Well Travelled?
I was thinking today about how a lot of people from Europe and other countries tend to think of Americans as poorly travelled, and haven't seen much of the world. So I got to doing some number crunching, as I tend to like to do (thanks, Dad), and came to an interesting conclusion.
The U.S., since us Americans are being compared to countries that use that godawful metric system, is just over 9.7 million sq. kilometers. I've been to every state in the U.S. except Alaska.
The continent of Europe is approximately the same size. Australia is a little smaller.
That means, for any Aussie or European that wants to call me, or any other American like me, poorly travelled, or more closely, less well travelled than they, they would have had to have traversed the entirety of their own continent and then some.
Japan is 377,835 sq. km. California is 410,000 sq. km. I've driven I-5 from Canada to Tijuana, in pieces, on numerous occasions. Starting to get the picture here?
The average American puts 13,000 miles on their car each year. That's enough mileage to drive from New York to Paris 3.5 times, from New York to Tokyo twice.
If an American visits 10 states in his or her life, they've covered more distance than most Europeans that have been to 6 or 7 other countries. The only difference is the American hasn't left the country.
In my life, I've been to 49/50 states, England, (at the time West) Germany, Italy, and Japan. All countries, for the record, that fought against the U.S. in one war or another. By the time I move home I plan to have visited Australia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Micronesia and Indonesia. Maybe even Russia and China. I've been to 3 of 7 continents.
Please, don't go around thinking Americans aren't well travelled. We've got a whole lot of country to see right at home.
Sonar Ping
I got a call from Hillary earlier today, looking for Ty because he hadn't shown up for work today. I explained the situation.
I got another call from her asking me to call her boss, who wanted to help look for him. Together, she called the police and started the process of filing a proper missing persons report. She called back later to ask me to come to the Nagareyama Police Station tomorrow to give a detailed description.
I got another call later from Ty's boss asking me to come with them today, since it had been so long since he was last seen, but while I was in the shower I missed a call, and come to find out it was an Officer from the Harajuku Police Station, informing me that my presence was required as part of an investigation concerning the arrest of one Ty W. So I called back, and found out that shortly after I parted ways with Ty on the train he assaulted a Japanese person and was arrested shortly afterwards.
I have to go down to the station tomorrow with the aid of an interpreter to give a formal statement regarding the case. It seems he's been arrested for Assault, and well, I don't know the laws concerning assault in this country, but I'm sure they are not beyond deporting him back to the States. For this I am concerned, but, fundamentally I'm relieved because he's alive and that's the most important thing.
So, tomorrow I will go down and give a statement about what I remember and do my best to leave a good impression on the Legal System of Japan, but, having said that, I don't know what the best approach is to do this without unintentionally making his situation worse. Anybody out here intimately familiar with the Japanese legal system?
Phone Calls and Crossed Fingers
I called the Embassy today and reported Ty missing. Due to the rules of the Privacy Act though, no information about his whereabouts may be revealed to me, nor any message passed to him via the Consulate. The most they can do is relay to him that he is being searched for and to urge him to contact us as soon as possible.
The worst part is that the lady on the phone more or less implied that the search is a passive process, rather than an active one. After providing my information, she neither asked where he was last seen or where he lives now other than the prefecture and city. She said that they will keep an eye out for any information that pops up with his name on it, which means arrests and hospitalizations, which require the notification of the Consulate. They didn't even ask me how long he had been missing, I volunteered it.
So, needless to say, I'm once again a little unimpressed by the willingness of the United States Government to help its citizens on an individual level, but I hope that now he will at least be located. If he's located, I can figure out if he's alive, and that's really all that matters.
Shame
I can't get over this feeling like Ty's being missing is entirely my fault. Things wouldn't be this way had I stayed with him. I argue this with myself over and over, that had I left when he asked me to, or had I caught my train in the first place, would any of this have happened?
I stayed with him for hours, trying to talk him down and keep him out of trouble, and in the end, I left because there was nothing I could do any longer to hold him back. Or was there? Could I have tried harder? Is this my fault?
Every time I think about it now my hands turn to fists and I want to punch through the walls when I look at the empty bedroom that's remained untouched and unused for three straight days. I look for him when I am going to work, every time I hear someone on the stairs I think it's him, and for a moment my heart lightens, but I know it's not him. I'm afraid to turn the handle on the house when I get home because I know when I do it will be locked as it was when I last left it. And when I turn the key and feel the deadbolt slide as well I feel whatever hope I had slide with it away, hidden somewhere inside that door until I lock it again, hoping it will have unlocked itself by the time I return.
Ty, I need you to come home. Because I'm worried about you, and selfishly because I couldn't forgive myself if something happened because I didn't try harder to help you.
To bring you up to speed, it's been something of a hectic week. Wendesday night, I went out with Ty to a baseball game after work, which we thought would be a Giants vs. Yakult game, but turned out to be a Toyo Univ. vs. Asia Univ. college game. Needless to say by the end of the game we were leading cheers for Asia Univ. and had been accepted into the student body, though unfortunately our team lost in extra innings.
After that, we went to Shinjuku for drinks, and found a couple cool bars, including a rock bar that was actually pretty decent, though tiny. I tried to catch the last train back, but missed it, and barely made it back in time to catch Ty on the way out. We wound up catching a taxi to Roppongi where we looked with no success for an ATM. We went to a few other bars, where I met a couple of cool people and Ty left me there to go somewhere with a girl we met. He came back a half our later or so.
We went to another bar when that closed, and I came back to where we were when I got done dancing and Ty was gone. He had been kicked out. I went outside to find him and he was trying to pick a fight with 5 black guys. I dragged him away, narrowly avoiding disaster, and attempted to convince him to go home while he was trying to get away and talk to strangers, pick fights, and hit on women. I finally got him onto a train around an hour later, must have been around 6:30am, but after we were on the train he tried to get up again and start talking to people, and I told him that I didn't have the strength to hold him back. He kept it up, and I walked to the front of the train, saying I would meet him at home.
Well, he never came home. That was Thursday morning, it's Sunday evening now. Still nothing. I'm worried sick and tomorrow I will have to call the US Embassy to report him missing. He was on a train last I saw him, so I can only assume he got arrested, but I'm worried he got off and went back to Roppongi and picked another fight and got himself hospitalized or worse.
I called in sick to work that day and that night I went to Paul Van Dyk at ageHa with Greg, and again got no sleep. It's been rough.
I'm trying to figure out what to do about Ty. If he doesn't show up tomorrow morning, I'm going to be seriously worried. I have my fingers crossed and my prayers reserved for him. Please come home.
