Young Americans in Saigon, Old Souls in Shinjuku.

In less than one month, Japan will be celebrating Golden Week - a string of national holidays through a week, not counting weekends. Something like, Tuesday, Wednesday Friday off one week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday off the next. So, with some crafty use of personal days, one can score a long trip without much hassle from one's workplace.

I have an announcement to make. I am going to Vietnam during Golden Week. It's something that I've always wanted to do since I've been aware of the American war there. It's not the war that motivates my trip - though it will be rather interesting for me to go there, since some of my family served during the war - it's something else. The strange blend of South-East Asian culture and French influence, the communism, the long strip of land united by a N-S railway.

There's something specifically about it's linear N-S orientation to piques my interest; the trip is so clear to me. Into Hanoi, train to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), cross into Cambodia, and fly back to Japan from Phnom Penh. It's a vacation and an adventure and a linear narrative all at the same time. I'm very excited, and I will take lots of pictures, which I will post after I return in early May. That said, there will be a probable hiatus during my trip, as internet may be hard to find. Even if we find it, I may eschew it. I need a break from the internet as much as I do from my day-to-day life, if the two can be separated. I'm going with some good friends, and it should be an excellent time. My goals are flexible and my mind is open; I'm very excited.


Now, onto something completely unrelated. If you know much about Tokyo, or Japan in general, the name Shinjuku probably means something to you. Yes? No? Well, click to refresh your memory, anyway. It is the busiest train station in the entire world, serving 3.64 million people in a single day. Every day. If you've read the Wikipedia entry, you'll know that it also has more than 200 exits.

I've had several adventures around Shinjuku, and I've heard many horror stories. I've only recently experienced my own, which has led me to forever swear off using Shinjuku station. It appears to have a supernatural ability to confuse and disorient all who are not frequent visitors. I was supposed to meet me friend at the West exit of Shinjuku station during the tail end of rush hour, which meant that I was at all times (on the train, on the platform, in the exit hallways) touching at least one other human being, and sometimes as many as four or five. Not out of choice, mind, but simple lack of space. As I pushed my way through the crowd towards the West Exit signs, it became less and less clear which way was the West Exit. Instead of a simple West Exit sign, I began to see West Underground Exit signs, West Skyscraper District signs, Northwest Exit, etc. Everything but a West exit sign. One corridor was labelled as JR Lines West Exit, only when I proceeded through the gate, all the signs pointed toward the East Exit.

It was a Kafka-esque nightmare world.

I would ask for directions from an attendant, to discern which was the true West exit, only to be pointed in a different direction every time. After thirty minutes, I had a bit of a mental breakdown, and retreated to a corner to call my friend and find out how he managed to find his way through the disorienting and Byzantine corridors of the station to the West Exit; only to find that he was indeed at a different station altogether (due to a miscommunication or misunderstanding that I maintain was on his part), and that there was no "West Exit" at Shinjuku station at all.

Usually, I would have been a little peeved at wasting my time wandering through a mass of humanity and running the risk of losing my mind. But, I was just so pleased that the horror I encountered was really just a miscommunication, and not a M. C. Escher painting from which there was no real escape. I heaved a sigh of relief and arrived, more than an hour late, from my own personal Hell; Shinjuku station.