"Turning Japanese" ten years ago

[warning: this is not about The Vapors' popular song]

I set foot on Narita Airport ten years ago today (October 30, 1998).

I was then 24 and considered myself fortunate to have obtained an all-expense paid chance to travel abroad. It was my first time to go out of the country and though it was a brief stay and work-related, it was nonetheless one memorable experience.

My first four days were spent in Tsukuba Science City (Ibaraki, Japan) where I attended the 2^nd International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics at the University of Tsukuba. From there, I headed on to Tokyo as a participant to the 4^th World Congress of Bioethics held at Nihon University.

That 9-day trip to Japan was a treat! I saw a different earth in that part of the equator. The language, culture and its people were incredibly fascinating. Nihonggo was difficult to understand yet the culture conveyed a great deal about the land and its people. Green tea, sake, tatami mats, artfully served Japanese cuisines, communal baths (that culture-shocked me!), Shinto temples, the world-renowned Imperial Palace, genuine Japanese kois and the Ainus—all these fed my senses like no other! It was undeniably one unique immersion.

While I was there, I also obtained an awesome crash course in high-tech living. Autoflushing toilets; cable cars; flashy fashion trends; humungous, colorful digital advertisements appearing on buildings; huge freeways; machine-generated fare receipts from taxi cabs with automatic doors; mountain trains; skyscrapers; state-of-the-art buildings; subways and the Shinkansen. All these educated me greatly on the enormous gap separating 3^rd world reality from a highly-industrialized existence. I was swept away.

My comprehension and wits were certainly overwhelmed by the brief encounter I had with the country. I remember arriving there lost in translation—only the use of chopsticks felt right amidst Japanese skies. But now, oddly, I feel nostalgic… vividly recalling how in that country I have quietly experienced cloud nine on board one of its bullet train.

If an opportunity comes again, I will definitely go back. Fujiyama still awaits for my return… reminiscing how (regretfully) it hid itself from eyesight that foggy autumn morning I took the Hakone Tour with colleagues.