Some of you may know that I am in the USA. This is a little dated, but here are a few observations of my travel from Osaka, Japan to Philadelphia, USA.

Upon entering the terminal at the airport, it is shocking being able to overhear everyone's conversations in English.

Once at the airport (in Osaka, especially in Tokyo), if you're white, no one will speak to you in Japanese nor will they understand your Japanese.

On the airplane, why do people want that nozzle blowing that dry air in their faces?

In flight meal; I asked for the soba and she didn't understand me. I was then forced to say "noodles."

I was also forced to eat my soba with a fork! It was so bizarre having to twist my soba up like spaghetti.

In America, at the security checkpoints, homeland security mus treat EVERYONE as a potential enemy. Different feeling from the security of other countries where you feel like they want to help you instead. I'm sure this kind of mentality really wears on the minds of the security guards and their perception of people.

Once in America, during my layover in LA, my ticket that was printed in Tokyo was a little different than it was supposed to be(?). At the boarding gate in LA, the man who checked the tickets reaction was a wonderful greeting back to the US. He repeatedly said, "Stupid fucking idiots!" because they don't use those tickets anymore. I told him the ticket was printed in a different country. "They're still fucking idiots! They should have known better." There wasn't any problem scanning the ticket. It actually worked perfectly. Americans... *sigh*

Finally back to Philadelphia...

They lost my luggage.



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Other news:

First print of GenkiFace issue 4 is GONE! Need to print some more. If you want a copy, you should know where to e-mail me in order to get your name on a 2nd printing.

Heading back to Japan in 2 days (actually less, now). Gonna have to go through the above BS all over again! Happiness and joy all around!