#solo2018

A Study in Sunsets #2

I didn’t go to Japan to make friends… But during my 7 day solo trip around Hokkaido, I had the pleasure of meeting some quality people who opened up theirs arms to a complete stranger. However brief our time together was before nature pulled me away, these people made my individualistic journey more sociable and connected. Through the process, it helped a foreigner like me feel a whole lot more welcome in this wonderful country. So in chronological order...

The Friendly JR Gatekeepers When I made my first stop in Hokkaido, my mind was filled with uncertainty. What can I even do in Hokkaido (result of not doing much homework)? What are Hokkaidans like? Is that even what you call them? Is it going to be this cold the whole time (the chilly rain was drizzling so slowly that I first thought it was snow)?… As I was waiting for the hourly transfer train to Hakodate, I went to chat with the gatekeepers to kill time… cause why not. Luckily, they spoke the best English I had heard in these past two days and I was ecstatic! I took this rare opportunity to ask them some translation questions and together, we constructed a brief introduction I can use to introduce myself to others. It goes: “Watashi wa MIT de benkyou shiteiru daigakusei des. America kara kimashita. Watashi wa nijūni sai desu. Watashi wa Gijutsu-shxa desu”. Simple, but to the point; a short answer, but I was immensely grateful.

The Global German Engineer My airbnb in Hakodate was huge. It was a 4 story building with several rooms every floor, in addition to lounge areas and showers. But the weather there is still very cold and rainy, which is not inviting to most tourists (except for the careless ones who didn’t do sufficient prior research, like me). My host shared that his place was in fact very empty, but there is this German dude down the hall. I didn’t think much of it because I didn’t come here to make friends… But on my way out, I saw the German doing laundry, and I couldn’t help but flex my extremely limited German knowledge and say hi. This guy was chill. It turned out that he is a software engineer from Munster working remote. I suggested that if the stars align, we can grab dinner when he’s done with work at 7pm. After hiking Mount Hakodate and exploring the old warehouses and streets of Hakodate, it was exactly 7pm and I was hungry. Wow, the stars aligned… We met up at this local restaurant that our host recommended. It was an one woman show where the mom cooks traditional Japanese comfort food. I was so down! The food was amazing. Falk and I shared some stories, talked about working abroad, and pondered about life and how exciting it is. Then we grabbed a picture with the master chef before I went home to crash (camped out the previous night at Sendai and did not have any sleep at all).

MIT Students from the Other Side of the World For my second night camping, I decided to set up right next to the train tracks of the JR station in Noboribetsu. I figured that since my tent is green like the bushes and the JR stops running at midnight, I should be safe and people wouldn’t come wander here. I was right. But like the first night, it rained again and I woke up at 3:30am freezing and wet. What’s nice about waking up early in Japan is that the sun rises at 4am. So I decided to walk to the water area cause… water is nice. As I got closer to the beach, 3 guys walked out of a van. It’s freaking 4am, what are these guys up to? “Wassup guys, are you going to the beach too?” “Nah, we’re going bouldering!” We had a really funny conversation. I found out that they are college students studying STEM nearby (what a small world). And they are driving here early so they can have some fun with the rocks before classes begin. They’re from a place nearby called Muroran, and their tech school, appropriately, is called Muroran Institute of Technology… I was really confused at some point because I said I am from MIT and they said they are as well, correctly so, but I had never seen them on campus before. Anyways, I really enjoyed crazily camping next to the train tracks and waking up to bump into these other crazy people doing crazy things in the middle of nowhere crazy early.

The Hitchhiker-Friendly Family After visiting Farm Tomita, a lavender farm, and being overtly disappointed because most of the flowers has not bloomed yet and lavenders doesn’t even smell that good in person, I embarked on a 4 mile trek to the next train station (as opposed to walk backwards for a mile…). After walking what seemed like an endless road along never ending rice paddy fields, I decided to spice things up and try my luck getting a ride on the road. After 30 minutes of walking with my thumbs up, a tiny orange car (all Japanese cars are super small) stopped in front of me. Jean was on her way to Biei with her family, which is actually where I wanted to go as well! She shared with me her very interesting story of how she moved to Japan 9 years ago to raise her kids, learnt Japanese once she got here by watching TV shows (there is hope y’all), and how the working culture here sucks. I asked her about the weather and whether if it’s normally this cold at this time of the year, and she revealed that the weather this year has been very unusual. In fact, her farming friends are worried that their rice fields won’t yield because of the abnormal coldness at this time of the year. All in all, I really appreciated her ride and she was happy that I contributed to her annual statistic of picking up hitchhikers (I was her first one this year!!!).

The Drunkenly Generous Local This time, I was in a small fishing town with a population of perhaps 500, aka middle of nowhere. I took a 2 hour bus from Otaru, a famously romantic spot that tourists love, to visit Cape Kamui and Ōgon, and decided last minute to camp at Ōgon as opposed to return to the city. There’s a total of 4 restaurants here and I chose to go to Jun’s seafood restaurant cause it won my 4 sided coin toss. I sat at the bar table of this very local restaurant since I was alone, and here is where I met my favorite local of this entire trip. I put in an order for a seafood bento, basically exactly what the guy next to me was eating because DAMN that looked fine. Then I just kept to myself and started writing down some thoughts and feelings in my journal. As I was waiting for my food, the local next to me offered me a piece of his fried chicken. Oh how can I resist? I had heard great things about how the chicken here is fried in a unique way but I never ordered it because I didn’t want to eat the whole thing. I thanked him and we started chatting. He used to work for an American Film company in Taiwan, which explains how he knows English, but he has since forgotten most of it. This man was extremely ebullient and friendly. He tried to ask me a lot of questions and I tried my best to answer, and in the process, he offered me “Japanese vodka” (made in Korea lol) multiple times, freshly fried shrimp tempura (oishii), and at some point, he even offered me his entire bento! Even though I didn’t double my meal by taking his bento, my dinner turned into a feast of good food and social interaction. I wish that I spoke better Japanese so I can converse with him more and share more about myself. In any case, I bid him good bye after spending 3 hours with him at the restaurant and I went to camp a bit warmer than usual ;)

The Affectionate Bike Dad I arrived at Otaru at 7am on a Sunday. This was quite early for most shops because everything was still closed. As I walked around the area outside of the train station, I was intrigued by this sign advertising about a bike shop on the hill. So I followed the directions and found this cute little wooden shipping container on top of said hill with bikes all around it. I chatted with this man about the options and after some negotiation in broken Japanese and English, he offered to rent me an electric bike (WOOOO) for 2 hours, hold my bulky backpack, AND charge all of my electronics (all of which were dried); all for just 800 yen. On a high level, this was just a market transaction, but I was very internally thankful. My phone and camera batteries were dead from the night before and desperately needed charging; I was very tired of carrying my bag around because it is quite unwieldy; I MISS BIKING. So I took his awesome offer and biked around town for 2 hours and saw everything before the usual tourist invasion at 9am.

The Kindhearted Coffee Makers After my Hokkaido solo, I returned to Tokyo and promised to meet a friend for dinner at this restaurant. In retrospect, it turns out this restaurant has multiple stores and I would visit the wrong one. While I was waiting at the wrong store for my friend, most people around me were holding an umbrella and wearing layers because it was raining and a bit chilly. I stood in front of this cute little coffee shop that was like a hole in the wall. I first approached the owners and asked them if there were any places nearby where I can find WIFI so I can communicate with my friend, and they generously offered me their own. As I was standing there waiting, they offered me an umbrella, their bench to sit on, both of which I refused because I wanted to carry on the outlook of a New Yorker and someone who just finished a 7 day solo. Then they offered me a cup of their home-brew Sarutahiko "Japanese flavor” coffee, and I couldn’t help but accept it because I didn’t want to tell them to pour it away. If frozen rocks had hearts, they would melt like mine did when I took a sip of their coffee. Even though it wasn’t anything special, the location and context really warmed my soul. And deep down, I was very appreciative of their small act of kindness.