I just got back to Japan after a very long journey. I got a ride from my hometown of Benicia to a local train that runs to San Francisco International Airport, took a 12 hour flight to Seoul Korea, had a 3 hour layover in Korea, took a 2 hour flight from Seoul to Tokyo, took a train from Tokyo to Yokohama, and then took a taxi from the Yokohama station to a hotel. I don't even know how long that was but I was practically dead by the time I got there.
I was seriously thinking about just staying at Haneda Airport in Tokyo over night and just waiting for a train the next morning and I'm extremely happy that I didn't. Once I arrived in Tokyo my body felt exhausted and mentally I was just not ready to do anything else. I usually arrive at Narita Airport which is in Chiba so I am not used to using the trains around Haneda. My flight arrived in Tokyo around 11pm. I left my seat and after about 30 seconds realized my wallet wasn't on me. I landed on the runway and had to take a bus to the terminal and I wanted to go back in the plane to see if my wallet was there but was told I couldn't do that. I was freaking out. When you live in Japan you have an identification card that is absolutely necessary when you re-enter the country. Without that card I had no idea what was going to happen. After about 15 minutes they told me that they had found my wallet exactly where I told them it would be, under my seat where my bag was. That was a huge relief. I live 4 hours by bullet train away from Tokyo. I would have no money to get home and I don't know if I could even get past immigration without it. After getting my wallet I went through immigration and got my bags. I was randomly selected to have my bags searched at immigration, no I'm not joking. It is already late and I need to get on the last train that is going to a hotel. Two people opened my bags and realized that all I had is a bunch of clothes, personal items and chocolate. One guy laughed because I had a VHS copy of Akira. I have to admit, that is kind of funny. After this huge ordeal it was already passed 12am. I still had to change my US dollars in to Japanese Yen so I was running around the airport with three bags wearing my heavy jacket that I just bought in the USA basically about to collapse. I got to the gates for the train and the attendant basically tells me just run, don't even buy a ticket or you are going to miss the last train. There are two major types of trains in the Tokyo area, JR and Tokyo Subways. The train that I got on was run by Tokyo subways. I don't often use their services so I am not used to them. Also there is no display in the train that says what the next station is. There was one transfer and that was no problem, however I missed the stop I wanted to get off on. I figured the next stop would be about 3 or 4 minutes which is typical in Japan but it wasn't. The train kept going for about 20 minutes and before I knew it I was in Yokohama. I had no intentions of going to Yokohama at all. I got off the train, which is the last train and luckily there are a few taxies outside. I just got back into Japan and hadn't gone to an ATM yet so I didn't have that much cash on me. I asked the cab driver if I could use my credit card and he said it was fine. I basically just told him to take me to any cheap hotel. We drove around to a few places and the first place that I could find that had a open room didn't take credit cards. We had to drive to an ATM take out cash and then go back to the hotel. The taxi wound up costing me around 20 dollars. The hotel was 65 dollars. That isn't expensive but it isn't cheap either for Japan standards. This was the worst hotel I have ever been to in Japan. The paint on the walls was falling off, the toilet looked like it was pulled out of a baseball stadium from the 80s and the shower looked like something you would see at a camp for kids, covered in mildew and probably not washed for at least 2 months. This was obviously a complete dive. On top of everything when I woke up in the morning I looked at a box of tissues next to the bed and they had complementary condoms there for you. This was not a love hotel mind you, this was a normal hotel that basically just seemed to be set up for people to do things that they normally wouldn't do at home. I had reached the point where I became so tired that I was no longer tired. I saw there were a few bars in the area so I decided to go out and have a drink. I wound up having a couple of beers and then going back to the hotel and taking a shower. The hotel room was drafty and cold so I left there heater on all night. I woke up with a dry scratchy throat and painfully dry sinuses. I am currently on a bullet train headed to Iwate prefecture and I am beyond exhausted. I think I am going to get a massage tonight.
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In march I will have been living in Japan for 4 years. It's kind of hard to believe. I have been back to the USA a few times since I moved there but never for an extended period of time. For this winter vacation I took an entire month and went back to the USA. I needed a break from where I am currently living and some time to think about what I am going to to do if I stay in Japan and what I could do if I moved back to California.
There are many things that I missed about being in the bay area. Amazing food from all over the world is everywhere. Even though I am staying in a place that is quite far from San Francisco buses and trains easily and cheaply get you out to the city. On top of that there was one thing that I think people living in Japan are completely missing out on and that is good beer. I love IPA beers but to be honest there are almost no good IPAs in Japan. Japan's beer culture now reminds me of what drinking beer was like in the late 90s in the USA. Of course there are good beers in Japan but they're not very complex in terms of taste. Many Japanese people think beer is good simply if it's easy to drink. This is the complete opposite of where beer has gone in the USA. Beer in America has a complex hoppy taste that you want to savor and not just quickly chug. I went to several bars around the bay area and many of them had their own houses brews and guest beers and allowed you to compare different beers before you bought them. I don't think I have ever heard of that in Japan. I know there are sake tasting rooms and things like that but I have never seen a place that actually allows you the compare drinks at a bar and not at the actual brewery. The only beer brands that I really like at this point are called Hitachino and Yo-Ho Brewing Company. They don't have a huge selection of beers but what they do have is really good. When you contrast it to California it just makes you realize that Japan doesn't have the type of beer culture that many western countries do. On the flip-side of things you are never going to find the kind of diversity in sake that Japan has in any country besides Japan. It's funny because brands like Suntory and Kirin have released limited time only IPAs last year and I think that they are trying to test the waters to see if those type of beers will sell well in Japan. Some of my friends who live in Japan like more flavorful beers but most of them drink expensive imports. Smaller Japanese grocery stores have aisles of cheap beers, chu-hi, sake, and shochu but nothing in the way of high end beer. You can see that Japan is starting to change though and I hope in the next few years that Japan's brewing culture grows to something like California. |