Afro Samurai's Adventures In Japan

Upon entering Japan, I felt completely lost. I had endured a long and painful plane flight only to find out, that I am completely illiterate. The first struggle I faced was communicating. Even though I had studied a year of Japanese, I was put to the test of actually using it to communicate and I had failed. This brings me to one of the greatest things about Japan, the kind people. In my state of confusion and frustration, the local people were always happy to attempt to understand my flawed japanese and even use english to help me accomplish my goals. At first, I felt really strange because in America people are not as friendly and almost never offer to help me.Not only was I amazed by the people, but by the culture. The Japanese have a really trusting community  and are filled with tradition. On my first bus ride, I was extremely confused. In Florida and New York City, the passengers of the bus are always required to pay upon entry, but this is completely different here. In Japan, you pay to ride the bus when you are getting off of it.

The next observation I made was that everything in Japan tends to be small, but I was wrong.  It turns out that everything in Japan is either really small, like the futon that I’m to big for, or massive, like all the buildings in Osaka. I was born in New York City, but when I first entered Osaka I was literally in shock. The atmosphere there was completely different than anything that I had ever experienced.  The buildings were enormous and for the first time in my life I felt incredibly small. In a matter of seconds, I went from being 6’3 and feeling like a champion, to feeling incredibly small and amused.