New Emmy Pics

Emmy has two lower front teeth coming in now, and her hair is finally long enough to tape a bow to her skull. haha.

Japan Picture update

This section I'll just post pics from traveling around Japan.

-Cherry blossom madness:

-Tokyo at dusk:

-Tak sucking up to Emmy:

-Some bling we saw that we were tempted to buy:

-Me pigging out on some good cake!

-Tak, Emmy, Sumiko, and Lowell on the boat:

-The condom store (seriously, that is all they sell):

-Harajuku during the weekday:

-Wishes that people left at the shrine:

-Sumiko and Emmy on the boat ride:

-The guy that strung our boat along:

-Bamboo forest:

-Pics from inside the bamboo forest. We got a little bit too excited about pretending to be reenacting scenes from crouching tiger hidden dragon:





-the god of hotness (jk):

Adventures in the Empire of the Sun Part 1: Getting there

My past experience leaving ROG for vacation was difficult. Psychotic customs officials, ticket fiascos, and flight delays—it seemed that I would never leave. This time, though, everything was different. I even paid a reasonable cab fare to the airport, and as I checked in I was told that I wouldn’t need to be checking in my large backpack because it could be “carry on.” This, of course, meant that my gargantuan backpack would be violently thrown in the back of the aisle instead of the overhead compartment (it wouldn’t fit), but it was nice that I didn't have to worry about my luggage getting lost in Moscow. My plane schedule was as followed: Tbilisi-Moscow-Tokyo. Moscow was, well, cool I guess. I had a 9 hour layover, but because I was too cheap to pay for a visa (mainly because I knew that even after applying I wouldn't be getting one) I sat in the airport for 9 hours listening to music and reading about a drug addict going through rehab—very inspiring. After 22 hours of traveling I finally made it to Tokyo and met up with my family.

After I stepped off the plane I was excited. I hadn’t seen my family for a long time (the Masuda clan rarely gets together due to scheduling conflicts) and the fact that I’d also get to see my niece for the first time made my mind race with exciting fantasies of amazing uncle adventures. Being the obsessively competitive type that I am, I was determined to leave an amazing impression on Emmy that would make me the things of legends to her. “Perhaps,” I thought, “after she sees me her first word will be ‘Yuta,’ and her first sentence would be ‘Yuta is the greatest person—ever.’” As a side note, on a scale of 1 to awesome I think I scored an awesome during the ever-important first impression.

Going through customs and my journey to the hotel alone proved to me how much I had changed while living in ROG. I had always assumed that I was not one to change easily, but as I went through the motions of what I considered to be “regular life” it was evident that ROG had really molded me in its image. I was not molded so much to its rough, callused exterior, but, rather, I found that my personality had been slowly molded (or evolved) to be able to live in ROG. These new survival skills, though, proved to be less useful in a country that had laws, rules, social order, and, well, manners. Standing in line at the passport check irritated me to no end, and I didn’t understand why no one was cutting in line or shoving their bags into people to get to the front. “Who do I have to bribe here to get to the front!?” I thought, and I instinctively sighed heavily so that everyone around me would notice my irritation with the slow pace at which the line was moving. It wasn’t that I was in any rush to get to anywhere—I was on vacation after all—but after living in ROG for so long I didn’t understand why it wasn’t a “dog-eat-dog” world where only the physically fit or incredibly attractive would get to the front of the line in one piece. As the line slowly ticked forward I wasn’t sure what was worse, the fact that I saw all these innocent Japanese unaware of their weakness in line-cutting skills or the snail-like pace we were moving at.

I finally got through customs and rushed to catch the appropriate hotel bus service. There was an initial price-shock when I was told that it would cost me approximately $30 to go from the airport to the hotel, and I was tempted to bargain with the polite lady at the counter because, after all, that is what you do in ROG. “Outrageous! Do I look like a chump to you?!” I wanted to ask in protest, but as I saw her spotless uniform and sparkling white teeth I remembered that people here were paid livable wages that pushed the price of everything to the stratosphere. “Relax,” I had to tell myself, “She isn’t trying to take advantage of you. It’s just market price.”

As I climbed into the immaculate bus, I was, for some reason, half expecting to see linoleum-lined floors and torn curtains that blocked all sunlight and views from passengers. Riding in marshutkas in ROG has always made me feel like I should have a burlap bag shoved over my head because, not only is the ride just outrageously frightening, but every marshutka dons black curtains on all the windows except the front that makes sure that passengers have no idea exactly how they are getting to their destination. The presence of deafening music just makes it seem that much more probable that all the passengers are, in fact, being kidnapped. As music blares over one large stereo speaker that is somehow plugged into the car, it makes sure that all passengers won’t hear anything that might indicate they are being driven over a bridge, a railroad track, a pasture, or even a cement factory.

In Japan, though, this was not the case. The bus was spotless, and there weren’t even cigarette burns on the seats! As the bus started to go, the driver spoke through the speakers to inform us of the approximate time that we would be arriving at the hotel, and he informed all of us to wear our seatbelts for safety. Upon hearing this I scoffed—both in protest and at the thought that seatbelts were necessary—and I gawked at the thought of being told what to do. “You are not the boss of me!” I thought. In ROG, I remember the first time I was riding in a car with seatbelts was with my host father in Khasuri, and as I reached for the belt that I was told saved lives he slapped my hand and shook his finger as if I had been a very naughty child explaining that, “In ROG you don’t have to wear seatbelts because it’s safer than America.” Of course this was complete nonsense. The best way to describe the driving experience in ROG is this: Imagine that your scariest, worst, and most terrifying nightmare happened while you were conscious. Got it? Good. Now imagine that nightmare’s “scare-factor” and take the one-billionth power of that. That is what the driving experience is like in ROG. You can then imagine what I felt like being told to wear a seatbelt in a country that had driving laws and drivers that did not frantically pass each other like every ride was a Nascar qualifying event.

As I entered the hotel lobby I was shocked by its opulence. Dazzling crystal chandeliers with golden accents blinded me with a certain brilliance that I would never find in ROG, and as I instinctively squinted my eyes I reached for my sunglasses. It was like walking out of the movie theater after a daytime movie, and as my eyes slowly adjusted to my surroundings it hit me that I didn’t know the room number or phone number of where my family was staying. To think that post-war Japan was something like present day ROG was mind-blowing, and as I walked up to the check-in counter I couldn’t help but wonder if in 60 years ROG would look like modern day Japan. My instincts said no, but maybe that is just the pessimist in me. Alone and without hope, I went up to the check-in lady and I gave them a name and when I merely told them that I was a family member, a bellboy was promptly summoned to take my bag and take me to the room. At first I was caught off guard when the bellboy grabbed my bag, and I almost reflexively dropped kicked him. Thank god that I was somewhat still accustomed to service. After waiting about 30 minutes, my parents finally came to the room and it was, I suppose, an exciting reunion.

brief update

Hey I'm trying to finish up some blogs to post, so don't worry I'm not dead. Expect a blog entry + pictures tomorrow!