Unexpected behaviour from a Japanese

Q: "What do you think of the Japanese people?"
A: "They are the kindest, politest, generous people I've ever known."

That was my answer each time someone asks me that, and it would have remained the same, if not for some troubles that have surfaced over the past 4 months. It all began in September, when heavy rain led to leakage in one corner of my roomie's bedroom. Quickly she contacted the real estate agent (in Japan you never have direct contact with the landlord), who promised to get the problem fixed asap. Due to the hot and wet weather, and to no sunlight into that corner, the walls and floor started to fall apart, with mould and mushrooms(yes you've read it right!) growing out of the wet wood!

Shocked at such turn of events, my roomie pestered the agent to contact the landlady over and over again, but to no avail, getting only the same replied from the landlady, who told us that she had already contacted the contractors and they will be coming. Sick and tired of the lack of activity, sincerity and everything else, we brought the case to the attention of our university, who acted as our guarantor when we signed the contract. The school quickly got into action, and in the space of less than a week, workers came to check out the situation. During that time, our dear landlady came knocking on our door, and I was the unlucky one who happened to be in at that time, yelled at me for being impatient (after 2 months that witch!), inconsiderate and for complaining so much!

The workers repaired? filled up? some holes, and things seemed to have been solved, altough the promise of cleaning and sanitarising my roomie's room has yet to be carried out (until today). Happy that we made progress, we left for Christmas break with a light heart. However, the weather god has refused to be kind to us, or perhaps, wanted us to know the truth. Coming back after a month, we found her room in a state worst than before!

That was the last straw and my roomie decided to move out (without caring whether the problem could be fixed, nor my feelings). We (she) handed in notice last Sat and this is where our real battle begins. Being so busy as we already are (it's the end of term), we will have to juggle school and apartment hunting, figure out how we're going to get the money to move, and start a whole negotiating process with the landlady to get our money back. Things are just going to get uglier and uglier...

On a different side, I found out that the landlady has refused the real estate agent to contact any contractors to fixed the problem (which would have solved the problem thoroughly back in September), for she has a contractor friend whom she contracts with. I don't really care who does it, as long as it is fixed in a week, but it is not possible for she is apparently not interested and doing so and tries to put us off by telling us that she's going to fix it... which was and is a big lie, for she only contacted the workers when the school got into the picture.

Such behaviour is unacceptable, regardless which country/nationality etc. Her actions has made us lost faith and trust in the Japanese people. We cannot help but question the thinking and the morality of her actions, which can only been seen as selfish and uncaring. Perhaps she felt that since we were foreigners, we will not be able to do much on our own. This is where is she is wrong. Precisely because we are foreigners, we are not afraid to voice out our opinions, our thoughts, and we are not submissive! Such behaviour is totally unforgivable and I hope that she will be well punished for what she did.

City of Lights to the Land of the Sun

In a swift of smooth velocity, I gained 8hrs and found warm bright sunlight when I opened my eyes.

Perhaps you're wandering what I'm talking about, perhaps you already know, if you've been keeping tabs on the ever so mobile me (I've not found any GPS transmitter on me yet but I'll keep an eye opened for it just in case...).

Travelling in Dec/Jan season is never a good time I fear. Must be the year end buzz, for those planes just never take off nor land on schedule no more. Tension is high with all the long lines at the check-in counters, passport control and security check. Many people had to repack their suitcases to the allowed weight limit. The girl at the counter made me removed 3kgs from my bag as well. Thank God I had an empty bag at hand. CDG must have really tightened up on their security measures as well. As I was waiting in line at passport control/security check, out came 3 policemen: one walking ahead, one leading a passenger with his hands cuffed behind towards the exit, and one pulling the suspect's check-in suitcase(It seems that all check-in bags go through security AFTER the check-in procedure, hence from the
tag attached one can tell immediately). I wonder what the man had in his bag that warranted his arrest, but it obviously didn't please airport security.

Everything went smooth flowing after security check, although the late departure didn't go too well with my pangs of hunger for lunch... lol... But soon we were on air, and then lunch! (^_^) It was a pleasant flight, with me attacking the food while being absorbed with The Da Vinci Code in French(I snatched my friend's copy) at the same time. I think I shall give Angels and Demons a try in Italian next...
4 hours later, we landed and applause broke out...!

Moscow International Airport is one word: tiny. The "world's best duty free shops" are found in little corners of the corridors between the gates. Duty free products are quoted in Euros, while anything else is all in Rubbles. I heard that Russian chocs are quite the thing to pick up from Russia, so I bagged two boxes.... FInally, the last leg of my journey is about to begin. Hoping for at least some movies to cure my boredom, to my dismay the inflight system was not working! If not for
the book and my Ipod, I would have just cried myself to sleep, but that wouldn't have worked for the kind granny like Russian lady (on her way to Sydney via Tokyo) would have tried her very best to comfort me in... only Russian. I wished hard during the 9hr long flight that my Russian friend Alyona was beside me to translate instead of me trying to communicate in sign language! What a sight we were, the 2 people (an American as well) sitting by her side.

We finally got into Narita around 11ish. Applause. The plane couldn't park for 15mins so we were nicely tucked away in a big fat bird. But everything cleared up and I finally got out of the airport around 12. My bags took forever to come out!! Oh, one big thing I've got to clarify, TOKYO is not NARITA, NARITA is not TOKYO. Narita Airport is in CHIBA, a different prefecture altogether, making Tokyo city at
least an hour away by the fastest train!

All say and done, I got myself in one piece back to my place around 2pm. Of course the whole procedure of unpacking, laundry, sorting out the pile of mail (one month's worth!!) etc and here I end up, writing such a long piece (the longest ever on my blog).

All's well ends well. Applause.

ps. Some of you might have gotten this on your emails.