it's a month after the fact, but i still feel compelled to document japan, so HERE IT IS:
to celebrate our lack of school and income due to swine flu, we jetsetted on over to japan, in my third spontaneous international trip of the year. unfortunately, in japan spontaneity is treated with extreme trepidation.
first up, traditional korean cultural experience zone at incheon:
(it had to be contained to the zone, lest the cultural experience interfere with air traffic control.)
we went to luxurious kita kyushu, japan. never heard of it, you say? nor had we. but oh, they had heard of us. sort of. after about six hours of transit, we finally arrive in japan. our flight had about twenty people on it, and we all headed to customs, where there were two lines. the japanese line had about four customers, but they were not about to allow any foreigners over there. when we finally got to the front, i went first. on my immigration form, i hadn't filled in "lodging," since our plan was to find something once we got to the airport. we quickly learned that this was not a good plan.
the agent asked me where we were staying, and i had to pull out my boarding pass and sound out "keeeeta kayushu?" "yes, but where?" "in a hotel?" "do you have one in mind?" "we were going to ... ask information?" "....... noooooo." after some back and forth with the other agents in japanese, we were asked to wait in the back of the room until they could deal with everyone else and devote more attention to these obvious terrorists in their midst. while we waited, an adorable female agent came over to ask us what exactly the fuck we were up to. she asked where we were trying to again, and we again stumbled over "kita kyushu." "yeah, but WHERE?" as it turns out, kita kyushu is a large district. i tried to say fukuoka, but she heard kuoka, and i agreed. "is it a cool place?" "..." she then asked what our battle plan was for accomodations, and we told her the information desk. "we ... don't really have one of those." "internet?" "yeah ... nooo." WHAT IS THIS PLACE.
finally the other six people on our flight were processed, and the entire airport staff of six people could investigate why there were white people in kita kyushu. through our makeshift translator, they asked us where we lived and why we were there. "because it was the cheapest international flight" didn't really fly with them, as that is clearly something a terrorist would do. after about fifteen minutes of discussion, they finally asked us what we did. turns out "english teacher" is the magic word at kita kyushu immigration, and we were suddenly each granted our own escort through the airport. first, though, i of course had to have my bag investigated in customs, where my two packs of cigarettes were met with extreme amusement (they're really expensive in japan, ok?!).
we finally made it into the country, only to find that THERE WAS INDEED AN INFORMATION COUNTER. they gave us a vague idea of where we could stay, and we shuffled onto a bus to kuoka, better known as pittsburgh, japan. (for reference, i discovered once i got home that kuoka is sister cities with norfolk. just consider that for a while.)
finding somewhere to stay was a crisis unto itself, as we had been in transit for roughly eight hours at that point and really really just wanted to bathe and start drinking. ryan had taken some decongestants on the plane, so we left her alone in a park to die while we searched for housing. after several tries, including a hostel that wanted to charge us 1800 yen a night to sleep on the floor, we finally stumbled upon a real hotel where we scored a double bed, and also these sponges:
they'll find you if you don't.
our actual experience in japan was not nearly as exciting as the airport. remember, pittsburgh. so, i present you with a photo essay to make this as painless as possible.
we went to japanese bars:
drank by the river and tried to document bright lights and malls:
we waltzed around the streets at midnight on a wednesday, wondering where the nightlife was (there isn't one):
we shopped for traditional japanese clothing and accessories:
we hung out at the 100 yen shop and saw a ferris wheel:
we went to a creepy pc 방 where it was pretty clear that facebook was not the most commonly visited website:
we hung out by water volcanoes:
we saw the local palace at night:
we chose to disregard open-air designated smoking areas:
we drank on the side of the road so we could people-watch and take myspace pictures:
we participated in the traditional japanese art of writing things on small pieces of paper and tying them to some twine:
we learned the art of the samurai:
lived our postmodern lives:
visited a ridiculously tiny but adorable japanese garden - complete with fish! (we had formerly been observing a collection of shrimp in the palace moat.):
attempted to navigate the escher-esque train station:
MADE IT BACK TO THE AIRPORT:
... and that is where things got a bit hairy. when we got to the airport, after a brief photoshoot, we said hay to our good friends at the information booth, and then headed upstairs. there were seven outgoing flights for the day. six were to tokyo, one to incheon. the door for international security wasn't even open - there was a note on the door that it would open twenty minutes before our flight boarded. upon our arrival at the jeju air desk, my duffel bag was intercepted by security, who threw it into an x-ray machine. somehow ryan and abby skated by, i guess because they were wearing backpacks. incidentally, i had purchased a set of three lighters at the 100 yen shop (featuring the japanese, american, and ... swedish flags?) and damned if i was going to lose them! when confronted, i told them that i had no idea where the lighters were (which, given my packing, was pretty accurate) but told them they were free to search. after completely disassembling my bag and running each item of clothing individually (a process which took no less than twenty minutes), i looked up and realized that all of our friends from immigration were staring at us. you know, the ones who thought we were completely incompetent due to our inability to even remember what city we were visiting. finally security tracked down the lighters, and i feigned utter surprise. they offered to check my bag, but i realized i would most definitely never see it again in that situation. then i asked if it was ok to have one lighter, and they said yes. i pointed out that there were three of us, and three lighters. they acquiesced.
THEN, clever dog that i am, i opted to hide all three inside a metal case i'd recently purchased (x-rays can't see through tin, right???) since abby didn't want to run the risk of losing any of the nineteen lighters she had brought along. unfortunately, when security did open up, they made a beeline for my lighters. fortunately, abby's were apparently cloaked in darkness, and i was able to pull my "but there are three of us!" argument again. because we all know that terrorists don't work in teams.
AND THEN! we made it on our plane!!!!!!
huzzah, best trip evar !! we even made it home in time for halloween:
