I’M IN JAPAN!!!  WHOOOHOOO!!!  I almost cried when I saw the motherland   I’ve wanted to come here for so long, but I never thought I would get the opportunity.  For some reason, I’ve always had this outrageous, outlandish fantasy that when I finally got off the plane in Japan, that I would be greeted with, “Ahhhhhh!  Miyazaki-kun!  Welcome, welcome!” and then whisked off to the areas where my great-grandparents lived.  Buuuuuut… That didn’t happen.  Instead, I was greeted by polite, shy smiles, avoided eye contact, and a bunch of signs that I felt guilty that I couldn’t read.

Man, people know how to WAIT here in Japan!  Seriously, they can just stand in line, not figit, not look around, not fiddle with a cell phone – they can just STAND.  Also, they have probably the most non-hectic, polite airport attendants that I’ve ever met!  An older man in a navy blue uniform, sharp dinner-plate hat, and starchy white gloves calmly gestures to travelers their assigned customs desk.  “Arigato gozaiimasuuuuuuuuu…” he says as he kindly bows.  What kind of airport-heaven have I landed in??  Good-bye Heathrow, hello Narita!!

The Hikari Shinkansen Suupa Express (Hikari Super-express Bullet Train): Yeeeeeeaaaaahhh baby!!  That’s what I’m tawkin’ abouts!!  The epitome of Japanese technology, the Shinkansen is a streak of streamlined white, making you say, “HOOOOOOLY SHIZZLE!!!” whenever it zipppss by.  Once on the train, it is so smooth that you can hardly feel it accelerate.  There is nary a bump nor a jostle.  The train is silent – dead silent – all due to the uncanny politeness of Japanese passengers and the ninja stealth of this purely electric train.  The silence is only interrupted by a periodic electric ZZZZING!! that I’ve only heard in Star Wars movies.  I assume that they are laser bolts shot by Imperial walkers or air-speeder, but they’re probably just telephone poles.  …and then… WAAAGABOOOSHHH!!  A second Shinkansen, traveling at a speed equivalent to our 150+ mph headed in the opposite direction, passes within 5 feet of our train!  I silently swear as the erupted sonic boom rocks the train and my surprised nerves.  But within a split second, the opposing train is gone, leaving only behind a ghostly silence of, “What the HECK just happened?!?”  Man… the only thing cooler than that maniac train was getting off that maniac train…  I’m sooooooo gonna ride that thing again!!

Thanks for reading, and check out more photos on my flickr,

Jamie