I'm in Japan!
So far, so good!
On Monday morning my dad drove me to the airport where I got a plane to the Gold Coast. I swear I sat next to a criminal - looked middle eastern, expensive looking sunglasses, with a brand name bag.
I thought the stop over would be painfully dull, but it really wasn't too long as it took a while to line up to check in, and then you have all the custom security processes to go through.
On the plane to Tokyo, I sat on the aisle of a three seater. Not long after, a girl came to sit on the window seat. I was hoping no one would sit between us so we could talk throughout the flight, but alas some big black dude came to sit inbetween us. I told them to feel free to ask me to get up if they wanted to get out, and both didn't seem too responsive. Oh well, guess they didn't want to talk.
Someone who DID want to talk though was a hot blonde chick. When we were walking on the tarmac towards the plane, she was in front of me and turned around to look at me. She sat in the middle seats and I could hear her strike up a conversation with a mother who sat next to her. I soon realised that she was just the extremely talkative type, and probably only wanted to talk to me and nothing else. She even struck up a conversation with people in other seats.
It was a good thing I prepaid for my meals, I don't think I could've gone through the whole flight without eating, though the dude next to me did. In fact, he slept through most of the flight. The girl, however, caved in after she saw me eat and bought a $5 Nissin noodle lol.
Towards the end of our flight there was a bit of talking between the three of us, after I asked the girl to borrow her pen to fill in some forms. Turns out this was a regular trip for the dude who lived here, but it was the girl's first time. She suggested sticking together to find a subway pass, and my thoughts quickly led to thinking about spending the trip together. I was planning on asking her out to dinner after we had settled into our hotels.
But she later didn't seem too interested, when at customs I said I would wait for her and she said no to worry. So I thought, ok, and went ahead. I went to the luggage carousel and waited. When I found mine, I started to walk off and she wished me good luck. I suggested we find the travel pass together and she said ok but asked me to go ahead. So I did, and went to the closest travel counter and waited.
When she came out, we decided to walk to Terminal 2 to get it and we talked. I figured she was a uni student, she said she was here for 30 days and only booked the trip after finishing her exams. We stuck together for a bit, but separated when we went to buy tickets. She was trying to work out a ticket vending machine, while I went to line up at a counter. I saw her approach another counter, ask some questions and walk away. Oh well.
The subway trip to Tokyo was kinda bad. I hadn't done a number two in a while and so felt discomfort, and all the stations we stopped at weren't on the map. I guess I felt abandoned as well by the girl. But the good thing was I was now learning independently, whereas whenever I'm with someone I tend to automatically go into Pippen mode and just follow.
I eventually made it to my subway stop Kudanshita. I had to ask several people, and even afterwards I asked a guy on a bike how to get to my hotel. What really surprised me was he took his time and used his resources (phone) to try to help me. All up it took about 10 minutes. I thought about saying not to worry about it as I thought I was bothering him, but figured it'd be kinda rude to just walk away after he tried.
He directed me in the right direction and I found my hotel. It was nice to finally find base and settle down a bit. I contacted Gavin, and he was going to the fish market auction the next day at 4am, there was no way I was going to make that as it was already 11pm and I knew I needed rest.
I did, however, meet up with that girl Anh I had met from the Lonely Planet site. I was hesitant to go out as I still hadn't figured out the subway system yet and didn't have a travel pass, but I was hungry. Ended up meeting with her in Shinjuku and we ate at a small restaurant. I had a bowl of rice with beef with a raw egg on top. Maybe I was just hungry, but that was damn delicious.
We seemed to get along ok, but I was really tired and my right eye was really red and sore. After we finished I went back to the hotel and slept.
When I woke up, I decided to go for a walk to understand my surroundings. I started with a small walk around the block, then walked all the way to Shinjuku which was about 2-3 stations away. I checked out some nice shops in the process and had breakfast at a McDonald's. I eventually found the camera shop Ang told me about and bought the three day travel pass.
I spent the rest of the time walking around all the shops in Shinjuku, before going back to Kudanshita to eat lunch and having a nap in my hotel.
I later met up with Gavin at Korakuen at the Tokyo Dome to watch a baseball game. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him, to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. He seemed so tanned, and we got along immediately, even though I had forgotten what it was like to talk to him, despite playing against him and with him years ago.
We only managed to get standing positions, but it was an awesome experience. He taught me how baseball worked, and I could see how supportive the crowd was. Even towards the end when the home team had surely lost, most of the crowd stayed and chanted loudly until the game was officially over.
We had dinner nearby as it was raining, and talked about stuff to do in Japan and how his previous trips had been. He started speaking really slowly, and I wondered if he was tired. I shouted him dinner as it wasn't too much, and besides, we were on holiday and I was grateful he took me to a baseball game.
After that I went back to the hotel and basically slept, as my legs were so tired from all that standing.
Woke up at like 5:30am today as the sun was already up!
On Monday morning my dad drove me to the airport where I got a plane to the Gold Coast. I swear I sat next to a criminal - looked middle eastern, expensive looking sunglasses, with a brand name bag.
I thought the stop over would be painfully dull, but it really wasn't too long as it took a while to line up to check in, and then you have all the custom security processes to go through.
On the plane to Tokyo, I sat on the aisle of a three seater. Not long after, a girl came to sit on the window seat. I was hoping no one would sit between us so we could talk throughout the flight, but alas some big black dude came to sit inbetween us. I told them to feel free to ask me to get up if they wanted to get out, and both didn't seem too responsive. Oh well, guess they didn't want to talk.
Someone who DID want to talk though was a hot blonde chick. When we were walking on the tarmac towards the plane, she was in front of me and turned around to look at me. She sat in the middle seats and I could hear her strike up a conversation with a mother who sat next to her. I soon realised that she was just the extremely talkative type, and probably only wanted to talk to me and nothing else. She even struck up a conversation with people in other seats.
It was a good thing I prepaid for my meals, I don't think I could've gone through the whole flight without eating, though the dude next to me did. In fact, he slept through most of the flight. The girl, however, caved in after she saw me eat and bought a $5 Nissin noodle lol.
Towards the end of our flight there was a bit of talking between the three of us, after I asked the girl to borrow her pen to fill in some forms. Turns out this was a regular trip for the dude who lived here, but it was the girl's first time. She suggested sticking together to find a subway pass, and my thoughts quickly led to thinking about spending the trip together. I was planning on asking her out to dinner after we had settled into our hotels.
But she later didn't seem too interested, when at customs I said I would wait for her and she said no to worry. So I thought, ok, and went ahead. I went to the luggage carousel and waited. When I found mine, I started to walk off and she wished me good luck. I suggested we find the travel pass together and she said ok but asked me to go ahead. So I did, and went to the closest travel counter and waited.
When she came out, we decided to walk to Terminal 2 to get it and we talked. I figured she was a uni student, she said she was here for 30 days and only booked the trip after finishing her exams. We stuck together for a bit, but separated when we went to buy tickets. She was trying to work out a ticket vending machine, while I went to line up at a counter. I saw her approach another counter, ask some questions and walk away. Oh well.
The subway trip to Tokyo was kinda bad. I hadn't done a number two in a while and so felt discomfort, and all the stations we stopped at weren't on the map. I guess I felt abandoned as well by the girl. But the good thing was I was now learning independently, whereas whenever I'm with someone I tend to automatically go into Pippen mode and just follow.
I eventually made it to my subway stop Kudanshita. I had to ask several people, and even afterwards I asked a guy on a bike how to get to my hotel. What really surprised me was he took his time and used his resources (phone) to try to help me. All up it took about 10 minutes. I thought about saying not to worry about it as I thought I was bothering him, but figured it'd be kinda rude to just walk away after he tried.
He directed me in the right direction and I found my hotel. It was nice to finally find base and settle down a bit. I contacted Gavin, and he was going to the fish market auction the next day at 4am, there was no way I was going to make that as it was already 11pm and I knew I needed rest.
I did, however, meet up with that girl Anh I had met from the Lonely Planet site. I was hesitant to go out as I still hadn't figured out the subway system yet and didn't have a travel pass, but I was hungry. Ended up meeting with her in Shinjuku and we ate at a small restaurant. I had a bowl of rice with beef with a raw egg on top. Maybe I was just hungry, but that was damn delicious.
We seemed to get along ok, but I was really tired and my right eye was really red and sore. After we finished I went back to the hotel and slept.
When I woke up, I decided to go for a walk to understand my surroundings. I started with a small walk around the block, then walked all the way to Shinjuku which was about 2-3 stations away. I checked out some nice shops in the process and had breakfast at a McDonald's. I eventually found the camera shop Ang told me about and bought the three day travel pass.
I spent the rest of the time walking around all the shops in Shinjuku, before going back to Kudanshita to eat lunch and having a nap in my hotel.
I later met up with Gavin at Korakuen at the Tokyo Dome to watch a baseball game. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him, to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. He seemed so tanned, and we got along immediately, even though I had forgotten what it was like to talk to him, despite playing against him and with him years ago.
We only managed to get standing positions, but it was an awesome experience. He taught me how baseball worked, and I could see how supportive the crowd was. Even towards the end when the home team had surely lost, most of the crowd stayed and chanted loudly until the game was officially over.
We had dinner nearby as it was raining, and talked about stuff to do in Japan and how his previous trips had been. He started speaking really slowly, and I wondered if he was tired. I shouted him dinner as it wasn't too much, and besides, we were on holiday and I was grateful he took me to a baseball game.
After that I went back to the hotel and basically slept, as my legs were so tired from all that standing.
Woke up at like 5:30am today as the sun was already up!
posted by toey | 06:28
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