A lot of people have been worried about me and curious about how my first few days have been, so I say It's about time I catch up on all of the things that have happened in the past few days.:) It's really impossible to detail it all, but I can at least give some highlights of everything. Also, on a side note, this is a picture* of Japanese ketchup. I think it's pretty much the same, but Japanese put theirs on spaghetti. It sounds weird, but is actually super clever if you ask me. I mean, ketchup is just sweet tomato sauce, right? And you know what always goes good with vegetables? Sugar.
So I guess I should start with my entry into Japan. That's when the magic is supposed to happen- those valuable first impressions and moments of deeply felt wonder that you can never recapture. At first, it really was that way for me. Looking out the window of the plane and looking through the billowing, somehow perfectly-shaped clouds, watching Japan become real and tangible as it's lush landscapes revealed themselves beneath the plane- rivers and forests rolling into rice paddies and towns- was truly amazing. But, to be completely honest, the following first few hours in Japan were some of the absolute worst of my life.
Do you remember that stuff I wrote on the plane about "worrying is forbidden" blah-blah-blah? I can tell you right now that did not last for long. After gathering my two suitcases from the baggage claim, I cleared them through customs and pushed them on into the lobby of Narita Airport where I stood awkwardly for sometime thinking about where I needed to go next. As I started to push my cart towards the domestic terminal, I caught the word "Nagoya" in a tidy Japanese voice over the intercom. I stopped to listen more carefully. "It couldn't be..." I thought. Sure enough, loud and clear and in English I heard, "due to typhoon in the area, flight number 3087 to Nagoya has been cancelled" followed by what was probably some sort of apology. I don't remember because after the word cancelled, my heart seized up and my ears started ringing. I felt a lot like this:
It felt like all of the blood in my body was rushing in between my ears. The heat from my face must have pulled the thick fog of humidity from the air to my skin like a magnet, because within seconds I started to sweat through my carefully chosen and decidedly cute "meet-my-host-family" outfit. (gross, I know) All of the Japanese in the room became incomprehensible as I focused all my energy on keeping my panic discreet. "What about my host family?" "How will I get to Nagoya?""Why is there no air conditioning!?" "How do I let them know?" "Where can I get some money?" "How much will it cost?" "Seriously, why is there no air conditioning!?" were just some of the thoughts that were flooding my mind.
After asking someone just to make sure that this was really happening, I was pointed in the general direction of the Japan Airlines desk. Most importantly, I thought, I need to call my host family. I was so worried about how I would greet them at the airport and now I was afraid there would be no one there for them to have that awkward first encounter with.
Here is a list of the almost comically awful things that happened next:
1. I arrived that the desk with my cart full of luggage and hair full of sweat only to find that the sales people only spoke Japanese. Despite my many hours of Japanese study, the buzzing in my head seemed to turn the beautifully uniformed saleslady's words into a blurr of incomprehension and mine into a barely audible jumble. The gist of what she said was that there were not going to be any more flights going to Nagoya and that I needed to take the bus or the Shinkansen (super fast bullet train) to get there. I knew I had to call my host family, so I showed her my housing information paper and she directed me to the public pay phone.
2. I went to use the public payphone, on the verge of tears, but not only did I not have any yen (MASSIVE MISTAKE # 1), I didn't have a telephone card or any idea how to use it to make a domestic call. I tried to use the "enter your card number" information to charge from my debit card, but it seemed to work only for international calls. Fortunately, a really nice guy using the one next to me helped show me how to get it to work domestically, which required either yen or a telephone card, neither of which I had. I must have looked pretty pathetic, because he gave me one of his telephone cards to have. (REALLY NICE JAPANESE HELPER #1) Needless to say the phone call that followed was so completely not how I wanted to talk to my family for the first time. I told my host mother in broken apologetic Japanese that my flight was cancelled. I told her I didn't know what I was going to do yet, but that I would call her again when I decided. She asked if I was staying in Tokyo and I realized I might not have anywhere to sleep that night if I could not get to Nagoya. At this point I looked something like this:
3. I went back through the line and received a voucher for the Shinkansen. I set off to find the place where I could exchange the voucher for tickets, but found it surprisingly difficult to figure out. I mean, it wasn't like there was a big sign that said "SHINKANSEN RIGHT OVER HERE" and all the Japanese in the building might has well been written in Arabic for how little I was able to decipher. I finally got my cart down an elevator into the right basement area, but found a ton of counters, all which seemed possible places to change my voucher in to a ticket. I don't know if you know this, and it could just be the fact that it's a foreign language, but Japanese signs and advertisements are incredibly crowded, bright, and difficult to understand. They are also everywhere. I didn't know where to look seriously and how to get information out of them, but I managed to get to the right desk and exchanged my voucher for three little blue tickets that looked like this (minus the English explanations):
I ended up finding my reserved seat and heading towards Tokyo, where I would transfer to another Shinkansen towards Nagoya. One more problem, though; my ticket said "Tokyo-Shinagawa" The screen showed one stop in Tokyo, followed by another stop in Shinagawa. What the heck!?? I had no clue. I did not trust my instinct on either, and I did my best to enjoy the incredibly stunning view of Japan from my seat before I had to roll the dice and choose.
4. I arrived at Tokyo Station (東京駅）where I had had literally the worst time of my life trying to a. call my host family, and b. get to the Nagoya Shinkansen. This is a picture of Tokyo Station:
Looks quaint and modest, right? BUUU. Wrong. This is what Tokyo Station looks like inside:
No air-conditioning, thousands of people, 4 things of luggage, and a bunch of these raised bumps in the floor meant to both guide blind people and make it painfully impossible to move luggage over:
The next hour or so was full of asking around, tipping over my luggage, loosing my sandals, sweating through my clothes, and bruising my knees. I cannot stress how serious I am when I say that this was THE worst experience of my entire life. (Good thing I got that over with, now, huh?:)) I finally managed to get to the place I needed to be, walking out on to the humid platform with a sigh of relief that it was almost over. All I needed to do was find a pay phone and call my host family, get on the train and get to whatever bed was awaiting me.
However, like a late-night infomercial, my bad luck was returning to say "but, wait, there's more!". My phone card was missing. I had no yen to use the phone. How would my family know to come get me? What if they think I'm staying in Tokyo? What if I've waited too late to call them and they don't want me any more? They were surely concerned and confused. Where could I get a phone card? Where was there an ATM?
It turns out, the closest ATM was outside of a starbucks outside of the ticketing area for the platform I was in. I would have to retrace my steps out of the platform and carry my luggage down and out to find this ATM, get money, and return to make a phone call. By itself it sounds kind of annoying but not too bad, but at this point I was so frustrated and upset that all I wanted was someone to go to who could help me. Instead, I was that person that obviously has problems but everyone just ignores because they are too embarrassed to step up and help. I'd never felt so lonely, vulnerable and pathetic before as I did in that moment and I don't think I ever will again.
Haha I bet you are tired of my whining by now! Well, I only have one more bad thing to share and then I'm done! The icing on my cake of misfortune. What happened is, to make a long story short, I got my money and made my phone call. When I got on the train, I entered at car number 8. The door shut and the train starts to move as the kind uniformed woman checks my ticket. "Oh!" she says, "You are in the non-reserved section! Those are cars 1, 2 and 3". I ended up pushing my luggage through the narrow isles of 6 cars, knocking into the arms of Japanese business men and school kids, until I finally found an available seat in car 2 that I could maneuver my bags next to.
From that point on, I cleaned myself up in the bathroom, enjoyed the air conditioning and relaxed comfortably on the hour-or-so ride to Nagoya Station where I met my host dad and went HOME. TO BED. AND SLEPT.
The End!
Okay folks, that's all for now. I still have more ketchup to do, but I'll have to get to that later. I can assure you that my experience in Japan has not been all bad things! I'm at an awesome school in an awesome city living with an awesome family in their awesome house! It can only go up from the whole Shinkansen debacle, right? Haha, well, actually, I still have some fun "bad-luck" stories to share from the past few days, but I'll share all that stuff in time.
LOVE,
Mackenzie
P.S. My camera cable is still not working! sorry guys :( I'm going to find a way to move my files directly from my memory card to another computer. In the meanwhile, please enjoy my carefully selected internet photos.
