Los Angeles

It has been great to spend time with my two Pacific coast brothers

They help me think of serious issues like cultural sensitivity in preparation for my trip.

Death Valley was beautiful and I recommend the trip although the ride from LA is LOOONNG. Some highlights include hiking through craters, walking over dry gorges, and doing yoga underneath the starry sky close to sand dunes. My mood was slightly spoiled one night by imagining that I felt some new worm eggs hatch inside my stomach (they are my friends from Peace Corps, Nicaragua, soon to be joined by other varieties .) My brother Jon, the ham of the family, congratulated me for bringing in new life into the world, offering me a hearty Mazal Tov, and I spent the dark walk back to the car singing simul tov o mazal tov, mazal tov oo simul tov—hey lanu ... as if it were simchat freaking torah. (my brother is having a very irreligious effect on me.)

I’m not sure what type of stomach problems I have. Perhaps they are just nerves and a figment of my imagination. I thought I saw something while using the bathroom in Tyrst Café in Adams Morgan, DC. But I was in the men’s room (the women’s room was occupied) and everyone who’s been in that place knows what a rancid state that men’s room is in with a stench to accompany it (what do you guys do in there?!)

Perhaps some crazy shit (literally) was already in the toilet bowl rather than it coming from me? In any case, I learned my lesson to always wait for the women’s room from now on. I’ll have to wait to implement my newfound wisdom, however, since the countries I’m visiting will likely only have holes in the ground.

New prospects for my travel include visiting the town of Cochin in India, where there is an ancient Jewish community I’ve done two research papers on in college. I also plan to visit the “pepper exchange” there, reminiscent of the New York stock exchange. In the wise words of Mr. Fodor, “Monitors in a small room display the going rate of pepper, and men sit by phones in cubicles that line the wall. When the bid comes in, the yelling and finger pointing starts. Then, just as suddenly, everyone goes back to reading the newspaper.”

I also heard of a fish market in Tokyo where they catch and skin the fish right in front of you, and serve the sushi with warm flesh. Haha, sorry to gross out you vegetarians. And may not be the best thing for my delicate stomach.

OK, happy new year to everyone and I’ll write more when I’m in NEE-HONG! (Japan)

Departure Day

I still hadn’t packed the morning of my flight from New York. When my best friend Pam texted me that she was coming by the apartment I was still practicing my Japanese, screaming “Sameemasen, ay-goga wakareemaska???” to the computer. Excuse me, do you understand English?-- a good phrase to know when I arrive in Japan.
But it was time to get up and pack! They say to get to the airport early, but in reality, it hardly ever happens.
It was sheer chaos at JFK. So many people were missing their flights that it didn’t faze the airline attendants anymore.
“I got here on time, I’ve been waiting for two hours and I am still about to miss my flight! Can I come to the front?” someone in front of me asked. The attendant didn’t look up because she was busy.
“Go to the counter to the left and tell them you missed your flight. Tomorrow standby is your best option.”
It seems that all the basic rules of humanity go out the window at the airport. There was a woman in a wheelchair on the security line in front of me, and although I am usually a patient person, I considered jumping in front of her to have a better chance of catching my flight. Another woman with a prosthetic leg asked a worker if she had to take off her shoes like everyone else, despite her condition, and displayed her metal ankle.
“All shoes off!!” the woman repeated.
My bro was waiting for me at LAX for about two hours when I arrived because the trade winds were flying into my already delayed flight.
We drove over to my clan, with lots of new baby additions.

Pre-travel jitters

My brother and I have agreed that the hardest part of a big trip is getting on the plane. After that, you just have to live it. Well, this nomad is having pre-travel jitters. These last days before the trip have consisted of coming and going from DC to New York, New York City to upstate, transferring my belongings, AKA crap, from one location to another. Along the way, I have been thinking, "What is a home, anyway?"
In Sierra Leone they say that home is where your placenta is buried. I do have my placenta buried in the backyard of the house where I was born in Queens, but I'm sure that it has disintegrated in these 29 years, and Queens doesn't really feel like home anymore. My friends and family are all over the country and world, so I guess I take them with me wherever I go. My home is in the heart.
My goodbyes (or temporary goodbyes) to many of you these past days will stick with me. The enthusiastic thumbs up my mother gave me as I managed to use an expired bus ticket from the wrong location after seeing her. My brother's intensely loving gaze as he dropped me at home one night.
You'll all be coming with me on my trip. So I think you have the right to know what the first stop is. Tomorrow, Christmas day, we'll be going to Los Angeles to visit my two brothers Jon and Matthew, as well as several cousins. This upcoming weekend, we'll be taking a trip to Death Valley.
(Don't worry if you're busy, I'm sure you could fit it in, and yes these are just images taken from the internet. I'm actually not going anywhere, I'm just going to hide out in my mother's basement for two months and post blog entries pretending I'm in exotic places.)

So I will be in LA from Christmas until New Years when I depart for Asia, experiencing multiple "Happy New Years!" as I fly through the air through various time zones from Cali to Japan.

We land in Tokyo, Japan on New Years Day. My friend who I'll be staying with lives between the cities of Osaka and Kyoto, but I think I'll spend the first night in Tokyo proper at an inn where they serve you tea in the afternoon and you sleep on mats.

The girl I'll be staying with had suggested that I stay in a "capsule hotel" where the beds are like pull out coffins in the wall.
I was freaked out just by looking at them, feeling like I would be baking in an oven like Hansel and Gretel, wondering if you could eject the incubator yourself or if someone needs to pull you out in the morning. There is a panic button.

On a website it says that the idea of capsule hotels have not caught on around the world. As my friend Pam said, "Ya think?"

I will be visiting several temples around Japan as well as a city where there is free roaming deer called Nara, but let me leave these hypothetical plans for another day and wish all of you happy holidays. Hasta luego! Sayonara!