Category Archives: Travel

Stranded

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The last time I had to stay overnight at an airport, I was in college, trying to get a connecting flight from Atlanta back to San Francisco on the way home for Christmas. I was flying stand-by on Delta with my uncle’s buddy pass, and because I was a non-revenue flier, they would not pay for me to stay at a hotel overnight. And because I was not only cheap but also on a student budget, I just laid my clothes on some seats at the airport and slept on the uncomfortable chairs overnight. I asked the security guy to watch over me. And he nicely did.

This time, our connecting flight to Chicago from Minneapolis was four hours delayed, resulting in us not making it to Chicago in time to board any New York-bound flight. So they put us in the nearby Crowne Plaza for the night and gave us each a $12 dinner voucher and a $7 breakfast voucher for our inconveniences.

You’d think I would be grateful, but I was more annoyed than anything. All of these delays were just because they were trying to fly us in an old plane where it took four hours to fix the air conditioning. When I was in college, I would have been really grateful to get a free hotel stay at a Crowne Plaza. I guess this just shows how priorities change and maybe even how much more impatient I have become.

Minnesota State Fair

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Today was state fair day, and it was absolutely ridiculous — everything you could think of in America’s largest state fair was there: endless amusement park rides, games, and arcades; cotton candy and multicolored sweets everywhere; live music and entertainment; the sale of everything from actual trailers (from the extremely basic to the borderline luxurious, but is a “luxury trailer” an oxymoron?) to tall and loud lawn mowers; and of course, the most amusing element to me: all things possible you can think of that are “fried,” “on a stick,” and everything that encompasses both of those lovely terms. The usual culprits were there that people always joke about, things like fried oreos, fried candy bars on a stick (we found out that is the single item that the most caloric food sold at the fair – who would have thought that would be above any of the fried meat items?), and fried Twinkie. But there were even some items I hadn’t even imagined and were even representative of the increasing diversity of the fair attendees: fried baklava, fried alligator on a stick, fried fruit on a stick (I wonder if that was also gluten free?), chocolate covered nut roll on a stick, and fried cheesecake on a stick.

The state fair was really educational — there were a number of exhibit halls where you get to learn about everything from the different local trees grown in the area and what their bark is used for, local honeys and how bees make them, and all the things that make Minnesota unique, such as it being the state with the most active “hybriding” system of creating some of the country’s most popular apples; the honeycrisp apple, which is my absolute favorite apple, is a hybrid of the “people” and “keepsake” apples and was patented in 1988 and released to the public in 1991. Unfortunately for me, it has a short season in September, and so it’s the only time of the year you ever see them at farmers’ markets and grocery stores. To me, it’s the best combination of sweetness, tartness, and crisp and crunchiness. No other apple really compares.

I even learned that the U.S. has a designated “honey princess” every year. I guess based on that name, it’s a bit sexist and can only be filled by a woman. But her role is to travel around the country, educating the masses at schools and state fairs about honey, how it is made, how to cook and eat it, and of course, its health benefits. We watched the 2015 American honey princess today make a quick Greek yogurt/peanut butter/honey dip for apples.

The overall focus on education and the push for local, public Minnesota schools was very clear, as well. It was definitely a fried food and education filled day that brought out the true American in me.

Minnesota

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Today, Chris and I are headed to another state as we attempt to see every state in the country, and this time, it’s Minnesota. It’s the 37th state I’ve visited, and I think Chris is around the same number, plus or minus one or two. Off the top of my head, I have visited Arkansas and he hasn’t; he has visited New Mexico and Indiana, and I have not. For those who haven’t done much Minnesota research, the things that people generally know about it is that it is the home of the Mall of America, generally is a swing state, and has the largest and most popular state fair in the country. We’re visiting during the state fair time, so of course, we are planning to go there tomorrow to indulge in the Americana life of fried food and all things on a stick, as well as seeing live animals, which Chris just cannot wait for (actually, he hates animals unless they are on his plate). Also on my list are representative foods of the area, including Scandinavian, Vietnamese, Hmong, and “local” new American places such as Piccolo.

Based on what we have read so far, the culture of Minneapolis and St. Paul feel a lot like that of Milwaukee in Wisconsin. There’s a big culture of locavore eating as well as microbreweries and micro distilleries. The very first sake brewery in the United States called Moto-i opened right here in Minneapolis and has been an active brew pub since 2008. After visiting Gekkeikan in Kyoto during our Japan visit and being exposed to a number of different types of sake, we’re still in Japan withdrawal and hope to get exposed to other types of sake during this visit. People grow maple trees and sell maple syrup that is local to Minnesota here, and also similar to Wisconsin, they have their own cheese culture here that is just less well known than Wisconsin’s. I love visiting places where local food is highly valued and there’s a culture of supporting other local foods and businesses.

Day trip to New Jersey

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Chris’s friend and her husband recently left the glory of Manhattan for the supposed stillness of New Jersey, so they invited us out to their home in Dunellen, New Jersey, today for the husband’s belated birthday celebration and housewarming party. This meant we needed to take the subway to Penn Station, take New Jersey Transit to Newark Penn Station, and then transfer to a final train that would take us to this suburb.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m really happy and grateful that we were invited, and I was happy to see our friend’s beautiful new home — which it really was. It was beautiful, barely a year old, incredibly spacious, with great outdoor areas, high ceilings, and a massive kitchen with stone counter tops. But New Jersey Transit… no. That is not beautiful or spacious or even cheap. Our round-trip tickets cost $23 each. I was flabbergasted at the cost given the distance, the fact that on the weekends, it only ran once an hour, and that the seats were so small.

Then there were the overhead bins. Even on the Tokyo subway there were large overhead bins on regular transit to store one’s luggage. You rarely saw anyone placing a purse or bag on the subway floor ever. Here on NJ Transit, you could barely store a full backpack on the top overhead “bin,” which was really so pathetic that you couldn’t even comfortably place a duffle bag packed for three days. I was so annoyed by the whole sight and experience.

The ticket man who comes around to check tickets — he littered on the subway by hole-punching passengers’ tickets and allowing the punched holes to fall all over the train floors. It’s like litter everywhere, and no one seems to have a problem with it! He’s dirtying up the train floors! Am I the only one annoyed by the filth and dirt?

That’s it. Nothing can compare to Japanese trains or cleanliness or manners or even the price for what you are getting. I think I’m ruined for life.

Lazy Friday night

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Chris didn’t even spend 24 hours back in New York after our flight back from Japan because he had to leave for an early morning work flight to San Francisco on Tuesday morning. He came back this afternoon to just want delivery at home and an evening on the couch, which I was more than happy to do. Although I’d been home a few nights this week after work, I was still occupied with cleaning, tidying up the apartment, sorting through edibles and gifts we brought back from Japan, as well as general housekeeping and to-do lists for life back in the Real World. Tonight is a night when we can both relax and just be lazy.

Both of us are not lazy people — we have huge qualms with lying around and not being productive. But sometimes, after a lot of chaos, hectic travel, and seemingly endless professional tasks (as work was quite hectic for me this week), it’s nice to have a handful of hours devoted to doing absolutely nothing.

Bathroom sounds

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There are lots of sounds that we hear every day that we probably don’t take much notice of. One of those sounds is the sound of our own peeing, or even the peeing of other people in the same bathroom in shared restrooms. Most U.S. public restrooms have doors and stalls that do not go all the way up to the ceiling, so as soon as we enter public restrooms that have others in it, we will inevitably hear the sound of other people urinating.

The reason I bring this up is that prior to visiting Japan, I read an article of a traveler who had been there who said that the Japanese are so disgusted by the sound of urination that they would leave the water running while peeing. They had to do something, anything, to block out the sound of their own bodily action. As a society, they realized this wasn’t sustainable since this would result in a lot of water waste, so they started creating everything from recycled water in individual toilets trickling down to mimic the running water sound, to even motion-activated devices that begin making flowing water sounds as soon as it senses someone sitting on the toilet seat next to it. Much to my own intrigue, I experienced all of the above at various bathrooms, from our hotel rooms and ryokans to mall and historic site bathrooms. Surprisingly, even some of the lowest end bathrooms (you know, the Asian “squat” toilets) had motion-activated sensors that would give me the fake running water sound.

The last few times I used the restroom in Japan, I thought about the running water sounds in the bathrooms, and I realized that it was probably one of those things I wouldn’t miss. They were really more of a source of amusement for me than anything else and made it more apparent to me how repressed the Japanese can be.

Yawning in public

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Throughout the last two days at work, even though I have been pretty occupied with catching up on my very long to-do list, I randomly remember things I noticed or observed during our time in Japan. As I yawned and covered my mouth during a meeting today, I realized that on every single train ride, in the subway stations or even on the street, I never once saw anyone yawn. I’m sure it would be pretty outlandish for anyone in a white-collar work setting to yawn during a meeting the way I did, even if the person closed her mouth, as that would be perceived as very rude and disrespectful. Here, I yawn all the time and sometimes don’t even cover my mouth, whether it’s at work or in public.

I have a feeling that I will still recall tidbits of Japan for the next few weeks as I reminisce on our incredible time there and hope to go back sometime in the near future.

Dreaming of Kyoto

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Last night was our first night back in our own bed in New York in 11 nights. It was probably partially because of jet lag, but I dreamt that we were walking through the dark but well lit streets of Kyoto in Gion at night. There were all these bamboo potted plants and old tiled roofs and traditional Japanese doors, steps, and mini rock gardens. The primary colors that stood out during our walk were bright, golden yellow, warm brown, and deep, cool greens. As I entered what appeared to be a restaurant, Chris walked in first, and I followed him. He walked toward a dark room where there was a couch, and he pulled my hand toward him as he laid himself down on the couch and laid me down beside him.

The next thing I knew, it was about 2:30am according to my clock, and I woke up in our New York apartment. This wasn’t a dream anymore. I glanced around the room, not recognizing it for a moment, still trying to figure out where were were both sleeping and if we were still in Kyoto. I glanced to the left of my bed, where I saw framed photos of Ed on the wall that Chris had hung up almost two years ago. No, we’re not in Kyoto anymore, or Japan for that matter. We are back in New York and back to real life. The light that lit Ed’s photos up were not from warm Kyoto homes and restaurants, but rather the dull, cold light of the apartments outside our window.

Japan is in our past now.

Japanese vs. American Culture

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I’m on a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo back to New York City, dreading the thought of going home and back to my usual routine. The excitement of our Japan trip has come to an end even despite the fact that I managed to convince Chris to check a luggage filled with numerous matcha green tea flavored biscuits, chocolates, and other treats. The treats will keep our Japan memories alive and prolonged, even if just for a little while.

I thought a lot on our Narita Express ride to the airport about the differences in Japanese vs. American culture and all the things I loved about Japan that I really never get in the U.S. I’ve mentioned this multiple times, but I absolutely hate the tipping culture in the U.S. I hate that it’s expected, even with the most horrendous service. It’s not even about “A for effort” as it is an “A for just breathing and existing and farting.” In Japan, there is no tipping, yet I personally experienced some of best, most impressive service of my life here.  I have so many examples that I know for certain I will share with others and point to when I think of exemplar service. It just boggled my mind how kind, genuine, and polite everyone was, yet they expected absolutely nothing from me other than a head nod and an “arigato gozaimasu!” It made me angry about tip-collecting workers in the U.S. and their sense of entitlement to tips for service that could never even begin to compare to the service I got in Japan.

Everyone and everything is so punctual in Japan. When a train, according to the schedule, is going to leave at 6:47, you can bet everything you own that it will most certainly leave at 6:47. When people say they will meet you at 5:30, they will likely show up much earlier, and they will never, ever be late. People show up for work and meetings early; it’s a rare occurrence to see someone show up late. I’ve struggled with being punctual, especially with train delays in New York, but I do try hard to be on time to meet friends and always show up to work meetings on time. In New York especially, people are notorious for running late, showing up to meetings late, appearing at restaurants and movies and Broadway shows late — you name it. At some doctor’s offices I’ve visited, they apparently experienced so much lateness that they created a “late policy” where they will charge you $50 if you are more than 15 minutes late to your appointment. It’s gotten to that point. Sadly, lateness is summed up generally by a) disrespect and b) laziness. It’s part of the city culture that people do not respect punctuality.

Cleanliness is one of the major things that just kills me about Japan, and I realized like with being punctual, it’s summed up by a general respect for other people, your environment, and the general world around you. Respect. You don’t want to see trash there, so you won’t litter either, and will carry trash with you until you see a (rare) public rubbish bin, or until you get home. We did this everywhere we went across three cities in Japan. Recycling is also huge there. The majority of trash bins were separated out by bottles, paper, plastic, and “other.” This can really only be found in “green” cities in the U.S. like San Francisco and Atlanta.

Surprisingly, I even enjoyed the bowing, whether it was a simple head nod (which I did a lot there and I actually do with a lot of older family and family friends), or a deep bow like when we left our ryokan, and the front desk guy ran out to give us a 45-degree bow. Respect is a common theme throughout all these cultural aspects about Japan I loved.

The number one thing that sticks out to me where I prefer being in the U.S. over Japan (if I were to live there, that is) is the strict gender roles. Women still seem far more shy, submissive, and demure. My laughter, as I mentioned earlier, really stood out like a sore thumb there. And I know it’s because I was a woman, an Asian woman, in Japan, with that laugh. At an oyster kaiseki meal in Hiroshima one evening, our female waitress served Chris more helpings of oyster and mushrooms in a stew we shared than me. Chris noticed it first. He looked at his bowl, then looked at mine, and asked, “Hey, wait. Why is my serving so much bigger than yours?” I looked at both bowls and started grumbling. About 90 percent of the time, the bill was handed to Chris whenever we dined out, except the one or two times I motioned for the bill to come to me, but it was definitely headed in the direction of Chris.

I’m still stunned, though, by the overall experience of Japan and how enjoyable it was. While they certainly have some catching up to do in the gender equality department, we have a lot of work to do pretty much everywhere else.

Observations in Japan

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The last ten days have gone by so quickly that I am sad to say we are going home tomorrow. Each day has been jam-packed with early morning rises (we woke up pretty much every day between 4-6am and stayed out until at least 9:30-11pm, partly because of our internal body clocks, and also partly because we wanted to maximize our time here as much as possible), lots of sight-seeing, eating of the local foods, and observations of the everyday people who live in Japan as well as those who visit for pleasure. Ten days really isn’t that much time contrary to what a lot of people have said to me; it’s been a whirlwind of events without enough time to really relax and take it all in. Today, Sunday was really our only day to semi relax and wander the streets and go at a relatively leisurely pace.

I’ve seen and observed a lot of interesting things here. Of course, since I’m American and was born and raised in the U.S., my perspective is very obviously western, but these are a few of the things I have noticed in the three cities we have visited that I’ve found intriguing:

1. Obsession with cleanliness: There are rarely rubbish bins in sight anywhere — not throughout train stations, not in a lot of public restrooms, not even by vending machines unless you count the bottle-recycling-specific bins. How does Japan keep so clean when it doesn’t have common places to toss trash? We rarely saw any litter anywhere. And to add to the cleanliness obsession, even the most public restrooms on trains or at temples had toilet seat sanitation wipes or sprays. The cheapest restaurants we visited had complex toilets that allowed you to clean your front and your rear down there. Everything must be very clean at all times. Even your crotch. And even the anime porn has to be clean: again, all the penetration images are pixelated out.

2. Safety and trust in others: There was never a single second when I felt like we were walking through a “shady” neighborhood, and even when the streets did seem a tiny bit more grimy, I always felt safe. We passed by a “parking lot” of bikes on a random street in Kyoto one day, and after some inspecting, we realized that a large chunk of the bikes had no bike locks. Anyone could have just swiped a bike and run off with it, but apparently no one really felt this was a risk, so they decided to just forgo the locks. They trust others to mind their own business.

3. Following rules: I’ve already mentioned how orderly people move up and down stairs in the train stations, but people even line up at the car doors for the actual trains! Lines form where the passengers know the train doors will open (because of the little gates that open when the train arrives either being marked with a picture on the platform floor, or by the actual barriers opening). We saw the lines form everywhere; swarms into the train cars were rare.

4. Quality of service: At our ryokan in Kyoto every evening, we went back to our room to find a few sweet wagashi (Japanese traditional glutinous rice-based sweet treats) on our table with a pot of boiling water and a pot of cold water, a spread of different types of Japanese tea bags, along with our traditional beds laid out. When we checked out, the man working at the front desk not only bowed to us, but chased us outside as we rolled our luggage down the street to say a final goodbye and give us a low bow.

When we arrived in Hiroshima, the person checking us in told us that we were a bit too early and needed to wait a few hours for 2pm check-in to access our room. Chris said this was unacceptable given that he was a platinum IHG member, so as a consolation, not only did they escort us to their gorgeous lounge for complimentary champagne to enjoy while waiting 30 minutes for our actual room to be ready, but they also upgraded us to the executive suite (which by far was the most spacious hotel room I’d ever stayed in, and was likely bigger than our Manhattan apartment), and gave us four free items from the hotel in-room bar.

On our last day in Hiroshima, I waited too long and all the bakeries that sold momijimanju (maple-shaped fried cakes with bean paste or custard filling) closed by the time I wanted to buy some. I walked into our hotel cafe and asked if they sold them individually since I saw that they had the boxed sets of momijimanju on display. The host not only checked the supply with two different colleagues, but apologized to me about five times in different words about not having individual manju for me to buy.

When we arrived in Tokyo for our last leg of the trip, we arrived at our hotel room with our helper, who rolled all of our luggage up for us on a cart, to find that there was a huge baby crib in our room. She apologized profusely about this multiple times, with clear embarrassment on her face, and even made a note of it on our stay record so that when we checked out, the front desk worker mentioned it and apologized yet again.

This was a very long-winded but detailed way of stating that the quality of service here has been far beyond any expectations I’d ever had. It’s like people take it personally when you are disappointed and will go out of their way to make sure that you are 120 percent satisfied with everything they do for you.

5. Nail and eyelash salons: I rarely saw a nail salon that did not also mention eyelashes. Fake eyelashes, eyelash extensions, and mascara are huge for women in Japan. All over Japan regardless of the city, I saw women of all ages with long, thick, fake, extended — everything eyelashes.

6. Women’s shoes: For the most part, the majority of heels I saw women wearing here were fairly practical — probably no higher than two to two and a half inches, which are comfortable for everyday wear and walking. However, if they weren’t wearing low heels, they were wearing these god-awful and extremely high platform shoes, which Chris noticed because he witnessed a girl fall on hers in the middle of a crowded street. I guess my ballet flats aren’t trendy here.

7. Loudness (or quiet): I’ve been told I am loud by quite a number of people, but I’ve never noticed it more than when I’ve been in Japan. I have a loud laugh. I am a woman with a loud laugh. Women do not laugh loudly here. At all. The most they will do is giggle softly while at least half covering their mouths. I do not do that. I won’t do that. I will laugh the way I laugh. And that’s elicited a lot of staring from other tables at restaurants and even people on the street.

8. Vending machines: these things are everywhere on the most random residential streets, and you can get anything from them: cold tea, hot tea, iced (with actual ice) tea and soda and spritzers, even coffee and cappuccinos. It’s like convenience central here.

9. Fish for breakfast: pretty common, and pretty amazing. I’m really going to miss having this in the morning.

10. Japanese trains – subway, shinkansen – everything: So amazing, fast, clean, and efficient. Geez, does the U.S. have a lot to learn. And when (or if) they do, I’m willing to bet it won’t be anywhere as clean, fast, or well-priced. It’s cheaper to take a freaking subway train in Tokyo than it is to take the train one-way on New York City’s MTA, which is gradually increasing its fares, which have gone up about 50 percent since I moved to the damn city only seven years ago. Tokyo has precise time tables for everything. New York does not. That is total crap. The stations even have maps here that show you each subway platform, numbers each of the subway exits, and tells you which car to be at to be closest to the exit you want to go out from. They thought of this, and we didn’t.

11. The Asian Neck Slump: Asian men of all ages seem to bend their necks off to the side while zonking out on the trains. Sometimes, we saw them all lining up with their heads tilted to the sides in rows and rows on the trains. It’s as though it were all in unison and fully coordinated. Except we knew it wasn’t. And they always knew when exactly to wake up and get off the train. I can’t even imagine the types of neck pain they experience afterwards.

Japan has been an overwhelming experience for me. I leave overwhelmed and in awe of it all. Sure, i don’t love everything about it (I know for a fact I would hate being a woman in a society like this), but I don’t love everything about anything, so that wouldn’t be a fair bar, would it?