2 days with mum in Tokyo
Mum and I have now went to Tokyo two days in a row and are now spending a well deserved day of resting at home. On Monday, we intended to go to Asakusa for shopping and museum purposes and to Ueno to see the huge art collection of the national museum. We started off in Asakusa and mum was delighted with the big Japanese market attached to the famous temple. She bought lots of souvenirs and I bought us lots of interesting food. Then we reached the purpose of our visit: A little Yukata store, which in my humble opinion is the best one around, where my mum wanted to buy Yukatas for all her closer friends. We ended up buying 7 or something of the kind and for the first time I actually ran out of money (I am in charge of the holiday money). Hence we spend the next hour or so hunting for an ATM and while doing so found more cute and beautiful little shops in the (less touristy) side streets. I finally bought a little bag for the dice I always keep in my handbag (the one I had always opened and I then found myself hunting for 7 little dice in my bag :-( Oh and the dice? Full set of D&D dice ^_^ just in case someone springs an adventure on me unexpected) and we also found an ATM after a VERY grumpy gentleman in another bank pointed us into the right direction for a branch of my local bank. Then mum was hungry and we were again idly wondering about to find something nice. We ended up in a really interesting place (Katharine - you would have loved it! Come back, so I can show you!) which allowed you to grill your (very nice) meat at your table Korean style. The beef came with a really tasty soup, some salad and some amazing Korean pickles. Sadly I wasn't hungry and even more sadly I am still allergic to meat, so I just kept staring at my mum's food *lol* She let me try everything though, which was very nice of her. At that point it was already quite late, but we decided to at least fit in one of our two museums and headed for the closer and smaller one... which was closed as it was a Monday and even in Japan all museums are closed on a Monday. Hence we decided to head straight home instead and congratulated each other on spending so much time shopping instead of rushing to be at the museum on time. The trip home was as usual longer than expected and we were both quite shattered when we got back. We then both tried on our new Yukatas (2 new ones for me =^_^= and 1 new one for my mum. The 4 other are for my mum's friends and family) and sat about chatting for a bit. I might see how my cat character would look in a Yukata or possibly a kimono. So far I have been drawing her naked to get a feel for her body proportions, but in the long run she is obviously meant to wear clothes (I just haven't decided which yet) May be I will get a chance to do that today...
Yesterday started off as "one of these days". I swear Murphy was sitting over mum and me and laughing its head of. About two weeks ago, I had made reservations for a Bunraku (Japanese puppet) play, which mum really wanted to see. I was quite pleased with myself about it, as I hate talking to Japanese people on the phone and felt very achieved when I managed to anyway. Hence we headed off very early in order to pick our tickets up at least half an hour before the play (which was meant to start at 11). On the way we got horribly lost in the Tokyo subway system, as the platform where we were meant to catch our train chose to have no signposts what so ever and we hence ended up in the wrong direction on an express. After a lot of panicking and running about we then got onto the right train and into the (suspiciously empty) theatre, where I had to try to explain to two ladies who seemed to outright refuse to understand my Japanese (first time that has happened to me in a very long time) that I had a reservation and would like my tickets. It took a lot of me half shouting for them to understand me and them speaking waves of rapid Japanese at me (which part of "I'm sorry, my Japanese is very bad - could you possibly speak a little slower" can people not understand? I DON'T want to hear that my Japanese is amazing as a response (especially as it is blatantly not) and I am NOT trying to be humble - I JUST want you to speak slower, so I have a chance to understand what you are saying!) until they revealed to me that we were in the wrong theatre. Apparently there is a New National theatre and a National theatre, which should not be confused and are on different sides of Tokyo. The homepage where I got the number to book my tickets from and the play schedule did not provide me with a map as to where the theatre is or for that matter a clear name - it just said "small theatre" and the only "small theatre" I could find was a subdivision of the "New national theatre". Anyway, at that point there was no way we would make it to the other side of Tokyo in time and I was feeling very fed up with the country and the whole situation. I am sure if I had been able to read the Japanese version of the homepage, I would have realized my error in time, but as I couldn't, I didn't. Combined with my inability to communicate with the ladies at the box office and me accidentally ordering my mother something with a lot of chocolate and a little coffee, when she had wished for something with a lot of coffee and no chocolate in the coffee shop we fled to in order to review the situation, I was reaching the end of my nerves. The result was that my mum didn't know how to deal with the situation of her grown up daughter being at the verge of tears, while reiterating just how sick she was of Japan and how she just seemed to be too stupid for the language and would never manage to be able to read or speak it. So - mum decided that I should send an e-mail to my home University in order to tell them that I would be dropping Japanese and that I also should start packing to return home, which took me a little by surprise. I then told her that I was fine, I just needed to get it out of my system and that she was not actually suppose to solve my problem, which seemed to put her completely at her wits end and made her think that I was just being unhappy for the hell of it. *SIGH* It took a bit of time for me to calm down enough to remind her that I had the same waves of desperation when I first moved to England, where everything seemed strange and different and I found myself not understanding a word the Indian gentleman at the local Sainsbury was trying to tell me or for that matter the gentleman at the train station with the incredibly heavy accident of indefinable origin and that in my humble opinion it was just part of first living in a different country - especially as I had been enjoying 12 years of daily lessons in English by the point I moved to the UK compared with 2 years of once to twice a week Japanese.
So, after the Do-rama had been averted, we went to Shinjuku, as mum had to go to the international book store again to find some presents for friends. While she did that, I decided that the best way out of my crisis was to improve my Japanese (I follow the RPG principle with most of my problems: If you can't beat the end boss, you haven't levelled up enough yet) and raided the "how to learn Kanjis" and "Japanese is fun (bloody liars)" section. Actually found some interesting bits and pieces, like a calendar that provides you with a new Kanji each day and a book that helps making up connections between Kanjis and their meanings. May be it will help :-) I also decided that I had been sulky enough for one day and asked mum if it would be okay to head to Harajuku, so I could have a look through one of the shops described in her guide in which you were suppose to find a "Goth kitty" (nothing like strange Japanese cuteness to brighten a day). She was really happy that I had gone out of "sulky I-hate-the-world and want to go home to hide in my bed" mode and readily agreed. Hence we put back our piles of books (last time we didn't and complained all day that we had to drag the books around with us) and headed back to Shinjuku station. I had to recharge my train card though in order to get anywhere and headed for the next machine, just to encounter the most likely last old charging machine in the whole of Shinjuku station. At the press of a button the screen was flooded with Kanji and I had no idea what I was doing - which I think was the point where the day got a rather comic twist. There is only so much that can go wrong in one day, before things get funny. After a lot of wondering about, we found one of the new machines, which readily accepted my money and did not ask me bizarre things I didn't understand. We then went on to Harajuku where it turned out that the shop I wanted to see had inventory on that particular day and would only open at 5pm for a couple of hours. Again cue giggles from mum and me and jokes along the lines of "'A good start to the week' said the man that was meant to be hanged on Monday". We then concluded that the only way to make this day better, would be to have food now. So - off we went to search for what mummy's guide described as "the best organic restaurant in town with a large selection of vegetarian dishes". After walking through most of Harajuku we had to admit, that it looked as if that particular restaurant was no more. Determined not to be beaten by this day, we then chose a Vegetarian restaurant from my guide and went hunting for that - just to find a freshly renovated shop, soon to be a hair salon as the sign explained to us. *massive we-really-should-have-stayed-at-home-today SIGH* Giving up on guides in general, we started to just wonder about and agreed that there had to be a restaurant somewhere, where we could just walk in... just to stumble upon the restaurant. As in the restaurant described in both our guides, just under different names (it was a store restaurant, so one guide named the store, while the other the actually restaurant). Inside was a massive cue, but after about half an hour we were guided to a table and released upon the midday buffet - which made all the effort worth while. SO nice *purrrrrrr* There was some lovely salad, something that tasted like cooked mild horse radish and was really good, some tofu (with raspberry sauce o.O), a coconut/curry soup and a lot of other tasty things, I can't remember right now. There were also a lot of young parents/mothers with their small children about, which was actually quite cute (Japanese children seem to be a lot quieter on the whole than European children).
Afterwards, we went to find shoes for me, as I had chosen the "sitting elegantly in a theatre" shoes, rather than the "walking all over Tokyo" variety. The very nice shoe store I remembered turned out to have been over taken by a mobile phone shop though... *SIGH* I am glad to report that this was the last "what the hell have we done to this day?!" incident though. We ended up walking into the adidas store, as most other shoe stores more specialized in even higher heels than the ones I was wearing and I walked out with two new pairs. Bright red trainers and turquoise ballerinas. HAPPY! I immediately changed in the next coffee and then felt appropriately equipped to challenge everything that Tokyo might throw at me. Mum then remarked that it only lacked about an hour until the store I came to see would open and hence we decided to go on an exploration tour through the local clothe stores. There was one rock store mentioned in my guide, which sounded very tempting, so we went off to have a look. The store its self was nice, though unreasonably priced to put it mildly, but it was located in the middle of one of the best alternative clothes streets I have ever had the pleasure to come across and I as I have been complaining for a while about a severe lack of colour in my autumn/winter/spring wardrobe, mum and I decided to see if we could not do something against this particular problem. About 15 minutes later we wondered into a very nice looking little store, tugged away in a side street and full of some of the strongest colours I have ever seen in this country. About an hour later we came back out with 4 new short sleeved tops, 3 new long sleeved tops and 1 new jacket in a variety of reds, oranges, greens and purples. YAY! Mum rediscovered one of her favourite hobbies in the process - namely: using her daughter as a Barbie doll - and I think I barely left the changing room at all, as every time I had peeled myself out of one piece, my mum handed me 5 more to try on *lol* It was great fun though and it was lovely to go clothe shopping again. I don't seem to have a lot of people here, who enjoy clothe shopping really - also shopping with my mum is something I have really missed since moving out =^_^= so "yay" for accidentally missing the Bunraku performance, I guess. Afterwards we finally headed back to Shinjuku to pick up our books and then home, which as usual took a lot longer than anticipated (the fact that we moved about in the middle of the rush hour didn't help and we ended up waiting in the station until the worst had passed). At home we both collapsed and I found two texts on my phone from Garry, asking me if I would like for him to take the afternoon of work, so we would have a chance to talk again. Really, I should have said "no", because I was far too shattered to stay up late, but I wanted to have a chance to chat again, without constantly being interrupted when one or the other of us has to keep an appointment/return to work/go to sleep. So, I spend the next two hours talking with Garry, even though I kept falling asleep and felt really guilty that I did. I am sorry! *cry* I will see him in 5 days though, so I can make it up to him then *squeeeeeeeeeeeeee*
This morning, I woke up with the typical symptoms of a cold :-S headache, sore throat, funny sounding voice and blocked nose. Meh! I hope a day of rest, will get rid of it again, as I would hate to be ill when I am in England or for that matter when mum and I want to do something. We shall see...