One of my students, Suzette had a trip to Japan in October. I asked her to share her experience. Here is the Suzette’s adventure in Japan! Enjoy 🙂
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Adventures of a Gaijin* in Japan
*(Gaijin = “foreigner.” Apparently there is some controversy over this word in Japan, and whether there is a racist/negative connotation behind it. From what I can gather, it’s very much like the word “haole” in Hawaii – it can be negative or neutral, depending on the context.)
DAY 1
Well, the long flight (8 hours) from Hawaii to Narita Airport in Tokyo wasn’t as bad as I feared. There were 3 lame movies to watch (“Mall Cop” being the best of the bunch…yeah, you get the idea), but the Japanese couple next to me were very polite and quiet and the meal was decent. However the last leg of that journey, from Narita to Itami Airport in Osaka was another matter. We were delayed before leaving, and when I finally walked through the gate to the tarmac it was just to get on a bus! We drove for about a mile on the landing field, at one point with a plane taxing right next to us, and finally got off at the plane we were taking. It was raining so the flight attendant got out a big umbrella to shield us from the few steps off to the bus to the stairs of the plane….such a typically Japanese thing to do.
When I first arrived at Narita I had pick up my luggage and check it in again for Osaka. That was a bit confusing – necessitating trips through two different Customs (turn in one form before I picked up my luggage, and then another after I picked it up) – and then I had to find the counter to check it in. As I approached the thankfully empty counter, the agent behind it left her post and came around the counter to greet me. She escorted me back to the counter and then apologized for making me wait! Another typically Japanese thing, I think.
Thank god my friend Mil was there to meet me, as I probably would’ve been lost otherwise. She was able to get our bus tickets from the machine and take us to the Kyoto station. From there we jumped in a taxi to the hotel (which she also memorized….me being brain-dead just let her handle it). I have to laugh at myself, being half-Japanese from Hawaii, and letting this Aussie handle talking to the locals with her Japanese words!
The hotel seems nice enough, but man the room is small! The bed is literally five steps from the door (I checked), and there was a sign on it that said that there was enough space for big luggage under the bed. Good thing, because otherwise my suitcase would take up the remaining space in the room!
The door key was the old-fashioned metal type, instead of a card key, and attached to a long chain and even longer keychain.
The only problem we had was trying to turn the lights on. There were three buttons (none of which seemed to work in any combination), a little lighted square that didn’t do anything when I pushed on it, and a small square above it that had the work “In” on it. When I pushed on that, it did sink in, but that didn’t do anything for the lights either.
Picture both of us, in total darkness except for two tiny flashlights, trying to figure this out! I couldn’t call the front desk because I couldn’t figure out the Kanji characters on the phone, so Mil went down to ask them. It turns out you had to stick that long keychain in the hole in the wall marked “In” to get all the lights to work! *LOL!* I felt really stupid after that, but even Mil, world traveler that she is, didn’t figure it out, so that made me feel a lot better. 😀
Dinner was around the corner at a little place that had an English menu (basically handwritten with hand-drawn pictures), and had a nice salad with Korean-style dressing, and some kushiyaki (grilled skewers) of chicken, tomatoes, and lotus root. My Japanese teacher (btw, this class started from scratch rather than being one of those that teaches useful travelling phrases first thing – leaving Mil to be the one to ask for the check in Japanese *g*) once said she especially liked the food in the Kansai region, because it was much simpler. I see now what she means – the flavors (so far) are much subtler than I’m used to from Japanese food in Hawaii. But we’ll see….I still have a lot of eating to do!
Written by Suzette Tom