I have now been in Japan for about 2 and a half days. I'm not doing too bad on jet lag or so it seems, maybe it'll hit me later in the week and I'll become narcoleptic.
The plane ride wasn't so bad. I had my own TV screen and could choose from about 7 different movies that were constantly looping. I could also play video games. Bad ones but games nonetheless. To me, this is high class flying. I've never had my own screen, much less video games. I spent a lot of time losing at Connect 4. That computer was just too smart for me. It made me mad.
Narita airport in Tokyo is huge and if you've been to Incheon in Seoul, it's very similar. I powered through passport inspection but got held up at the baggage carousel. I don't know if Japan is on a make-work program but there were at least 4 people hanging around the carousel making sure everything was going smoothly. Even China didn't have people doing those tasks. After sitting forlornly in my luggage cart (which was free, all that worrying for nothing) I finally hoisted my bags onto it, admist much grunting and puffing, then zipped through customs where they pretty much waved me through. I guess I don't look like a drug pusher or the like.
Will met me at Osaka airport at which point I'd been awake for 24 hours and had no idea what was going on. I couldn't seem to comprehend that I was indeed in Japan and that my Korean was useless here (it somehow registered that English was going to be no help at all). Everytime I attempted to talk, I had to stop myself from speaking Korean. Is this some defense mechanism of the brain? Or was I just really tired?
I'm now situated with Will in a small town called Tsuguri-cho. More specifically some district called Sadamitsu. After Seoul this place is tiny. No one seems to be on the streets at any time. There are only a handful of people at the train station and there is one supermarket in the whole town. No one speaks any English and I think Will and I are the only foreigners in this direct area. Oi. It's also HOT HOT HOT. I'm freakin' in a sauna. I've taken to wearing a damp towel around my neck to make it bearable, sometimes I cover my head with it and ignore any funny looks I might get. I've also taken to wearing skirts since my shorts are considered indecent here.
One of the stranger things here, aside from driving on the left hand side, is the garbage arrangement. And I thought Korea was bad where I had to buy special bags to throw trash out in. I have to have about 5 different bags here. One for clear plastics, one for coloured plastics, one for plastics not fitting into the other 2 categories, glass bottles, bottle caps, paper, food and scraps, and large things like electronics. Everything is separated within an inch of its life and thrown into colour-coordinated bags. Today when attempting to throw out a juice carton I had to consult the chart on the wall to figure out which bag it went into, this was after studying said juice carton for 5 minutes hoping to come up with the answer myself. Consequently, the kitchen is a mess of bags and garbage cans. Another slightly strange thing, our washing machine is outside the house. And the toilet has its own room, the shower and bath are together in a separate room. Why does the toilet get its own room? Is it a special toilet because I can choose from 2 settings?
Anyway, there are some random observations of Japan. I will keep you posted on the happenings here. I can't wait until October when things should be cooling down. Yergh.
Cheers,
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