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April 2005
For whatever reason, Japan had never been on my list of top travel destinations. I suppose that was partly the result of a predictably Eurocentric education: my travel fantasies seemed to tend toward the Eiffel Tower variety, Paris in lights, Venetian canals, etc. But it probably also had something to do with how I perceived Japanese culture. It always seemed to me to be beyond foreign somehow, as if there were a line separating my own culture from other cultures, and then beyond that there was Japan. The rituals and taboos, the kanji, funky Japanese TV shows, the weird English phrases that turned up on Japanese stationery... it all presented a portrait of total otherness that I found rather intimating. However, when Patrick and Yukari moved to Tokyo, I couldn’t resist the invitation to visit. For the most part, my life is pretty predictable, so I figured I better take advantage of the rare opportunity to be thrown into a totally foreign environment. Plus, I really wanted to try some authentic Japanese sushi.
So, in late March, I was off to Japan to visit Patrick and Yukari, see the sights, sample some authentic cuisine, and hopefully see a few cherry blossoms along the way. The previous spring, Patrick had routinely updated me on the progress of the blooming cherry trees as they swept across the country. I got the impression that tracking the advance of the cherry blossom front was top-of-the-hour news in Japan, sort of like a rain storm in Southern California. Anyway, one thing to remember when you travel to Japan is that the cherry blossoms answer to no man or woman, and that they will bloom when and where they damn well please. And, if you travel with me, you will at some point realize that these things never go according to plan when I’m around, and that I tend to attract "unusual weather", such as unseasonable rain, sleet, snow storms and the like. This is all to say that there were no cherries blossoming while I was in Japan, but no matter. Blossom or no, I saw some great sights, ate some amazing food, discovered a new respect for sake, and overcame my fear of Japanese television shows.
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verbal