Summer of 2008. After a distressing year of studying for exams, i forcefully convinced my father to make my wish come true, which was visiting Japan. 12 long hours, and many flight entertainment movies later, i finally arrived. The first thing that struck me most was the humidity that hit me when i got out of the airport. I hadn’t experienced anything like that. It was similar to being choked by the weather itself. I got used to it after the first day, after all i was really excited for Japan.
My obsession with the culture started around 2006, when i started watching Anime. Cliche, i know. Nonetheless i became frantic about their language, the way people communicated and how over the top everything was. Real life Japan, however is nothing like any Anime i saw. It was peaceful, quiet(except Shinjuku or Akihabara), and people seemed to really respect each other. Taking the subway, or waiting in lines never seemed more civil to me. People were aware of their surroundings. Whenever i needed to exit the subway, people just got out of my way. It was really nice being recognised in the society as another fellow being, rather than being stuck in the commute because people didn’t let you. Going from middle-east to Japan, really is a culture shock in that sense.
Anyway, after my arrival at the hotel, i finally felt the jet lag kicking in and it was awful. On my later trips on long haul flights, i became smarter and always carried Melatonin with me on the plane to help me get my at least 6 hours of sleep. My first day after the night of no sleep was to visit Akihabara, an area in Tokyo where you can find video games, costumes, figurines, playing cards and all the other things to geek out as much as possible. Not counting the weirder hentai merchandise that salary men usually fancy, Akihabara was paradise for me. I played endlessly on the arcade machines that i never got a chance to play before. What really surprised me about the arcades was that so many people smoked inside. It was rather disgusting but i got used to it. I bought so many figurines, i had no place to put them up. They are still in my house in some box i don’t know where.
Being a really crowded city with more than 30 million people living in the metropolitan area, Tokyo felt safer than any city i had ever been. After visiting many more cities, mostly in Europe, Tokyo still holds as the safest city in my opinion. I heard stories of people leaving their bags on tables in cafés to go to the bathroom, but i didn’t expect them to be real. Also with so many people living in this space, the public transportation is amazing. It’s well connected, timely and clean. People don’t talk on the subway and try not to bother anyone. It wasn’t limited to just subways. People’s sensitivity not to cause problems in society is a way of living in Japan. This sensibility changed the way i looked at civilisations. I thought this way the way people should behave everywhere, and i blamed my country for not being as society oriented.
It was a pity that i only had a couple of days to visit, but i was glad nonetheless. After another 12 long hours, i got back to my home city and i had some time to reflect on myself. This was the time i really opened my mind to other cultures. Visiting Europe wasn’t nearly as interesting as visiting Japan. I still had some sort of reference to the cultures in Europe, but everything felt upside down in Japan. The cultural barriers in Japan were incredibly high, but the people were so much nicer than any city i visited before. Since my first visit in Japan, i continue to urge everyone to go to a destination that is much different than their culture. I believe that is when you really discover yourself and the world.
