Japan

Aug 23, 2005 22:54

Well, if I'm going to write out some of what happened in Japan, I may as well start now. And not on the friends setting, either!

We got to the airport in the morning with our bags and whatnot, but before we could disembark from the car, I had to write out an "itinerary" for Andy's mom. This means I BSed a schedule of places I thought we might go on during the ride, which seemed enough to calm her down from somewhere near nervousness. Not like she could have stopped us at that point. Anyway, we arrive at the airport and Colin's mom is there, and they see us off together after we get into line. We were able to get into the international line, which was only about 12 people long, so it didn't take to long, and we were about 2 hours early anyway. We get to the front of the line and this nice guy opens a station to help us all at the same time and put us closer together, so we got through that part really easily. We go over to security, wait in line for a bit (once again, short line) and we go through. I did not have the fortune of being searched but Marcus and Andy were luckier than I was. After that, we went over to our concourse and decided to look around for a bit. Marcus wanted a Mountain Dew, which it seems is banned in airports, because no one had any at all. So we got smoothies while Andy got McDonalds and Colin went into Wolfgang Puck Express. We sat down to our Breaktfast of Champions and discussed women and their varying levels of hotness and other important matters of the day, like videogames.

Come boarding time, we all got on our crammed little plane. I put on my headphones and stared out the window for two hours. Ah, how angsty I must have appeared in my black t-shirt staring mournfully out the window as I mouthed Stephen Lynch music. =P

Anyway, we got into SF a little bit later than we wanted and had to go pretty quickly to our next flight. On the way, Marcus wanted to get some batteries, but alas, there were none in the airport in any of the shops we checked. The hell? I mean, they're freakin' batteries. They should be everywhere. But no, all we found were Newsweeks and $7 Burger King. I kid you not, $7. For Burger King.

We get to the plane a little before boarding starts, making jokes and other such merriment along the way. While waiting, Marcus went to go use the restroom and wouldn't you know it, his section begins boarding. We all get in line and he thankfully came back in time to meet us. Andy, who had wandered off as well, did not back it back before we got on, but we all confirmed each others existence on the plane and settled in for a long and hopefully painless ride. We were all far apart, so we wouldn't be having any conversations, but I was seated between two high school teachers who were quite entertaining, so it wasn't unbearable. I watched the movies on the flight (Million Dollar Baby came on after Hitch and was followed by Dr. Doolittle 2. What the hell is wrong with these people? Mood-swings?) After the bi-polar movies (I only watched Million), I settled in to my Game Boy. I played Klonoa and Lufia the whole way, which saved me a lot of trouble, but also meant I got no sleep to help keep me awake for that night. Oh well. The teacher on my right, who was a rather flamboyant man kept getting up to use the bathroom, but he had to step over me to do it. Like, on the seats, which was both slightly uncomfortable and highly entertaining to watch.

When the plane FINALLY landed after hours of grueling monotony, we got off and went to look for Andy and Colin's luggage, which they had checked. After a smooth transition into the country (they have such a clean and efficient system!), we found a place to change money and then sought out a place to rent a cellphone. We find a booth that has a good package and inquire as to obtaining it. They say that they only have one phone left and pull out a bright pink flipphone, the very symbol of manliness. Since we had no choice, we take it and dub it the "ManPhone."

Next, we went to get our railpasses after some more aimless wandering (we did that a lot). We found the place, got the pass and got tickets to take us into Tokyo on the Narita Express. They said to use the "South Exit," which we could not seem to find, so we walked over to the train kiosk, checked into the station and found the first thing that looked like our train and got on. We checked the name and all that first, so we were relatively certain.

On the hour ride into Tokyo, we started out excited and full of energy, pulsating with glee. Ten minutes into the ride we were all unconscious. There was brief conversation between Marcus and me, but that was about it. We got into Tokyo Station, which is a total zoo. It is a criss-crossing mesh of people moving in what appear to be lanes of traffic that only a second later are swallowed by another group of identically dressed people going in different directions. This occurs in a large white room where there are no markers for direction or distinct landmarks to find your way by. It is complete and utter insanity, chaos played out with a current of people. We stagger along trough this for a while before stopping and asking, "Where should we go?"

We decided to head towards Akihabara, since it would be a fun introduction to the city. This, of course, entails finding our way. We look around and I recall that the Yamanote line runs in a loop around the city and that we should get on that train. This was due to both Japanese class and past experience, so I suppose that whatever I'd been doing for the last year was worth something at that moment. We managed to find it after a good long period spent searching and hopped on. Thankfully, it was not terribly crowded, but we had all of our luggage with us, so we definitely looked totally awesome and blended into the crowd. What with our white tallness. We got to Akihabara with not problems and shopped around for a bit. I took everyone over to Laox, an electronics superstore similar to Best Buy. We look at everything there and I decided to buy a digital camera right away. I chose the Konica Minolita X50, which was a 5 megapixel camera with all the bells and whistles for only 27,000 yen, which is about $250. It came with a carrying case, rechargeable battery and an SD memory card, so I was pretty happy. No one else got anything of significance, so we wandered around for a while and discovered two things: everything was closing and we were hungry. We hadn't eaten since the plane flight hours ago.

We looked around but couldn't find anywhere to eat, so, on the verge of collapse, an oasis appeared before us in the form of a rice ball shop. If you're ever in Akihabara, this place is great. Head out to the main street from the train station (you can see Laox as you exit the station) and turn right. Just keep going, it'll be on your right. Anyway, we each ordered a couple rice balls, and after cramming the delectable items down our gullets (Colin said it was like an orgasm in his mouth), we felt refreshed. We called home to let them know we were alive, though it was about 4 in the morning. After giving them this satisfying piece of knowledge, we reliazed that we had nowhere to stay. Whoops. So, we got out Colin's handy-dandy travel book and looked up hotels, having lied to customs about where we would be staying (we only estimated). We found a cheap hotel in Asakusa in the listing, and it was given the cheapest rating, so we decided to call them to find out exactly how cheap. Nothing was too low-class for us!

I called this hotel on the ManPhone and asked, in Japanese, if anyone there spoke English. The clerk responded that he spoke a smidgen. I asked how much one room would be in Japanese, he said in English that it would be 3,000 yen. I asked if this was for one room or for one person. The clerk said that it was for one person's one room. I asked if one room was for one person and he said that one person was 3,000. I asked if 3,000 was for a one person room. He said yes. I cannot accurately describe how confusing the actual conversation was, only that it took about 15 minutes to establish this, after which I think we were both confused. He took down my name and how many people, asking if we had any girls with us (I'll get to this in a bit), to which I replied we had none. We then set off for Asakusa.

We went into the train station and looked at the map. We determined that Asakusa could not be reached by JR line (the lines the pass gave us access to), so we figured we'd take the JR to Ueno, then get on the subway. Ueno was two stops away, so we went there with relative ease. We then had to seek out the subway, which we managed to find through random wandering and following signs blindly. Going into the subway, we found our map, which said that Asakusa was (amazingly) on the Asakusa line, which was 160 yen. Not everyone got this right away, so we bickered a bit about how much it would cost. After pointing out that the price was listed below the place, and Asakusa was listed as 160, we bought our tickets and got on the train. After about five minutes, we got off the train at Asakusa and went up the stairs and out into the open air. We looked around, since the book said the hotel was right outside the station. We looked around, not seeing anything. Since Information was closed, we were somewhat out of luck in that area, but at that moment I saw a billboard that read "Asakusa Riverside Hotel" and a sign that had a big 3,000 yen sign on it (Only Andy and I could read Japanese). We figure that's the hotel, so we walk over to it and, upon finding a big entrance with marble floors, we were a bit confused that this could possibly be a 3,000 yen hotel (that's about $30, folks), but we asked anyway. I asked in Japanese and the clerk said to follow him.

He walked us through a door and outside into a dark and lonely alleyway. At this, we were a bit shocked and nervous. We went along with it since there were four of us and one of him (and, you know, Japan being a safe country) we were okay with this. He then took us up some narrow steps which led to a small door in the side of the wall on the third floor. We go inside, and lo and behold, it's the hotel we had called.

The clerk had our names and everything. He taught us how to use the check-in machine (which worked like a vending machine) and how to do the shoe locker stuff. After everyone did their little "Oh yeah, shoes are a no-no" bit, we checked in and he explained everything in a mix of Japanese and English. He was obviously very excited to have us there. We figured out that we were to store our "belongings" in the lockers with numbers that matched our keys' own. We put our luggage on top of the lockers, though the sign (in Japanese) said not to. We were all so exhausted that we played to stupid American card, threw our stuff ontop of the lockers, our clothes inside the lockers, put on their bathrobe thingies and went to take a shower.

We get up to the top floor, a bath that overlooks the area. A bath that has a view of the Sumida River. A bath where all the men bathe together. We figure, "What the hell, it was bound to happen eventually" and that was that. We showered modestly and got out. It felt amazing, since it was really hot water that relaxed your muscles, as well as all the steam taking away all tension. They even had a sauna. We got out, got dressed and sat around talking for a bit. We went downstairs, lay down and went to sleep. More stories about this when we wake up.

Now, a few points before I conclude this little chapter. One, we spent about 6 more days in this hotel over the course of the trip. They came to like us and we would tell them about where we were going and what we did and they were always very interested and had room for us. This place rocks. Second, they only have one floor for women and now special bath as far as I know. So, girls, this may not be the BEST place for you, but we saw a few touring ladies stay there,so it can't be all that bad. Finally, stuff happened to each of us after we got into bed, but we all didn't find out until we woke up, so I won't talk about it until my next entry on the subject.

That was our first day. If I have this much to say, think of what else I will have to talk about when I get to "Free Beer Time."
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