A CAR FOR ME?

BMW, Mercedez Benz, and Audi are some typical cars that people widely know about, but not many people know about Infiniti. Infiniti is a sub-brand car of Japanese brand Nissan. People might have misunderstood the meaning of sub-brand which has a definition of “under.” However, it is not true just like Lexus and Toyota; Infiniti is the upgrade version of Nissan. Majority of people have a stereotypical notion about Japanese cars that they are fancy but light. In this sentence, light doesn’t mean the mass of the car, but it means that the car is easily broken. Not too long ago Toyota suffered a massive recall of the car where people got an impression that Japanese car is fragile. However, that is not true, if people can see the larger picture. Toyota allowed recall because they are highly confident about their brand image, and they will do anything to reserve it. In addition, there is no way of having a good brand image unless they make a good car.

Not too long ago I encountered this fascinating car through a commercial. At first, I got an impression that Infiniti should be one of the European cars. I was looking forward to buy a car in Saipan so I decided to use a naver car smart finder to search for affordable cars. I entered the page and scrolled down the list. “Ohs and wows” filled the room as I looked at the cars with a big smile on my face. I remember my first time buying a cell phone and I thought this should be the happiest moment of my life. Well, I was naïve and only eleven-years-old. I found the same happiness just looking at the cars. Do you know the phrase “men’s best friends are dog, booze, and car”? Well now I see what they are talking about. As I was trying to shut the window off I saw the name Infiniti. I thought it wasn’t polite to just shut the window off without checking out the car that I saw in commercial, so I went in.

“Oh my gosh this is hot,” was the first sentence that I blurred out. 3.7 liters v6 engine and 333 horse power was just a start. What I found really attractive was an interior of Infiniti G37 coupe: Keyless go, smart key, Bose speaker, navigation, and rear view camera. Oh I almost forgot to tell this “AUTOMATIC SCRATCH RECOVERY.” The price of the car was also not that expensive, it was little over 40,000 dollars. I made a promise to myself right after finding out the price that I will gladly change my religion to buy this car.

I ran into my father’s room and asked him without pausing “Can you please buy me an Infiniti father?” I have never been so polite to my dad. This was my first time calling my dad abuji (father) instead of abba (dad). I also made a promise that I will start using jondetmal (honorific) to every family member including my sisters. My father looked confused about me saying such a thing because I was never a polite kid. He finally answered to my question and it was “yes.” I wanted to go back to Saipan right away and order the car, but since I was in Korea for only a week; I decided to kill the massive joy in my heart and wait. Now I’m in Saipan looking for Infiniti; I have never been this happy.

The Longest Day of My Life

Fresh air, warm sunlight, and gentle breeze welcomed me as I stepped out from Haneda airport. The scene I saw many times before seemed very special after spending six-month in Saipan, a very special island located in Northern Mariana Island. It is not an exaggeration to say that I was detached from technology for six-month. I was speechless to see so much technology at once suddenly. Even though I was half Japanese myself, I felt very awkward talking to Japanese, who lived their whole life in the city with leading technology. I checked all my belongings and caught a taxi. I stuck my head out the window checking the humongous sky scrapers with colorful neon lights all the way to Nobribetsu, where ryokan (Japanese inn) is very famous.

This was my first time traveling alone to Japan, and spending a night of my own. It was a very cool experience, but on the other hand, I felt super nervous about everything that is surrounding me. I had to plan my own schedule: what to eat, where to go, and what to do. So I came to conclusion to spend a night in ryokan, where food, shelter, and recreation are served. Choosing which ryokan to stay wasn’t that hard because I already checked via internet. I decided to stay in Noguchi, a ryokan that just went through a huge renovation.

Old lady wearing kimono greeted me with warm smile and led me to my room. One thing that caught my eye was an escalator. It was rather unusual for ryokan to have an escalator because most of the ryokans aim for a traditional Japanese inn. My room door was also very similar to other hotel room doors. I opened the door and turned on the light. 52inch Flat plasma tv, Bose speaker, laptop, and queen sized bed filled the room, but the most surprising thing was an individual hot spring. I have always dreamed of having my own little hot spring and there it was. I stripped faster than any other time and plunged myself into the hot spring. After 30min of nice and hot bath, I came out wearing a yukata (traditional cloth) to eat kaiseki, a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. It was kind of freaky that someone just came in to my room and set a perfect dinner and left, but I was too hungry to think about anything.

After dinner, I decide to tour the ryokan. I took an unusual escalator down to the basement floor. There I saw another huge hot spring, and since I wanted to bring the 100% out from this travel I ran inside the hot spring not noticing the small memo that was posted on the board. The larger hot spring was placed outside. After 5min people start to came in speaking Japanese. There was nothing unusual about naked people walking in but, this time was more than unusual. It wasn’t a man, monkey or other animal; it was bunch of old women. I ran inside a little bush to hide myself before they scream. Now you might think that this is ordinary in Japan, but time has flown and things have changed. I seriously thought they came into the wrong side, but I was wrong. The very special aspect about this ryokan is that after 5pm they change the side of the hot spring so both genders can enjoy different kind of hot spring.

I decided to wait until they leave, but I wasn’t the only one who wanted to bring 100% out of this ryokan. They start to talk about celebrities and Korean drama Iris. Suddenly one woman asked the others, “What is Iris?” one kind woman insisted that she wants to tell this woman a brief summary of Iris, and I’m telling you Iris is a very complicated drama. They spent an hour talking about the drama not knowing that I was hiding behind the bush. I even thought about putting a towel over my face and run out the door. However, I was just not brave enough to do it. So I waited another 10min wishing for them to leave. They finally stood up and went out the door. I waited another 5min just to give them enough time to change however, not knowing that women enjoy talking while they are changing cloth. They finally saw me, but their reaction was nothing close to what I thought it would be. They were surprised but they gently asked me if I didn’t see the note on the board. They kindly went inside the hot spring again so that I could change my cloth. This was my first time traveling alone and I encountered a lot of incidents, but one of the most memorable one.