The odyssey of the foreigner began early on a Monday. So early in fact, that Adult Swim was running the west feed of their Sunday night programming. I woke up at 4am. Really, 3:45ish. Meet up at the airport was scheduled for 6:30, so that left me plenty of time to get some last minute preparations together...
...and by last minute preparations, I mean syncing my iPod for the first time in two years. Who knows when I might want to listen to 'Busted Bayou'? Or the "Doomstar Requiem"? Clearly I had my priorities in order. An episode from Metal Season 4 was on. The most recent vintage, and a good one too. And to my surprise; they still air Moral Orel? That show still gets advertisers? Dino Stamatopoulos is the black sheep of Williams Street.
But enough about my critiques of Williams Street. This is about traveling to the other side of the world. To quote Samwise Gamgee:
"If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest
away from home I've ever been."
I arrived at the airport on time, only to find out our
flight was pushed back. Oh well. What's waiting a little while longer in Charlotte over waiting that same amount of time in Chicago?
Departing from Charlotte, the flight to Chicago was fun. It didn't take very long, a domestic flight of about an hour and a half. Maybe not even. Whatever the time it actually ended up taking, it flew. And that's not a pun. The time really did pass quickly. 90 minutes just isn't enough time to properly absorb the current issue of Sky Mall. Eating shit trying to hatch a shiny Bagon, (for God knows how many hundreds of eggs at this point...) I decided to go retro and play some Mega Man 2. Hadn't had a good play through of that one in about 10 years. I was doing well until I get my ass handed to me on Air Man's stage. Discouraged, I decided to put the game away and try again later. We were landing in Chicago, anyways.
Departing from Charlotte, the flight to Chicago was fun. It didn't take very long, a domestic flight of about an hour and a half. Maybe not even. Whatever the time it actually ended up taking, it flew. And that's not a pun. The time really did pass quickly. 90 minutes just isn't enough time to properly absorb the current issue of Sky Mall. Eating shit trying to hatch a shiny Bagon, (for God knows how many hundreds of eggs at this point...) I decided to go retro and play some Mega Man 2. Hadn't had a good play through of that one in about 10 years. I was doing well until I get my ass handed to me on Air Man's stage. Discouraged, I decided to put the game away and try again later. We were landing in Chicago, anyways.
The layover in Chicago was fun. I grabbed a bite to eat and saw a dinosaur; a replica of a Brachiosaur skeleton at some incredibly overpriced kiosk deep within O'Hare International. Seriously, $94 for a stuffed owl? For that price the fur had better be from an actual snow owl.
Finally, our flight to Tokyo boards. Cleverly disguised as a giant Boeing 747 on the outside this particular plane was actually a tightly packed burrito on the inside, except instead of beans it was rolled with people...one on top of the other.
When I first entered the 747, I quickly realized that there
was much less room than I previously thought. Certainly less room than the last
flight. At least on the last flight I had an aisle seat, but this time I was
smack dab in between two other people.
I'm pretty sure I saw some chickens running around as soon as I entered coach. Livestock was just free to roam the vehicle, as long as they didn't bother the passengers in business class. After all, they had their own device charging stations! All those chickens and goats would just chew up those wires, United Airlines figures. Keep those creatures in economy, and keep that livestock in check, too!
But seriously, I smelled a difference between business and economy. Like, a bad difference. (it smelled like pee...) I know that these two parts of the plane were actually '1st Class' and 'Coach'. Calling them 'business' and 'economy' is a clever way to make Americans not feel so shitty about being in the shitty part of the plane. But really, I've never felt so shitty and uncomfortable on a plane since...well, ever. Considering how long the flight was, (11 1/2 hours) the degradation in quality really made a difference. How could I get any sleep when I couldn't even lean my seat back? Its times like this that I'm grateful for being super skinny. So what if the chicks don't dig guys without muscles? At least I can squeeze between two people twice my size on an overcrowded international flight. Let's see 3/4s of America do that!
If only United's plan of making me blind to all of this by calling it 'economy' would have worked...maybe I would've gotten an hour or two of sleep like I had originally planned, but sleep was never really an option. The plane had Wifi available...for a price. Only $17 to browse the internet! Pokebattling random opponents online to enjoyably pass the overstretched time of the flight was not an option. Deciding instead to finish my Mega Man 2 quest, I would have beaten the rest of the game if the battery on my 3DS hadn't died on me. Of course it had to die when I was nearing the end of Wily Stage 4...
I decided to use my free time to pour out some creativity. Ideas for TV shows, various characters and scenes flow in and out of my head daily. I very rarely actually act proactive and write them down, though. This over cramped nightmare flight gave me a chance to jot down some episode ideas for Deeger Street. It also gave me a chance to hash out character descriptions and doodle some concepts of said characters.
Eventually though, we landed in Tokyo. As soon as we landed, we noticed how much green there was outside. We were all glad to just be off the plane. I don't think one of us enjoyed that flight. Even the two chaperones had a miserable experience, and one of them travels abroad frequently. "I've never been on an international flight in which every seat didn't have a TV." one of them said over dinner that night. What, did United give us a plane from the 80s? Perhaps.
Getting off of the plane we had finally reached Tokyo, the farthest point from my current state of
residence, North
Carolina. Arriving during Japan's rainy season, the city was shrouded in hues of white and gray. Going
through customs, the advantages of Japan's culture were immediately noticed. Standing in line to get our customs papers checked, 2 other
UNCC students and I realized just how quiet it was. We were in the middle of a
giant line of cranky international travelers waiting to get through, and the
noise in this large room amounted to a lulled hush.
The employees at Tokyo International wanted to get shit done. The man directing people into the different check-in desks at customs was sweating. Running back and forth giving numbers to people so they knew which desk to check in at, this guy had the goodwill of his clients at the forefront of his mind. He wasn't begrudgingly moving the line along just so he could wait out his shift and punch the clock. This guy wanted us, the passengers, to have a quick and painless experience doing something that is usually troublesome and annoying. Going through customs isn't a walk in the park, especially if you don't fluently speak the language of the country you're trying to enter.
The employees at Tokyo International wanted to get shit done. The man directing people into the different check-in desks at customs was sweating. Running back and forth giving numbers to people so they knew which desk to check in at, this guy had the goodwill of his clients at the forefront of his mind. He wasn't begrudgingly moving the line along just so he could wait out his shift and punch the clock. This guy wanted us, the passengers, to have a quick and painless experience doing something that is usually troublesome and annoying. Going through customs isn't a walk in the park, especially if you don't fluently speak the language of the country you're trying to enter.
Our group reformed outside of the customs area and boarded a coach bus to take us to our hotel. We had to sit through another hour and a half of travel, but this time we had a foreign landscape to keep us dumbly drooling until we reached our ultimate destination, and how interesting this passing scenery was. The highway we drove on reminded me of the highways and interstates on Long Island, only there was much more foliage. Green was everywhere. It climbed up walls, fences and buildings hiding the grotesque visage of civilization. At some points the buildings and roads gave way to flat fields of green used for agriculture. This mixture of cabbage and concrete even extended into the city. Some buildings had layers of green intersecting in and out of the walls that held them up.
Taking note of some activities of the people we passed by,
it seems deathly obvious that the Japanese are just as distracted by technology
as we are. Nearly every car used a GPS or had somebody listening to music or using an iPod. I even saw a pair
of businessmen standing in a beautiful park busily using their cell phones.
These distractions are not a good example of Japanese work ethic however; as I
write this, I can see Japanese workers in the building next to our hotel room
busily working away at various projects. Currently, it's a quarter to 10 at night. Do all kaishains (office workers) burn the midnight oil like this?
Stepping off the bus and into the heart of Japan for the first time is like stepping into the cultural America of the 50s: our hotel had bellhops...and many of them! They took our bags, held the elevator doors for us, and even led some of us around. The politeness in all Japanese employees is absolute. The people they work for come first, not the other way around like it is in the states.
Stepping off the bus and into the heart of Japan for the first time is like stepping into the cultural America of the 50s: our hotel had bellhops...and many of them! They took our bags, held the elevator doors for us, and even led some of us around. The politeness in all Japanese employees is absolute. The people they work for come first, not the other way around like it is in the states.
I did not get a great sampling of Japanese culture on Day 1, but I got a taste and I'm eager to take a larger bite on Day 2.
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