Lost in Ogawa

A month ago, I went to the “Tokyo Motor Show.” My brother in L.A. had informed me of this event a month before so I thought I might as well go check it out. Besides, my family and I are fans of Japanese cars and I thought it would be cool for me to find out firsthand from the source what new models of cars will eventually be hitting the States. I think my brother wanted me to go in his place also to see what the new Infiniti G35 would look like so he can decide if we should wait for the new model or buy the current year’s model. It’s always exciting when our family buys a new car but for once, it’s not exciting for me because I won’t be there to drive the new car =( Nevertheless, after 2 hours of train ride and about $13 bucks of train fare, my friends and I arrived at the car show.

I was looking forward to seeing prototype cars or really fast sports cars but when we entered the first convention hall of three, we were pleasantly surprised to see buses, and trucks, and not pick up trucks, but those giant freight trucks. We looked at each other and thought, OK, cool, lets check it out, and we’ll work our way to the zoom zoom cars. Apparently, we were looking at the next generation of buses and how handicap or elderly accessible they are. It was intereting to see how many Japanese people were very eager to go inside these buses to take a look. There were many long lines forming but I didn’t have the patience or the interest to wait with them. I really wanted to know what excites them about entering a bus! Some people even went as far as getting on their backs and sliding their head and torso under the truck. From my point of view walking by, I thought they got run over!

As we entered the second and the third convention hall, it soon became reality that the motor show we came to was not the Vroom Vroom type of car shows we were expecting. It was all buses, trucks, cars or vans that were wheelchair accessible. How did we not realize this earlier? How were we to know this type of “Motor Show” was this?? Then we looked at the fine print on our ticket and the signs saying “Tokyo Motor Show” and below it, in small prints, it says, “Commercial and Barrier-Free Vehicles.” Even from that, I wouldn’t guess right away it wasn’t the car show I expected. But after seeing the show and looking at the fine prints and thinking about it, It does make sense if you make some educational implication and inductions. I guess it wouldn’t sound very politically correct or very nice at all if the fine print read “Buses, trucks and cars for handicaps!” Yes, I was a little disaappointed but for very good reasons, we still had an fun time and took many pictures. No, I didn’t take much pictures of the buses or trucks but rather the ladies standing next to them. OH yes, they had SHOWGIRLS!!! When I went to a car show in Taiwan, it was the same deal, showgirls! It must be an Asian car show thing. I think America should adopt that same philosophy. I’m sure they would attract twice as much visitors! They even had showgirls for car parts and tires. What did they have to do with car parts or tires? No Clue! But the companies that have showgirls gets more attention than those that don’t. Good business strategy. The many camera flashes going off sure wasn’t aimed at the vehicles or the car parts that’s for sure!

Pics from the “Motor Show”
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=4f0b

Fall is here. Well, it’s been here for awhile and it gets colder by the day. Winter is quickly approaching if not already here. Recently while I was sitting at my desk in the teacher’s lounge studying Japanese, I took a minute and just looked out the window and noticed something I should have noticed earlier. The leaves on the tree have changed colors either to a shade of orange or a shade of yellow. Some of the trees are nearly naked because all the leaves have already fallen. Why didn’t I notice this earlier? Isn’t it funny how sometimes we fail to see the obvious. All I had to do was just stop what I was doing and take a look around me. Autumn in Japan is quite a different scenary than autumn in L.A. It’s definitely a pretty sight not to be missed. Then again, Fall brings forth previews of the chilly wind that is soon to be expected and that’s not a good thing!

The Autumn wind also brought with them my parents from L.A. They actually stopped to visit family in Taiwan prior to visiting me in Japan. This was good because they brought me goodies from Taiwan and L.A. In fact, my parents and I spent what would have been Thanksgiving in the States in my nice cold apartment. Obviously it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving because there was no turkey or football on TV. Worst of all, while you folks in the States were kicking back at home, I was at work teaching the future of Japan. Nevertheless, explaining to my students about Thanksgiving was very nostalgic but at the same time very important for them to understand why we treasure Thanksgiving so much……..the 5 day weekend we get right?!!

For the first time in my life, I gave my parents my money to use and to spend willingly. It took a big hit on my bank account though! Oh well. I took them to Nikko, a rather famous place to visit in Japan known for the historic shrines and the beautiful views of nature. What I was hoping to show my parents were the various colors of the leaves on the trees but instead all we saw were mostly naked trees with a pile of leaves on the ground. Apparently, Nikko is higher up in the mountains where the weather is colder and the leaves change colors faster and die sooner than those in Tokyo. We stayed overnight at an “Onsen” (Japanese hot bath) hotel where we relaxed and cooked ourselves in burning water until we were nice and toasty. Going to bed after a visit to the onsen makes sleeping a whole lot better. While my parents were here, I felt a little stressed. For some reason I felt their visit was more of an inspection and I worked long and hard the weekend before to clean my apt. from top to bottom. They were satisfied with my situation but they’re expecting me to come home after a year of JET. I told them we’ll need to discuss that later…
My parents are back in LA now but Fall is still here and its freaking FREEZING in my apartment. The morning and night are the worst. I can barely feel my toes! Every morning I watch the news only to see the “high for today” is 15 deg. celsius. Somebody help me when Winter is in full swing!! Brrrrrrrr

Pictures from Nikko
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=1f61