With each day of my stay in Japan that passes, the thought of starting this blog becomes increasingly overwhelming. Sounds a bit dramatic considering today only marks my first full week here, but it already feels that I’ve been here for much longer. Everyday is so filled with first-time experiences that in one week it feels like I’ve fulfilled my quota of new and awkward feelings for at least one year! So with that preface, here it goes.
My flight from Seattle landed in Kansai International Airport on Wednesday October 5. This was my second time flying into Kansai airport; first time by myself. The best way to get to the city center of Osaka from Kansai airport is by a “limousine bus.” Sounds fancy, right? It’s basically an hour rius with no talking. It’s considered rude to talk on your cell phone on most modes of Japanese public transportation. Eating and drinking is also usually considered rude since many Japanese consider public transportation a place of quiet rest. On my last limousine bus trip, I flipped through a magazine from the seat pocket in front of me that described, in poorly translated English, the majesty and beauty of Branson City, Missouri. Of all the places in the US to advertise for tourism, why this company chose Branson City I will never understand. Unfortunately, there were no such magazines on my bus this time. So I spent the hour staring out the window and feeling an overwhelming awe from the concrete and buildings that appear to go on forever in this city.
Maybe I should explain why I’m in Japan in the first place and where I’m spending most of my time. My company is Japanese and has offices all over the world. The headquarter spots are generally understood to be Japan and the Netherlands. We also have large offices in the US and Germany. So these are the international places that I visit the most for work. Earlier this year, an opportunity arose for me to spend an extended period of time working with my colleagues in our research and development center in Japan. Because I enjoyed my previous two visits to the country so much and have always wanted to live abroad, I was very much in favor of the trip. After months of working out details and waiting on approvals and generally putting my schedule on hold, I booked my flights and within two weeks was sitting on a flight headed out of Atlanta.
My company has offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Ibaraki, which is a smaller town on the outskirts of Osaka. Tokyo is the largest city in the world, with the city itself and surrounding areas holding something like thirty million people. Please have a look at Google Maps and check out the satellite view of Tokyo. It’s crazy. Concrete for miles and miles and miles. Maybe five-hundred kilometers southwest of Tokyo are Osaka and Ibaraki, in the Kansai area of Japan, in the Osaka prefecture. Japan is divided into sections called prefectures, kind of like the territories of Canada. I think the Osaka prefecture has somewhere around twenty million people and is the ninth largest city in the world. Ibaraki is outside of Osaka, in between Osaka and Kyoto, another famous location in Japan known for its ancient temples and shrines. Since mostly everything is connected by train and subway in Japan, it’s very easy to travel between cities. To get from the main train station in Osaka to the main train station in Ibaraki, it takes about fifteen minutes by train. After that, I can take a taxi or local bus to my apartment. Basically, very easy to travel without a car.
Getting back to my limousine bus ride, I got off the bus near the main train station in Osaka and walked in the drizzly rain to my hotel for the night. My colleagues decided that it would be easier for me to stay in Osaka for the night since my flight arrived in the early evening. The following day, I would travel by train to my office in Ibaraki and eventually my apartment. I had stayed in this hotel during my previous trips to Japan and already knew the area fairly well. The hotel is located within the main train station and also has maybe ten floors of shopping. This seems to be a pretty common setup for big city train stations in Japan, from what I’ve seen. One of my favorite things to do in new places is visit a grocery store and take stock of what people buy, eat, wear, all that fun stuff. So lucky for me, the basement level of my hotel/train station/mall holds a huge market. This is exactly where I wanted to go right after I arrived at my hotel. Well, first I made sure the A/C was turned on and cranked up so that my room would be nice and comfy when I returned. Then I ventured out to the market.
This particular grocery store is a little different than what we have in the US. There’s one large section with produce, a refrigerated section, soups, etc. But then right next to this area, there are smaller segregated areas that sell specific items. So first you go to the grocery area and check out. Then you hit up the bakery for some fresh bread and pay for that in that area. Then you can go to the section with wine and beer or the one with fancy sweets or with pre-made sushi or whatever you want. Each section is a separate shop within itself but all seamlessly integrated into this one huge floor of shopping. Not a great description. Maybe I’ll take a photo next time I visit one of these. So picked up some fruit from the grocery section and paid there. Then I walked to the premade bento box are and picked out a box containing a mixture of steamed vegetables, tofu, rice and some unidentified gelatinous substance. Then I headed over to the bakery and got a freshly baked roll with what looked like raisins and walnuts. I took the escalators back up to the main level and parked myself on a bench so I could people-watch and enjoy my first dinner in Japan.
Maybe I should explain why I’m in Japan in the first place and where I’m spending most of my time. My company is Japanese and has offices all over the world. The headquarter spots are generally understood to be Japan and the Netherlands. We also have large offices in the US and Germany. So these are the international places that I visit the most for work. Earlier this year, an opportunity arose for me to spend an extended period of time working with my colleagues in our research and development center in Japan. Because I enjoyed my previous two visits to the country so much and have always wanted to live abroad, I was very much in favor of the trip. After months of working out details and waiting on approvals and generally putting my schedule on hold, I booked my flights and within two weeks was sitting on a flight headed out of Atlanta.
My company has offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Ibaraki, which is a smaller town on the outskirts of Osaka. Tokyo is the largest city in the world, with the city itself and surrounding areas holding something like thirty million people. Please have a look at Google Maps and check out the satellite view of Tokyo. It’s crazy. Concrete for miles and miles and miles. Maybe five-hundred kilometers southwest of Tokyo are Osaka and Ibaraki, in the Kansai area of Japan, in the Osaka prefecture. Japan is divided into sections called prefectures, kind of like the territories of Canada. I think the Osaka prefecture has somewhere around twenty million people and is the ninth largest city in the world. Ibaraki is outside of Osaka, in between Osaka and Kyoto, another famous location in Japan known for its ancient temples and shrines. Since mostly everything is connected by train and subway in Japan, it’s very easy to travel between cities. To get from the main train station in Osaka to the main train station in Ibaraki, it takes about fifteen minutes by train. After that, I can take a taxi or local bus to my apartment. Basically, very easy to travel without a car.
Getting back to my limousine bus ride, I got off the bus near the main train station in Osaka and walked in the drizzly rain to my hotel for the night. My colleagues decided that it would be easier for me to stay in Osaka for the night since my flight arrived in the early evening. The following day, I would travel by train to my office in Ibaraki and eventually my apartment. I had stayed in this hotel during my previous trips to Japan and already knew the area fairly well. The hotel is located within the main train station and also has maybe ten floors of shopping. This seems to be a pretty common setup for big city train stations in Japan, from what I’ve seen. One of my favorite things to do in new places is visit a grocery store and take stock of what people buy, eat, wear, all that fun stuff. So lucky for me, the basement level of my hotel/train station/mall holds a huge market. This is exactly where I wanted to go right after I arrived at my hotel. Well, first I made sure the A/C was turned on and cranked up so that my room would be nice and comfy when I returned. Then I ventured out to the market.
This particular grocery store is a little different than what we have in the US. There’s one large section with produce, a refrigerated section, soups, etc. But then right next to this area, there are smaller segregated areas that sell specific items. So first you go to the grocery area and check out. Then you hit up the bakery for some fresh bread and pay for that in that area. Then you can go to the section with wine and beer or the one with fancy sweets or with pre-made sushi or whatever you want. Each section is a separate shop within itself but all seamlessly integrated into this one huge floor of shopping. Not a great description. Maybe I’ll take a photo next time I visit one of these. So picked up some fruit from the grocery section and paid there. Then I walked to the premade bento box are and picked out a box containing a mixture of steamed vegetables, tofu, rice and some unidentified gelatinous substance. Then I headed over to the bakery and got a freshly baked roll with what looked like raisins and walnuts. I took the escalators back up to the main level and parked myself on a bench so I could people-watch and enjoy my first dinner in Japan.
When I finished, I moved to another area in the station where there’s a large “water clock” where you can watch falling water form words and shapes and obviously, the time. Again, bad description but I did take a photo. More people-watching and Japanese vocabulary study. During my weekend in Seattle, I bought a Japanese vocabulary book and made it my goal to learn the numbers on the flight over. Done. I also tried to scope out a seat at the Starbucks in this building but it was slammed with coffee-sipping, chatty Japanese people. If there were any empty seats, they had already been spoken for by an umbrella hanging on the back of the chair.
Overall an easy flight over and good first evening. Having been to this particular hotel before and knowing how to navigate the bus system alone was really helpful for my stress levels. In general, the Japanese people are so helpful and friendly when it comes to helpless foreigners. So if I had needed help, it would have been easy to come by.
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