I'm going to Japan this summer. It's my first time. There's a work thing, and many of my colleagues will be around, so I figured fuck it, let's go. I bought airfare after an enthusiastic discussion with team members about potential itineraries and Michelin-star ramen. Non-refundable plane ticket, so... I'm going now. Many of us are staying at the same hotel, half-way between Tokyo proper and the work thing in Yokohama. Some nondescript area that is right on the train route. Hopefully not too vacant of a place. I remember staying in midtown Manhattan once. Good deal on a room, I think it was a group trip with my college pals to see art in the big city. The drawback to the hotel location in that scenario, was that it was in a part of Manhattan that is pretty much nothing but more hotels and office buildings. Maybe a paltry bodega on the corner. One had to walk (because one did not have $ for cabs in the early 90's) several enormous blocks to get to anything interesting. Anyway, I hope this hotel in Kawasaki is not a similar situation. Either way, the train can take me away, and unlike NYC, I am not expecting to be as intimidated by the other passengers. And yes I have watched that video on youtube about how to behave on a train in Japan. I will do my best.
So, what do I do in the world's most populous city? Walk around. For sure. Eat things? Yes. In fact, I need to be careful about the eating of things. I can't overdue it and be encumbered by a full stomach when there is so much walking and looking to do. Yes, looking. Seeing the sights. Temples to religion, commerce, knick-knacks, comestibles. Manga museum? Nah. I'm not a fan, really. Ghibli Museum? Yes, if I can. Miyazaki is my favorite Japanese export. Bath house? Probably not, because I have many tattoos and apparently that still makes the average citizen nervous. I will hit up the fashionable neighborhoods, stumble my way through conversations, and perform my favorite activity: watching people run around with their busy lives while I sit and have a coffee. The longer my working life lasts, the more excited I am about doing this. For a fleeting time, I can pretend I am retired, independently wealthy, or otherwise comfortably unemployed. You can’t do this if you are in a vacation spot, you have to be in a working city, one that has lots of foot traffic. It’s best when you can make eye contact with some business man who is hurrying to catch a train, shuffling child in tow, so he can drop the kid off at childcare and make that 9am meeting. Haha… sucker. I’M ENJOYING MY COFFEE! Next I might eat Michelin-star ramen! WHO KNOWS!
I’m planning to hit up Kyoto for a day or two. Why? I don’t know. Because people tell me I need to. So I do what the people want me to do. Plus I want to experience the Shinkansen and watch the Japanese countryside go by in a flash. Maybe I will take some sort of sluggish, antiquated mode of transportation back to Tokyo, for good measure.
Not being a seasoned, world traveler, I am downright terrified of being in a silver tube high above the ocean for 10 hours straight. Not my idea of a good time. Sometimes I listen to Andrew Bird’s “Fiery Crash” to dispel my anxiety. I always perform my own little ritual, one that I have been doing for many years. When I am about to enter the plane from the jetway, I mutter to myself “I pray to all the gods that be, I am a simple man, please spare me”. I say it very softly as to not disturb the other passengers (“what the fuck is that guy behind us muttering??”) and as I enter the plane, I kiss the palm of my hand and rest it briefly on the outside of the fuselage. It has worked so far.