Dougy Mak's Blog

Just another regular trip. The day began with waking up early, and heading towards the airport. I traveled to Japan today for the first time along with my girl friend. I wasn’t excited at all, and seeing the familiar scenes between my house to the inner corridors of a boeing 767 was only as exciting as coming home from school everyday. The flight was horrible, I was stuck in tight seat D of aisle 50. My legs were crammed and confined, but I was able to sleep at least. My slumber was horrible, and there was absolutely no way for me to cycle through the 4 stages of sleep. Occasionally waking up to check if my food was here, pretzels arrived and I got to choose my beverage, ginger ale. Slowly, I dozed off and continued my dream only to wake up again to be served with a TV dinner-like meal. It was not too bad, the only difference was I had to pay $1400 to eat the airline one. As the flight concluded, I still lacked excitement. This is supposedly the place I have been wanting to come all my life, and it was only as exciting as a trip to McDonalds to me.

We finally arrived at Narita airport in Japan, and I followed the white people through customs to the baggage claim. Nothing special about the baggage claim area, of course. It’s just another airport, however, I did notice that Japan’s escalators are a lot more quiet than the ones in America. So escalator after escalator, we arrived at Keisei train station and we boarded the train. On the train, there was a combination of natives returning home and foreign tourists like myself. The train brought us up north through Chiba for 1 and a half hour. We arrived at Nippori where we transfered to the JR train and headed towards Shinjuku. These train rides were long, and I was still not feeling the excitement at all. I was the tallest on my train rides, but for some reason I felt very uneasy with all the people around, but at the same time, I was feeling comfortable being surrounded by Asians who did not even speak my tongue. Sitting on these trains gave me many opportunities to observe the outside buildings and the people around me. The people here are quiet, at least during the train rides. They are  unique though, everyone has their own style and a very unique one as well. Actually, most of the  girls were pretty similar. Brown hair, heels, stockings… you get the idea. The guys were actually unique from each other. While still feeling utterly unexcited, we finally reached our destination. As we rose towards the top of the escalator, I spotted this lady with an orange shirt. I never met her before, but I just knew she was waiting for us. “Konichiwa douzo yoroushiku onegaishimasu”, I greeted girl friend’s aunt while bowing. Suddenly, I started getting excited. We continued to exit the station and soon enough, we were walking on the streets of Higashimurayama. We dropped off our suitcases in the car, and my girl friend led me into a convenient store to buy food. It was like an Asian 7 Eleven. They had onigiris, bentos, cha sew bao, and various fried foods. She bought me a tuna onigiri and hiyashichuuka. By this time, I was very excited. Back in the car, there was a new face. It was my girl friend’s grandma, “Konichiwa douzo yoroushiku onegaishimasu”.

During the ride, my girl friend got scared because we were driving on the opposite side from what we were used to in America. Only able to comprehend 60% of the Japanese they were speaking, I soon found out it costs  300,000 yen ($3000) for a drivers license here. When we arrived at her house, I was feeling relaxed and I felt very submerged into the Japanese life. Right when I got out of the car, her aunt took a picture of me and my girl friend to show my girl friend’s grandpa. The neighborhood was nice, and so was her house. It was smaller than I thought, but because it was so small, I can understand why Japanese families are more intimate and more close. I greeted her father, “Konichiwa douzo yoroushiku onegaishimasu” and then ate with my girl friend. We sat down around the living room table and ate the food we bought. My girl friend was sitting on the floor while I was sitting on the couch. It is so natural for her to just sit on the floor instead of the couch, but for me its usually the coach first. The onigiri was NOTHING like what I had in San Francisco. It was delicious, and this was only convenience store level of quality. The hiyashichuuka was even better! It’s concept was similar to a vermicelle in which they both have toppings and both have a sauce where you pour over cold noodles.

I began using the facilities here, and it’s quite different. The toilet seat was also a seat warmer, and its cleansing nozzle was quite impressive. The shower here was not built to be used while standing, it was built to be used while sitting. The whole bathroom was different from what I am normally used to. Around 9pm JST, we received a call to meet my girl friend’s mom at a ramen shop. When I first stepped out the door, I realized how great the weather was. It was not cold, not too hot, also not too humid. The atmosphere felt different here. I felt so safe. Back at home during late nights, I knew it was safe, but I always felt like I needed to keep my guard up (not that my neighborhood is unsafe or anything). The trees here felt different than the ones at home. I always felt the dark shadows of the trees emitted this creepy vibe creating these creepy imaginations that can bring chills down my spine. Here, I was just able to let go and really relax. The streets here are nothing like home. The non-grid setup and the small sidewalks and streets. Some of the sidewalks were basically just the street distinguished by a white line. Most of the time we were just walking along the side of the street. There were a lot of vending machines. I never saw any in my neighborhood, but here you would probably see a few every few blocks. We finally arrived, and we all had gyoza which is basically a potsticker except the skin is much thinner than what I am used to in my culture. The waiter served us water, and the cups were quite small (half the size of King of Thai cups, I would say). I had manshu ramen and my girl friend and her mother had hiyashichuuka. In terms of texture and taste, the ramen noodles were different from what I had in America. Soup was nice, and overall the dish was nice. The most memorable dish was the hiyashichuuka. I finished my girl friend’s food, so I had a chance to compare the restaurant hiyashichuuka with the store hiyashichuuka. The toppings served with the hiyashichuuka was more in quantity and the sauce was better tasting. After finishing the plate, it became obvious there was a yellow blob on the side of the plate. It was mustard, and you could mix it in with the dish to eat. I wish I saw it earlier, so I could have tasted it in its variant form.

From the restaurant, I took the chance to go grocery shopping with my girl friend and her mother and I am glad I did. I should have mentioned earlier that there are a lot of bike racks and parking places for bikes everywhere. More people commute by bicycle here. In front of the grocery store, you could park your bicycle and there were at least 10 bicycles during that time (~10:30pm). The grocery store was like a paradise for me! The foods that cost $5 in San Francisco were cheap! The Japanese import drinks in San Francisco were expensive! I think like $5 and here it was only 98 yen ($1.07). Shopping around, I noticed the smaller portions of the Japanese foods and the unfamiliar appearance of the vegetables and how it was displayed. Cucumbers here were thin, probably around 2 cm in diameter and the broccoli were cut so neatly and stood up and displayed uniformly like collectible action figures. Check out time came, and this grocery store charged for plastic bags. This promoted people to bring their own bags which was not a problem at all since we had our own. We loaded the grocery bags onto the mamachari which is a bike for moms. The kind of bike with a basket in the front and back. Off she went and we were to meet back at home. By this time, I had already recognized the streets and was able to go home on my own. As a test, my girl friend challenged me to lead us home. On the way home, my girl friend pointed out the design of a coke can (it was an ultra man design) in the vending machine. I used the vending machine for the first time and we proceeded home drinking our CocaCola. The CocaCola here tasted different. Less carbonated, and possibly less sweet. I can’t quite put a finger on it, but there’s a subtle difference in taste. When we arrived home, I was pretty much ready to sleep. I brushed up and laid on my bed while my girl friend checked my blog post. I remember feeling my back against the hard bed and its stiff pillow. It felt great. As I reminisced about the day, I slowly fell asleep… For me, getting here was not that exciting, but as I began to transition to the Japanese lifestyle, I felt refreshed, I felt energized, and I felt excited to live here.