Welcome to Nagoya
Actually arriving at my destination in Nagoya was an interesting experience. Whereas Taipei was almost empty, Chubu International was very crowded. This being my first time overseas the whole getting your luggage and through customs was a novel concept.
Immediately after exiting the plane I came to the sudden realization that people here don’t speak English. I had been preparing for that fact for quite awhile, but once you are actually faced with it, the experience is different. Luckily it was a pretty straightforward process of getting of the plane and getting baggage. The customs people were very friendly and helpful in making sure I filled out my little form correctly and there were plenty of sign in English that pointed the way to the right places. It was after getting my suitcases that things got more confusing.
After picking all your stuff up comes the real customs check. The counters were in sight of baggage claim, but there were far fewer of the helpful English language signs. So I watched for a couple of minutes in order to figure out what the process was. Once getting to the counter I also had my first experience with being the only big white gaijin in sight. This meant some higher up security guard or manager first had to look at my suitcases before I could pass. They never looked in any bags, but they got a real good glance over before I got the wave through.
My new goal was to find the person who would help me ship one suitcase to my branch school and get me to the hotel where I would be staying for training. I had no idea who was waiting for me, I just had to hope he or she would find me or be holding a sign or looking for me. After waiting for a couple of minutes kind of nervously pacing I hit that panicked line of thought. You know, What if they aren’t here! Am I supposed to be finding them? Am I even at the right spot!?
Apparently I had forgotten I was the only big white guy standing around, and it was about that moment in my thought process that the woman sent to guide me, Amano-san, found me. We got one suitcase to a shipping counter to be shipped to the Sakae school, and then got on a train.
At this point I was near exhausted after spending nearly a full day in the air. So the whole process of running very quickly to trains, listening to Japanese announcements, and being asked lots of friendly questions by my new guide (who had a very soft voice) was a little overwhelming. You could have asked me what trains I took to get from the airport to Nagoya station and I would have had no idea. But after scrambling between at least two trains and the subway we made it to the right station. The walk from their to the hotel was doubly confusing and made needlessly troublesome by my still rather large remaining suitcase. Luckily things were fairly streamlined for us at the hotel, probably because they were the main place where all new AEON teachers stayed for training. That was also where adventures with other Gaijin would begin.
O-namae wa nan deska? Watashi wa Ismail desu
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Chris Schaffer Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Watashi-wa Chris desu.
Hajimemashite doozo Yoroshiku.
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