animatronic Disney characters speak in Japanese is interesting. However, either Disney has stepped up the level of merchandising of their properties recently, or the extra merchandising came as part of the translation to Japanese culture. Probably it is some of both, but after my other observations of retail shopping in Tokyo I would bet it is more of the latter. 14/10/2005 The Tokyo SkylineYesterday I went to the top of Tokyo Tower.
Tokyo is a big city, and I certainly knew that already. But seeing it all laid out from the vantage point of the tower was quite amazing. Tokyo continues to be a densely packed city in all directions. It's big, but still not a lot of space to fit 35 million people in the metro area.
The first photo is taken from the tower's main observatory looking northwest toward Shinjuku, a major business district of Tokyo. You can see its group of high-rise buildings in the distance. Shinjuku is the location of the Microsoft Japan office -- I saw the sign on one of those buildings when I was walking around there. Looking south toward Yokohama: Looking southeast toward Tokyo Bay and Odaiba... in the center of the photo you can see that giant ferris wheel I rode last week, now lit up in a swirl of pink and blue: The last photo here was taken from the tower's special observatory, another 100m higher. Obviously by this time it had gotten dark. The view is looking northeast toward the Marunouchi business district and the Ginza shopping district with all its colorful lights: 08/10/2005 KamakuraToday we took a train out to Kamakura, a coastal town about an hour south of Tokyo. Kamakura is known for its many historic Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, and especially the Daibutsu or "Great Buddha". We visited the Daibutsu, the Hase temple, and the Hachimangu shrine. While at the shrine we were lucky to witness the end of a traditional Shinto wedding -- in the photo below you can see the bride & groom (both facing the camera). ShibuyaThursday afternoon I visited the Shibuya district of Tokyo. (With the same group of people.) While there's no one standout attraction in Shibuya, it is a very popular retail and entertainment area. Hopefully the photo below can give you some idea of what I mean by popular. The crowds in the main plaza there are just for an ordinary Thursday evening, with nothing special going on. It's like nothing I've seen in any U.S. city.
You may recognize the area in the photo from the excellent movie Lost in Translation, which took place mainly in Shibuya. 05/10/2005 Adapting to life in JapanIn coming to Japan, several people have told me to beware of "culture shock", a sudden severe feeling of being an outsider usually brought about by experiencing something extremely different from one's own culture. But that hasn't happened to me yet, and I doubt it will. While I have never been one to feel homesick anyway, I honestly feel more comfortable in Tokyo than in most American cities. Maybe because it's so safe. (Japan in general has an extremely low crime rate.) And clean. And the public transportation is so cheap and convenient (once you figure out how it works) so it's very easy to get around.
Sure, things are different -- but certainly not strange. When boarding an escalator, I often step onto the right side and then realize everyone else is standing to the left. The subways and stations are notoriously crowded during rush hour, but everyone is polite. In more traditional restaurants you remove your shoes and sit on the floor at a low table. I know I'm not in America. But I have not come across anything that is shocking to me.
I've never before travelled to a place with a native language other than English, so I had thought the language barrier would bother me. But so far it hasn't been a problem at all. I suppose I should have been more confident in my own modest Japanese skills after taking so many classes in the U.S. In the few days here I've gotten much better at listening and comprehending someone talking to me in Japanese, even if I don't understand every word. As long as they don't speak too fast and they stick to moderately easy vocabulary and grammar, we can hold a conversation about almost anything.
Let me say again how great the public transportation system is here. It's so liberating to know that wherever in the city you are, all you have to do is walk a block or three to the nearest subway or train station, and then for a few hundred yen (1-5 dollars or so) you can get anywhere in the city relatively quickly. I experienced this to some degree in Manhattan last winter, but the Tokyo subway and rail system far more extensive. Oh, and did I mention it's clean? Of course, a system of that scale is somewhat complicated, and I was a little intimidated at first. Fortunately all the station names, subway lines, and street names are written on signs in romaji (English alphabet) in addition to the hard-to-remember kanji (Chinese characters). And the bigger stations have maps and ticket machines also in English.
One last observation was a little surprising to me. Well I had heard this was the case, but it became very obvious to me when walking around. The Tokyo population is extremely racially uniform. By that I mean I can pass thousands of people on the street or in subway stations and not see a single other person who is not of East Asian descent, at least if I'm not in the neighborhood of the school. I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it 10 years ago, since I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma that also had almost no racial diversity. But after living in and near American cities for the last 10 years, I found Tokyo to be an interesting contrast to our "melting pot". 04/10/2005 OdaibaAfter language class this morning, I went with a few people to see Odaiba, an artificial island created by landfill in Tokyo bay. The area is home to several intersting things, including the tallest ferris wheel in the world, which we rode, and also the Fuji TV building which is architecturally a very impressive sight -- the pictures don't do it justice.
Below is a photo of the group I am doing many activities with during the three weeks (arranged by the school). They all seem like nice friendly people, though so far I have only sort of gotten to know Mildred (left, in pink). She is from Mexico and speaks some English, though we communicate almost as well in Japanese. In the background of the photo is the Tokyo Bay Rainbow Bridge. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and hazy today, so most of my cityscape photos look pretty dreary. I will upload more later after I get back home and sort through them all. 02/10/2005 Edo to AkihabaraIn the morning I took a short bike ride with Hisayo to visit the Fukugawa Edo Museum and Kiyosumi Gardens. The museum contains a recreation of an early 19th century village from the area. (Edo was the name of the present city of Tokyo before it became the capital of Japan in 1868.) The recreation was somewhat intersting, though mostly not so new to me as I have studied Japanese cultural history. And some things might look familiar if you've seen The Last Samurai, which is from the same period. (A good movie by the way.) In the neighborhood of the museum there are many Buddhist temples, as well as a pretty historical garden surrounding a small pond.
In the afternoon, Toshitsugu took me to see Akihabara, a short bike ride in the other direction. That to me is quite an exciting place. You may have heard of the Akihabara, or "electric town" district of Tokyo. It is an electronics Mecca for the city, or perhaps the world. It is several city blocks filled with electronics stores -- from a handful of super-mega electronics department stores up to 9 stories high (each of them putting Fry's to shame) to countless little shops and stalls lining the streets selling every kind of electronic product, toy, appliance, or part imaginable. Of course there are lots of really nice computers and peripherals that just aren't available in the US. I may have to go back there before I leave...
In the largest of the electronics stores I was in, about one quarter of one of the 9 floors was devoted to the Sony Playstation. And then in a back corner, Xbox was given a mere 10 feet of wall-space. It's a funny, sad, but true depection of the game console market share in Japan. However, Xbox 360 marketing was very big and noticable in many places throughout Akihabara, while I didn't notice any advertisement yet for the PS3. I know the Xbox team has high hopes for gaining market share in Japan with the 360. We'll see. 01/10/2005 ArrivalThe flight from Seattle to Tokyo was reasonably comfortable, if long. I like flying on the 777 because it actually retains a decent amount of humidity in the cabin. I dozed for a good portion of the flight, and after I woke up I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the 4-inch screen on the seatback in front of me. (You know -- the one with Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie trying to kill each other? I had wanted to see that movie, but found it disappointing. The story was predictable, the action sequences were nothing new, and it mostly wasn't even funny.)
The flight landed at Tokyo Narita airport on time at 3pm, then I had to wait for about an hour and a half in a snaking mile-long but fast-moving line to get through customs. After picking up my suitcase I was met by someone from the Kudan Academy, the school where I will take language classes starting Monday. We chatted mostly in Japanese, and she helped me get on the right bus into Tokyo.
I was met at the bus station by my host family. Hisayo (she wants me to call her 'mama' as the family does) is very pleasant and friendly and is helping me get acquainted with living in Japan. She hardly speaks any English, but mostly I understand enough Japanese to get by, or else we use a dictionary, or ask Shoko if she can translate. Shoko is the 11 year old daughter who is studying English. I think she knows a little more English than I know Japanese, but she is a little shy and lacks confidence, at least so far. Shoko seems very studious, and practices the piano as well. The father, Toshitsugu, I have only met briefly so far, as he worked late and I went to bed early last night after the very long day of travelling. The family lives in a 3-bedroom apartment near central Tokyo. The rooms seem small by American standards, but I think it's a pretty good-sized apartment for Tokyo.
I woke up around 5am today, so I'm not too far from adapting to the time change. Today is Sunday, so I have a day before I start classes. I think we're going to visit the Japan national museum of history. I'm in Tokyo!The trip went smoothly and I'm about to have dinner with my host family. I'll write more later. 30/09/2005 There's a Qdoba in Sea-tac!The Seattle airport recently finished a major remodel of the main terminal, creating a big airy central space with nice new shops and restaurants. I eat Qdoba burritos almost twice a week, so I was pleasantly surprised to find some comfort food before I left the country. (Posted from my PPC Phone while sitting on the plane at the gate.) 28/09/2005 No work for 25 days!I'm about to embark on my longest vacation so far of my adult career. If you've read recent entries here or talked to me in person, you know I'm going to Tokyo, Japan for three weeks. This will also be my first time travelling out of the country, ever. (Well... not counting the US suburb of Vancouver, B.C.) It should be quite an adventure, but I think that's what I'm looking for.
I leave this Friday morning, on a 10-hour nonstop flight from Seattle to Tokyo. I haven't started packing yet, or even thought much about what I need to bring. But I'm skipping work all day tomorrow for that purpose.
I was afraid I would miss Serenity, since Friday is the opening day. Fortunately, one of the local theaters is showing Serenity at midnight on Thursday! Apparently none of my friends are fanatical enough to join me, but then they have work the next day. I can sleep on the plane. 16/08/2005 I'm going to Japan!In the last two years, I have hardly taken any vacation time away from work. While I did go to New York for four days this past New Year's, other than that short trip I have not gone on any real vacations. Lately I've been working hard and have been starting to feel a need to get away for a while. So I have been searching for something to do with some of the 5+ weeks of vacation time credit I have accumulated at my job.
I've always wanted to visit Japan, but never had a good opportunity. I don't think I would want to go as a solo tourist -- while I'm sure I could manage to get around okay, I'm afraid it would be both lonely and stressful. And even the just tourist aspect seems somewhat unattractive, as you only get an outsider's view instead of experiencing the real culture, which I am interested in. The ideal experience for me might be as a college student doing a semester-abroad program... but alas, I am not a college student anymore, even though in some ways I still feel that way.
Just this weekend I stumbled across the Japanese Language & Culture Immersion Program offered by WorldLink Education. It includes residence and language instruction in downtown Tokyo, as well as cultural field trips and tours, and social events and interaction with locals. And it will work great for me because the program is three weeks long and not just for college students! Though from the pictures and description it seems most of the students are college age / young adults, so I should fit in just fine. It's even relatively inexpensive, compared to any other way of vacationing in Japan for 3 weeks.
It didn't take me long to decide that I'm going. I got approval from my management to take off most of the month of October, and I'll be submitting my application to WLE this week. Luckily I can just make the deadline for the October session. If everything goes as planned, I will be in Japan around September 29 - October 24. (Oh no! I'll miss the Serenity theatrical release!... But it's a small price to pay.)
After the Japanese classes I took last year at Washington Academy of Languages, I think I know enough Japanese to be able to place into the High Elementary level of instruction in the program over there. But as a refresher, I'm going to retake the WAL Japanese IV class during the month of September.
Can you tell I'm excited? |
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