Things i will miss (5)

In honour of my departure I think maybe going over a few things that in 4 months i've been rather accustom to and i will especially miss.

5.  Konbini and Obento's-

Nothing like the convience of a 24 hour convinience store that has realitively tasty premade food.  Plus the store's are everywhere,  even in small towns.  Equivenlent in numbers to the New York Bodegas  and serves almost same purpose but they also do alot more.  All have prinitng serves, atms, postal service, and you can buy movie and concert tickets from them aswell.   Lawsons and 711/7andi  being the biggest ones there are also  Sunkus, family mart, Circkle K, AM PM, MiniStop and many more.....

yaaaa  i don't want to live without them... :-( 

P.s.  

Lawson makes the best konbini obento's

Do the Japanese know how to welcome you into their country or do they?

I stumbled across this as I am currently sick in my bed with nothing to do.  I was reading a Japanese foreigner website called Gaijin Spot looking for interesting stories and potential things to do. When the title caught my eye...in pure interest i of course had to read on and view the video.

In the video we see a half dress women in what is hard to quantify...the skirt is about 100 -115% normal for what Japanese women wear in real life, they get shorter than that as well.  The top; my god she is showing her navel, shoulders and chest. She must be getting paid a lot of money to do that because that's to embarrassing to do on ones own. What I find out is that it is actually lingerie by the company of the flag she proudly displays.  Specially designed lingerie to welcome visitors of japan at travel destinations.  The goal in essence is to help boost tourism in Japan. All due respect to the gentlemen who thought this up, but this idea doesn't work with Japanese women. I suspect you need to sell this franchise to Brazil and ask for a cut of the proceeding profits.

Starting from around 0:20 seconds to 0:35  she explains that the Top is also able to talk. When you push the center three buttons it says '  よこそう日本’  welcome to Japan, in Chinese, Korean, and English. At about here I must pause for a bit because I fear I have lost some of you at this point if not already. You may ask why doesn't she just memorize the 3 phrases. I have to just re-iterate... your not getting the point.  My only question was...Who pushes the button? Me or her?    At 0:36 seconds　the interviewer Says  "面白いですね’ (interesting,isn't it) and i couldn't help  but think  おじーさん面白いだけ考えた？ and with the awkward laugh the lingerie  maiden gave in reply I feel she felt the same.

Later she shows the skirt accessory which is actually a map. How convenient,  I get lost quite often, if every women had a map attached to her skirt I cant imagine I would get lost less though. Further on describes the spots like onsens and various potential stations for the outfit to be used at. Her speech is very polite and sort of cutey as to be expected.  At one point she mentions Haneda International airport and I quickly realize that my trip to Korea will be through said airport. Whether this will be put in place by the time I do my trip I do not quite know.

And at the end there is the cross leg wave that actually is not bad.  I highly doubt this will go into place as it is just a stunt by the lingerie company. I think japan thinks to much of its image to have these outfits on girls at all there highly honored areas. So the danger is just about at nil... However if on my way back from Korea,  I do happen across said outfit, I wonder if I can press it twice... I am coming from Korea after all.

Reliving my first steps in a new land...

The plane seemed to take forever to taxi to its gate. The plane had landed with no drama, the anxiety I had about being 40,000 leagues in the sky was unwarranted as other than 2 or 3 instances of slight turbulence everything went smoothly.  The stewardess explained once again about the required declaration forms and other things that needed to be filled out to present to customs. With sloppy hand writing I filled out a second set of more legible forms as the previous ones was done while the plane was perhaps banking left or right... or at least that is my excuse. The plane must have landed on the far outskirts of Narita airport as trees and metal towers was the only thing initially seen. No other planes or personnel until about 2 or 3 minutes later when we began to enter the delta terminal. 


Once docked the stewardess thanked us for flying and said few other things which I didn't bother to remember.  I was more concerned about taking the nice slippers and extras that come with flying first class. The Business lady who sat in the same section as me wished me luck in my travels as we had exchanged slight pleasantries among the 14 hours in air.  I offered here luck in here business adventures as well and then proceeded to take my bags down from the over head. By this time people was shuffling off at a accelerated pace, as i was a bit hesitant of what was coming next in customs I took my time getting off, went to the bathroom. Walked casually and  just looked around the terminal as I seemed to be the only one on such a leisurely pace.

Eventually I got to a big line where I had to get my finger prints done and present my paperwork which I filled out on the plane.  I presented the paperwork and tried to utter my first Japanese words in Japan.  I don't recall how it went, but i do remember having a slight issue with the finger print machine.  The finger print Machine was a screen with a keyboard like pad at the bottom but instead of keys it had two box shaped buttons where you put your fingers and pressed at the same time.  I have been a good citizen so far so i have never done this before so it took several attempts.  I think once with each fore finger and once with each thumb is required. I wonder know how long they hold onto these prints for.  Thinking back on it now, i think that is where i realized i was no longer in America. I was now operating on a whole new set of rules, which I did not know. After that, they handed me back the forms and I was let through to go towards baggage claim.

Eventually I found my way to the bag check, I had a total of 4 bags. A red book bag which was stuffed to capacity and I had brought on board and placed it in front of me. A small black bag with wheels, which was my paint ball bag which was in over head. At the baggage claim I was to pick up the 2 big bags I had brought which had most of my cloths.  A slightly bigger mid size bag which was also my paint ball bag prior and I had borrowed a huge flowery designed bag from my mom.  Needless to say it was a bit shameful to pull the flower designed bag off and wheel it behind me but I wasn't all that conscious or caring about it.

This point I had to wheel to the agent who would look over my duty form/declaration. Me being me, i some how lost one of the 2 forms that was examined previously at the finger print window.  I am sure to the people around I appeared to be an opened eyed oblivious kid. They would most certainly be right, everything was new and I had literally no idea what i was suppose to be doing. This was only my second flight ever and first time over seas. I had made all the plans and designed the whole trip on my own. Paid for out of my money and little beyond why I wanted to go and what I was there for I knew little anything else.  I stood in front of the agent looking for the second paper, explaining that I had it slightly earlier.  Simply asking if I had any Duty free items he told me to just go on through and be on my way. 

From there it was time to cash in my money, I had brought around 2000 American dollars with me.  The rate at JFK was a insulting 78 yen - 1 dollar exchange rate.  I debated at the time whether to cash in 100 dollars just to be on safe side but I am glad i resisted the Urge. I ended up with 82-yen and while i still lost around 300+ dollars in the exchange, if it was now it would have been worse. I carefully put the small fortune I had in the lumbar pack I brought for the purpose of keeping all my id with me at all time. After that i shuffled along with my luggage to my next stop




To Be continued......