LA 2 Tokyo

It was almost 4 years ago when I first came here. I was really excited, but nervous, too. I hate flying, and even the flight from LA to San Francisco is terrible for me. Just thinking about crossing the Pacific Ocean gave me the chills. After my first flight to Japan, I learned just what a nightmare air travel can be…

I tried not to think about it as I boarded the plane, and embarked on my first trip out of the country. Luckily, I chose Singapore Airlines cause they have TV screens in all the seats. I was able to watch movies and play video games and this helped take my mind off the flight. The food was pretty good, and the service was excellent. I started thinking, ‘Hey, this flying scene ain’t so bad after all.’

But things took a turn for the worse. Continue Reading »

Since Junior High, I’ve wanted to come out here, but had no idea how. One of my best friends, who was half-Japanese, also wanted to come, but was in the same boat as me.

His Japanese side had been living in Hawaii for generations, so he had no special permission to work in Japan either. Anyway, he found out about the JET Programme through a family friend. She’d worked through them for a year, had a nice time, and managed to save up a large sum of cash.

JET stands for Japan Exchange and Teaching, and the main requirement, according to his friend, was a University Degree.

It was the first time I heard about teaching in Japan. I was already helping out Japanese friends with English, so to get paid for that sounded pretty chill. I still had another two years of Junior High left, so University was not even on my radar, but over the years, the thought never really left my mind.

Things have changed a lot in the English teaching scene since I was in Junior High. Back then was the so-called “Golden Era” of teaching in Japan. There were less foreigners coming here, and many people couldn’t care less about living in Japan.

It was the best time to come as there was less competition for jobs and the Japanese economy was booming. I’ve heard stories of people being picked up off the streets by businessmen offering large sums of cash for private lessons. Shit, I even remember my friend’s Uncle telling us how some dude offered him a job in a Japanese porno movie!

Of course by the time I was old enough to come, “the Dark Ages” had already begun. Though inflation has raised the cost of living here, the wages for English teachers here haven’t gone up since the 80’s! Even worse, they have actually started declining in the last couple of years.

Getting a job with the JET program is like rolling the dice these days, and you’ve gotta wait about a year to see if you crap out or not. My friend, who I mentioned above, wasted a year of his life waiting for an answer from them, only to get denied for no clear reason.

Basically, they’ve got too many people banging on the door so they can afford to be real choosy these days.

I decided not to waste my time with those clowns, and instead came out here on a tourist visa to see what it’s like first. When I was living in San Francisco, one of my roommates was from Saitama, Japan. He moved back here shortly after I finished up at SFSU, and told me I could come stay at his mom’s place anytime.

A few months after graduation, I moved back to LA, and booked a flight to Tokyo.

So I finally made it out to good old Akihabara Tokyo (aka “Electric Town”). I went last Sunday afternoon, and the weather was beautiful. I wanted to see if I could scrounge up any cheaper deals on memory for this laptop, cause the prices in Kawasaki were a little expensive. I could buy RAM on the internet a lot cheaper, but I usually prefer to buy from a store.

Akihabara is an interesting place. Also known as Electric Town, this area of Tokyo has those most electronics shops lumped together in one place that I’ve ever seen. Here is the “Akihabara Official Website.”

Here’s a pic I took of one of one of my trains, the Nambu line, as it rolls into the station.

This line runs mostly through Kawasaki and Tokyo, but I took this photo near the border of Kawasaki and Yokohama…an area that reminds me of the Port neighborhoods in LA: San Pedro, Harbor City, and Wilmington.

There are lots of factories, warehouses, and refineries, but seems like less pollution than back home. Some Japanese people have told me this area can be a little dangerous, but seems pretty safe to me.

The neon sign on the building to the right is for a Pachinko Parlor. Pachinko is basically a Japanese slot machine, and they’re practically everywhere. One of my buddies is a “Pachi-Pro,” and makes a living playing Pachinko. More on that later.

Everybody’s got different reasons for coming here. My interest in Japan started at a young age. There were lots of Japanese kids at my Elementary school, so I learned the usual bad words…but I didn’t really take an interest in the culture until Junior High.

I went to public school, and in LA, like most other cities, which school you attend is based on where you live. My house was just on the other side of the border from the Junior High School all my friends would be going to. So I had the misfortune of being one of only two kids to go to the other school.

It was brutal showing up for my first day of Junior High alone. All the other kids seemed to know eachother from Elementary School, and nobody talked to me. On top of that, I was painfully shy at that age.

My Junior High was grades 6-8, and I was young for a 6th grader (only 10 years old). Some of those 8th graders were 14 years old and looked like giants! There were a lot jerks there, too. One 8th grader walked up and spat right in my face for no reason during my first week.

Kids would beat you down for no reason, and there were fights practically everyday afterschool. It was a real different world from Elementary school. Most of my teachers were fools, too…acting all hard the first week to try and scare us into submission. I was just thinking, ‘How the hell am I gonna survive in this hellhole?’ I was seriously considering trying to transfer to the other Junior High.

I did have one friend from the same street as me who happened to go to the other Elementary school, so he had connections at this crazy Junior High. But he was out of town the first week of school. I’ll never forget the day he got back, and I met up with him at lunch. It’s lucky I didn’t transfer, cause from then on, things started looking up.

No more lonely lunches

That fool really saved my life, and I’m still grateful to this day for that. He introduced me to all his buddies, most of whom happened to be Korean and Japanese…all 100% American. We quickly became good friends, and I used to stay over at their houses all the time. I remember my first taste of Kim Chee at my buddy’s house, and when his dad hooked up the Korean BBQ style for his B-Day party!

So basically I was this white-boy chilling with a bunch of Asian kids. But you know what? We were too young to give a crap about race and all that other BS. If somebody messed with one of us, they messed with us all. We looked out for eachother.

Our school was really mixed, and among the Asian kids, there was a definite split between the ones who grew up in the States, and the ones who couldn’t speak English. There were a few Korean kids in the latter group, but I remember most were Chinese, and Japanese.

One of my close friends came over from Japan when he was five, so he spoke perfect English, but he also went to Japanese school on the weekend, so his Japanese was great, too. He was in tight with the Japanese-Japanese kids at the school, and I remember one time at lunch he suggested we chill with them.

They were a big group of about 30 dudes, and I was a little nervous if they’d be cool with some white-boy who can’t even speak Japanese sitting with them. But my friend introduced me, and they were all cool. Mostly, we communicated with body language, but my friend translated, too. I even picked up a few non-swear words.

Some of the guys could speak a little English, and it was enough for us to make friends. After that, I was in, and I started hanging out with them at lunch regularly. They told me about life in Japan, showed me comics, and even their Japanese porno magazines. I was surprised at how much porn these guys had, and they said they could buy it in vending machines, along with beer!

Going to my friends’ houses afterschool was fun for me, cause I got to try new food all the time. I remember the first time I tried umeboshi onigiri, or when my friend’s dad had my family over for homemade sushi. I’ll never forget how my dad spread on the wasabi thinking it was avocado…I’ve never seen such a bright red face!

The more I learned about my friends’ home country, the more I wanted to go check it out. Everything sounded cooler than America. I guess it was the old “Grass is Greener” syndrome…you know how that goes

Well, I take back what I said about the reliability of public transportation in Tokyo. Right now I am so angry…I’m about to punch the wall! Actually, it’s still the most reliable transportation system I’ve ever seen, but when it fails, it sure chooses to fail at the right time!

Tonight, I was gonna go see my friend (who I haven’t seen in a long time) spin records in Shibuya. To catch the last train there, I had to leave from my station at 12:25am and transfer to the final train leaving from Musashi-Kosugi at 12:42am. At 12:20am, my local station attendant came out and made an announcement in super-fast Japanese.

It took awhile to figure out what he said, but basically, the Nambu line (my train) would be late leaving Kawasaki cause it was waiting for the Tokaido to arrive. There must have been a problem with the Tokaido line, and if the Nambu didn’t wait for the people on that ill-fated train, they’d be doomed to a night in Kawasaki.

Yeah, for those who don’t know, Tokyo public transportation does not run all night. Most train lines stop sometime between 12:00am and 1:00am at night. If you miss that last train, you’re stuck there until sunrise. So if you’re planning on going out to a club, you’d better be prepared to stay out for the long haul…till like 5:00am, depending on what time your train home starts running.

That’s why I like taking the last train to clubs. I’m getting old, and don’t have the stamina to party from 9pm-5am, but partying from 1am-5am is doable.

Continue Reading »

The journey from LA to Tokyo has been pretty interesting. Growing up in LA is a trip, and as anyone else from there knows, you might have had totally different experiences depending what part your from.

There’s a lot of neighborhood pride out there for sure, which gave rise to all those bumperstickers that look like the European ones. Like: “SP” for San Pedro, “T” for Torrance, etc.

What part did I grow up in? I ain’t gonna give you my address or anything, but I’ll tell you I lived most of my days in the South Bay. All the LA locals reading this already know where the South Bay is, but for those who don’t, I fill you in.

On a map of LA, it’s basically, all the cities south of Los Angeles International Airport/South Central, and west of Long Beach.

You can find almost anything in the South Bay, from nice beaches to oil refineries and chemical plants. There’s a lot of cultural variety too. Brown, Black, Yellow, White, Purple….whatever, everybody’s living there together. I like that mix, and it’s one of the things I miss now that I’m in Japan.

Out here, 99% of the population is Japanese, so it’s a totally different world from LA for damn sure. That’s probably one of the biggest culture shocks I encountered out here.