LA 2 Tokyo

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

Public Transportation in Tokyo, Japan is probably the best in the world, and you can easily live all your days without a car here.

There are tons of train and subway lines, each run by different companies. The biggest is JR (Japan Railways), and it’s the one I take everyday.

I used to live in San Francisco and I’ve gotta say, MUNI stinks! Sure it gets you where you wanna go, but when you get there is anybody’s guess. I used to love those comics in the SF Weekly called “PUNI, neither here nor there.” More on MUNI (SF Municipal Railway) in another thread.

Viewing Tokyo trains through my MUNI lenses, I was amazed with their cleanliness and punctuality. Everyday, I leave my house at the exact same time, and arrive to work at the exact same time….on the minute! And my commute involves three trains.

If the train is late, it’s for a damn good reason, like an earthquake, typhoon, or “accident” (accident seems to be a euphemism for people jumping in front of moving trains aka “suicide”). Not cause some fat, lazy-ass driver stops to hop into the liquor store for a snack (I’ve seen this in SF several times).

Drivers in Japan undergo strict training, and can’t play games like back home. If these guys are even 1 minute late, there’s gonna be hell to pay!

What do I love about Tokyo? Lots of things, so why don’t I just start off from the beginning: my arrival at the airport. I can tell you that compared to LA, Tokyo airport (aka Narita) is pretty chill.

Lets face it, LAX is a zoo. You walk into the Bradley terminal, and the first thing you see is an ocean of grumpy people. Then you realize this mob scene is actually a mass of many lines jumbled together. After asking around, you finally get in the correct one, and wait patiently as it creeps along at a snail’s pace.

After checking in, they give you a sticker and tell you to go wait in another line. This is the line to drop off your bags. By the time you’re done waiting in all the stinkin’ lines you’ve almost forgotten that you still have a long flight ahead of you.

You get my point. Anyway, after stepping off the plane at Narita Airport, I was amazed at how clean and organized everything was. I had no trouble finding my line, and found the workers to be very kind. Even with the language barrier they tried their best to help me understand.

I got my bags, rolled through immigration and customs, and was on my way, virtually stress-free. This was my first taste of Tokyo efficiency…and it tasted sweet.

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.