entry nº 2 // 20160829
want to smoke cigarettes indoors? come to japan. it’s like madrid 1991 out here or something. people just simply love it, i guess. people out here right this very moment are sitting at their favorite cafe or restaurant, just puffin’ away on those cigs. i guess it’s great or something? otherwise why would they do it. very cool.
i went to “ichiran ramen” here in downtown fukuoka the other day to grab some lunch. it’s a popular chain restaurant that has a couple locations around here that i’ve seen. i basically got every single step of the process wrong:
•walked in the “out” door; quickly realized what was going on + corrected myself
•waited in line in the little vestibule zone and was handed a clipboard w/ a menu + piece of paper you have to fill out. i understood essentially nothing on the paper; laughed as i told the waitress i didn’t understand. she gave me one in english. chose all my options and when it was my turn to be seated, took my sheet with me to my little ramen zone (you basically eat at the bar at this place, but there are little dividers between each seat so you can’t really see the person next to you AND in front of you [i.e. the bar] is closed off with another divider, but there’s a little bamboo curtain that opens up where they take your slip and give you your food – all you really see is the waists of the people behind the bar, essentially)
•i slid my order paper to the person back there, and they said “somethingsomethingsomethingsomethingsomethingRAMENTICKETsomethingsomethingsomething”. i laughed more and was confused about the status of my RAMEN TICKET because i don’t have one and wasn’t aware i was supposed to have one. the hostess noticed this and said something and went away. i kind of waited it out for a sec and looked around and realized that back in the entry way are vending machines where you choose your ramen and put money in and receive a RAMEN TICKET.
•popped back there and excused myself to those waiting in line and chose my ramen order and popped in my 1000yen bill + hit what i thought was the correct button but it just spit my bill out. realized you have to put the bill in first, of course.
anyway, got back there and slid my ticket through the little window and received my ramen a little while later and it was totally delish. want more water? there’s a little water dispenser right there in your little personal ramen booth. it’s a great system. all done with your meal? just walk out. i love it. pay first: it’s the best way for a restaurant to work. also, while i was eating i made friends with the guy next to me, who was a construction worker from the philippines living down in kumamoto. very kind. very wonderful to just share a few friendly words with someone and then say “see ya later!” and quite possibly never see them again. pretty magical.
lots of public sleeping out here. why not? it simply doesn’t matter. people on the train will just kind of doze off. it’s awesome and very sweet. look, everybody’s tired, okay? it’s nice to be in a place where people can kind of just let it go for a bit. shoko said that people in her break room at work take naps – they just put their head down on the table and snooze for a bit. one time when I was in elementary school, we had to put our heads down on our desks for whatever reason, and when i picked my head up a little snot trail was dangling out of my nose onto the desk. the girl sitting next to me totally caught me but she was cool about it and didn’t make fun of me or anything like that. that’s why you won’t find me snoozing w/ my head on the table during my break time out here. but as for the others? no big deal.
not lots of public trash cans out here, though. big carry in/carry out culture i guess. leave only footsteps, &c. + so forth. most restaurants where you bus your own shit have a divide-up-the-trash-by-material-type system like certain more forward-thinking establishments in the US, but i always feel like i’m going to get busted here because i still don’t know what any of the words mean and so i’m kind of just guessing when i throw my stuff away. waiting for that real stentorian, official sounding “EXCUSE ME, SIR.” one of these times. three solid weeks in japan and haven’t really been busted for anything yet, which is pretty cool. haven’t once been chased down by a group of black-clad guys on matte-black dirtbikes wielding UZIs, either, which is equally if not even more cool.
i would say that overall the straws in japan are of the “bendy” variety.
i would say that overall the “hands-free” faucets, soap dispensers, and hand dryers here work exceptionally well. big contrast with the state of things in the u.s.
see you later!
KEVIN
