Hi everyone! So far I’m just loving it here and am so thankful for every minute, even the ones where I kind of don’t know where I’m going. On the plane ride over, it was good to be surrounded by people speaking Japanese. I haven’t studied Japanese since high school, and forgot pretty much everything. But language has a way of lingering in the dubious shadows of the brain. Overhearing the couple in front of me chatting about what time the plane would touch down, I thought, “UDE DOKEI! That means digital wristwatch! That is related to time!” And then I flushed with a pride that was both exhilarating and very embarrassing. Little victories. Hopefully I’ll pick up the language more impressively later.
The plane also had these cool touchscreen TVs (is that redundant, is it just “touchscreen”?) built into the headrests in front of you. I gasped at the vast number of options I had for my in-flight entertainment. But before I could settle on How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, or that X-Men sequel/prequel, my touchscreen shut off. At first I was filled with techno-phobe dread: I friggin broke it; this always happens when I’m around electronics and enjoying myself. But then I looked around and noticed that everyone else’s had shut off too. We all wore similar expressions of bewildered thwartedness. And then the touchscreens all flipped on again at the same time all on the same channel. Rejoice! But wait. The screen started playing NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting organization. We were all gonna have to watch the NHK news before we could have our pick of television heaven. Couldn’t change the station. Couldn’t turn it off either. Interesting.
When we arrived at Haneda International Airport, I almost forgot how much I hated flying. The airport was so sparkly! The bathroom was amazing, and they offered rooms for people to shower in too and rooms just for general refreshing. In the stall in the picture below, there were three sink/showers and even one coming out of the toilet (called a bidet, French, no?).
this is a handicap bathroom but still...it looked like a mini hospital
And then a dear friend picked us up, but he had misplaced his parking validation voucher thing. After searching in vain, we all kind of freaked because of that ridiculously expensive exorbitant replacement fee. We went up to the parking attendant and explained ourselves. Instead of sneering at our mistake and demanding money, he said, “Not a problem at all. You don’t need it. We know exactly when you came in and have your license plate on record.” Whoa. Yay no exorbitant fee, but whoa. Talk about heavy surveillance.
Which brings me to this: Technology being employed to see when you exit and enter a toilet stall! I had to take a picture of this while I was waiting in line for the toilet at a department store in Ginza. On the wall we queue against, there’s this light-up layout of the whole bathroom, a picture of what kind of toilet style each stall is, and the red light goes off as soon as the person in it unlocks the door.
waiting in line made efficient! no more awkward crouching to peer under stalls!
That was just crazy, right!? Big Brother is everywhere and Japan is no exception. Sometimes I forget how much of our culture is rooted in voyeurism, and how much of what we do or do not do is based on who may or may not be watching. Sometimes I forget how modern sleekness can go hand in hand with the most expert surveillance. So is Big Brother watching you on the toilet? (Ew.) Maybe I just have an unhealthy obsession with toilets and wanted to intellectualize it with some political commentary.
Anyway, it’s now time for my Obligatory Gratuitous Food Shots (maybe I will call them OGFS? If you pronounce OGFS as one word, perhaps it kind of sounds like that moment of swoon when something is so delicious you descend into incoherency. Maybe?). I had a super swank Japanese breakfast this morning. hot rice porridge with its own gravy on the side, crispy grilled salmon, mushroom miso soup, gobo salad, deadly tofu, noodle soup with raw egg, sweet eggs with vegetables.
breakfast of champions
Here’s a close-up shot of the tofu, the only closeup I got and turned out I couldn’t even eat it.
deadly tofu with crab in peanut sauce
Tofu, I love you, but that’s the second time you tried to kill me in Japan. The first time you were cheese in disguise, this time you were bathing in a sneaky peanut sauce. I love you anyway, I praise thee food gods forever and ever amen. Ok, til next time, kiotsukete! =)
swoopingcurve 