Protocol 7

At the grocery store, the watermelons aren’t the big-ass bbq/Fourth-Of-July summer fun fruits they are in the States, but rather perfectly round entities usually tied with bows if not in a special box. And the price tag affixed to these items? Usually $30.00 (all denominations in USD).

Cantaloupes are the same, though usually not as fancily wrapped as the watermelons; small and perfectly round with a price tag of about $20.00.

I was never big on cantaloupes or watermelons (the former I used to grow in my parent’s garden in Michigan, the latter I’d stick its seeds to my forehead with a wish attached to each one, and the last one to fall off was supposed to come true), but seeing as they are so unobtainable here I suddenly feel a need, upon visiting the states, to indulge in a big melon fest (literal).

I forgot to add that Hazu, the cat who likes squid jerky as much as I do and tends to help herself to my stash, did so last night and then neatly puked up a combination of squid and catfood next to my sleeping head. No more squid for you, Hazu!

I just received an e-mail from my dad, in which he related a dream he recently had. Here it is, as he describes it:

“I took a nap on the couch and had the most strange and fantastic dream. I dreamed that was about six in the morning here, i was working and listening to the radio and all of the sudden the radio began to transmit your voice, like as you were on the phone, in Japan, and all of the sudden, you entered in the room, asking there is no body here, and i said what are you doing here i though you were calling on the phone from Japan. And you explained that you took the high way of information and travel here in a matter of seconds. I was utterly surprised, couldn’t believed and asked how that works. And you explain to me that first you start flying. And i said, flying. And you said, yes, flying, remember when i was a kid i use to flight? And apparently i remembered that that was the case. And you explained that once you start flying you look for swirling nodes that you can recognize when you know about that world. And when you find a swirling node, you just jump into it, like in a swimming pool, and then there you are, you have to find the highway that takes you to the place you want to go!!!”

That’s pretty fucking cool.

This is a drum game in the arcades here that is similar to Dance Dance Revolution except you are of course playing drums and not dancing. We tried to record a bit of the sounds on the italk but it froze up on us… we need to play around with the settings more and try again.

Pachinko is the only legalized gambling in Japan, and like any other game of chance, people will cash in the rent in hopes of hitting the jackpot. And much like Vegas, these parlours are loud and filled with smoke.

We’ve been playing a lot of shooting games in the arcades here…

The incredible massaging chairs of Japan, second only to the incredible toilet seats of Japan.

Not much to say about this one…

Yes, I now own a pair of pink sneakers. The last time I had pink sneakers was the summer before fourth grade when we were in Argentina. Awwwwww yeah.

Sebastian and Nanae with a newly won pooh hat.

This is the ramen place we like to eat at, once we figured out how to open the door.

More guns… surprised?

More details of the incredible massaging chair.

We went to a megamall the other day and encountered this (I have no idea what it is), outside of an electronics store. The picture doesn’t convey how loud all the screaming children were.

kirin green label + squid jerky* = tasty evening treats

* not the brand I’m eating, but the quickest link I could find to squid jerky, barring various blog entries about how good/bad squid jerky is.

To note: electronic kiosk check-ins don’t work without an American passport which caters to a hectic check-in process. Despite the extremely long line for analog ticket check-in we made it to our gate several minutes before they started to board the 757 with “continuing service to Narita”. I thought perhaps I misheard them, but as soon as we stepped on the plane it was quite clear we were indeed on a 757. Minutes later, after cramming ourselves into tiny seats, I began to bawl at the prospect of taking a 757 all the way to Japan. Upon arrival in Seattle kzi asked one of the flight attendants if the 757 was the plane we were taking to Japan at which point they started to laugh. The happy conclusion being that we were not taking a 757 to Japan and we had to disembark so that we could board a 777.

For someone who hates to fly, the trip to Japan was actually quite pleasant. A novelty on this flight, opposed to other international flights I’ve been on, is that for the duration it was constantly light outside, which psycologically makes the flight quite different. There is something tedious, exhausting, and isolating (more than it already is) about flying through the night that I can’t quite place my finger on.

In a nutshell (full sentences optional):

Touched down in Japan… the Narita airport is expanding faster than it can accomodate flights, so we rolled around on the tarmac for a while before coming to a halt, at which point we ran down a bunch of stairs and boarded a little bus that took us across the rest of the tarmac to a terminal. The escalators in the airport are motion sensitive and stop moving when no one is on them to conserve energy. Being the dumb gaijins we are we thought it was broken (as did an Indian family whose luggage we helped haul up the stairs thanks to the cursed broken escalator). Customs is quite easy to get through and the traffic is well handled (as it is everywhere in Japan). Running around the airport trying to get money and tickets (well, really kzi doing that and me sitting in a xanax haze). Jump on the express train to the train station in Tokyo. The subway system reminds me a lot of the subway system in New York City, though rather than looking around at the diversity, one is captivated by the homogenous-ness. Lulled to sleep once again on the train, mostly because I think the motion and environment of trains I’ve taken over the years, with such frequency, induces that kind of reaction. Finally arrive in Hamamatsu, and hey, remember to keep all the ticket stubs you receive because you’ll need them to get back OUT of the station… rumor has it you need to buy the tickets all over again to get out, but I’m not sure if that is true. To Sebastian and Nanae’s, brushing of the teeth, and then to sweet, sweet sleep.

In and out of lulled sleep, somewhere on the fringes aware that I’m not at “home” but at the same time unsure of where I am. Not plagued with the semi-concious worries of Boulder; what about the house, clean the carpets, who on earth would want my dishes. Faced with an empty semi-concious testing out the waters feeling around for something to worry about… without anything concrete bizarre half-lucid dreams float in and out for several hours as kzi and I shift through various sleeping positions in our single bed.
Hunger finally dissolves the hastily (and poorly, I might add) filled pathways and we flail around unable to do the simplist of things in a new country with new systems. kzi spends a good deal of time trying to heat the water, and I lay in bed pondering the fact that I’m actually in Japan.

After the hot water and with the rest of the day (sentences still optional):

The bus, buttons everywhere, and oh-my-god the vending machines (see picture - a line of vending machines selling only cigarettes… they continue around the corner for several more machines). To summarize the day in a nutshell and to avoid boring people with details such as the way the lighting indication system works at the bus stop, I’ll just say that kzi and I thus far love this country. The grocery store was heaven… and to think that all grocery stores in Japan are like this… not traveling 45 minutes to a specialty store… everything we like is here and ubiquitous. Obtained bus passes, grabbed things from vending machines, went to the top of the act tower, got lost, drank beer in public without reprimand and without hiding it. Hoping to find our own place soon, but key money is an issue. Happily, the entirity of key money isn’t kept, as was previously thought.