Konnichiwa

On the flight from Seoul to Tokyo, I watched a movie that literally translates to "A Story Sadder than Sadness" but was dubbed "More than Blue" in English. Leave it to Koreans to make a movie called A Story Sadder than Sadness. It was indeed very very sad and I spent most of the time on the plane in tears.

***

I've been in Tokyo for 3 days now. It's very bright and shiny and efficient and convenient. Other than that, I don't know what to say. I don't think I've formed a full opinion about it yet (and how can I, after only 3 days), which is why I feel like I have nothing to say at all. But here are a few observations:

* You are not allowed to eat while walking down the street. Nor drink, nor smoke. Basically, you can't consume anything while you are walking. However, if you can find a place to sit down or a corner to stand in, you may eat, drink or smoke but basically you must not be walking. On some streets, you'll actually see a sign that says: "you may not eat on this street." Whether such a sign is present or not, the general rule in Tokyo (and I believe all of Japan) is: no consuming while walking!

*Tokyo is eerily quiet in most places. Shibuya, Roppongi and other super-high traffic areas not withstanding, Tokyo is SO quiet. People don't really talk while walking down the street. People don't really talk in the subway cars. Cars don't honk. It's eery.

*There are a surprising number of Africans in Tokyo. Most of the ones that are visible are nightclub promoters that try to lure you in, but I've heard there are a high number of Nigerian drug dealers as well.

*I got stopped today by a policewoman in the subway station in what I can only call racial profiling. She said something to me in Japanese (I only understood konnichiwa but assumed she was not talking to me at first), then she tapped me and stopped me and showed me her badge. She asked something in Japanese and when I answered that I didn't speak Japanese, she asked for my alien registration card. I told her I didn't have it yet because I just registered for it, but that I didn't understand why I was being stopped. Then I remembered I had a temporary document that verifies that I have applied for the alien registration card and showed it to her. She noted: ah, America-jin, then let me go on my way. I am still a bit befuddled as to why she stopped me but all I can conclude is that she thought I was some sort of illegal alien.

*My clothes are painfully boring in Tokyo. Today I wore my loudest print dress and I still looked like a conservatively dressed American. I suppose it's because my hair is black (not blonde) - even more black than usual because I dyed it in Korea before I came here, I refuse to curl my hair in this oppressive humidity, I don't wear half an inch of makeup or fake eyelashes or gobs of eye makeup...all these things make Japanese women look very...done all the time. Plus they wear the craziest outfits!

*In the Roppongi area, where I'm currently living, there are a very large number of white men married to Japanese women. The white men can be anything from old, ugly and fat to young, attractive and fit. But the women they are married to are almost always uniformly gorgeous, thin and expensive-looking (there's really no better way to put it...I don't mean they look expensive like they can be bought, I mean that they drip in upper-class expensiveness), often pushing a baby stroller with an even more gorgeous little half white-half Japanese baby.

*Almost all Japanese food has the same flavor - a soy-based slightly sweetened flavor. I am so sick of this flavor! I didn't think I could ever get sick of Japanese food but honestly, I really am. The steamed vegetables, the stewed meats, the egg omelets, the bento boxes, the little Japanese banchan type dishes...they all taste essentially the same! Slightly salty, slightly sweet. After just two meals, my tastebuds were screaming for other flavors. I had bibimbap and kimchi yesterday at a restaurant run by a real Korean chef and once again, I had to conclude that....Koreans just do it better. Our food has so much more depth, more character, more flavors! (I've been told by several people that I am one of the most nationalistic people they know...which is probably true but is tempered by my extreme criticism of everything terrible about the Korean people - materialism, superficialness, penchant to deh-mo (protest) everything, irrationality (i.e. protesting against US beef because they swore the US was only sending Korea beef tainted with mad cow....), I could go on, but I'll stop here)

*The summer heat here is unbearably, stiflingly oppressive.

*I love the soft drinks/beverages here. Green teas, jasmine teas, grapefruit soda, Korean pear soda and especially the milk, which I was ecstatic to find is just like Korean milk - super creamy, sweeter, all around more satisfying.