Obsessed in Japan: Part 1 - Prelude
My first time in Japan wasn't pretty. After months at sea my ship crashed onto shore. Most of my shipmates who weren't already dead would die soon after landing. In this strange new land I would find myself in the middle of a massive civil war between rival warlords. Leveraging my skills and guile I would go on to play a small, but meaningful role in helping the warlord who saved my life ascend the Japanese throne.
Well, that wasn't me exactly. I was a teenager riding shotgun on John Blackthorne's adventures through 17th century Japan in James Clavell’s epic novel Shogun. Never before had my mind's eye built such an elaborate and extravagant world of exotic sights, smells, flavors, and cultural intrigues.
Or maybe my first time in Japan was through the eyes and sword of Squall Leonhart questing to thwart Ultimecia's time-compressing scheme for world domination in Final Fantasy VIII.
Or maybe it was watching Goku battle the universe's greatest villains to save his adopted planet from destruction. Or maybe it was as a boy growing up in Pallet Town aspiring to be the very best, like no one ever was. To travel across the land, search far and wide, and reveal the power that’s inside.
Perhaps it was long before that as a toddler in a tiny suburban Miami strip mall sushi joint scorching my tongue on miso soup, awkwardly chopsticking rainbow rolls and discovering the glories of fried red-bean ice cream.
In ways, part of me grew up in Japan.
Adulthood accelerated this obsession. My best friend, Max, steered me towards anime's greatest hits like Death Note and Full Metal Alchemist. YouTube took me through the samurai slashing Sengoku Jidai (Warring States Era), the re-centralizing Edo Period, and the hyper-modernizing Meiji Restoration. Dan Carlin and Ken Burns guided me through the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean Occupation, the Manchurian invasion, the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, and eventually Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Jake Adelstein and Robert Whiting offered me clues as to how post war Japan went from near nuclear annihilation to the Yakuza, Hello Kitty, and Pikachu. James Payne introduced me to Hokusai's Great Wave, wood block prints and Ukiyo-e. The North Star of my taste buds have led me to ravishing extravagant omakase dinners and noodle pulling the best ramen of every city I went to.
Now, with the book published, it was time to begin my long overdue pilgrimage. Armed with the finances, blessed by time, aided by my skills as a global navigator, and accompanied by my Dragon-princess-adventure-partner, Nina, it was time to turn imagination into reality. For three weeks we would color in the outlines scribbled by the mind's eye, indulge our curiosities, dispel delusions, recruit allies, walk ancient trails, discover new questions, conclude surprising conclusions, and of course, eat ourselves silly.
For decades I'd been obsessed with Japan.
Now it was time to be Obsessed in Japan.