journal features
movie reviews
photo of the day

gaijin at Narita

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2009.09.15

My mum's arrived on a short visit. While at the airport to greet her, I was twice stopped by security staff to show my passport.

I can understand why they want to ensure that people milling about the airport have passports. It's a good way of learning who's at the airport at any given time, and I'm sure it's a fine deterrent for people like pick-pockets and unlicensed cabbies.

But I watched the security guards as they did their thing, and I couldn't help but notice that they weren't approaching people who seemed to be Japanese. I don't know if that impression is a mistake on my part, but if they are focusing on foreigners, I wonder why. Do they expect to find foreign undesirables hanging around the airport with no passport? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Also, it seems a bit much to have to produce a passport simply to meet someone at the airport. I'm not, after all, passing through any ports, I'm just in the public area of the airport and not actually traveling. I wonder what would have happened if I'd left my passport at home. Would my alien registration card have been enough?

Security stops aside, it was good to have my mother back for another (too short) visit and we had a good chat catching up on the long train ride back into the city. The conversation revolved around the various ventures I'm involved in, what I'm doing towards those efforts, and what I saw coming out of them.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.