at the port

i finding myself trying to describe places in terms of other places that the person may be aware of. for instance, if i were describing Yakushima to you, i would say something like, "its like the galapagos, but maybe a little less wild, more populated, less tropical, a little more touristy". although, i've never been to the galapagos and and neither have you, and all i am really alluding to is some intra-liminal impression we have of the galapagos, a result of galapagian marketing and well meaning 2nd grade teachers wielding colorful picture books of animals from around the world.

Night before had a good many beers with old friends in Osaka soaked up by a 1 am bowl of ramen from a small smelly place tucked into an alley way off Kiyamachi St. just north of Shijou. Left this morning from Kyoto to Sakai-minato (minato = port, therefore, lit. "Port Sakai" -- i note this because i didn't realize this for a while, always telling my japanese friends "Saka-Imi-Nato", and getting blank looks, and then like, slowly understanding what my butchering mouf is trying to say), from whence the ferry departs, making a stop in Donghae before Vladivostok. .

The bus goes through this area called Tottori-ken (ken is like a county? or maybe state), which I have never been to, except that every once in awhile people make fun of it on TV as in, " as a TV personality being told to go places to do absurd things so people at home can laugh at me, Tottori-ken is the last place I would like to go." -- although I liked the bus ride. In most travel, we hop from nice places to nice places, expressly skipping the mundane areas which make up the actual backbone of the nation state; instead preferring the hyper modern cosmopolitanism of tokyo, the indefatigable culture of kyoto, mystical beauty of yakushima -- even the vivacious urbanity of Osaka.

But, basically, Tottori-ken, is, uhh, like the New Jersey -- a place I think you and I have both been, face to face, or at least, nose to armpit of America -- and I have a certain affinity for places like this. Anyway, at the port complex, where theres is plenty of wifi (read: live blood of modern human being). The ticketing woman is obviously russian but speaks perfect Japanese (better than her english), and is, in fact, out japanese-ing japanese receptionist ladies in terms of politeness, both in speech and manner. her motions are precise, slow, measured like someone doing the tea ceremony. she bows low after handing me my ticket even though i've shown her my american passport and she should know that i, and my fellow countrymen, don;t/doesnt really appreciate stuff like this.