coming to america

Home to me is very debatable. I’m from Chicago, I live in San Diego, most of my family lives in Florida, and I’m moving to New York. Never before have I felt that my home is just America, but I do now.

It’s funny how traveling away to foreign lands makes you appreciate the subtleties of home - even though these foreign lands sometimes look like home. Like when you discover that Seven-11’s are more prevalent in Thailand and Japan than McDonalds. They’re everywhere! Or when you realize after you go into an unknown fast-food restaurant in Australia that it actually is a Burger King (The name Burger King was already taken before “Burger King” made it down under). But it isn’t until you look closely or are starving for some Doritos that you realize the Seven-11’s are quite different as is the rest. Instead of normal chips, they have hotdog bisque flavored chips or cheddar and prawns or #>~*). They do have Big Gulps, but don’t understand you when you say “Big Gulps huh? See ya later”. I know I’m supposed to go away to get away, but isn’t just being there enough?

I mean, we scuba’d the Great Barrier Reef! They don’t have that in America. I walked next to the hunky Russell Crow for 5 minutes. How cool is that? I kissed (and licked) Sydney’s opera house! Everyone has seen pictures of it from the Olympics but what they don’t know is that there are 3 foot bats that fly above it every night - or that it is infested with pet rats. I feel so fortunate to be able to take this time in our lives to go get $3 massages everyday (talked down from $4) – to rent scooters for $5 a day and go exploring or to meet awesome people and talk about their views of America.

While traveling abroad I felt like I was either 20 years in the future or 100 years in the past. Everything in Australia and Japan was so new and clean. Australia had problems, but they were problems you’d expect us to have in 50 years or so. For instance, the number one political topic for the upcoming election was where the country is going to get drinking water. Drinking water! Not war or welfare or the economy. Drinking water! Talk about an issue.

Tokyo – You have to go there to have a clue what I’m talking about, but it’s basically like the Las Vegas Strip meets 25 Times Square’s meets what ever image you have of some back alley flea market in Vietnam. It’s crazy. Katrina asked me where they were going to go from here (in terms of growth) and I have no clue. It’s already so built up and so crowded with so many people. Rush hour on the subway is always. These people must work 15 hours a day because we’d be going to a bar at 10:00PM and the subway would be packed with people in suits.

Thailand – Despite it’s natural beauty outside the cities, Thailand is so backwards. The streets are lined with row after row of broken down huts. It seems to me that they have lost their proud tradition and heritage and exploit the temples and religion for tourist dollars. The islands are another thing. They are still very poor and backwards, but are also very peaceful and fun. You might think that riding around on a scooter with no helmets on a street that’s not a street might be unwise, but when in Rome I guess. Despite the poverty, Thailand is a great place. You can find the smartest dogs in the world, a perfectly made banana crepe at 3:00AM and some really nice people.

Which brings me back to America. I’m always going to have a desire to explore this world and the unknown. I’ve always been interested in seeing things first hand and meeting new people, but when I took my seat on this plane to come back home, to come to a place that is familiar and known, I realized that I frickin love America!

konichiwa

tokyo, japan. what a madhouse. fortunately we were able to catch an earlier flight into tokyo, because even arriving at 8pm was exhausting. i think it took each of us several minutes of blank staring with completely dumbfounded looks on our faces before we snapped back to reality and realized we actually had to navigate through the massive train terminal.

thus, we have now found how far pointing, hand gestures, body language, sound effects and pantomiming can get a person. we also know to have our destination written in japanese with a map before we leave and to also ask what track number the train leaves from. at least to help minimize disaster or massive confusion. there is no clear address system, some streets dont even have names. each building has a series of numbers that roughly correlate to its location, so even taxicabs have a hard time. everyone has a business card with a map on the back!

what an impressive city though. one of the largest cities in the world (apparently it is debatable with mexico city?) and all of the streets are immaculate, the train runs flawless, and there is no trash to be found anywhere. even more impressive considering that there is actually a `pusher` whose job is literally pushing people into the train during rush hour to maximize people on each train. it is pretty funny to see a full train pull up, doors open, people kind of seep out accidentally, and the pusher comes over and shoves them all back in with a few more poor souls.

it is always rush hour though, even if it not that crazy at all hours, at 10pm the train is still packed with business men in suits. it is not uncommon for the men to work 14 hour days, 6 days a week. the woman still carries a very traditional role of wife and childbearer, helping tutor the children and guide their spiritual life, although that is beginning to change with our generation.

when we got to our first sightseeing stop in ginza we figured that we must have hit the best location on a whim. there are flashing lights, huge tv screens, basically looking like times square with all of the high end fashion stores lining the streets. but we soon realized that this is basically every where. the city goes on forever and block after block there are these lights and music and people, so chaotic. there is no real center of the city, and even an hour on the train out of the city doesnt get you out of tokyo.

the food. well. hmm. it is really hard to branch out and try the japanese food, even though each restaurant has little plastic models of what they are serving, what it is made of is still questionable and of course the menu is in japanese. needless to say, we have been eating a lot of sandwiches these days, which include a lot of may and corn and hot dogs. so i think it may be worth the risk on the japanese menu.

the sushi has been great though. out for lunch the other day, the cook, or i guess sushi preparer, fished an eel right out of the tank and jabbed a spike through it to hold it down. he then continued to fillet it right up before my eyes. i certainly felt bad when he saw me with the camera, looking more tragic than excited. he offered me up a nice piece of eel but after seeing what i just did, i had to look away and decline.

the fish market is amazing, and i think the largest in the world. at 5am these tuna fish larger than my body are auctioned off, some over $100,000 us dollars. there are crabs with bodies larger than my head and octopus with tentacles as long as my arm. thousands of fish are being traded and sold, the craziest fish possible and they are just so massive! i definitely should have brought the carharts and mucklucks though, the fish insides were being shlopped all around and i had to leave after being splashed one too many times. the sushi shops all had lines forming out the door and despite the fact that i am sure it tastes so fresh and amazing, fish at 7am just didnt sit right that morning.

so mike has left now, in his way back to san diego to get some things wrapped up. i`ll be off to kyoto in a few days before heading back to tokyo and then to the united states. now that the trip is coming to an end i dont know what to think. part of me is ready to get back to my normal life and routine, and part of me wants to just throw away all the responsibilities and keep traveling...