Month: September 2013

Technology

Japan Chronicles – the first night

Aside | Posted on by carlos fletcher

Man, it was hard for me to adjust to the fact that I was in Tokyo, again!

Our apartment was tight!  AC, wood floors, bidet in the toilet.  I’ve come to learn that the Japanese are obsessive with cleanliness…and I don’t mind one bit.  Their toilets are in separate rooms from their washrooms.  The toilet had a bidet and a faucet on top of it.  Whenever you flushed, the water would flow through the faucet and then the toilet, I guess so that you could get a chance to rinse your hands.

The showers are a little different as well, but I had heard of them before.  They believe in the power of taking baths, but since they also believe in cleanliness, their showers are built right next to the tub so that you can wash yourself and then get in the tub.

Man, the view of the city was amazing!  The balcony was tight!

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I think we showered and then just walked around.  We got lost a little bit.  Tokyo doesn’t have a grid like pattern to their streets so it can be a little confusing, still, there’s no better way to get to know a city than by wandering around it.

I felt like a giant.  Japanese people are much smaller than Americans on average.  Like somebody the size of Jack Black would be considered heavyweight even though I don’t think he breaks 200 pounds.  Started feeling a little self conscious!  I felt tall but gruesome, lol!

We decided to just take the “L” for the night and not try to do something.  We just went to McDonalds.  I got a double cheeseburger and it was on some gourmet type shit. The burgers were actually bigger than the buns.  I didn’t expect it to be like the ones in the states but this was nice.

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I just did a little unpacking and that was it.

Japan Chronicles – the plane ride here

Posted on by carlos fletcher

man, first of all, I was NOT prepared for how long the ride was gonna be!  Man!

When I first got on the plane I lucked out.  I had my section all to myself.  Not only that, but across the isle was the prettiest girl on the plane.  I noticed her earlier, we sat next to her before at the terminal and it looked like she was interested in what we were doing.

I introduced myself to her since we were gonna be neighbors.  She was a very nice girl.  She was mixed, forgot with what.  She was raised on an army base.  She just got into university at Temple, apparently they have a campus in Tokyo.

I asked her all kinds of questions, I’m sure I got on her nerves.  I asked her what it was like, etc.  I asked her what kind of gift would she be bringing back from the states to her friends.  She said colgate.  She told me that the Japanese government considers menthol a drug so they regulate its use.  Sure enough, while I was there it was hard to find peppermint gum and the such.  I asked her about dancing in clubs being illegal.  She said yeah.  She was a part of a flash mob that tried to protest it.  Said it didn’t work out that well because the train was so crowded. She told me to carry ID with me at all times, but not my passport.  Told me a story about how a guy had gotten into a fight and beaten up pretty badly.  Well this american came to help him up and the police arrested him!

She said that she had to go to the bathroom but was scared to go because the fasten seatbelt sign was flashing.  I told her to be bold, do something dangerous, go!  She just buzzed the stewardess and asked her.  It was ok.

Once the plane took off our conversation went in the opposite direction.
It was cool.
I had some movies to watch.

I tried my best to get comfortable.  I watched a movie, I watched some shows, I slept, I conversed with Pete and Nghi.  I looked at the time, I think like four hours passed. The flight was for 13 hours.  Jeez!  It was sooo excruciating.  I tried to lay down, I tried to lean back, I tried to lean to the side.  Finally, I sat up straight, buckled my seat belt and slept for the final few hours.

They fed us well on the flight.  We had more than enough food.  Since the plane was late in leaving they gave us a food voucher but even without that there was more than enough.

Anyway, now I’m at the airport dreading having to do it all over again.  But it was soooo worth it.

Japan Chronicles

Posted on by carlos fletcher

Man, it’s been almost 30 years since I visited Japan.  I just remember going to this one place where they told me that I would be back.  I’m finally back.

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We got into Tokyo about 1030 pm last night.  According to my time it was more like 1130 am.

As soon as we got on our bus we started noticing subtle differences.  For one, seat belts.  I’m used to the male part of the seatbelt being the adjustable part. it was the opposite here.  And of course there’s the driving on the other side of the rode.  Going from the airport to our rental, the city reminded me more of Toronto than NYC.  There were a lot of white clean buildings.

I’m a little jet lagged.  I stopped trying to figure out what time it is back home.  One thing we did was to deprive ourselves of sleep before we left.  This has lessened the effect of jet lag, I believe, but I’m still tired.  I got like 3-4 hours sleep last night.  I’m hoping that’s the average.

I gotta take a shower and bounced, but here are a few pics of the drive to the apartment.

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