Amazing and mesmerizing video.

The person who made this video, is great.

Subway

After temporarily (and hoping to return abroad soon) returning to the United States, you decide to check out the city. Searching for the subway for a little while, across the street you notice the elegant green-ish (sometimes black) railing leading underground. You see the train lines: Q, A and what not. Not bad, you think. As you proceed down the steps, you picture somewhere in your mind, that you could get an unpleasant surprise just around the corner at the bottom of the stairs.

Uh oh.

It doesn’t happen and you continue walking towards the metro. In the more popular stations, you hear somebody playing some nice music and put money into his or her pouch as you walk on by.

Finally, you reach the ticketing machine and take out your Metro card. If you’re lucky, it will work on your first swipe. If not, you have a few more good swipes to go until you can enter. Again, somewhere, some small section of your brain is thinking, “why not just jump over this thing?” but that thought goes away for most people.

You’re in. The train that you want to catch arrives, loud and screechy. As the door opens you try to find a seat. As you look to your left there’s a few open seats next to a spilled bottle of Coca Cola, but to the right there’s an open seat between two scary looking guys. A dilemma.

The entertainment in New York City subways is pretty cool. Sometimes there can be comedians, rappers and what not. Other times there can be a nice show, some breakdancers and even crazy people.

When you arrive at your stop you realize, it’s not so bad. The subway does what it’s supposed to do. The city’s unique multi-cultural setting makes up for it.

Tokyo:

Yamanote Line

As you walk to your nearest train station out of around 882 (Wikipedia) in the Metropolis, you take the time to notice how visually dense everything is, and super clean. You begin to approach the station and suddenly the amount of shops and buildings has magically increased 5 times over. You look to your left and see the ticket purchasing machines, but you don’t need to recharge your Suica card today. You turn right and approach the entrance. Holding your Suica card over the scanner, you hear a beep and the scanner glows blue as it recognizes your card. A few centimeters up a little tortoise screen shows your balance on the card.

You think to yourself (again), “Wow, everytime, EVERYTIME this thing recognizes my card. Even when I have it inside my wallet it still works.” You also remember the time when you used your Japanese phone instead of a card, but decided to go back to just using your Suica.

You follow the signs to the Yamanote line that circles the city and head towards Shinjuku. As you get off the escalator you notice the view from the top of the platform over your part of the city. It’s beautiful. Music plays. The train comes. It looks nice. It feels nice.

As the people start to exit the train new passengers are pushing to get in. Suddenly there’s a rush to get a seat. You turn to your left and a middle-aged women stole the seat you were eyeing. To your right a businessman took it. You just decide to stand and check out the ads playing on the tv.

You hear the chirping of fake birds through the loudspeakers outside. It’s (usually) relaxing. The music plays and some nice sounding voices tell the doors to close. The train continues to its next stop, rarely making screeching sounds. As the train is moving, you appreciate the view of the city outside. You look to the second tv screen to check in how many minutes the train will arrive at your stop.

The monorails are amazing.

It looks like the train will arrive at your stop in exactly 7 minutes. Almost always on time.

Different places in Japan are filled with pre-made souvenirs specific to that area. When traveling people bring these home to share with everybody. Japanese are especially crazy about food items.

They only speak Japanese (great for learning the language.)

It went well.

First my host father answered the phone with “moshimoshi” and I said “こんにちは！僕のの前はヘンリーです。僕はホスト即” which means “Hello! My name is Henry. I’m your host son.”

After a few moments my host father gave the phone to my host mother and we talked for almost 2 hours.

She was using a Japanese-English dictionary and I kept on thinking of what to say to cover up the long pauses. My host father is a computer engineer and host mother is an accountant. They live alone in a small apartment in Tokyo as their kids are all grown up.

In the end I think it went really well and they seem very nice.

In your pocket:

• Wallet with travelers checks, credit card or another form of money
• Some cash in your country’s currency and the host country’s currency is a good idea too
• Password with visa
• Copy of birth certificate
• Something with all of the contact information including your host family, areas rep, exchange program and airline
• Airplane tickets

Carry-on:

• Prescriptions for glasses/contacts and/or medications
• Health insurance card or claim forms
• Change of clothing (incase luggage is lost)
• Entertainment for the flight
• Any other important documents

Luggage:

• At least 2 weeks of basic clothes (socks, undershirts, underwear, bras, etc)
• Host family gifts
• Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc)
• A few clothes that you can mix and match such as jeans, pants and shirts
• Sneakers or everyday shoes
• Dress shoes
• Sweater or similar
• Something that you can wear to formal events
• Accessories

This should cover about everything!

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo is transmitting the following information through the Embassy’s warden system as a public service to all U.S. citizens in Japan. Please disseminate this message to U.S. citizens in your organizations or to other Americans you know.

On Saturday, February 27, 2010, an earthquake measuring 8.8 struck the central coast of Chile early on Saturday morning, according to the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for the Pacific Region. The warning covered South America, Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean islands including Hawaii, New Zealand, Japan, and Russia.

According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center website A WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT and the tsunami will reach Japan as follows:

JAPAN
- KUSHIRO 0435Z 28 FEB (13:35 local time)
- KATSUURA 0453Z 28 FEB (13:35 local time)
- HACHINOHE 0509Z 28 FEB (14:09 local time)
- SHIMIZU 0557Z 28 FEB (14:57 local time)
- OKINAWA 0610Z 28 FEB (15:10 local time)

Up-to-date information is available at http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/ OR http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=1

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the following:

EVALUATION

SEA LEVEL READINGS CONFIRM THAT A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED
WHICH COULD CAUSE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS THREAT. THIS CENTER WILL
CONTINUE TO MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT AND
SEVERITY OF THE THREAT.

A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. TSUNAMI WAVE HEIGHTS CANNOT BE PREDICTED AND CAN VARY
SIGNIFICANTLY ALONG A COAST DUE TO LOCAL EFFECTS. THE TIME FROM
ONE TSUNAMI WAVE TO THE NEXT CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO AN HOUR, AND
THE THREAT CAN CONTINUE FOR MANY HOURS AS MULTIPLE WAVES ARRIVE.

FOR ALL AREAS – WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA…WASHINGTON…OREGON…CALIFORNIA.

——————————————————————–

For the latest security information worldwide, Americans should regularly monitor the State Department’s website at travel.state.gov where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the Unites States, or, for callers from outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).
For further information or any emergencies involving American citizens, please contact the American Citizens Services (ACS) Unit of either the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo or one of the U.S. Consulates in Japan listed below:

——————–
*** How to Contact Us ***
——————–

U.S. Embassy in Tokyo
American Citizen Services
1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420
Tel: 03-3224-5000
Fax: 03-3224-5856
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/tacs-main.html

The U.S. Embassy serves Americans in Tokyo, Chiba, Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Nagano, Niigata, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Yamagata and Yamanashi.

Consulates:

* Osaka-Kobe: 11-5, Nishitenma 2-chome, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-8543; Tel: 06-6315-5912, Fax: 06-6315-5914; serving Americans in Osaka, Aichi, Ehime, Fukui, Gifu, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Ishikawa, Kagawa, Kochi, Kyoto, Mie, Nara, Okayama, Shimane, Shiga, Tokushima, Tottori, Toyama, and Wakayama prefectures. http://osaka.usconsulate.gov/

* Nagoya: Nagoya International Center Bldg. 6th floor, 1-47-1 Nagono, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya 450-0001; Tel 052-581-4501, Fax: 052-581-3190; providing emergency consular services only (including death and arrest cases) for Americans living in Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures. http://nagoya.usconsulate.gov/

* Fukuoka: 5-26, Ohori 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka 810-0052; Tel: 092-751-9331, Fax: 092-713-9222; serving Americans in Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Oita, Saga and Yamaguchi prefectures. http://japan.usembassy.gov/fukuoka/wwwhmain.html

* Sapporo: Kita 1-jo, Nishi 28-chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 064-0821; Tel: 011-641-1115, Fax: 011-643-1283; serving Americans in Akita, Aomori, Hokkaido, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. http://sapporo.usconsulate.gov/

* Naha: 2-1-1 Toyama, Urasoe City, Okinawa 901-2104; Phone: 098-876-4211, Fax: 098-876-4243, DSN: 645-7323; serving Americans in Okinawa and the Amami Oshima Island group. http://naha.usconsulate.gov/

Please note: Inclusion of Non-U.S. Government links or information does not imply endorsement of contents. This subscription list is maintained by a private company and the U.S. Government cannot guarantee the privacy of any e-mail address.

If you did not receive this message directly via the U.S. Embassy’s warden email system, we encourage you, as an American living or traveling in Japan, to register with the Embassy through the State Department’s travel registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/.

Really helpful!