It finally begins.
So I'm going to begin this by saying that until I was finally able to sleep last night, I was up for over 30 hours - due to both the long flight to Japan itself along with the trip to Minneapolis and the layover in Chicago. It was next to impossible to sleep on the shuttle to the Cities or on the plane itself because...of course... the person in front of me reclined into my knees on all 3 legs of the journey - INCLUDING THE SHUTTLE TO MINNEAPOLIS. I'm starting to really wish I was about 5'6" instead of 6'3"
The flight to Japan was nice for a change, because I flew ANA and got to travel in a very, VERY spiffed up Boeing 737. It even had "new plane smell", which up until this point I believed was a myth. Going from the plane that flies the nonstop route to Tokyo from Minneapolis (with broken seats, discolored/cracked projectors with no choice in programming, dirty cabin, etc...) to this brand new plane with individual TV displays (with remote control and on-demand programming), decent food, and comfortable seats* was completely worth the two-hour layover in Chicago. When I booked the flight, the only seat left was in the middle of a row, and I was seriously dreading that flight because as I've learned from experience, tall people and middle seats DO NOT MIX.
*when not being reclined against your legs
It would have been painful, too, if not for the person in the checkin line ahead of me who - for some reason unknown to me - wanted to move her aisle seat to a middle seat closer to the front of the plane. I moved my seat to that aisle seat, so I was able to be at least a little more comfortable. The plane was completely full, so there weren't any opportunities to upgrade to Economy Plus or whatever ANA's equivalent was. Looking at the seats, though, they didn't look much larger than the ones in regular Economy and I'd still have the reclining problem. I'm still a bit sore from the plane 24 hours later, which tells you how cramped it really was. The new planes are slightly more ergonomically designed, but their main purpose is still to cram as many seats as possible into as little space as possible. The only way I could be even REMOTELY comfortable is in first class. Anyone have any frequent flier program suggestions? I'm on Delta's but I'm not taking that Greyhound-in-the-sky for 5 more trips just to earn enough points to attempt - ATTEMPT - acquiring an exit row seat and even then I would only get it if someone else with a higher frequent-flier ranking doesn't come in and pull it out from under me.
On this flight I met a very nice group of Christian missionaries who were flying over to tour Japan and talk to people about their church and programs. When I asked whether they were doing volunteer work, they wanted to say yes but I could tell from their reaction that they weren't going to do much of that and explained they were coming mostly to talk to people and support the efforts of expat missionaries living here in Japan. I explained to them a little bit about the Japanese religious philosophy because they mentioned that the Japanese are one of the most difficult groups to "talk seriously to about God". As an agnostic I am chuckling on the inside - but I would understand exactly why they would feel that way. Japanese people are less religious and more superstitious. Some of their rituals come from Shinto - their creation myths and legends (think Greek/Roman mythology sorts of tales), while other rituals come directly from Buddhism or Zen-Buddhism. Most people have ample exposure to both, but live their own lives without focusing much on a god. When they need guidance in a particular area of their lives, they go pray to the Shinto god/goddess related to their problem at a shrine for luck. They also incorporate some of the Buddhist style teachings into other areas of their lives. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and there are plenty of Buddhist monks and Shinto shrine maidens (miko) here as well who live very strictly to the tenets of their religion. Their relationship with their religion is very different in general than the average Christian. I explained all of this to the missionaries and they seemed very interested in what I had to say.
One of the people in that missionary group has a daughter on the trip who says she wants to live in Japan (though has never been there) and wants to major in game design. Sounds familiar, ne?
Well, I said that I used to be the exact same way until I came here, and I ended up telling this mother the same thing my parents told me - in that it's OK to want to work on games or in gaming - but when getting a degree you should definitely pursue one of the base programs (such as 3D modeling, computer science, etc.) and work on the game stuff through electives or on your own time - as opposed to getting a dedicated degree in game design. A lot of well-known developers have gone on record to say that they are more likely to hire someone who has a stronger diverse educational background from a known university than a recent graduate of Westwood College. "My mom told me I wouldn't get anywhere with these games!"
In any case, they were a very nice group though there were a couple periods of awkwardness when I asked about what they were doing in Japan. I finished up talking with them by giving a quick "Yen 101" course since I had some Japanese money with me already, and showed them what $1, $5, $10, and $50 equivalents will look like, and how to quickly do the Yen/$ conversion. I also told them that they made the right decision to not exchange their money in the States and to wait until landing at Narita...because most US airports have a really, really nasty markup on foreign currency. I gave the leader of the group my business card and let them know they could contact me if they ran into language or culture issues. They seemed very surprised my work would allow me to do a trip like this. I'm continually reminded how lucky I really am.
A few more interesting notes on flying ANA when compared to Delta/Northwest:
1.) The dinner meal was actually decent and didn't make anyone sick as far as I could tell. They had a choice between katsu curry and steamed salmon, both of which were served with a variety of side dishes. The katsu was actually decent for airline food. They also had a "premium" menu (using the term loosely) where you could pay 700 yen (~$7.80) for what amounts to a bowl of higher-quality instant ramen. The meal they served right before we landed, however, looks like it was taken right from the bowels of American Airlines test kitchens. A burrito. BURRITO - With something resembling cheese, beans, and some sort of mystery meat. It tasted like the instant burritos you can get in most gas stations or at Sam's Club... except with less flavor. I only took a couple bites of that one because I was fairly sure it would make me sick. Fortunately they served this Mexican reject-concoction with a cup of yogurt and a fruit bowl, so I went ahead and ate those. A note to people used to the American melting pot of delicious international cuisine: Japanese-Italian food is scary. Japanese-Mexican food is scarier... ESPECIALLY ON AIRPLANES.
2.) ANA flight experience was wonderful overall. However - it's definitely 1950's over here. They didn't have a single attendant working the flight that looked over 30 years old, all of them were female, and none of them ever stopped smiling. Really different than what we're used to. It was nice being served by people who at least appeared to not hate every second of their job. Whether or not they were actually happy is a whole different issue (tatemae vs. honne which I will not be discussing now). Older and/or male attendants only worked the gate and passport check, and did not serve people on the flight. Interesting.
3.) The flight attendants don't think gaijin can speak Japanese.
I managed to get a little bit of sleep on the plane, but not much...and upon landing I quickly got through customs, exchanged my money, and made it on the just-departing Narita express to be carried into downtown Tokyo which is roughly an hour trip. In my severely jet-lagged brain I had a decision to make. The Narita Express drops off at Shinjuku station, which is quite a walk to my hotel. It's also rush hour. So the question becomes how do I avoid playing Japanese-person bowling with my oversized luggage on the packed trains.
The options were:
A.) Get off at Shinjuku station and walk to the hotel - not happening when carrying that much luggage. It's a good 30-40 minute walk and that would be painful.
B.) Ride the subway - two problems: first I'd have to remember where the entrance is. Second, I'd have to go up/down four flights of stairs with no escalator to enter/exit the subway station.
C.) Ride the train one stop from Shinjuku and walk 10 minutes to the hotel - this is the one I chose and the route we took last time as well. Since I know where I'm going this time, it was a lot less painful. The walk was still tough because I had to bring a lot of stuff, but it was manageable.
On the way to the hotel I spotted no fewer than 10 "vanity" umbrellas carried by women to keep their faces out of the sun (apparently pale skin is "in"). I also spotted a guy walking two dogs, one of which was dressed in a full ballerina costume, tutu and all. Yep, I'm definitely back in Japan...
I was able to rest for a while once reaching the hotel, and then ventured out again to meet two people from the Japanese branch of work - Haji and Satoshi. On the way I tried a little experiment. You see, rumor is that on Japanese trains, you can spread out because of something known on the Internet as the "Gaijin Barrier". It works as follows: on the crowded trains of Japan, people will generally do everything they can to find an empty seat as they usually fill up quickly. But if a foreigner sits in a seat, the seats to the immediate left and right of that foreigner remain empty. People don't want to sit next to us, so the joke/theory is we have a sort of "barrier effect" on keeping the natives at bay. The myth was proven false for the second time today, as upon sitting down on the Chuo-line train bound for Tokyo station, it only took two stops before there was a middle-aged Japanese woman to the immediate left of me, and an elderly Japanese man on the right even though there were other single empty seats in the row. I was rather taken aback by this because the only time I've ever noticed the "Gaijin Barrier" failing before was when I was dressed up in a suit for my presentation at IBM Japan. Apparently if you dress like a tourist people are put off, but not if you're dressed like you belong there. But I was dressed touristy (nice, but touristy) on the Chuo-line and people didn't mind sitting next to me. Weird.
I've gone on for long enough for today. Stay tuned tomorrow for today's events and a side note on one of the biggest love-hate foods of Japan: the katsuobushi, or bonito fish flake.
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