Japan: Day Whatever. The Wrap-up

This is the message the TV in my hotel room flashes at you for a second or two after you hit the power switch and before it shuts down. It's not nearly the oddest pseudo-English that I've seen here, but it seems like an appropriate goodbye to my trip to Japan.

After I finish writing this, I'm going to start packing up for the trip home. I actually get to arrive in SF about 7 hours before I leave Japan. I think I'm pretty ready to be back in the US. I've enjoyed being out here, but I'm pretty ready to be home.

It wasn't the trip that I expected, hoped for, or even feared, for that matter, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience. Here are some quick pros and cons about Japan:

Pros:

1.) Nobody is going to jack your shit. This was really nice coming from the Bay Area where if you don't have something nailed to the ground, you shouldn't be surprised if it's gone in 15 minutes. Part of it is the police presence everywhere, but I think a large part of it is cultural. Using a simple cable to lock your bike to an object is considered overkill here.

2.) Dressing skanky is in! Spikey heels, fishnets, short skirts, and other sorts of streetwalker fashion are in and totally socially acceptable. And that's just in the afternoon. When the girls party, it's more extreme. I went to club and it was like Burningman, except the girls weren't so dusty (no nudity though).

3.) Being a foreigner makes you a minor celebrity wherever you go. I'm used to not being noticed in public back at home, but here I get a lot of stares or at minimum looks. That's not to say that all the reactions are positive though.

4.) Clean toilets everywhere! And you don't have to be a customer. Except for the rare pit toilet experience (Japanese-style), I was more than happy with the quality of the restrooms.

5.) The Japanese will eat anything. I got to try some weird shit that was actually pretty good.

Cons:

1.) I would place the culture at maybe 1950's level for racial tolerance and general misogyny. Japanese women seem to be treated pretty poorly. My friend Sly is constantly being hassled by the police.

2.) People need to chill the fuck out in the train station. People are rushing and pushing for no good reason. And the dirty looks if you have any baggage get pretty old.

3.) Speaking of dirty looks, people will talk shit about you openly just because they assume you don't know the language. Which in my case is true, but you can often get enough just by tone of voice, stares, and occasional pointing.

4.) Everyone smokes.

5.) The messed up English really got to me at one point. Sometimes it's funny, but I actually got angry when I saw a sign for the "I'm Corporation." You don't have to use English for everything, especially if you have no idea what you're saying. Everyone loves the way the English language looks.

6.) The Japanese will eat anything. Who the fuck intentionally orders gristle?