Vance

Before I can share a 'story' of our trip with you, I will not use the dates to protect our privacy but I will use "Day 1", "Day 2" and on. Note: I want to let you know that I will not post the pictures for the time being since it will take a while for me to look though the pictures to scan then post. I also need Nas' approval for these pictures however I will post the general pictures (cities, etc) soon. Please be bear with me for a while. Thanks!


Day 1: We arrived at Orange Country (in California) Airport and hopped into the airplane. We left at approx 7am. btw, we spent hours and hours of walking on that week before got on that airplane so that's the way we can be much less restless. There isn't much to talk about that day beside talking & sleeping/napping all the way plus numbers of nature calls however we made a stop at San Francisco International Airport first before went oversea to Japan.

Day 2: We were still on airplane until approx 1pm, we arrived at Tokyo International Airport. When I got out, I can smell the different air beside gas, engine fumes and numbers of burps from other passengers due to horrible airplane foods, you know how it is. Honestly, I feel so lost because of japanese logos, signs, advertises, it is everywhere. I got numbers of stares from japaneses as well, I guess it was due to my skin or my 'backward' American clothes, either way, it was noticeable. I felt the 'clammy' in my hands and my heart raced like a bunny's, for some reason, I felt bit scared but with Nas as a native of Japan, her presence assured me somehow. Nas was very exciting about her homeland and giggled then hugged & kissed me few times before we picked up our bags. We found three of Nas' relatives waiting for us on the bench. Nas ran off to them and hugged them, I stood uncertain what to do next... I mean, I don't know if I should bow or extend my right arm to shake the hands or what. Good thing that they made the first move by bowing to me and I returned it back, one point for me. Our introduction went nicely and perfectly (thank goodness).

We got in one of Nas' relative's Honda Accord Sedan LX V-6 car (I'm a huge fan of Honda Accord cars) and I noticed that there was several street names in English when we were driving to Nas' relative's house so I asked Nas about it. She explained that some main streets are in English for the tourists even though she suggested that we, Americans, as tourists (first-timer) should not driving around in Tokyo anyway. It somehow reminds me of the situation I had in Boston, Massachusetts trip... Of course, in Japan, people were driving on the left side instead of right side. My own opinion... traffic in Tokyo was far worse than NYC but less "shouting" or certain vulgar languages. Nas and I both agreed that she don't need to interpret what Nas and her relatives chatted in the car because I wanted to see everything in Tokyo while in driving and Nas don't need the stress at that time. The drive was great despite the bumpy ride and bad traffic. Oh yeah, here's Tokyo map and Japan map for you to get a look at.

It took approx 2 hours to get there (Nas' aunt's place) and my goodness, their house was very beautiful. I wish I can post and show you their house but I cannot however I want to show you other pictures. Here it is:







Nas' aunt/uncle owns several acres and house in that area near Mountain Tsukuba (northeast of Tokyo City and southwest [rough] of Tsukuba Science City, well-known and famous city). Here's map.



it is not Nas' aunt/uncle's house but similar however that house is a farm house.



Again, it is not Nas' aunt/uncle's house. That house is a japanese modern house in Mountain Tsukuba area.



Ibid.

Before we got into their house, we took our shoes off and put it on the "tatami" (straw) mat then I was stunned by their beautiful and traditional japanese cultural furnitures, accessories, and stuffs (I later found out that Nas' aunt/uncle are traditionalists). Nas and I are pooped by long trip and sat on the couch in Nas' aunt/uncle's living room and talked (Nas interpreted, there was a topic about her interpreting, you can check it out at this topic: link) for almost one hour then I fell asleep. When dinnertime came up, Nas woke me up and I got myself ready for eating the dinner. It was delicious dinner ever I ate! It was "chahan". Here's picture:



Sorry about small size, that's only one I can find though the google that match what I ate. I am not going to take a shot of what they made for me while they were eating the dinner btw, politeness is very valuable manner in Japan. Anyway, "chahan" is a fried rice mixed with negi (japanese leek), egg, peas, several pieces of carrot and pork.

While we were eating, we had numbers of interesting topics to discuss about. It was about "sohei" (monk warriors) then "yamabushi" (mountain warriors) then "otogizoshi" (Medieval era) and finally, America. Anyway, Nas' aunt suddenly made a face then smiled at me which made me puzzled and Nas told me that her aunt had a small surprise for me but it had to be wait until Nas' uncle arrived (in two days later). After that, Nas and her aunt offered me a tour around the house then outside, small farm, garden pond with a small bridge to feed the fishes, small archery gallery, and other few things. In fact, I was surprised about the way they approached me or how they treated me. It was japanese culture to consider deaf people as "inferior" or "shame" but they hadn't at all. Of course, it does not mean that all of them have that kind of attitude but I just found it surprised that they hadn't. I asked Nas about it and she said her relatives/family is different from other japanese people. Beside that, Nas already informed them that I am deaf as well (she also told me that she personally will chew their heads off if they treat me any less than her ) The tour took almost two hours and Nas & I was ready to hit the sack. Nas' aunt showed us the guest room (actually, it is hardly "guest" room, it is more likely 'our' bedroom because of TV with a cable, DVD player, video games, list on and on). We hastily unpacked our clothes and wore our pajama then fell asleep in no time. Oh yeah, we slept on the futon (traditional Japanese bed). [add] Once I slept on it and I loved it! I actually bought the futon and bed frame for it few days and it will deliever to my place in next week, I cannot wait! [/add]

More in next post... I need a break however can anyone tell me which is the best for me to sum up or keep that way as what I did above? To make it easier for you to read. Thanks.

Deafness

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on AllDeaf.com

Brian

Magatsu - great stories! Keep them coming!

BTW, great snapshots!

__________________
-Brian

Reba

Ditto with Brian.

Lavender

interesting stories

tegumi

Magatsu,

Im pretty sure you are familiar with the Japanese word for "deaf", with it being "mimi ga tooi", and literally translated as "ears are far away", I was wondering if you found this to be slightly offensive, or if you would consider this more softening and not as harsh compared to "hearing impaired" or "deaf and dumb" that some people use here in America? Just wondering.

Tegumi

Liebling:-)))

wow, very interesting post here.

Some of my friends went to Japan on their vacation and come back telling us that Japan life are very expensive.

What do you as American think of Japan's life there?

Shame, I can't see the pictures. I think it's something do with my work computer so I will try home computer when I'm home from work this evening.

__________________

Vance

About "mimi ga tooi", I asked Nas about it sometimes ago when I heard about that term (I learned about this term from American deafies) and she told me that "mini ga tooi" literally translated as "I'm hard of hearing" or similar. Only one annoying thing about Japanese language, there are different interpretations of these terms due to "sounds". I did not study Japanese or anything like that so I may not know what I was talking about but I constantly noticed these different interpretations of japanese terms in books, mangas, animes, etc etc. To answer your question, well... I am a person who have the 'thick skin' which tend to not be offended by these terms concerning about deafies. For example, for some deaf people, "hearing-impaired" can be offense but as for me, I will shrug it off. Of course, I will tell them that I dislike that term but that's it. I am not going to howl at them about that. I think it is largely depend on attitude itself. How they will approach you with that term or how they will use the interpretation of "mini ga tooi" with deafies. However as for "deaf and dumb", that is very offensive term for every deaf on this Earth. Speaking of deafies, I do aware that deafies as minority is suppressed by its own culture which is very sad. This summer, I am hoping to stop by and visit at school for deafies (Otha High School of the Deaf and other schools) to see for myself. Nas don't know much about deaf japaneses. In fact, she never meet them in Japan, she moved to America when she was young but frequently visited at her relatives in Japan. That's one of reason why we will stop by and visit to learn a bit more about deaf culture in Japan.

That's what I am going to say in next posts, Lifestyle in Jpan is quite expensive but again, some of them got paid so well. In America, for anime DVDs, it costs approx $13 - 26 per disc in while in Japan, it costs approx $40 - 55 per disc or higher. Indeed, expensive.

It is very fascinating. Completely different culture. I like their philosophy of "science and nature in harmony". I will explain more about their lifestyle & culture in next posts.

No, it is not your computer. There is something wrong with AD. I checked the pictures in my Photobucket account and the pictures are still there. I dunno why it did not show up in here. AD acted up a bit, some quotes that people quoted from other posts are disappearing for no reason. Since I cannot edit my posts, I will cross-post at my blog so you can see the pictures. Give me some time to tidy up a bit and such. I will post the blog link for you to see the pictures. Sorry about it.


Reba, Brian, Lavender and others, thanks for comments! I will post the "Day 3 and on" in next post as soon as possible.

deafclimber

awesome i love to hear ur story cuz my gf and i have some talkings about our trip to japan next year. our friends from here just moved to there last year.

again thanks for sharing your journey with ADers.

__________________
Feel free to PM me if you have any question about Windows Mobile or AT&T Mobiliy's TAPs.

tegumi

Interesting... thats what I was wondering if "mimi ga tooi" would be considered softening or harsh, since it is translated in English as "hard of hearing" or "hearing impaired" but if you translated it word for word, "mimi" means ear, "ga" is a relational showing that "mimi" is the topic, and "tooi" means far. So, when this is directly translated it means "ear is far", but of course we wouldnt refer to a Deaf person in English as someone whos "ears are far away", so this is roughly translated as "hard of hearing" or "hearing impaired".

I have also heard horror stories about how crazy expensive Japan is, and I am sure I will find that out this summer, because I am going in June!! I cant wait to leave!

Teg

Reba

The first day that you posted the pictures on AD I was able to see them on my computer. The next day, the pictures were gone.

Vance

Awesome. Have fun! Which cities or area you guys plan to stop by?

I found it interesting as well when you mentioned about "ears are far away". I don't know about that one but I will ask Nas to find out. About Japan and its expensive, definitely...! Nas repeatedly told me to check the prices and I cannot believe what I saw. About your summer plan, awesome and have fun! Same question as above about cities and area you plan to visit?

Yep. When I posted this topic and there were the pictures in my post then I checked last night, it was disappeared... I don't know why. I rechecked the urls in my post and my Photobucket account. Everything looks fine. I found it bit strange because that "chahan" picture I posted works fine. I didn't test at my blog yet but I am sure that I will find something wrong once I test these pictures at my blog.

Thank you for noticing about that one as well!

Cheri

Nice story tales Magatsu. I am glad you had a good time. I've never been to Japan, Maybe somedays.

__________________

Vance

Yes, you definitely should go there someday too! I think you will love it. If I am a millionarie, I would take AD'ers with us to Japan and enjoy our time there but I am not Thanks for comment! *nods*

CatoCooper13

Fascinating! Sounds like you had an enriching experience there - I have an acquaintance who recently went to Japan for a wedding...he explained to me on what he did over there.
I'm part Japanese myself and I landed at the Narita Airport, 40 kms outside Tokyo for an overnight layover. I was on my way back to the States from Australia.
Narita's a lovely town - busy though, ha! Didn't get to travel much around Japan during my 12 hour layover, next time, hopefully.

__________________




Til I hold my bub in my arms.

Vance

Wow, I completely forget this topic... but thanks for posting and sorry for lack of response anyway that's cool to hear about that. Hmm, you kinda got me curious about Narita. If and when you plan to go to Japan, let me know! Maybe, we can meet you when we are going to Japan (this summer and maybe, next summer too).

Everyone, FYI, I didn't post the updates in this topic because Nas and I have been working on our 'story' about this trip for a 'international trip' site. Our friends suggested us to post the story at that site for everyone to read and comment. I will post the link whenever we are done.. which it will be right after summer due to our summer trip. Sorry about it.