In Japan, Days One and Two
So, I'm in Japan! XD Here's my random impressions of getting to Japan and making it to Ash's apartment! I'll note when things were written, so don't be confused if it jumps a bit. My random commentary of today will likely appear in square brackets.
Take a look
Day One:
Written on the Narita Express (N'EX) from the Airport to Shinagawa Station:
I'm in Japan! Narita is a lovely airport, everything is marked really well, and I had no problems at all. Walked straight through customes, which was lovely. [wow, everything is apparently lovely when I've been travelling for 20 hours.] Once the N'EX left, my impression is that everything is so lush - the trees are all out, there are blossoms on some of the trees here, I hope it's the same in Osaka, so I can try my hand at them. Hilary, even the architecture of their houses in interesting - the roofs are tiled, and the walls are done in some kind of stucco or something - you can see the slab [or whatever the term is] lines in it. Kelly, no rice paddies yet that are very far along. The first one I saw was just being planted (a very cool thing to watch), although I've seen some just sprouted since. I agree though, they're beautiful. And interesting blend of old and new was the top of a (newly constructed?) pagoda that I'm sure was a signal point - it had enough wires running to it, anyway. Interestingly, I feel far less out of place here that I expected, at least so far. [Still true today!] It's new and interesting, but I'm completely lacking the desire to flee in terror...which was was expecting a little bit of.
Getting here was certainly less than awesome though. Gah. Home to Toronto was fine, I watched "Up in the Air" for a bit of irony, which was good up until the end, which was not. It was, in fact, impressively weak. >.< (randomly, I just saw a bubblegum pink house.) So I got to Toronto fine, and decided to fine my departure gate right away. A good/bad decision. Good in that it was a decent hike from my arrival gate, bad that there was only a store of random stuff, a Tim's (that didn't sell sandwiches) and a Coyote Jack's. Now there's some awful chicken burger. Bleh. I clearly stated NO PICKLE. Got it anyway. And their "special sauce" was just weird...some kind of yellow stuff, and not at all the BBQ-type sauce I'd expected. To waste some of my 3-ish hour wait, I decided to incur a dollar or so of texting fees, and sent one off to Bethann: I knew she'd be awake and not writing an exam. So we traded texts for a few minutes, until my phone went from 2 bars of battery to 1 [not hard to do, stupid phone]. Then I shelled out $2 for 10 minutes of internet...because that somehow seemed more reasonable to me than $10 for wireless until I boarded. [No, I don't know how that made sense either.] I let people know I was alive then (an orange house!) my time was up. The keyboard was terrible - the keys didn't really go down, they moved down or to the side or wherever you hit them - and it destroyed my typing speed. Then I ate my terrible chicken thing, and on to Tokyo! Blehhhhh. My lower back is killing me a bit [not anymore, keep reading to find out why!], I just couldn't get comfy. A knot in my neck, too. Not looking forward to that again, and I was lucky this time in that the seat next to me was empty and the (kinda hot) guy in the aisle seat didn't care that I monopolized it to put my feet up and sit sideways-ish. Not that it helped a whole lot. I caught a couple of hours sleep early on, then another one or two towards the end. I faded in an out a fair bit though, I think. I watched an odd movie that I can't remember the title of [thanks to Wikipedia, it's called "A Single Man"] and charged up my laptop/iPod - they have plugs on the longer flights for that, it's pretty sweet - and watched this week's Castle episode and Fairy Tail 01. I feel bad for my poor seat-mate - I was constantly shifting. ^^; I don't think he tried to sleep though. He was watching movies most of the time. [Actually, it looked like he spent the whole flight watching Titanic a million times.] Speaking of movies, my headphones were totally worth it, really comfy and they block sound rather well!
For all that my sleep didn't really happen, I'm quite awake. The flight apparently messed me up adequately. ^_^
The suitcase and my luggage tag appear to have survived fine. They picked up some yellow paint along the way, but they're good to go. Hopefully the contents fared as well.
On the Shinkansen (Bullet Train):
Well, I just aquired my first "Baka Gaijin" [Stupid Foreigner] moment. Not looking at the time, I got a reserved seat on the 5:07 Nozomi Shinkansen [the fastest one]. It was 5. XD So I fled to the platform, thanked God when I found a payphone, and called Izu and said "I'm getting on the Nozomi now, ack bye. I'll be in at 7:20." I had to clarify a little bit, then I fled onto the train that had just arrived. Only to get to my seat and find someone in it, go "oh god I'm on the wrong train" and have to sit down because it left. So yeah, I got on the wrong train! Thankfully, the couple of guys managed to look at my ticket and consulted their schedule. I was sooooo lucky. I got off at the next stop, Shinyokohama, and the next train that showed up was the one I was supposed to be on. God looks after fools, oh yes. XD Note to self: learn to look up. Heh. Maybe I'm more tired than I thought. [This was followed by me falling asleep for an hour or so of the train ride.]
Day Two, written on the train home from Takarazuka at about 9 or so:
So I made it to Ash without too much further mishap. She'd heard 20 to 8 rather than 7:20, so was late. Following what she'd told me to do, I wandered off in search of a pay phone, not an easy task. I didn't find one after a little bit, so I turned around and went back, and lo, there was Ash! XD So it was all good. We made it to her apartment and discovered another reason to love the red suitcase - the handle on the bottom. She took the top handle, I took the bottom, and we made it to the third floor without mishap, hooray! That handle confused me when we got the suitcase originally. I am now in love with it. Totally a genius design. I presented her with her various loot and emptied the big suitcase, then we gave it a new home on her balcony. We got ready for bed and chatted and stuff, went to sleep kinda late because I was awake thanks to my Shinkansen nap. So even on day one, I managed to keep normal hours.
Up at 8 today. It was sooo nice out - sunny and warm, probably ~17? So my laptop told me, anyway. I set up my laptop when I got up, and fell in love with Ash's kotatsu [a small low table with a heater under it, a blanket, then a hard top] - I want one. >.< We had french toast for breakfast...brunch? then showered and packed up for the day, and Ash figured out how to get to the gym, and off we went to the Evessa game! [The home team was the Osaka Evessa, and this was a pro Basketball game.] I have to say, it was awesome. As expected, I knew more about what the cheerleaders were doing than the players, but by the last quarter, I was really into the game. It was sooo close, but Evessa lost by 3 points. ;.; I kinda figure it's their own fault though...lots of fouls. A lot of fun, overall! Interestingly, lots of women in the crowd...about the reverse of what you'd expect at home. The cheerleaders and mascot were a lot of fun. Their costumes were really nicely done, very well-styled. Actually, the photobook of the cheerleaders was really tempting, except that it was 4500 Yen or something [about 45/50 dollars]. heh. Also, the last thirty seconds of the game took about 15 minutes, between the fouls and the time-outs being called. It was pretty hilarious.
After the game, because we were so close to Takarazuka we decided to head out that way. We grabbed a late lunch/early supper - Ash had Korean something, I had katsu [breaded pork] curry. Most delicious! Then we went to the onsen~ New trip goal: how many times can I visit an onsen in this trip? [Onsen are hot spring baths.] It was soooo awesome. The outdoor bath, located on the top of the building [7th story or so?] was fantasic. Just the right temperature, and a lovely view. I don't think my lower back muscles have been so relaxed in months, if that recently. Totally awesome, and there should be one of these at home. Random sidethought: new haircut is very cute when fluffy. Then we wandered back towards the station and browsed the cutest shop ever. They had kotastu chairs that were either a) tofu or b) cake, both with faces on them. Hehe. I want one to go with my non-existant kotatsu. XD Then it was off to Mister Donut for dessert! Interestingly, donuts are pretty much the same price here. I had one filled with fluffy [whipped] cream. SO delicious. Currently we're on the train home. I also want trains in Newfoundland. I maintain that they'd be awesome and would cut down on Metrobus' stupidity. Still not great at riding them standing though - I'll have to practice some more [did that as we got closer to home XD]. All in all, an awesome first day, I think. Of note - Japanese manhole covers are very pretty, as are the blue and green roof tiles. Dad, I love the camera, it's wonderful. I got some great shots at the game, of things on the far side of the court. [I'm going to start taking more pictures today, including of said tiles and covers.] Also, Japanese swim suits are cool - the tops zip up the front, and the bottoms are shorts. For entertainment value...I took a size L. As in Large. XD Hehehe. From now on, my swimsuit is located in my bag, so that "hey, there's an onsen, let's go!" can happen more often and without the rental fee (not that I object to the 300 yen.)
So that was it, days One and Two! I got here fine, and I'm having a lot of fun! Stay tuned and see what I do today!
Take a look
Day One:
Written on the Narita Express (N'EX) from the Airport to Shinagawa Station:
I'm in Japan! Narita is a lovely airport, everything is marked really well, and I had no problems at all. Walked straight through customes, which was lovely. [wow, everything is apparently lovely when I've been travelling for 20 hours.] Once the N'EX left, my impression is that everything is so lush - the trees are all out, there are blossoms on some of the trees here, I hope it's the same in Osaka, so I can try my hand at them. Hilary, even the architecture of their houses in interesting - the roofs are tiled, and the walls are done in some kind of stucco or something - you can see the slab [or whatever the term is] lines in it. Kelly, no rice paddies yet that are very far along. The first one I saw was just being planted (a very cool thing to watch), although I've seen some just sprouted since. I agree though, they're beautiful. And interesting blend of old and new was the top of a (newly constructed?) pagoda that I'm sure was a signal point - it had enough wires running to it, anyway. Interestingly, I feel far less out of place here that I expected, at least so far. [Still true today!] It's new and interesting, but I'm completely lacking the desire to flee in terror...which was was expecting a little bit of.
Getting here was certainly less than awesome though. Gah. Home to Toronto was fine, I watched "Up in the Air" for a bit of irony, which was good up until the end, which was not. It was, in fact, impressively weak. >.< (randomly, I just saw a bubblegum pink house.) So I got to Toronto fine, and decided to fine my departure gate right away. A good/bad decision. Good in that it was a decent hike from my arrival gate, bad that there was only a store of random stuff, a Tim's (that didn't sell sandwiches) and a Coyote Jack's. Now there's some awful chicken burger. Bleh. I clearly stated NO PICKLE. Got it anyway. And their "special sauce" was just weird...some kind of yellow stuff, and not at all the BBQ-type sauce I'd expected. To waste some of my 3-ish hour wait, I decided to incur a dollar or so of texting fees, and sent one off to Bethann: I knew she'd be awake and not writing an exam. So we traded texts for a few minutes, until my phone went from 2 bars of battery to 1 [not hard to do, stupid phone]. Then I shelled out $2 for 10 minutes of internet...because that somehow seemed more reasonable to me than $10 for wireless until I boarded. [No, I don't know how that made sense either.] I let people know I was alive then (an orange house!) my time was up. The keyboard was terrible - the keys didn't really go down, they moved down or to the side or wherever you hit them - and it destroyed my typing speed. Then I ate my terrible chicken thing, and on to Tokyo! Blehhhhh. My lower back is killing me a bit [not anymore, keep reading to find out why!], I just couldn't get comfy. A knot in my neck, too. Not looking forward to that again, and I was lucky this time in that the seat next to me was empty and the (kinda hot) guy in the aisle seat didn't care that I monopolized it to put my feet up and sit sideways-ish. Not that it helped a whole lot. I caught a couple of hours sleep early on, then another one or two towards the end. I faded in an out a fair bit though, I think. I watched an odd movie that I can't remember the title of [thanks to Wikipedia, it's called "A Single Man"] and charged up my laptop/iPod - they have plugs on the longer flights for that, it's pretty sweet - and watched this week's Castle episode and Fairy Tail 01. I feel bad for my poor seat-mate - I was constantly shifting. ^^; I don't think he tried to sleep though. He was watching movies most of the time. [Actually, it looked like he spent the whole flight watching Titanic a million times.] Speaking of movies, my headphones were totally worth it, really comfy and they block sound rather well!
For all that my sleep didn't really happen, I'm quite awake. The flight apparently messed me up adequately. ^_^
The suitcase and my luggage tag appear to have survived fine. They picked up some yellow paint along the way, but they're good to go. Hopefully the contents fared as well.
On the Shinkansen (Bullet Train):
Well, I just aquired my first "Baka Gaijin" [Stupid Foreigner] moment. Not looking at the time, I got a reserved seat on the 5:07 Nozomi Shinkansen [the fastest one]. It was 5. XD So I fled to the platform, thanked God when I found a payphone, and called Izu and said "I'm getting on the Nozomi now, ack bye. I'll be in at 7:20." I had to clarify a little bit, then I fled onto the train that had just arrived. Only to get to my seat and find someone in it, go "oh god I'm on the wrong train" and have to sit down because it left. So yeah, I got on the wrong train! Thankfully, the couple of guys managed to look at my ticket and consulted their schedule. I was sooooo lucky. I got off at the next stop, Shinyokohama, and the next train that showed up was the one I was supposed to be on. God looks after fools, oh yes. XD Note to self: learn to look up. Heh. Maybe I'm more tired than I thought. [This was followed by me falling asleep for an hour or so of the train ride.]
Day Two, written on the train home from Takarazuka at about 9 or so:
So I made it to Ash without too much further mishap. She'd heard 20 to 8 rather than 7:20, so was late. Following what she'd told me to do, I wandered off in search of a pay phone, not an easy task. I didn't find one after a little bit, so I turned around and went back, and lo, there was Ash! XD So it was all good. We made it to her apartment and discovered another reason to love the red suitcase - the handle on the bottom. She took the top handle, I took the bottom, and we made it to the third floor without mishap, hooray! That handle confused me when we got the suitcase originally. I am now in love with it. Totally a genius design. I presented her with her various loot and emptied the big suitcase, then we gave it a new home on her balcony. We got ready for bed and chatted and stuff, went to sleep kinda late because I was awake thanks to my Shinkansen nap. So even on day one, I managed to keep normal hours.
Up at 8 today. It was sooo nice out - sunny and warm, probably ~17? So my laptop told me, anyway. I set up my laptop when I got up, and fell in love with Ash's kotatsu [a small low table with a heater under it, a blanket, then a hard top] - I want one. >.< We had french toast for breakfast...brunch? then showered and packed up for the day, and Ash figured out how to get to the gym, and off we went to the Evessa game! [The home team was the Osaka Evessa, and this was a pro Basketball game.] I have to say, it was awesome. As expected, I knew more about what the cheerleaders were doing than the players, but by the last quarter, I was really into the game. It was sooo close, but Evessa lost by 3 points. ;.; I kinda figure it's their own fault though...lots of fouls. A lot of fun, overall! Interestingly, lots of women in the crowd...about the reverse of what you'd expect at home. The cheerleaders and mascot were a lot of fun. Their costumes were really nicely done, very well-styled. Actually, the photobook of the cheerleaders was really tempting, except that it was 4500 Yen or something [about 45/50 dollars]. heh. Also, the last thirty seconds of the game took about 15 minutes, between the fouls and the time-outs being called. It was pretty hilarious.
After the game, because we were so close to Takarazuka we decided to head out that way. We grabbed a late lunch/early supper - Ash had Korean something, I had katsu [breaded pork] curry. Most delicious! Then we went to the onsen~ New trip goal: how many times can I visit an onsen in this trip? [Onsen are hot spring baths.] It was soooo awesome. The outdoor bath, located on the top of the building [7th story or so?] was fantasic. Just the right temperature, and a lovely view. I don't think my lower back muscles have been so relaxed in months, if that recently. Totally awesome, and there should be one of these at home. Random sidethought: new haircut is very cute when fluffy. Then we wandered back towards the station and browsed the cutest shop ever. They had kotastu chairs that were either a) tofu or b) cake, both with faces on them. Hehe. I want one to go with my non-existant kotatsu. XD Then it was off to Mister Donut for dessert! Interestingly, donuts are pretty much the same price here. I had one filled with fluffy [whipped] cream. SO delicious. Currently we're on the train home. I also want trains in Newfoundland. I maintain that they'd be awesome and would cut down on Metrobus' stupidity. Still not great at riding them standing though - I'll have to practice some more [did that as we got closer to home XD]. All in all, an awesome first day, I think. Of note - Japanese manhole covers are very pretty, as are the blue and green roof tiles. Dad, I love the camera, it's wonderful. I got some great shots at the game, of things on the far side of the court. [I'm going to start taking more pictures today, including of said tiles and covers.] Also, Japanese swim suits are cool - the tops zip up the front, and the bottoms are shorts. For entertainment value...I took a size L. As in Large. XD Hehehe. From now on, my swimsuit is located in my bag, so that "hey, there's an onsen, let's go!" can happen more often and without the rental fee (not that I object to the 300 yen.)
So that was it, days One and Two! I got here fine, and I'm having a lot of fun! Stay tuned and see what I do today!