Being Stopped by the Japanese Police

Let me start out by staying Japan is a great country, otherwise I still wouldn't be living here. However, like any other country Japan does have it flaws. Over the last eight years of living in Japan I have experienced the good and the bad. The worst being the Touhoku earthquake in 2011. Yet, last week comes to a close second. Last week, I was on my way to work like usual. When I got to my local station I saw a couple of police stopping foreign students in front of the ticket gate...  This is quite common for foreigners to be stopped by police to check if they are legally here or not... However, I saw they were busy harassing these foreign exchange students so I went through the gate and headed to my train.

As got on to the train platform the train started to pull up. Once the doors opened I got on the train minding my own business and then suddenly I felt someone pull on my arm and take me off the train. To my surprise it was Tokyo Police, they demanded to see my foreigner registration card. I gave to them to look at and they let me go on my way.

I understand that they do need to check up on some people in order to check their living status in Japan. However, I don`t agree with manhandling someone and pulling them off the train to do so... In the end causing me to be late to work. Once I got to work and discussed this issue with the rest of my non Japanese coworkers they have also stated they have been stopped and asked to show ID`s from the Japanese police. However, my boss a white male said " I guess you brown folks need to know your place, I have never been stopped before... but wait I am white.."

Although his comment was meant to be a joke it was not far from the truth.


Rant over

Planning my next trip....

 It hasn’t even been two months since my last vacation overseas, but I am already planning my next adventure. However, I am at a crossroad… I really like traveling to China, as everyone might already know. I have already been there four times over the last year. But I have decided to expand my horizons and try traveling to other countries in Asia. Thus, I have decided to take a trip to India.

So now starts the long process of planning a trip to a country, in which I have never been to nor have any friends living. First thing I need to find out is how to get there. After researching several travel sites I have decided on an air ticket to get… Did you guys know that by transferring in another country you could almost get a ticket for half the price? So, I have decided to take a flight with China Eastern with a transfer in Shanghai. After researching this ticket a little more I found out that it is possible to extend my layover up to a week without any additional costs from the airline… but I still have to pay the huge visa fee American citizens are required to pay. However, but getting this plane ticket I would be able to travel to two countries without any extra planning or plane tickets. But here is what my dilemma comes.

Should I spend more time in India or spend a week in both China and India?

Of course, I have been to China many times but I have a lot of friends who currently live in Shanghai. Not only will I be able to eat all of the great Chinese food but I will also be able to meet many of my good friends. However, this will cut down the amount of places and time I will have in India. However, if I do make the India trip a whole two weeks and I totally dislike the country I will be at a loss… 

Either way I am going to enjoy my nice Indian lunch and  consider my options.......

Recent updates

Hello, everyone.

Recently, I have been a little busy with work and I haven`t had anytime to update my blog. Well, last year in December I had the opportunity to visit both Bejing and Shanghai. This was my third time to Shanghai and my first time to Beijing. Shanghai is similar to Tokyo, in other words a very international city. Beijing is similar, but it still has a strong cultural presence. My favourite part of Beijing was the Great Wall.  Although I did not spend much time on it because the weather was freezing and most of the wall was covered with snow.

Are dreams made to be broken?

Over the last couple of months I have grown to dislike my teaching job. It is not particularly the job itself, I just want change in my life. Last week, I had a chance to have an interview with a Japanese recruiting company. The company is located in Iidabashi and they are currently looking for a native English speaker in order to spread their network overseas. Thus, I was the perfect match for this company. However, after the interview I came to discover that maybe what I want and what I need are two different things. Just like the old saying says "be careful what you wish for", I always wanted to work for a Japanese company in Japan and I wanted to be considered a normal salary man. But after thinking about it this last week, I have decided that maybe that lifestyle is not for me. I am like a bird, I like to do what I want when I want.. maybe I have Peter Pan Syndrome. But if you work to live what do you get in the end.... Just like the famous Japanese Poet Matsuo Aida says "We all wait for our children to grow up, we wait to save money, we wait for our until we build a house, but death never waits for us."No matter what we achieve in life all of us will die eventually. I prefer to spend my life among good friends and family and have a mediocre job with time to enjoy my hobbies.

Taipei trip day 1

It had at least been one month since I last met Jennifer but I know this trip would be an adventure. As usual, I was the first one to reach our destination and this time our destination being Narita International Airport. As soon as I reached the airport I decided it would be in my best interested to check in and get rid of my huge suitcase which I had lugged around from my house about a one hour train ride from Narita. As soon as I checked in I decided to walk around the airport because I had an hour to spare before Jennifer would appear. To my astonishment I found that Narita International Airport terminal 2 is actually very convenient for shopping. They have many of the famous brand shops that are in Shibuya as well as in Shinuku. Anyhow, Jennifer arrived an hour later, after helping her check we decided to head to the Mizuho bank in order for her to change money over from Yen to Taiwanese Dollars (knowing that our plane would arrive late and we wouldn’t have time to transfer money at the Taiyuan International Airport.) As soon as we exchanged our money we decided to head through security and continue with our trip. Knowing that our plane was leaving at 7;10 we only had one hour to wait until we left so he headed straight to our gate. But due to unforeseeable weather our plane was delayed an hour which made our departure time change to 8:10 in return would make our arrival about 11;00pm in Taiwan.

Knowing this I was starting to get a little nervous about the trip. For starters, I do not speak Chinese and I know by arriving late to the airport that means that there is a chance we would not be able to catch the airport bus to the city which meant that we would have to depend on a taxi to get us to our final destination. …..

Soon after landing at Taipei airport we rushed to immigration and went straight to luggage delivery and luck was on our side because our suitcases arrived fairly early. After leaving the arrivals gate we decided to head to the bus stop to see if there were any buses headed to the city and there were. So we decided to buy a ticket and this is when culture shock hit me for the first time.

Having lived in Japan for a total of almost six years I have become accustom to Japanese service. Customer service in Japan is mostly likely the best in the world, most staff even at the cheapest stores would do anything for you if you just ask. Even if they do not speak English they would try their best to convey their language to you in an easy way. However, in Taiwan it was quite the opposite. When we bought our ticket to the city which cost about 90 Taiwanese dollars the teller spoke to us in English but as soon as we finished she yelled the directions to the bus stop to us in Chinese…. Luckily for us the bus stops were located on the side of the terminal and we decided just to head out and show the ticket to the bus drivers and hopefully he or she would guide us to the right bus. We were guided to the right bus and we headed to Taipei. The bus ride was a total of one hour to get to Taipei Main Station where our hotel was located. Once we got to the station were lost because we didn’t know the area so we decided to ride a taxi to our hotel. I know the Ipad gets a bad rep but it was very useful during this trip because I just opened the Ipad and showed the taxi driver the hotels webpage and he brought us to the hotel in matter of five minutes for a fairly cheap fair of only about three American Dollars. After checking in our hotel we decided to head to the 7-11 downstairs. As many people might know, Japan is famous for convenience stores such as 7-11 because they are open 24 hours and offer cheap meals around the clock. Having not eating on the plane we decided to buy something at a 7-11 in Taiwan. Not surprising, Taiwanese convenience stores do not differ from their Japanese counterparts. However, it does lack in service and they do not provide a bag for you to carry your items home. ( Later I found out that you have to ask for a bag for an additional fee)

This trip does seem like an adventure… Like I had anticipated

Up coming trips

Hello,

Again sorry for the late update. Recently I have been keeping busy at work and with my private life. As of now I am planning two vacations overseas this coming year. The first trip will be in November. In November I will be traveling to Taipei, Taiwan. The trip will be a short one, only for two days. However, as many of my close friends might know, I have not left Japan for four years now.... So I am kinda looking forward to this brief vacation from my new home. Following my trip to Taiwan I will visit Shanghai, China in December. This will be my first time to travel to China and I am a bit nervous but I am sure I will be okay.

Anyhow

I will try to update more regularly and I will try to add some pictures next time

Recent update

Recently, I have been on a strict diet and continued to jog every day for the last two weeks. I feel that I have lost inches around my body but I haven`t really lost any weight. But I have been enjoying my runs with Tim for the last couple of weeks and I run an average of 10km per a day... I hope i can lose weight before my trip to Taiwan in November.