5.12.2007

of lines and trees


japan has long been calling to me.

no matter all the excitement i have mustered all these years,
i realized i could never be prepared for this place when i arrived here april 23.

the flight took us 4 hours.
now i am in a country who sees the new day an hour earlier than what i have been accustomed to.

when we were about to land, i peeked at the window.
i saw the landscape and gasped: even the trees would cringe if they are not in their place!

fine, we deplaned. english signs are a rarity here. so we just followed a stream of people, mostly Japanese, and hoped that they were on the same plane we were on and were heading for the same destination.

we still needed to line up for a train that would bring us to the immigration officers and finally our baggage. the people started to line up. 2 queues per door that would lead us to the train when it arrives. one person behind the other. very neatly. we stood behind 2 queues and the three of us made the 2 queues vague. and up in front, there was a crowd (almost circling the door), standing randomly, awaiting the arrival of the train. and you guessed right, we were kababayans!

out we dragged our baggage and suddenly it dawned on me, this is the airport and if understandable signs elude me, communication would be difficult if not impossible.

i volunteered to get us bus tickets. i asked, ""is this the bus that would take us to seiseki?". i got a blank stare, then the staff answered, "where?". i said "seiseki" again and since she seemed not to understand what i was saying, i thanked her and moved to the next booth. she called out that i was in the right booth. then lem asked her "seiseki sakuragaoka?" she apologized and pointed us to the booth where i was heading. yes, i know i should have followed what's in the guidelines for first-time travellers, but hey, how would i know that seiseki is a different place from seiseki sakuragaoka and not just a nickname?

we were running to our bus and everybody was running too: the driver, the 2 other staff that help passengers get in. we arrived on time for the bus to leave. but being there on time did not mean the bus could leave on time, because we still needed to attend to the baggage and ourselves. sigh, all the scamper i witnessed was just a prelude to this affair with a highly time-conscious culture. and true enough, the pressure for the bus to leave on time was due to the other stops it had to make and pick up passengers who were already waiting for the arrival of the bus, which they expected to be on time.

with apprehension rising, i settled in my seat to sleep and made peace with myself: randomness and perpetual lateness should be set aside, if only for six months, to embrace the japan of my dreams.