Picture a 16-year-old blonde kid, surrounded by Koreans and Japanese businessmen and families. Here I am stepping off a flight from Seoul... alone. As I approached the Customs official, the last remnants of soju reminded me of how early the flight was. I stepped up to the desk and handed the big Japanese man my passport.
As he sized up my travel stamps, he saw that I had traveled from South Korea alone, and began to interrogate me about my travels. Being as calm as any 16 year old in a Customs line possibly could be, I explain that I was staying with a friend in Korea, and that now I would be staying with friends in Niigata. He continued to ask more questions, and I continued to give him several variations on the same theme.
After a few minutes of this, he told me he is opening my bag to check through my luggage, to which I agreed. He cut the tie-wrap sealing the zipper and began combing through my clothes and souveniers. I had some whiskey and soju to give as gifts in Japan, but I had already declared them. So that was no concern! But then all of a sudden, the officer lets out a gasp as he pulls from my luggage....
A Maxim magazine! Nani desuka??? The tension of the situation rose at a very... unreasonable rate. He began speaking over me in harsh tones, and entirely in Japanese. I was able to make out "pornography?" in his words. So as he was asking me a question, I tried to reply that it is not at all pornographic! It seemed almost silly at the time, as if I had been called into the principal's office at elementary school.
I offered to show him the contents of the magazine, in order to prove my point. Then I proceeded to flip through the pages, showing him articles and some very nice--non-nude--photos. I even got a smile on his face. By the end he was convinced that it's all ok, and that the magazine is not what he'd expected. With that, the officer decided I was free to go.
He still took the magazine though!
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