迷失的老美

It’s really not all that difficult, if you can believe that, and here it is.

1) You need to have the rabies shots up to date and no fresher than 30 days from departure.
2) You have to have the burgundy book for the cat.
3) There must be a health inspection done at a vet that is certified by the government, and then you wait 3 days to get a stamped and certified document. This is good for 14 days, then you have to do it again.
4) Take this document to the export building and get an export certificate (this is actually free)
5) At this point, your cost is about 300 RMB
6) Airlines – DO NOT FLY A DOMESTIC AIRLINE. none of them accept pets, you are going to have to fly a US airline.  And you must alert them in advance, like when you are booking to ensure they have a space open for the cat.
7) The carriers they sell in the pet shops do NOT meet airline requirements. Just go to the airport and buy a carrier, it costs $50
8)Cost for bringing a pet on board is 900RMB and covers all connecting flights.
9) Upon arrival to the US, you show your certs and that’s it. Done.

As for #7, I got back from Yinchuan and decided to take care of the carrier early.  I had already reserved one when I found that they sold them.  So, I thought I would just go pick one up.  3 hours later I had one.  I had to go upstairs to the office and find the hidden airline office.  Then hunt someone down during lunch.  He informed me that YES they have it right there, but to pay for it, I have to go downstairs to the counter, which is past customs, which means filling out a customs declaration.  By the time I got there, the guy was gone… of course.  There were other people, but they could not help me, for there was only one person at the entire service desk with authorization to accept payment and he was missing.  It was $50 and they demanded 400RMB, which is a bullshit exchange, but whatever, I did it just to save the confusion and hassle.  I gave it to him, didn’t bother with the 发票 and let him handle payment when the other guy got back.  Seemed reasonable to me.  That was the only real pain in the ass for the process.

I spent 3 long weeks chilling in the US, to be honest, it was weird as hell. I felt out of place. Everything just seemed off to me in a way that I couldn’t explain. I had been gone for 14 months and nothing that should have been normal to me was. My flight out of China was delayed due to the typhoon in Shanghai and it got into LAX late. In theory, I had 15 minutes to make my connecting flight, but Air China decided that there was simply not enough time and they put me up in a hotel for a few hours. The conflicts in my head about this were as weird as the circumstances surrounding the fact that I had had 3 flights in a row delayed due to bad weather, 2 because of typhoons. Thanks to Japan, I felt as if I didn’t deserve the hotel, and thanks to China, I felt as if I didn’t need it. I would have been happy just sitting in the airport for a few hours instead. It’s not like I could sleep as it was. Checking into the hotel was a hassle, I couldn’t speak English for the life of me, it just didn’t happen. I had been in the US for maybe 2 hours and I was ready to leave again. Getting carded for a lighter, getting carded for a beer, what the hell was this? And to top it off, the first English conversation on the ground I had started with the taxi attendant saying “You’re not from around here are you?”.

Air China gave me a voucher for some free food, but it all tasted off, I was hungry, but the food make me feel ill. So much for my first burrito back in the US. Flash forward a few hours later, and I am back at the airport for my flight. The hotel shuttle came late, and the airlines decided to hit me with an SSSS boarding ticket, meaning that I got extra screening for no reason other than the fact that my flight was leaving in 20 minutes and the gate was at the other side of the terminal. Needless to say, I made it, by final boarding call.

Back in Chicago 4 hours later, I have lost count of how many times I have flown now, I don’t know what time it is, nor do I care. I slept through takeoff and landing. Dad came up eventually and as nice as it was, it was weird. It was weird again at home. I know these people, but I don’t. I know this town, but I don’t. I couldn’t say it then, because I didn’t want to cause extra drama, but that is how I felt. I don’t have a bed there, I don’t really have friends there, and the house is not the one I grew up in. I’m basically homeless, and I know some people who let me crash at their place. It’s a horrible thing to say, but it’s true. The salts and sugars in the food made me sick, to compound with the jetlag which had just begun. So, am I really home I ask. No, I am somewhere that at sometime used to be home, but isn’t anymore.

Thus began the rush of crap to do. I had a few hours to get some rest before my first encounter with the local Masons. It was a good experience overall and I felt confident about my decision after the initial meeting. I thank my parents for staying out of it, because as much as they might have tried to be helpful, they don’t really know me anymore… sad but true. 14 long months can change a person, expecially if they are someone who needs the change and welcomes it. I had another meeting a few days later because one of the Masons couldn’t make it and to meet regulations I had to meet with one more. Everything went well, and 2 lodge meetings later, I became a Master Mason of the Blue Lodge Unity #48. I would love to go into it all, but that is something that I can’t do, and to most readers, it wouldn’t make much sense anyways.

Other stuff:
I went skeet shooting with Dave, his dad, and his grandpa, and discovered that I need to shoot lefty to be good. Shooting righty I am just so-so, shooting lefty, I am deadly
I also had to go get my physical exams and whatnot for China, even though it might have been in vain, I am glad to say that if I have to redo them in China, there is nothing surprising waiting for me. My chest is clear, I don’t have AIDS, I don’t have hep, and after an electrocardiogram, I found that my heart is fine as well. Cavity-wise, I had one tiny one that I didn’t let them use novocaine on, and it was filled in 5 minutes.
I also found a day to go up to Milwaukee and see teachers and friends for maybe the last time in a long time. Yea-fen was glad to see me, Byron was there and we went to lunch, Yosuke and Toshio were on campus as well. My advisor advised me that I am screwed at UWM and Eckmann wished me luck but in Eckmann-fashion showed no emotion or response.
I went bowling with Markie and did my best to let him have a chance at beating me, which he did one game hehe.
I also went digging around a bit through some of grandpa’s stuff. Turns out that a great-grand uncle of mine was not only a mason, but he also, at some point in time, went to China and Japan… fucker. I can’t just be the first for anything. How did I know he was a mason? He had a commemorative coin which mom let me have, and I took it with me… this later becomes important.
I then went to Orange County to see Brian, another SSSS ticket of course, which prompted me to call TSA and bitch them out about it.
I didn’t really do much at Brian’s, but it was nice to just relax for once and hang out with him, it had been too long. We didn’t get to go shooting, but, that was ok. Me and David hit it off for the first time ever, and Andrew and Heather have changed so much since the last time I had seen them. Weird freaky Mormon stuff went down, but it was fine with me, I have seen and been around weirder things in the last 14 months.

I managed to get myself lost on a night walk, and on the last night, me and David went for a last run to the store to grab Beef Jerky, Rum, Tequila, Jaeger, candy, and Magnums. That was by far the best purchase I have ever made. Brian gave me a lift to LAX and I got hit with another SSSS. But this SSSS was cool. No stripping off my pants to have them x-rayed, no digging through luggage, the screener was a brother and took note of my coin, then basically just let me through. Finally, all the weirdness had a payoff in some way.

The flight was interesting. I showed up “late” and ended up in a middle seat. Right in the middle of a whole bunch of old people. But, unlike many old people, these old people were cool. Some were brothers, and they all were going to China on some commemorative reunion for their old units. They were none other than the Flying Tigers! (google that).

I landed, went through customs, got my way to Beiwai, got my room, and took a nap.

Beiwai:
A friend called this place “The Golden Cage”; and they were pretty much correct. It is just far enough from the other unis to be boring, and it is 13-14kuai away from the fun of wudaokou. I went through so much hassle in the first week. No internet in my room, it wasn’t even installed yet, it still really isn’t in fact. Of course, the only room like this. I had no information at all about what to do. Registration meant paying tuition, and that had to be in cash at a not-so-great exchange rate. 16,000kuai is ALOT to carry around too. I had placement tests, and of course I got sick, right now everyone seems to have the same thing. I missed the first week of class due to this sickness, and am finally getting into the swing of things here in second week. I am going to be here a looooong time. My visa is currently being changed, so I have no passport (that is a shitty feeling), and I still need to find a transformer for my new George and Waffle Iron. Hassles, hassles, hassles, what fun is life without them.

I also have a job now at XinDongFang teaching English for obscene amounts of cash whenever I have the time to do it.

But, all that is not what prompted me to write up all this. Yanying finally said yes to me. After going out with her for 6 months, going to Okinawa, spending every moment I could with her, she finally agreed to say I am her boyfriend. I was going to go up to Harbin this weekend, but she did something silly like get a job at her university teaching Japanese, and got busy. So, next weekend it is. But now, as long as she is free, I don’t care when it is as long as I can call her my girl. I seem to be stuck in China as it is, this wonderful hole I fell into, and I want her by my side to dig the hole deep enough to lay down in. Am I young and foolish? Maybe, but so is everyone else. She trusts me, and I believe in her, that is enough I guess. This girl has me whipped, and I don’t mind a bit.

All the sadness melted away. Funny how Japan managed to do that to me. It was raining a little when I left, it always does that when I leave a place I love for some reason. I hopped into a cab on Chubu’s dime and rode it for 8000yen to the airport shuttle stop at Nagoya eki. A bus was there momentarily for some odd reason. Screw giving me a chance to wander around and get all nostalgic about this familiar place, it was time to get the hell out. The bus took an hour to get to the new airport and I was there by 10am. I made my way to the Air China counter and then had to wait till 11 for them to open, but, I was the first in line. A note about the new airport. All counters are staffed by JAL now, despite the actual company you are flying with. This means that they cared about my luggage being overweight… they care 18,000 yen worth and that was only because I was able to beg them not to care 27,000 yen worth. Air China never cares, but, still in Japan, so, that’s the way it goes. In reality, I was about 23k over, but they decided to give me 10 extra and then knock off the 3 so I didn’t get stuck paying for 20k worth. This meant that even if I went to the post office to mail stuff instead, I would have to essentially ship 23k worth via EMS and that would have been much much more costly. No choice, just pay the leeches and be done with it. Unfortunately, it was raining much harder in Beijing and the flight that was going to leave at 1 had not yet even left Beijing, our flight got delayed until 4:30 and there was nothing we could do but wait. The update for boarding didn’t come till around 2, and that is when the fun began.

This had already been an annoying day, a day I didn’t want to begin with, but then it got more fun. In Japan, us gaijin who stay longer than 90 days have to apply for and carry at all times an ID card known as Certificate of Alien Registration, aka Gaijin Card. We also have to return this card when we leave the country. Well, I had carried this damn thing around for a year, and it is my only real photo ID apart from my passport that might be useful… I was sort of attached to it. The guy asked if I was done with my studies in Japan, I foolishly said yes, and then he demanded the card. I saw this coming. I should have said that I lost it, or lost my wallet a few days ago, or something along those lines, but, I was stupid and wanted to test the system for Ron. I said that I applied for it, but never picked it up. WRONG ANSWER. Never ever ever say this. He denied me exit from the country and sent me to the immigration office. My Passport has a stamp in it that says I applied for the card, and that was all the proof they needed on their end. I was already caught in a good lie and could not go back on it. After much debate, yelling, and attempts at logic, I got to write an apology to Japan explaining why I did not have the card to return, sign it, and then the guy in the immigration office gave me my “departed” stamp. This took about an hour, but, I got to keep my card, and I had nothing better to do anyways. The flight was uneventful, although I ended up next to a Chinese student who had also been through Chubu a few years back and knew Ueda Sensei. We landed in Beijing, and I went through the motions. Long walk, fill out forms, get my temperature taken, stand in line, get a stamp, walk some more, find the baggage claim, wait for luggage to show up, fight off assholes who want 10kuai to push a cart, make my way to an ATM, fight off fuckers trying to get me into their hotel, fight off fuckers who are trying to give me a “good deal” on money exchange, fight off fuckers trying to get me into their fake cabs, and then wait in another line for a taxi. I am at the front of the line, 2 cabs show up, a 1.2 and a 2kuai, and of course, they do their best to force the 2 on me… fuckers. I just stand there and wait for a new 1.6 to show up and I get in that. Yes, this is China, I am actually arguing with them over what, in the end, would have amounted to MAYBE $1 difference. In Japan, I pissed 100yen away like it was nothing… that shit stops now. In the cab, I am now faced with this question “qu nar?”. Shit… I need something fast, “xian zai dao beidaximer, buguo wo dei gei wo pengyou da dian hua, ta neng gaosu ni zenme zuo, haoba?”.

The problems I faced in Beijing was now this. I did not have a hotel reservation. I had planned to hop in a cab from the airport, come to Beida, and play it by ear from there. It was now almost 7pm and the office was empty, oh fuck. Wanglaoshi was cool enough to find me a hotel that was decently priced (although horribly far from Haidian) and that is where I now sit. There are a lot of tourist types around here, which I don’t like, because it means that the locals get looks of panic whenever I come close. Fear of the English. They seem relieved when I speak Putonghua with them. I have mostly just been relaxing here now, last night I was able to meet up with Quishi, Yanan, and Yangfei to go to dinner and drop off 2 suitcases at Quishi’s house. Today, I need to get over to Beiwai, find out what’s what, and then pop into a Bank of China and open an international account so my money stops vanishing at 0.3% per day (thank you very much for killing that peg 2 weeks before I come fuckers).

To all my friends in Japan… I miss you, more than you can imagine, but this is my life and it is a broken life, pause one aspect, continue another. I will be back as soon as I get the chance though.

Ok, I am too damned lazy to resize like I should, so I setup gallery, and will be using that to show off all the pics.
Here is Okinawa Album

The dysfunctional group in front of Shurijo

Shurijo Castle

Me looking cool at Shurijo with my new glasses

An anti-American forces protest march going through Kokusaidoori on the first night.

Souki Soba, an Okinawan version of a popular Japanese dish.

Fast food drive through in Japan?

Okinawa Peace Park, this is a room for reflection, prayer, and folding paper cranes

The Peace Park features the “Cornerstone of Peace”, this is a monument with all the names of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa

The Aichi-ken monument at the Peace Park

An introduction to the girls

The Ryukyu Glass Factory

Mountain Dew has been found in Japan!

The Todoroki Caves. These go way back, and if we had a flashlight, we could have explored some more, and gotten very dirty, and had fun.

The kind woman who led us to this place in her truck.

A brief overview of the place.

Yomitan. This place features coral cliffs, and a lighthouse. Here, me and Yanying climbed down a rockfall to get as close as possible to the sea itself.

Up on the lighthouse, looking down at the rockfall we climbed.

Might I say, pure bliss?

Hello cheap New York Strip Steak. 1400 yen for this, and I tipped them 300 yen because I would feel bad if I didn’t. (note: tipping is never done in Asia)

The car I put a good 200km on in 2 days.

Return to Kokusaidoori, and a video of a street performer. This guy was American, oddly, I gave him 500 yen because the Japanese crowd didn’t seem to be grasping the concept of giving money and needed someone to start it I guess.

Back at Naha Airport, please note the setup Skymark Airlines has. Folding tables and a laptop, the rest of the service desks are all taken by JAL.

A reminder of what time it would be the next day to start up my birthday party.

Yanying after learning about the cancelled flight and the extra day in Okinawa we would be getting.

Zhangxia with a bottle of Habusake. This is basically sake with a pit viper thrown in.

No one really got much worthwhile sleep at the Mangakissa, but it was better than nowhere I guess. I originally left the car parked in someone’s private space, but I chickened out and put it in a 100yen/30min coin space in the same lot. 30,000 yen fine if the owner didn’t like it, and the risk wasn’t worth it after Lili caught the attention of someone in a nearby apartment. Eventually around 3am, a “family room” opened up and me and Yanying moved there to take advantage of the couches and large room. So, in the morning, we were all still dead tired, sweaty, smelly, and didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything. Another day of the car was not going to be cheap, and the closest we could come to comfort otherwise would be over 10,000 yen at a nice sento.

The conclusion:
We had to get up to the airport to get our new tickets and verify all our information with Skymark. Since they only have one flight a day, it was looking like we were screwed. That was the case until my Gaijin Power senses activated and I decided to basically say “fuck this shit, we are going back now”. The first attempt was to demand money to pay for our stay at the mangakissa, demand money for our parking, and demand money for the extra day of car rental. Their response (translated) “Oh, it is very unfortunate, but that is not our problem, because it was caused by nature, not us”. Anything to pass the buck and skirt responsibility for fucking their customers I guess. We went back to the car to sort things out, and it looked like our bus ride back to Nagoya was going to get screwed up, and our money for that would be gone too. Then, I remembered that there are in fact other airlines than Skymark at the terminal, JAL. I went back and we demanded/requested for them to put us on a different flight that left soon so we didn’t lose the seats on the bus.

Despite this being a common compromise in situations such as this in the US, they acted as if it was them going out of their way and doing something out of the ordinary. Hell, you know they can get the tickets for dirt cheap, and they still make money on us, so why this wasn’t offered in the first place, I have no idea. Anyways… we got new tickets for a JAL flight at 11:35am. This was in 2 hours about, arrival in Tokyo around 2pm, and our bus leaves at 4pm. YES! Everything worked out in the end, the way this crap always does for me. We dropped off all our stuff at the airport with Lili and Zhangxia, and I gunned it to the closest branch of Japanren after I topped off the tank for about 2500 yen. We got it back before 10am, so no late fee, car in good health, and a free bus back to the airport. I shall miss that car, it was a nice drive, apart from the steering wheel being fixed in a position that my shoulders hate it for. The only problem I really had with it, was due, in part, to the parking attendant. For reasons unknown to me, he decided to put on the parking brake in the flat parking lot. Not the full way, where it would be visible, but just enough to be annoying. I drove a good 20km before the brakes were no longer working well at all. A few runs around the parking lot in reverse at the Peace Park fixed this up… relief.

Back to the story… We got our flight changed to 11:35, caught the plane without any other troubles, landed at Haneda on time, and then took the Monorail and JR back to Shinjuku with enough time to grab lunch and get on our bus. From there after, it was all just routine. Arrived at Nagoya around 10ish, hopped onto the Chuo line headed towards Tajimi, got off at Jinryo, and then Lili let me ride her bike while Yanying had her ride on the back “seat” of her bike.

This trip has made me realize a few things. As much as I bitch about Chubu, Kasugai, and Japan in general, I am going to miss this place. I am going to miss this life. It has it’s upsides and good times. I am going to miss all my friends here. Okinawa is my favorite place in all of Japan I think, and being able to go on this trip has been the highlight of my year here. Even the stuff that went wrong, I knew it would be set right in the end, and I would laugh about it in the future as good times. Personally, I forego the “in the future” part, and laugh as it happens. Nothing you can do, might as well enjoy it and laugh at your own dumb luck and misfortune. Tomorrow is my birthday, I will be 22. I left the US when I was 20. Will I ever be able to “come back” to the US? I seriously doubt it at this point. As things are right now, I am happy, and if everything could stay like this as it is now, I would be satisfied… but, life’s a bitch and must move forward. This trip finally made this second semester worth the effort and suffering for me as far as I am concerned. I found something here that I love, something that will make me come back in the future, a reason to love this country. To me, that is Okinawa. Two weeks ago, I was counting down the hours I had left in Japan, anticipating with joy my escape. Now, I am rather depressed about the end coming so soon.

Pictures tomorrow when I have time