Culture Shock
‘They should Revolt’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on ‘They should Revolt’
Tokyo, April 1996. The problem is money. It dematerializes in multiples of 10,000-yen bills. There’s even a word for ten thousand: man. Anything less is change. You pay two man yen for dinner and drinks, plus one man yen for a love hotel, plus one man yen for breakfast, lunch, and miscellaneous expenses. You’ve blown four man yen, or about $400, without having done anything fancy.
Stewing At Ikebukuru Station
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Stewing At Ikebukuru Station
Burnt-Rice Tea
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Burnt-Rice Tea
Tokyo, April 1996. Cacophonous cawing of crows weaves itself disconcertingly into my dreams until it wakes me up altogether. It’s 5:45 a.m. Even the dual building walls of the love hotel fail to deaden the racket, and when you’re half asleep, it’s almost scary. But in front of my eyes is a tuft of black hair. She sleeps without sound, without movement, her arms contorted underneath her. I inhale her chemistry as if it were a controlled substance.
A Forbidden Act
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on A Forbidden Act
Tokyo, April 1996. Mr. Song has already left. Mr. Kim is watching a garish talk show on TV. The kitchen sink is full of dirty bowls, utensils, pots, and pans. Vapors of grease and kimchi hang in the air.
“I’m going to walk to school,” I tell Mr. Kim.
“Walk?”
Now he has what he has been looking for: incontrovertible proof that I’m crazy.
Crazy American
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Crazy American
Tokyo, April 1996. I sit on my tatami, Japanese textbook in my lap. Mr. Song is starting his morning routine—cooking rice, chopping veggies, and frying meat. Mr. Kim emerges from the toilet and turns on the TV. But before he sits down to watch it, which he does every morning to improve his listening comprehension, he makes one step toward my tatami and stops at the edge.
Conspicuous But Invisible
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Conspicuous But Invisible
Tokyo, April 1996. I scour the alleys of the entertainment quarter of Takadanobaba for love hotels but still don’t know what to look for. Instead, I find a business hotel for the underlings of Japan Inc. It’s modern and impeccable. The rate is reasonable, and so I book a room for tonight. I’m elated, having accomplished something on my own. I’ll spend the night with Izumi. The logistics are in place.
Love Hotel
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Love Hotel
Tokyo, April 1996. Our fingers laced together, we mosey from the Imperial Palace through Hibiya Park to Ginza’s shopping avenues. She picks a café on the second floor, and we settle into Viennese-coffeehouse armchairs by a floor-to-ceiling window. I’m the only male in the place. On the menu, only the prices are legible.
Foreign Particle In A Tarry Liquid
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Foreign Particle In A Tarry Liquid
Tokyo, April 1996. 4:45 a.m. Daylight shines through the opaque windows. I slide one open. My new neighborhood: sheds pieced together from rusting corrugated iron, green corrugated plastic, and weathered wood; tiny yards cluttered with junk; and concrete buildings finished with brown tiles. Windows are opaque for a reason. You don’t want to be confronted with this on a daily basis.
Tell-Tale Signs Of Official Exasperation
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Tell-Tale Signs Of Official Exasperation
Vibrating with irrational post-flight euphoria, I place my feet on size 24 yellow footprints painted on the floor at immigration and wait. Travel lore has it that Tokyo Narita is a congested and problematic airport. But at 8:25 a.m. I see no congestion and no problems—until an immigration officer waves me over. He studies my ticket, doesn’t like it.