Thursday, June 13, 2013
The first really strange thing that I noticed was in the Osaka airport - they actually have these very small, completely enclosed rooms that are specifically for smoking. For some reason I did not expect there to be that many people smoking in Japan and did not realize that there would be a need for places like this. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of these special little rooms but it was very odd to see.
Our next task was to exchange our American money for Japanese currency. Luckily, the yen is worth almost as much as our dollar so we didn't lose too much in the exchange. However, the exchange banks (or whatever they are called because it's not really a bank) don't seem to like all of our bills, especially the $100 bills. It kicked back 2 of mine and several from some of the others. Right away I became suspicious as to what is wrong with my money - is is counterfeit? - it can't possibly be because I got the money from my American back yesterday. So what exactly is the problem then? Dr. Waker (our leading professor for this study program) assured us that it is normal, not to worry, and we should be able to exchange it at another location later on without any difficulty. Oh, and there are about 4 people involved in exchanging the currency: 1st one that checks the form you fill out for the exchange process, 2nd one takes the money from you and counts that you have given them what the paper indicates and puts it through a counting machine, 3rd to check the bills that got rejected and see if they can possibly be used somehow and count out the money again that is being exchanged, and 4th is another person that rechecks the monetary amounts being exchanged. You'd think that we are dealing with Fort Knox or something because of the number of times that the money is checked and rechecked, and they do this for every transaction no matter how much you are exchanging! I will say that it does create jobs though, OK, so now I have to learn how their money system works too but not until later when we finally get into our hotel; however, I now have a wallet that has paper currency for 1000, 5000, and 10000 yen, which by the way is about the same size as our bills, different colors, and have pictures of some Japanese people (don't ask me who they are because I couldn't tell you).
It's been a very long time since I was in a country that was not an English speaking country, and it became quite disturbing to not be able to read 99% of anything. Some of the signs, such as Welcome to Osaka and airport terminal information, were written in English and Japanese; but things like restroom were shown with the universal symbols. Japan is also very big on using many pictures of things you're supposed to be either doing or not doing, such as exits are shown with a green person running and possibly an arrow for a direction.
This just seems quite strange to use as an exit icon, especially when it looks like a person running....are we all supposed to be running somewhere toward an exit???
So the next step after our arrival is trying to get out of the airport. We now have to travel from the airport via the Japan rail system (otherwise known as JR) to our hotel destination. This entails traveling through the airport with all of our luggage in tow up and down escalators to reach the correct track destination, Until you have to maneuver 2 suitcases and your handbag (which is loaded with your computer and everything else important along with reading materials for the flight etc.) through a train station, you really can't quite grasp all of the difficulties involved. Also remember that we are all pretty well exhausted from traveling, hungry, and trying to follow our leader like a string of ducklings following their momma duck. I'm sure the Japanese people were laughing at us! Now as we're traveling to our stop, there are various other stops along the way and we are getting more and more people joining us on our train (which was probably about 12 cars or so - I didn't count them but there were a lot). Oh, and I forgot to mention that apparently the Japanese people are afraid of catching the latest virus (very similar to the bird flu that spread through SE Asia in 2003) in China because many people are wearing the surgical masks over their faces for protection - makes one a little uncomfortable to say the least. But we manage to finally arrive at the departure area of our location...we step off the train and there is a sea of people everywhere that continues to grow as we weave our way through the masses. Now, remember that we are all still trying to follow our mother duck because we have absolutely no clue where we are supposed to be going. Dr. Walker was great in making sure that all of his ducklings were kept together throughout this part of our journey! I must also make mention of a very unique, aggravating, but very disability friendly marking system that is everywhere you walk in Japan. They have ridged bars that are along all walkways EVERYWHERE and raised circle groupings at EVERY stopping point. Now I gave you all a hint as what this might be for, but I had no clue until I asked Dr. Walker. You see, it is EXTREMELY aggravating to try and maneuver luggage over and around all of these ridges and raised circles, not to mention that you sound like a train yourself with all the noise the luggage makes going over these bumps. So can you guess what it's for? It is a braille system (tactile paving) that has been installed throughout Japan for the seeing impaired to be able to travel safely. My initial reaction was WOW, how wonderful is that for people that the country would think enough of their people with disabilities to install a special system just for them. It's even at the doorways to elevators (the last picture shows our hotel carpeting with the circles installed at the entrance to the elevator). That must have cost everyone a fortune to install as it literally is everywhere that you go. I must make you aware though, that so far I have not seen anyone at all that needs to use this special system - I'm sure intentions are great but is it really necessary and practical? It is most definitely aggravating when trying to move along with luggage.
So we finally reach our hotel - it's very nice: modern, marble floors, automatic doors, large lobby with lots of staff people at the front desk area, etc. There are 18 floors, so it is relatively tall as well. We all head up to our rooms...are you ready? My room is about the size of a large walk-in closet! The pictures of the room really don't give you a true perspective of the size; but to try and help, it is roughly just as wide as the length of the twin bed and long enough for the chair to slide out from under the desk/dresser just enough before being stopped by the bed. There was only one problem ... how to get the lights to stay on. As soon as I walked into my closet room toward the window, the lights would shut off. I needed to go to the bathroom, but couldn't get in there without the lights going off. So, what the heck was going on???? I went through this for several minutes trying to find a master switch, other light switches, etc. and then finally realized that you have to put the key card in a little slot next to the door to get the electricity to stay on in the room. Now I honestly don't know if this little trick is done anywhere else in the world, but what a genius was of saving power! As soon as you are ready to walk out your door, you remove the key card and everything (even the AC) turns off and stays off until you return. The bathroom is another unimaginably small room - you literally could sit on the toilet, wash your hands, and put your feet on the tub at the same time. You really have to see it to believe it...but it works and serves its purpose. The bed is pretty comfortable, the tv has nothing but Japanese shows, the water pressure is excellent but very, very hot, and it has a regular toilet (although it has all the bells and whistles for washing you). I will talk about the toilet situation in a later post! As you can see, my view from my window is pretty amazing too.
