Who Me, Worry? (Day 1 in Japan)

I take after my Daddy.

Which is to say I have the worry gene.

Which is also why becoming a programmer was a cinch for me. I learned from my first exercise in Comp Sci 16 that one had to consider the worst case.

Which I still do.

As you might imagine, the leadup to our May 14 departure for Japan was fraught with worries.

My gout toe hurt. What if I came down with another horrendous case of gout and it ruined everyone’s trip. (It didn’t.)

No seat assignment for our flight from JFK to Tokyo. What if we were delayed by going to the counter and missed our connection and took a day off of our trip? (We didn’t.)

My mom is decreasingly agile. What if she fell while we were away and we had to come back stat from trip? (She didn’t.) 

You get the idea.

Hidden among these worries was: What if we can’t find Zack, Nat and Lilly at the Narita Airport? It’s a big place. We don’t speak the language. What if…

But, once I got on our international flight, most of my worries died down, thanks to my mom’s optimism gene. But that last one continued to niggle.

When we landed, I immediately tried to connect to wifi (What if I couldn’t connect to wifi?) and was able to catch him on Skype right away. Nat and Lilly’s flight had just gotten in and they were delayed a bit going through customs in a different terminal. He would collect them and find us.  So we were told to sit down after we passed through immigration. Which we did. I held my breath.

And friends, we saw beautiful wonders of God and man during our 9 days in Japan. We saw skyscrapers that boggled the mind. We saw beautiful women in exquisite silk kimonos. We saw Mount Fuji mysteriously wreathed in a garland of clouds. But nothing, nothing, nothing compared to the sight of my younger son, followed closely by my older son and his wife in that airport. All smiling.  An amazing and cherished sight. I exhaled. At last.

Zack, Nat, and Lilly catching train at Narita Airport 

As to our first (half) day in Japan, I learned that some common preconceptions about the country were absolutely true. The subways were packed. Filled to the gills, mostly by Salarymen. (Salarymen wear suits, ties, white shirts, carry briefcases and are very loyal to and very serious about their jobs.) People did not talk OR make eye contact on the train. Zack had to shush us (mostly me) and remind us to respect their silence. Everyone had their cellphone out on the train. I’m not sure exactly what they were all doing, but they were definitely doing something enterprising. We were wedged in pretty tight, with our luggage. It was anonymous intimacy.  A New York pickpocket would have had a field day.

Tokyo Station 

We emerged from the subway about 2 blocks from our hotel which was across the street from Zack’s apartment. He helped us get checked in and carried my suitcase to our room; he had been kind enough to handle in on the train for me, too. As he helped me plug in my cellphone in our tiny hotel room, I saw a look of alarm cross his face. His briefcase! He had left it on the train! Our vacation was going to start off on the wrong foot. It would be ruined. (Well, even I knew that was hyperbole, but still, it really sucked!)

He dashed out and back to the train station. I thought to myself: he will NEVER see THAT briefcase again. Earle and I unpacked what we could in our shoebox of a room and waited to hear from him. Within 20 we received word via Skype that he had found his briefcase! He asked at the station and learned it was located two stops down. They held it for him and he was headed to collect it. In 20 more minutes he was back, triumphant! I was releaved! One more “what if” put to bed!

I later verified that what Zack told me years ago was true. He was much safer in Japan than in America. Our violent crime rate is 26 times higher than theirs. Our total crimes per 1000 people is 84 times higher than theirs!

In fact, their crime rate is so much lower than ours that their young children go to school by themselves! We saw it time and time again. Elementary students navigating the subway quite alone, relaxed and attentive to their location. In Tokyo, we saw a little girl in a busy business district by herself. She wore a yellow cap and a yellow sign across her backpack stating that she was on her school commute. She took her time, walking along an obviously familiar route. She looked about 6 years old! I don’t think I would have been more surprised by seeing Godzilla drinking a nightcap! 

After that I didn’t worry about our safety anymore. (That doesn’t include worrying about getting separated from my group, but more on that later! )

Upon Zack’s return to the hotel, we all went on walkabout to a delicious tempura restaurant, where I managed to feed myself, rice and all, with chopsticks. Afterwards, we returned to our rooms and fell into bed, too tired to worry about anything.