My First Trip to Japan

Around 1997, I became obsessed with Japanese Women’s Wrestling, or what they call “joshi puroresu”. I had been studying Japanese at the University of California, Irvine for my foreign language requirement and mostly struggling since I wasn’t native (despite my name) and found the perfect incentive to get my more invested into my studies rather than treat it as something I just needed to pass for my degree. Around that time, I also had been really into pro-wrestling because of the Monday Night wars between WCW Nitro and WWF Raw. Part of the shows introduced me to Japanese female wrestling via GAEA as GAEA had started sending their girls to the US for exposure and for Madusa to work with (like KAORU or Akira Hokuto). That situation put the impetus in my head that one day I would visit Japan to see women’s wrestling.

Fast forward a few years to the fall of 1999 where I started working in the dot com era, inexperienced but very hungry. I managed to save up enough money (along with getting a few credit cards) to setup my first trip out there. I had no idea what to do because I rarely traveled and my only international experience was to Toronto, CA for a Key Club convention back in high school. Needless to say, despite my excitement, I also was a nervous wreck.

I managed to secure everything though including my airline ticket using JTB (back when we had travel agents rather than online reservations), buying a suitcase, getting the JR Railpass, finding a cheap spot to stay (I needed to be price conscious because of limited funds and the fact I was going to be out there for three weeks) and all the little things one would need to perform for such a trip. Even so I was woefully unprepared.

Since this was before the 9-11 incident, airfare was reasonable. I think I paid $800 or so round trip with Japan Airlines and was lucky to have a friend shuttle me to LAX. Security back then was much more lax too as the whole thing with shoes and baggage scanning wasn’t as severe. I still was nervous because I was afraid of flying. Luckily, I think my over-exuberance prevented my high levels of anxiety from driving me over the edge. I can’t remember much about the flight other than the fact that I was nervous and it would be a long way out there. The food was okay and I think I ate everything they served, which were Japanese dishes and snacks. Also, I might’ve been plain hungry from forgetting about a normal meal at the airport.

Getting through customs was also nerve wracking because I had no idea what to expect. As a foreigner, you go through a separate line, which might’ve been long. In my case, I was probably too preoccupied by taking in everything around me. I had no idea where I was really in relation to Tokyo because my geography of Japan was extremely limited back then. All I knew was that there were a bunch of shows out there that I wanted to see.

After customs came luggage pick up and then getting through to the main area where you could get a taxi, bus or train. Unfortunately, I had no idea where my destination was and was given limited instructions by the hotel itself on how one would get to the place. But I had some print outs describing how I would need to use the train to get to the Ueno station. At that time, the name was very foreign to me, although now I realize how big of a hub Ueno was. There were a few ways to get there, one included using a line called the Keisei Express. The other major one called the Narita Express would go to Shinjuku and I believe would take 60 minutes while the Keisei Express took 90 minutes. So I ended up using the Keisei Express, which did not offer usage with my JR Rail pass.

But things were set for a disaster as I was horribly overloaded, over packed and my backpack exploded with the zipper ripping apart. Because I was horribly out of shape and had no idea that there was an elevator, I begged someone to give me a hand as I was starting to cry from this god awful experience. I recall just struggling to get to the escalator while my arms were already dead from bearing this shitty suitcase with no rollers.

At any rate, I got to the Keisei stop which was even further down below and already worn out, not realizing just how much more I would have to endure. Since we were leaving from Nartia, the train itself wasn’t crowded, thankfully, and I could get a seat. Along the way, we passed Chiba and the rural area around Narita started to look more modern as we moved closer to the denser parts of Tokyo. For me everything was alien and I could barely read a thing. Then two girls, who I believe would be classified as “gyaru” types now, started looking at me and whispering. I had never seen younger Japanese girls like these before and the best way to describe them was how they tried to imitate what I think was a SoCal beach look with blonde hair, heavy makeup and these high platform shoes. Okay, so the shoes themselves weren’t really a SoCal thing but they stood out as part of this odd fashion. But I think the saw me and couldn’t figure out what I was because I was still dressed in my usual SoCal t-shirt and shorts style, even though we were about to head into winter out there.

Nonetheless, the train ride helped a little in providing me time to recover. My arms were still sore from carrying my bags and I needed to find my way out of the station. The place I was staying at was called The Hotel New Koyo. Amazingly, it’s still around but I think the low cost and popularity for budget wary travelers made it a cult favorite. Since this was the early dawn of the internet still, there wasn’t a lot of information on these types of places readily available so I might’ve learned about from a friend. Regardless, the instructions mentioned that from Ueno station, I needed to transfer once more to the Hibiya subway line then walk a short distance to the hotel.

Since it’s been such a long time, I can’t remember if I managed to get to the subway. Considering the heaviness of my bags and the ultra crowded nature of Ueno train station, I might’ve ended up taking a taxi. This is where things went from a 10 difficulty to 11. Because my Japanese was pretty poor overall, I recall waving down a taxi somewhere, possibly outside of the Ueno station. The driver was an older woman, who had problems trying to figure out what I was saying. But I did have the map and managed to point out the location of the hotel. Luckily, she figured out where I needed to go, took my stuff into the trunk and off we went. It wasn’t too far off but I ended up tipping the person, even though I learned that wasn’t the custom. I think she was grateful though because I was beyond grateful to have managed not to be sleeping on the streets that night.

At any rate, I arrived at the Hotel New Koyo, which turned out to be a small multi story building with very tiny rooms. I got setup at the front desk and given a key to the room. The room ended up being about as big as a walk in type of closet with a small TV, a tatami mat over a Japanese style futon and coverlet. There was a spot to put my suit case while the shower was around the corner. Despite everything, I was pretty exhausted and washed up then zonked out. I don’t think I even bothered with dinner that night because of how intense everything ended up being.

Needless to say that was just the first day. Just writing about that exhausting two day experience from LAX to Narita was a huge trip down memory lane that I haven’t thought about for years. While I can’t recall each individual day’s experience, I would like to split the story up before this one post becomes too long. Sadly, one thing I will say is that I regret never having any pictures of that zone I initially stay at because I only didn’t have a digital camera at that point and still needed to develop my film. Not to mention I had limited shots for my camera, which made taking photos much choosier for me.