10-19-06 Thursday “Destination USA: The Final Frontier”

10-19-06 Thursday “Destination USA: The Final Frontier”

We had an hour and a half drive to the airport ahead of us, then a 12 hour flight to Chicago. At 7:20AM, we put our luggage outside the room with green ribbons on them to mark were they were going then left for breakfast, individually, but still paid for by JFMF, as everything has been this whole trip. (Many dinners we were on our own, though we were given 260 Yen upon entering Tokyo the first night to buy our dinners and try out different restaurants throughout the trip. I went through that though in the first few days.)

This morning for breakfast, as I had done a few days before, I turned my nose up to all the usual breakfast meats that I savored and grabbed a bowl of cereal. I remember specifically saying at the beginning of the trip that I couldn’t understand how anyone would choose cereal over eggs, bacon and sausage, but because my diet had been lacking in dairy (which I love) I decided to “rock the corn flakes.” (Denying me of dairy is like keeping the mouse away from cheese.)

There I sat with a cool teacher from DC. I told him I really wished I had bought a Kanchu T-shirt that I had heard about from another teacher from Shibuya, but I hadn’t seen it. He said there is still time and if anyone could make it to Shibuya and back in an hour, “No-Pants Man” can.

He was right.

I finished my frosted flakes, slurped the milk loudly (you do this to compliment your host –but usually with soup) and headed out to the Ginza Line.

I walked right into the subway, bought a ticket with out looking and found myself sitting on a very crowded train. I didn’t think once. I looked up at the yellow sign, adjusted my spot on where to hop on the train and did even think twice. It was instinctual!

A few minutes into the trip I found myself wondering, “How was I able to do that without any problem whatsoever?” It seemed before there was always a bit of a hassle or some double guessing before jumping on a line. -But not this time. …Not at all.

It was an odd thought. I was on my way to a location in a strange and distant world and in their language I could only really say, “Hello”, “Good bye” and “Where is the bathroom?”

Shibuya Station in the morning had just as much volume, if not worse than it was in the evening. The only difference was the crowd shifted in locations. The hallways in the subway were WAY more full and the trains themselves were wall-to-wall people. However, there were less people in the shopping areas, because of a tidbit of info that I was about to learn.

I walked around and got some really cool shots of the designated smoking area, Hachiko in the morning light and businessmen off to work. It was 8:30 in the morning, I had to be back in my hotel by 9:00… But the stores didn’t open until 10:AM.

It was okay though because I shot some really cool pictures of a rent-a-room karaoke joint and a couple of Harajuku girls near Condomania.

As directed by Jen & Kip who saw my treasure the night before, I went looking for the T-shirt store where my Kanchu T-shirt was being besieged behind lock and key. I rode up an elevator and checked each floor.

Each floor the elevator would open into a very small place, considering what you are used to seeing when you get off a commercial elevator in the states. It would open directly in a room. The first place opened with the entire setting of a small bar around the door and a waitress sleeping on three lined up bar stools. It was a surreal sight and she looked disturbed. (I almost think she lived there!

Being the nut that I am, I rode up a floor and back down to shoot a picture. She was pissed! She jumped off her stool and I hit “Door Close” as fast as you could hum the lines “Closing time. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.”

My next stop was a closed karaoke joint, where you rent a room with your friends. Most of these I have learned run about $20 cover charge a person. I told the guy that I was from NY and that I am a Karaoke DJ in a bar. He let me look around and take pictures despite the fact that he was closed; a real cool guy.

Back out on the street, I saw two very colorful individuals walk passed a store dedicated to safe sex called “Condomania.”

In a quasi-punk like style, there is a style called Harajuku, which is similar to the “goth kids” in America. The Harajuku Girls dress to be individuals and against the current trends and formality expected by traditional Japanese culture. Some dress like their favorite manga characters, which is typically super bright colors (rather than the black we see in the states) and ridiculously loud bright hairstyles. Others are so inventive, words cannot really describe what their look is.



I tried to get some pictures without them knowing, because I would gather that they might not like to be photographed. I grabbed a couple of shots and it is possible that one saw me and covered her face, exiting like Paris Hilton from the paparazzi. Either that or she was just adjusting her vibrant glow-in-the-dark hair.

As I rode back on the subway, knowing I may never see Shibuya again, or at least anytime really soon, I started to rewind the trip in my mind.

The first night in Arao, as our group was looking for a place to eat, we found a comic book with open nudity in it. It can easily seem contradictory that a society so mandated by tradition and politeness would have comic books with seemingly weird sex stuff in them and this practice would be accepted. One could say that it is like the Japanese are so repressed that they have to do this to escape from the real modest world. But that is when you place American values on a different world’s culture. Another could argue that it is America that is overly strict, making the human body out to be an ugly thing that needs to be hidden.

An outsider could also view Japanese television as something that is totally insane. At first glance, I thought that when the Japanese get on TV, they assume different roles and act crazy – possibly to get away from the highly structured lives that they live. At first, I thought that their game shows were among the most ridiculous things you ever saw. But stepping back, it is probably not any more strange that the foolishness our youth buy into back in the states; just look at Jackass, Family Guy, South Park, any reality show and about anything on MTV at anytime. Japan TV is strange to an outsider, but also very much the same; it is all about ratings.

Another thing that some people in our group pointed out as being as “inconsistent” was that everyone was so proper, so polite, but then they giggle at some things like the small children of America and lose their structured image. But I thought about it, and we laugh in America at things that aren’t funny to make people feel more comfortable. Japanese people are all about hospitality. (Ever hear a REALLY bad joke. I bet some Americans come off like one from time to time.)

I swept up my four bags and took a final bus ride. I grabbed a few goodies at a rest stop and a few more at the airport.

As I get ready to shut off my computer for the last time in Japan and take a twelve-hour flight to Chicago and a three-hour trip to Albany, I look back at a chance at a lifetime that I took advantage of. I filled out an application and was awarded the Fulbright Japanese Experience.

I thank all the kind people at JFMF for making this happen. I learned so much.

… Now, 50 pages later, I bid a fond farewell, sayonara, to “The Land of The Rising Sun.”

Thanks for reading.

If you would like me to do a presentation on my stay in Japan, I would be glad to. Drop me a line at:
kennethgbevan@aol.com