First Impressions

Let's just cut to the bare bones.

Japan has spoiled me with its cleanliness, friendliness, punctuality, and service. And I'm screwed no matter where I go now.

Yes, it's rather expensive, and yes, there are cracks in its perfect porcelain facade, but it's been my home and I love it.

The first thing I noticed in Taiwan, after I left the airport, was how much I felt like I was in the States. The cars were all driving on the right side of the road again, the bus was crowded and squealing with every bump we traversed, and every car and building I could see out the window was suddenly back to US-oversize. The roads, too, looked liked the concrete rivers in Houston with Ford signs off the highway. I even saw a Toyota Tundra pickup driving down this tiny side street right off the Times Square of Taipei tonight. Cuz that's necessary...

A man tried to scam me for a taxi in the airport as I approached the information desk, which I just found comical, since he was reading info off my notes and repeating it to me. For example, he tried to tell me the bus would take 90 minutes (it didn't), where I had written down it might take anywhere from 50 to 90 minutes. And he saw I had written down $1200 as the price, so he immediately told me he would give me a deal of $1300. Right, cuz upping the price makes me WANT to take your taxi that will get stuck in the same traffic as the bus! HA! So of course I took the 90% discount option of the bus for $125. But I felt like I might as well have been at Port Authority!

Once I got off the bus, however, I was reminded that I was truly far from home. Since many Japanese kanji are taken from Chinese characters, I was surprised to find myself recognizing symbols, but then realizing the Japanese translations in my head wouldn't apply. Likewise, I had to keep telling myself to stop speaking Japanese and just go with English whenever I'd encounter someone, since they speak Mandarin here.

Which, Mandarin, by the way, is so much harsher on the ears than Japanese. Especially since people speak SO MUCH LOUDER here. I don't think I'll find myself having more interest the language after these 7 days here. It's a tonal language, which means that as a musician, all I hear is the obnoxious changes in tone, and no beautiful flow.

Funny, though, despite my annoyance with the exceptionally loud speech patterns here, the truly obnoxious people today were the French tourists behind me on the bus.

And I haven't heard a cell phone ringtone in 8 months. There was a sound I didn't miss.

My sense of smell went into DefCon-5 after I got off the bus. I don't know if it's the fact I'm staying right downtown, or that it's rainy and humid here, but my nose was rather overwhelmed by smells both delightful and downright putrid. The smell at the entrance of my hotel makes me gag violently (I just plug my nose now), and there's a certain spice or flavor here that doesn't appeal to me when I'm walking down the street. I feel like you smell the sewage here too.

On the other hand, I did smell some amazing street food as I meandered at 10 PM through the crazy crowded streets. It felt very similar to being in Shinjuku or Shibuya late at night, though there aren't as many pictures of the food or English descriptions. I did find that people spoke more English than I expected, which was a nice surprise after living with demure, English-shy Japanese. I was honestly just too exhausted to do much beside eat and fall right asleep. Luckily, I was tired enough to do so since the walls are paper-thin and I had what sounded like a family reunion complete with screaming children next door, which was probably just a Chinese family of four.

Seriously. They're that loud. At 11 PM.

And bizarre. I saw this lady at the airport just turn around scream two syllables at her child while she was sitting in the luggage cart, and the kid was not doing anything weird. Nor did she cry or make a sound or make a face. I thought the lady was just bat-shit crazy, when in reality she could have just been using some weird tonal Mandarin. But then there was that loony look in her eye. Yeah... I'm gonna go with she was crazy. And it freaked me out. It was like "Precious", Mandarin-style.

It's strange, given the many travel nightmare stories, but my favorite part of yesterday was the travel. I had a delicious, real sandwich on multi-grain bread (!) at the airport, and had no delays or issues despite the 35 mph wind gusts.

Furthermore, I flew Cathay Pacific, which I didn't realize was an English-speaking airline, especially since I was flying from Tokyo to Taipei on a flight that continues to Hong Kong. I was super impressed by the tri-lingual stewardesses! The food was delicious, and of course we had seat back multi-channel movies. Seriously, NWA, you can't jump on that for a 12 hour cross-Pacific flight, but Cathay Pacific can for a 3 1/2 hour one? I watched "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" which truly spoke to the artist in me.

The highlight of my day was watching the sunset over a blanket of clouds covering China and the East China Sea. How many Americans can say they've done that?

And on that note... it's time to start my new day of adventuring. I'm meeting up with my cousin's good friend for lunch, and then who knows?

Fever

So there's an epidemic occurring now among many members of my cast, and I have to say, I'm glad I haven't caught it.

Because this epidemic fever seems to be the cause of an even harsher illness.

And before I get any more cryptic and metaphorical, I shall shed some light on that of which I speak.

Everyone seems to be catching cell phone fever. They say it makes them "feel human" again. Which I guess I can slightly understand since retail therapy has the magic powers of making me feel human again.

Which might be a contributing factor to why I'm broke.

And speaking of "Human Again", I'll never forget when my friend Kevin's cute-as-a-button nephew came to see Beauty and the Beast at the Barn Theatre in Michigan, and when queried about my amazing turn as the one and only knife (there were two forks and two spoons), his reply to me was, "the knife was alright". In the honest, sardonic way only a 5 year old can deliver.

Of course maybe his reply had to do with the fact that my right leg was clothed in fuchsia tights, while my left leg was covered in baggy, shiny gold furniture fabric and I had a giant knife hat that made me 8 feet tall. Someday I'll get my revenge...

Anyway, cell phone fever has led to an epidemic of rudeness!

And the ironic thing is that I would probably have no awareness of the bad cellphone etiquette (aka rudeness) were I not living in Japan sans cellphone.

Because, see, well, despite my friend Christine's protests to the contrary, I LOVE not having a cellphone here. I am not tied down.

There's even this thing that I do called "checking my email" from my laptop (WOW!) when I get home.

I can't update my facebook status every 5 minutes. I can't passive-agressively twitter.

Instead, I talk to the people around me at all times. I take in the sights and sounds of wherever I may be. I've never been a person who always has his iPod in his ears because I don't like having a soundtrack to my life. And since I've never been the best multi-tasker, I listen and observe more (which is helpful seeing as how I'm in a foreign country). No one can bug me when I'm out and about, and I don't find myself checking my screen to see if anyone "loves" me.

And yes, sometimes it is difficult that I can't just text/call someone to make dinner plans. So I do so days in advance; I set a meeting time and place via email, and guess what?! I show up when I said I would, and I don't have to worry that someone's going to cancel or change the plan last minute via text message.

It's honestly kind of blissful.

So, it came as quite a shock to me after 3 months in this country of wonderful cellphone etiquette (they don't talk while walking, they don't talk on the train, their phones are always on vibrate) when two nights in a row this week, I was having dinner or one-on-one time with a friend, and my presence was minimalized.

And not just for 5 seconds.

No I am talking about 15 or 20 minutes where I just disappeared.

I was REPLACED. By a little device.

Because said cell phone and email and "connectedness" trumped the fact that I was sitting across the table from my friend offering a real, live, breathing human with whom to converse. And so, off each one went to check his email and talk to someone else also probably ignoring face-to-face conversation for his/her cell.

And now my bad cell behavior back in the States is glaringly obvious! There wasn't a meal that would go by that my cell wasn't out on the table by my plate. How many times did I pause a conversation to reply to the "beep" from my phone?

That's just heinous.

And so, I find myself thankful. I haven't caught cellphone fever and succumbed to bad manners. And I don't want to.

I'm going to spend the next 5 months here enjoying my days without text messages, email, phone calls, or constant connection. Because the here and now, the people before me, the nature I explore, the sound of Japanese conversation... those are my real life.

They're happening all around me, and I'm so glad I'm experiencing it.

I just hope my friends can put down the phone and chat with the person in front of them again, as the Japanese are polite enough to do. Cuz it's lonely when you've been ditched.

Especially for a 10,000 yen gadget.