Day 22 (27/5) - Adieu
Americans don't like to carry change around - buses accept exact change on, taxi drivers have signs saying they have $5 in change at most (and that the cash box cannot be opened by the driver) and stores prominently display how much they have in the cashier. This, of course, is because of the threat of petty theft.
Roomies
On the flight, we found that the 2 girls who'd been stranded with us in Yosemite were JAL stewardesses on our flight. I noticed that the non-Japanese stewardesses had their countries of origin on their nametags: subtle discrimination or possible excuse for slightly sub-par Japanese? In fact, I suspect the only reason they hired non-Japanese staff was to make announcements in Chinese (presumably on other flights they will have Koreans etc), and the Singaporean girls who made the announcements all sounded similarly unnatural and like they were reading from a piece of paper (which they probably were, but usually flight attendants manage to make it sound enthusiastic and natural).
The animated characters in the JAL safety video are Ang Mohs. Hah.
JAL's own drink "Sky Time" (yuzu citrus flavor - apparently they used to serve Kiwi) is very nice, like a slightly salty lemon drink.
In Narita I noticed the immigration queues read: "日本人" (Japanese) and "外国人" (Foreigners). Other airports would have written "Japanese Passports" and "Foreign Passports". Tsk.
All the female JAL stewardesses I saw were in skirts but the ground staff seemed to have an option for pants.
Our plane from Narita was very empty - almost as bad as planes were during the first Gulf War, so everyone got a row to themselves.
I tried plum wine. It was interesting, but I still haven't found an alcohol I've liked.
I was telling people I should learn a foreign language after graduation. Someone suggested Chinese.
Quotes:
You're so nice. [Me: I know. So why do I keep getting marginalised?] Because they don't get your GEP humour. [Me: So why don't you get marginalised?] I keep my GEP humour to myself.
[On returning to Singapore] Don't you feel like bursting into song? [Student: What song?] *Sings* Home, truly.
Stanford Trip Private Diaries