Back to the Future

I was back in Thailand for a couple of days before Pui and I got on a jet plane and headed to Japan for 2 weeks. Pui's aunt and Japanese uncle live in Nagoya. They were kind enough to put us up for as long as we wanted to stay with them not to mention covering pretty much every expense along the way. The language barrier is a constant source of entertainment. Here is the language spectrum:


Me: English and so-so Thai (Some French that is not applicable here)

Pui: Thai, English and broken Japanese

Aunt: Northern Thai, broken English, Japanese

Uncle: Japanese

So any time I want to say something to the uncle (other than 'yes' or 'delicious'), I will say it to Pui in English, she talks to her Aunt in Northern Thai, Aunt to Uncle in Japanese, and then the answer in the reverse order. This would also become the apparent reason why we would go on obscure excursions to Japanese film museums featuring the greats from the 30's, 40's and 50's. When Pui says: "Josh likes movies", somehow that gets lost in the translation.



My initial impression of Japan is that they are all living in the future. The weird part though is that it's not the future that you see in Stephen Spielberg movies or Isaac Asimov novels, it's the future that was depicted in the Godzilla movies that were made in the 70's. The future with the little cars and the professors in white lab coats. The one where all the doors slide open when you approach (not just the ones at groceries stores). The one where a robot arm comes out and squirts your ass with warm water after going to the bathroom. Well maybe that last one wasn't in the movie, but it showed up in the real future anyways.


The efficiency of this culture is astounding. When you ride a bus, the driver shuts off the engine at every stoplight to save gas (since Japan didn't go to war with Iraq, their gas is at $6/gallon like most of the rest of the world). When heating their houses they have a sliding door system that only heats the rooms that you are occupying. If you're not hanging out in the kitchen, it doesn't get any heat. All the cars are super tiny and super gas efficient. The roads are so much safer (everything seems to be a 1 way road) that there doesn't seem to be 1/2 as many accidents. A great example is going from town to town, there are great mountain ranges; however we have yet to see a mountain pass. Everything is just tunnelled. These tunnels are so long and advanced (also 1 way), I have no doubt that Teton Pass would be short work for Japanese engineers.