Friday, November 14, 2008.
Today is the day that begins my great adventure. I'm not going to start the post by saying "I woke up today" because I never went to sleep. I was just too excited. So the trip really began when I got on the plane. It was a fairly nice plane. I had the option to watch several movies for free, but I choose to sleep for ten hours instead. No, the story really begins here:
This is the first thing I saw when I got off the plane. Though that wasn't nearly as impressive as this:
This was proof that I was in Japan. And this...
...was proof that it was going to be a very interesting visit. After a minor incident regarding lost luggage I took my first "legal" steps into Japan. My ride was late in picking me up though so I decided to take the chance to explore my surroundings. Things like the mini-marts...
...were interesting, but the thing that stuck out to me were the cooler machines.
In Japan these things are everywhere. Everywhere. Walk into a big building? There's a cooler machine. Walk into a resteraunt? There's a cooler. Walk into a restroom? There's a cooler (so you can replace what you just got rid of I suppose). These machines aren't owned by corporations like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, so you get a variety of stuff. The above machine has some of the standards America is used to. This one had a more interesting selection:
...where canned coffee, milked tea, and Pocari Sweat are common. It was this machine where I got the best tasting grape juice I ever had. As in it tasted like actual grapes. With no preservatives. Pretty cool if you ask me. My friend finally arrived at the Meeting Point...
...which is a room designed with the idea that finding travelers would easier if you gave them all somewhere to go. Makes me wonder why American airlines don't have these. Anyway, after my friend arrived it was time to take a couple of trains home. Train transportation is everywhere in this country, and people fill this carts up like nothing else. For how polite the Japanese can be in the public, when it comes to getting on a train they seem to have no problem just shoving people back in order to insure they get on. This is actually the where the first major problem happened. See, I knew Japan was crowded. But I was also coming away from a sixteen hour flight and carrying lots of heavy lugage around. On top of that, my coat was extremely hot to wear on account that country is not exactly in a cold spell right now.When getting on the final train I was ready for rest. Yet the train was late. VERY late! By about an hour. All that time people kept shoving in the cart. I was hot, tired, and on top of that I had no elbow room. I couldn't even turn my feet there was so much people in the cart. When it finally did start I was sweaty and shaking. I've got serious person space issues when I can't move an inch for a long period of time. It was in this train though that I met a young man named Mr. Keiskei, who was actually an American born and raised Asian, who was now living in Japan because of his job. He gave me a few city tips and even let us know why the train was so late. Apparently someone killed themselves on the track. At that point I calmed down. Somehow being inconvienced about not moving felt very unimportant when stacked next to a guy who felt he had no reason to live. Well, the train finally brought us to our destination, where another five minutes of walking was in order. To my joy I'm staying right near a McDonald's...
...though I assured Eric that I'd go with him to his choice of food tonight. After dropping off our stuff we turned a corner to find a ranma place...
...and this was probably the most jarring thing about Japan (so far,considering I've only been here a day): There are businesses and houses around every corner. You can walk down a dark alley and there's a 24 hour convience store or something. This place was around a crooked back alley, easy to miss really. So as you might expect we had noodlesfor dinner. The store was owned by a very nice man named Kenji Isozaki, who was nice enough to take a picture of us:
Now I normally wouldn't take notice of this man's name, except he noticed the cross I had on my t-shirt, and wanted to know if I was a christian. When I replied "hai" he then went on to discuss how he became a christian himself. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but his emotions were so real I could feel the honesty behind them. As Eric told me later on he once worked for a big company that eventually went out of business. Shortly afterwards he ran out of money and, being that status is a big part of Japanese society, contemplated suicide. It was through this experience that led him to Jesus Christ. After he told this story he showed us his Japanese Bible, song sheet, and sang a few worship songs (all in Japanese of course). He told us how one day he wants to be a pastor, but for now serving people really good food is like serving them some of Jesus's kindness.He was a very nice man, and we stayed there much later then originally intended. Finally we get back to the small, cramped room. So on the first day I discover cool coin machines, a new country, and hear about a spiritual rebirth. I wonder what the rest of the week will be like. Oh yeah, before I log off I want to share this with you. Seeing as how most ranma shops only serve alchol I decided to buy a drink on the way home. And I found...
...Yogurt Pepsi. Yes, it's an actual carbinated drink. How did it taste? Well, it tasted like carbinated yogurt...and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Living Life Differently These Days
8:11 AM
8:11 AM