Traveled to the US in 1994 (part4 final)

I went a company trip to the US in 1994. I continue the talk about it. 

Hitomi, Mura- chan and me as a group returned from Monument Valley in Arizona to Los Angeles in the evening, about 16. That was not plenty time to do something. The next morning earlier, we all had a plan in San Francisco. But We talked that visiting Disney land in Los Angeles could be the last experience and it is also the first experience. We took a taxi and get there. I enjoyed Splash Mountain and watching Electrical parade. That was it. 

Are you a Disney person? I am not. Maybe because I did not have an experience of Tokyo Disney land even once before the experience in LA. And I am not a fan of Disney characters ever and even after visiting. It was good to know the internationally famous place, however.

We moved to San Francisco next day and visited Alcatraz. I do not remember inside of it. What I remember is having crossed Golden bridge by a taxi. 

 In last day of the travel, it was the day of gay parade. I waved to a black man cheer from a bus in the way to the LA airport. The parade was so interesting and shockingly new to me in those days. 

I do not know any other places in the US. Hopefully, I want to get New York someday and want to surprise the massive American size again.  

Thank you for coming, night night, x

Travelled to the US in 1994 (part3)

Hitomi, Mura-chan and I as a group, we got MGM hotel in Las Vegas after Universal Studio in Los Angeles. The purpose is not gambling. We planned to join the tour to Monument valley in Arizona. There were 2 or 3 transit points between from Las Vegas to Monument Valley by a small airplane which the capacity was only 12 passengers. 

We arrived to the hotel in the night to sleep a little. We had to get up at 5 O'clock next morning. We walked around the hotel's inside and went view some other famous eye catchy hotels nearby. And I spent only ￥1,000 for a slot machine. There was restaurants' floor in the hotel and saw plastic sample of the huge pizzas in the window, which was surprisingly big. I can not forget what I saw. 

We got up early morning next day, and got on a Cessna plane and flew above Grand Canyon for about an hour. The pilot wanted joking us during the flight. Suddenly, the plane plummet. Everyone screamed!!That was the worst joke ever!! 

I did not take nap during the flight. I was watching Grand Canyon. Rivers runs between the cliffs like bloodlines. I was gazing from above a couple of personal cruisers ran in the rivers. I wondered, "Can they get a way to the home safely?" Let me say again, Google Map did not exist in that era. The oil runs out perhaps, if you lost the way to home. No one uses Wifi. Can you imagine? 

We arrived safely at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Red ground. The soil is brick colour. The local people in Navajo have red skin colour. One of the guys talked to me that you have black hair and black eyes as same as he has!! 

A young handsome Navajo man who wore a red colour shirt  

  

   A little girl who looked about 7- 10 years old was sitting on a big fallen tree with wearing beautiful clothes. The girl was alone. I got closer, then found the words, $5 with a cup near to her. that is a price of taking photo with her. I did and the photo is still in my back home. 

   

A carriage came and pick us it ran on a narrow long road, which took us to a restaurant for lunch in Navajo. We all had red bean stew.  It was healthy and natural. 

I ride on a white horse for my photoshoot. The tour guide taught us each rock's name. I don't know whether if Google Map finds the rocks' names now, or you are able to drive in Navajo town by using Street View. In that era, I was one of the only Japanese people, who had visited Navajo, I think. It is still a fresh memory to me.  

Thank you for coming tonight too. Good night, x

Travelled to the US in 1994 (part2)

 So, those 47 employees and 2 executives all safely arrived to airport in Los Angels. 

The bus came to pick up, which took us to the hotel company booked. It didi not go straight to the hotel. The bus took us a tour to Beverly Hills. The tour guide was not a professional, who was a friend of someone of us. I just remember that the roads continued as steeps. Every house had a large gate. And viewed the famous words, HOLLY WOOD on the mountain.  

Hitomi, Mura-chan and I had planed to go anywhere together during the travel, and we went to the 'Universal Studio' in Los Angels the next day. I enjoyed every attraction and spend all day. 

Jaws, Backdraft, Badman, Alien, Indiana Jones and etc... You can experience a similar situation in the film. To me, it becomes unforgettable fun memory. I have not got anywhere after this experience. You might think that there are some places like this in Japan. NO, no no! What I love the most was everything was shockingly dynamic! Fires, water, shaking directly works on your body. American's size is larger than Japanese one. I worried that my body could jump out from the seat. It was so thrilling, but also fun! I am still loving this memory. I want to get there, if I will have the chance again! Why I excited so much was I did not know anything about America in those days maybe. I wanna say again, "Google did not exist in that era." Everything new and fresh to me. 

Additionally shocking thing was the size of a burger and drink! We got hungry between the day and went to a McDonald in the Universal Studio. The burger's size was like 1.5 times bigger than Japan's size. More more shocking was the drinks' L size. That's one litter! I would take for 3 days to drink it up!

People in those days, having had no information and came to a different country, besides with no google, Even an authentic little thing surprised people very much. But I want to surprise again.

And we did not go  back to the hotel. We went to Las Vegas after the sunset. 

Thank you for coming tonight, too. Good night, x

I will talk about trip to Las Vegas someday.

Travelled to the US in 1994 ( part1)

 So, all 47 employees and 2 executives got holidays for travelling to the US between from the 29th of May to the 4th of June in1994, total one week. This was the 2nd experience in an another country to me. In 1993, I travelled with the same people to Malaysia & Singapore.  

The half of the people got on JAL airlines and another half was on ANA airlines. They wisely planned that even though the one of two airlines had trouble, the company would survive by the half of the people.

The airplane landed at the airport in Los Angeles. 

Before going through immigration procedures I went to a bathroom. 

The door 's length did not fully cover the up and the bottom, which shocked me at first. You can view what I do! And the secondly, much much more significant than the doors was that everybody can hear too much EVERYTHING about you did!!! Oh, no.... I felt so vulnerable. 

Small children can view what you do from bottom of the door. And I really wonder that it 's OK to hear everything? The environment needs music!  

The size of toilet bowl also shocked me. That's large! It is like a Sumo wrestlers' size. My butt would fall in to it. And sadly, my short legs were not enough the height. I was so shocked by the size differences. 

 あーびっくりした。

But it is now 21st century. The doors could have changed to the good one.

The travel schedule was basically free after check in to the hotel. 2 people for one room. Where did I go do you think?I will talk other shocking differences tomorrow. Thank you for coming tonight, too. Night night, x

Have you ever experienced culture shock in another country?

When you travel to another country, you will find some unexpected normal type of things there. I travelled to several countries in my past life. America, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, China, The UK, Ireland,  Bali(Indonesia) and Australia. 

The country that shocked me the most, I can say, was America.

At my age 22. (1994) In those days, the internet was super super special or unusual. (I did not know what is the internet at the age 22. Google was not born yet.) Mobile phone? It was also for the only people like CEO. And the phone's size was like a general phone. You can only contact from a public phone box or from the hotel if you went to overseas.  Can you imagine it? Going to another country was adventurous or dangerous in those days.

At the point, YouTube did not exist as you know. I only watched what looks like America in movies. 'Stand by Me', 'Gooneys', 'Jaws', etc. I did not know how Americans are living till my age 22.

The young girl Masako age 22, who worked in a fashion company in Osaka. Suddenly, the opportunity came.  The total employees numbers were 47. The company's executives were generous people. They planned to travel for fun with all people. So, America was the destination. 

I want to go to bed. I will talk tomorrow. Night night, x