Osaka, Japan

The Pick Up

Got to Kansai airport without incident, but when I got to customs, I actually got searched. If you've never had the pleasure of being searched by a Japanese customs agent, I have to say that it's actually a very nice experience, as far as searches go (and especially when compared to being searched by US or Canadian customs agents).

As I was exiting with my luggage, a gloved agent politely motioned for me to step to the side and hand over my passport. He then proceeded to ask whether it was ok that he look through my bags (though I suppose this was more a formality than a real question). I opened it up and he carefully removed everything, including a knife block (with no knives) that I had brought and was going to give Brenda, in Tokyo. He asked me what it was - I tried to explain, but clearly his English wasn't that great and I didn't know how to say it in Japanese, so I wrote out the kanji for knife on a piece of paper. That was a mistake, because his eyes went wide and he ran to get his supervisor.

The supervisor came, bowed and began to turn the thing around in his hands. Then he went to get yet a third guy. The last guy came, examined it and asked if he could X-ray the thing. I said it was ok by me, vaguely alarmed by the fact that we now had enough people standing around my luggage to play some two-on-two on a half court. The supervisor and the guy he brought went off to do their thing and came back a few minutes later and waved me through. The original agent apologized for the delay and repacked my bag better than I had in the first place. Incredible.

It perhaps was to my benefit that I got held back because the 15 minutes it took for the whole search to finish, the crowd had thinned out considerably and it was easy for Ikuyo and Yumi to pick me out. They'd both taken the day off work to come get me (how nice). I gave both of them a quick hug hello and Ikuyo pulled out her phone and began reading off a script that she had prepared earlier (in English).

They were supposed to help me figure out how to buy a pay-as-you-go cell phone, but apparently, you can't get them anymore without a residency card or something (probably too many people were using them for shady purposes), so I had to rent one from the airport. We eventually figured out where to go (it was EXPENSIVE) and we were off to do some sightseeing.

We hopped in the car and the girls took me to Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle), which I recognized from the televised Pride FC events on pay per view back home. I'd been to Osaka before, but didn't do much in the way of visiting the tourist destinations.

We started to get hungry after walking around a bit and stopped into a noodle place on the grounds. Despite having lived in Japan for nearly a year, I still had no idea what to order, so the girls helped me out. Part way through the meal, the girls looked at me then said something to each other and started laughing. When I inquired as to what was so funny, Ikuyo commented that I was pretty good with chopsticks. Nice.

During the meal, we made conversation as best we could. I found out that Ikuyo likes Pride FC and K-1 as well. I love that combat sports are mainstream here. It's starting to happen in Canada as well (not counting boxing, which has always been around), but it it's not nearly as popular as it is in Japan.

We finished up and Yumi went next door to get the largest slushie I'd ever seen.

La Maison Uramaru

The Uramarus, my gracious hosts in Osaka, lived a little out of the city center in Hirakata. As we sped off from the bustle of the area surrounding Osaka-jo, the concrete began to pull back and the greenery took over. The roads got narrower and rice paddies began to pop up alongside the road.

It was so different from the Japan I knew in Tokyo. No high rises with people living in units the size of veal pens. No mad rush of pedestrians or floods of vehicles clogging the roads. THIS was the Japan I knew from Kitano Takeshi movies. This was the Japan that I had in my head, before coming here.

Back at the Uramaru household, I found Luka (whom I didn't know), Mika and Kaori (whom I'd met at Tariq and Tomoko's wedding a few months prior) preparing a veritable nabe feast. One by one, people started trickling in, until the living room was packed with friends and family.

Everyone had English books with phrases done up so that they could speak to me. It was incredibly touching, the lengths everyone went to in order to make me feel comfortable. I felt like an ass for not being able to say much more than a few basic phrases. It was embarrassing to say the least.

The food was fantastic and the company even better. Present were Mr. and Mrs. Uramaru, Ikuyo, Yumi, Mari, Mika, Luka, Yuko, Satoshi and Kaori. Part way through the meal, Yuko commented that I was surprisingly good with chopsticks. In all fairness to them, they think of me as Canadian, rather than Chinese. I guess the majority of the foreigners here do the one-fisted-stab method of using chopsticks (i.e. where you hold both in the palm of your hand like a dagger and spear your food like a savage), or just drop stuff all over themselves while eating.

Throughout the meal, neither my glass of beer, cup of tea nor bowl stayed empty for more than a few moments. I'd really just put it down and whichever girl noticed it first would whip her hand out and snatch the empty vessel away for a refill. It was incredible, I told them that back home, I'd be doing this for the women and everyone had a bit of a wtf? chuckle at that one. We have it all backwards in the west.

There were snacks and conversation after dinner and eventually, everyone filtered out and I was given Tomo's old room. Looking out into the rainy night, I wondered whether I would have stayed in Japan much longer, had I been placed here rather than in Tokyo, lo those many years ago.

I drifted off to sleep knowing that indeed, I would have.