Japan

I want to start with my special thanks to Ai, Christine, and Tony (Honorable Mentions to: Chris Weir, Emily [Jason Demant’s friend], Jane, Jason Demant, Jenn Pedde, and Tonya). Ai and Christine helped me a ton with the planning and execution of this trip; I owe you guys big time. Tony has always been that friend who is willing to travel the world with me without complaining (too much) about where we are going, how much it costs, how long we’re going for, and (most importantly) me. This trip would have been way worse without the help from all of you…so…Thanks!

August 31, 2010:

Tony and I met in Japan since I was coming from California and he was coming from Tennessee. Fortunately Tony came on this trip because, if for nothing else, he was able to help me carry my bags since I was going straight to Hong Kong from Japan. We determined taking trains to our hotel will be the best bet; we had these Japan Rail (JR) passes but we couldn’t use them yet (I’ll explain later). We asked the train person at the airport if they can help us get to our specific hotel (Hotel Monterey La Soeur Ginza) and the woman tells us which subways we have to use.

*** side note (#1): I booked my flight and the hotels on Expedia; I’m content with the end result in terms of price and convenience. Ai provided me with the hotels and trip advisor was a great asset, too; I’ll have to write reviews for these hotels on trip advisor at some point because I liked all of the places we stayed at. ***

Back to where I left off…

Thanks to Christine, we had a subway map already and it seemed fairly straightforward. Once we got off at the stop the woman told us to get out at, we see a map (which is in all the subway stations and is very helpful) but we don’t see our hotel on the map. We ask someone else for help and we find out she told us the wrong stop (both stops are in Ginza, so it wasn’t that big of a deal). We get to the correct stop, find our hotel on the map, and start the walk. It was hot and humid and we were lugging around a bunch of bags. There are two Monterey hotels (of course) and we go to the wrong one. They are sister hotels and our hotel was only another minute away (so, no big deal). We finally get to our hotel, check in, and settle in. At some point Tony hits his head since the ceilings in some places are so low. We set the over/under at 2 total head hits for him and I took the under. Fortunately for him, I was right.

We head out to dinner but can’t find the exact place I wanted to go to and we eventually just pick a random place. Japan has a lot of restaurants, etc, that are either a few floors up on a building or hidden a few floors down in the basement. You don’t always know that you’re going to end up walking a few floors down until you go in. The place we went to was a few floors down but it was pretty cool. Now it isn’t customary to tip in Japan but a lot of places add service charges (and tax), so don’t let the prices fool you; we ended up paying about $56 per person (I incorrectly guesstimated about $45 per person). I had an awesome dessert, so I was happy. Our waiter was super interested in us Americans and was showing us his Hideki Matsui batting stance (no lie). After we left, some random woman in the street who spoke the best English we had heard to this point asked us if we wanted to go to some bar that had a lot of pretty bartenders. Tony was intrigued and then I reminded him that I don’t think she’s trying to sell us drinks. We decided not to go but maybe we should have…perhaps it was only just a bar with pretty bartenders…I guess I’ll never know...haha.

September 1, 2010:

The next day we planned to go to Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Roppongi. Since we were going to be using the subway a lot, we bought an unlimited day pass. The subway is very inexpensive but you need to make sure you buy the right ticket because we wasted a few bucks here and there because we didn’t pay attention to the fares from one place to the next. If and when any of you go to Japan, please contact me and I’ll be sure to explain how to make best use of the subway. While out and about, I saw this weird looking people mover (sort of like the ones you see at the airport) but only it curved up and down; I guess it was a love child of an escalator and a people mover. Since I spent the last almost 4 years of my life in the business, I had to take a picture of it. While I was taking a picture of it some random girl wanted to be in the picture and flashed me the peace sign but I missed it. Of course the people mover thing was functional and moved her away. We were going to go to this place in Shinjuku called Toto Super Space but it was closed; if you want to know what the Toto Super Space is all about I say you look it up online and have a laugh. We went up the Tokyo Tower in Roppongi; if I had a nickel for ever tower that I’ve been to just like this one I’d have 4 or 5 nickels.

*** side note (#2): Actually, lets figure out how many nickels. I’ve been up the CN Tower in Toronto and whatever the tower in New Zealand is. I’ve seen the space needle in Seattle (but didn’t go up it). There was some other tower in Osaka that I went to (later in this trip). Alright…I’m done counting towers. ***

Once our day was over we took the subway back. The subway platforms have certain subway cars designated for women only because groping is a problem during rush hour. Tony and I went to one of the non-women only cars but this young (maybe 12 year old) girl came to our car too clearly not concerned about the groping issue…haha. It wasn’t rush hour and there were guys going to the women only car, too, but it was funny. I was super jet lagged and went to sleep for the night around 6 or 7 pm local time.

September 2, 2010:

This was the day Tony and I were supposed to go to the base of Mt. Fuji. We almost made it.

It takes about 3 hours to get to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. We decided to start early. Prior to coming to Japan, we got these JR Passes for traveling around. These passes are awesome. The best one, for us, was a 7 day unlimited use pass but we were in Japan longer than 7 days, which is why we didn’t use the JR pass from the airport to our hotel when we arrived. Prior to using the JR pass, you have to activate it; so, we left early in the morning to get it activated and to make our way to Mt. Fuji, however, the office for activating our passes doesn’t open until 9 am (and now it’s 7 am). With two hours to kill, we grabbed some McDonald’s breakfast and sat around wherever there was air conditioning.

*** side note (#3): In a past life (more specifically, during my time with Carrier), I learned that air conditioning is actually the process of controlling temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and distribution but in this case (like the majority of the people I know) I’ll use the term “air conditioning” to describe cooling. ***

And…we’re back…

The office opened up and we activated our JR Passes. We need to take two trains and one bus to get there. As it turns out, we didn’t go to Mt Fuji in the most cost effective way as we could have. Again, for those interested, I can explain how you can learn from my mistake if and when you decide you want to go to Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. Long story short, we get to the bus depot and buy tickets to go to the base. Someone tells us what bus to take and we jump on. The bus we jumped on didn’t go to the base, it drove around the mountain to the other side and it took an hour to do it. The bus ride was supposed to be a 1 hour ride anyway and we didn’t think much of it until towards the end when we noticed that we were moving away from the base. Once we got off the bus on the other side of Mt. Fuji, we went to the ticket counter to ask some Japanese woman, who didn’t speak English, for help. All she did was look at our tickets and show as much shock and make as many strange sounds without speaking a lick of English. We knew something was wrong but we already knew that when the damn bus didn’t take us to the base of the mountain. We were lucky to have this older Japanese woman approach and ask us in perfect English if we needed help. She was sporting a NY t-shirt, so I already liked her. She helped us with the ticket counter and trying to figure out what our best option was. It turned out our best option was to cut our losses, jump on the JR train that happened to be right there and head back to Tokyo, which is exactly what we did. I asked her how she spoke English so well and it turned out she lived in Alameda, California for a huge portion of her life. So, she was wearing a NY t-shirt and she lived some 40 minutes away from where I lived in California…small world. That woman was awesome.

Once we were back in Tokyo, we waited in line at this bar that always had people waiting in line to get in. Apparently the beer was, on average, minus 2 degrees Celsius. I was baffled that people were willing to stand in this high 80s to low 90 degree weather (not to mention the humidity) to get into this place. So, we decided to wait in line and get in (it was like this every day). We get in and have a beer but the place was overrated except for this one white dude who was getting liquored up by some Japanese people. I think it was a business deal; they had the drinks and the women (plain looking women). There was some other random American that came in with us that was in Japan on business. He was by himself and we had a beer with him. At the end of this day, we had counted 13 people wearing protective masks over their mouths. It was a common theme in Tokyo (the record was 15 on September 7, 2010).

September 3, 2010:

We considered waking up early to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market but we were still defeated from our Mt. Fuji debacle and decided to sleep in. We checked out the Imperial Palace and then we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market for lunch. I don’t know if I missed anything by not going to the market in the morning but it was awesome during lunch time and we had an awesome lunch there as well (in the top 3 for meals on this trip). The place we went to have sushi (that was what we had for lunch, btw) was pretty cool with cool employees, too.

After lunch we went to Asakusa. This place was pretty cool. There were markets and stores for souvenirs (all I bought were post cards). There were these kids that were trying to practice their English on the tourists; one of the came up to talk to Tony but he didn’t notice. When I mentioned it to him later, he seemed uninterested. I don’t think they came up to me because either they thought I was from India or because I was quite possibly the darkest person they have ever seen (they didn’t seem scared…haha). They had this thing near the temple where you could get a fortune by shaking this box and getting this twig that came out and the twig had some writing that corresponded to some fortune..etc…etc. Anyway, I did this. A donation isn’t required but a 100 Yen donation is suggested. I had maybe 10 Yen on me and Tony said to do it anyway. Well, I got a bad fortune. It read, “Your happiness in the pass was hidden among the clouds, like you lost all your dependence. Going over a mountain with a harp means that you have hidden yourself from the world. If you can’t meet a hermit, after climbing up the mountains, you will not feel yourself at ease. You will be completely at a loss with your empty heart.” Then it says, “*Your wish will be hard to be realized. *The sick person is hopeless. *The lost article will not be found. *The person you are waiting for will not come. *It is bad to build a new house or to remove. *It is bad to make a trip. *Both marriage and employment are bad.” The second part is because you’re supposed to make a wish before getting your fortune. Don’t worry about me and this fortune…trust me.

There was some holy water that people were pouring on their hands near this temple. I figured after my bad fortunate I needed to cleanse myself and I poured some water on my hands too. Tony said I needed to shower in it. Then there were people throwing coins into this pit and praying. I would have done the same but I was out of coins with the exception of this mystery coin that Tony and I had; it was the only coin we didn’t know how much it was worth. We later found out it was only worth 5 Yen.

We go out in Roppongi that night. It took us like 40 minutes to find this bar that was unreasonably difficult to find based on the signs. We went there because apparently a lot of expats go there but I guess a lot of gold diggers go there too. It was a waste, really, but it was an interesting place to people watch. I’m sure Tony and I could have done OK with the locals but we had our two beers and bailed.

September 4, 2010:

It was time to check out of Tokyo and head to Osaka. We weren’t about to lug my bags all around Japan, so we kept them at the hotel because we were coming back here anyway. The hotel was super cool about it, didn’t charge me, and my bags were returned in the same condition. We get to Osaka and checked out the Osaka Castle near our hotel. I put on some Ninja Warrior clothes too for a small fee. Later on that night we went to the Umeda Sky Building. This was a cool looking building that had two escalators cut across empty space (basically). I think this place was sort of like a date place because I only recall seeing couples there. We had dinner at some restaurant at one of the highest levels (the highest floor you could have dinner anyway).

*** side note (#4): Tony and I would always down our waters in three seconds and be waiting days for refills sometimes. ***

After dinner, we went to the top for a panoramic view. At the top I also had my chance at redemption with one of those fortune things. This time I did have the 100 Yen to donate and this time I got a good fortune. It read, “Do not dwell on the past; make your mind anew and troubles will change to joy. Under the blessing of the Devine, good fortune will come.” Then it says, “ILLNESS: You will get better; LOVE/MARRIAGE: If you are true to your own feelings, things will go well; THE PERSON YOU AWAIT: He will come; LAWSUITS: You will win; LOST ITEM: It will reappear or you will find something to take its place; BUYING & SELLING: Do both at the same time; BUILDING/MOVING: With due consideration; TRAVEL: Be careful en route; MONEY: Effort pays off; EXAMINATIONS: With hard work you’ll succeed.” Tony mocked me about “The person you await” one with it saying “he” will come. I told him I’d sue his ass (since it said I’d win lawsuits).

September 5, 2010:

Only one day and night in Osaka and we were off to Kyoto, which was only 15 minutes or so away by train. Upon Ai’s recommendation, we went to the Nijo Castle. This place was super cool and had squeaky floors, just like she told me, so that ninja’s couldn’t sneak up on you. You’d have to go there to understand (or just ask me for more details). We went to this dinner buffet in our hotel and almost put the place out of business. They’ve probably never seen two people capable of eating so much. This was in the top 3 for meals on this trip. We went to this beer garden on the rooftop of our hotel. Like a lot of other places, this was sadly tricky for us to get to for a couple of seconds because only one elevator went to the roof. We weren’t fooled for that long but it was sad it took us even a second or two. In all fairness, signs and maps could be better (not including the subway maps and the maps in the subway stations, which were awesome). While we enjoyed a beer, we chatted with this one waitress that loved chatting with us Americans. She walked us out and was sad to see us go. We told her we’d come back there the next day for dinner and drinks because she said she was working but there must have been a misunderstanding because she wasn’t there the next day…oh well. We went to this other bar on the lobby level of our hotel and I had some cold saki.

*** side note (#5): All the women working at the hotel (in the main lobby) wore kimonos. They did all the heavy lifting for the bags, too. They wanted to assist me with my bags but I refused since they were way too heavy for these tiny Japanese women (I’m not being sexist/prejudice…they struggled when they attempted to carry my stuff); they seemed to appreciate the gesture and allowed me to handle my own bags. The staff was super helpful and cool. ***

September 6, 2010:

We went out to check out temples around town. The subway system in Kyoto was as awesome as the subway system in Tokyo (and I think the air conditioning was better). We only saw 1 of the 3 temples/shrines that we wanted to plus some other random temple/shrine. The only one we saw that we planned on seeing was the Heian Jingu Shrine. It was a cool place with the place where you can toss your coin into the pit and pray (and I did) and cleanse yourself with the water (I did that again). Tony used the water to cool down.

We went to the Beer Garden place for dinner and grilled our own food. This meal rounds out the top 3 for meals on this trip. We saw this random, old Australian couple there and they chatted with us for a bit. Then we went back down to the lobby bar (called the Castle Gate) for a drink. This Australian couple was there again but now they were hanging out with this Japanese couple. It was funny to see them communicate with each other. The Australian dude wanted to buy the Japanese dude a drink and it was funny just watching it all go down. The Japanese dude wasn’t drinking cheap drinks either. At the end of the night, they wanted Tony to take a picture of them and I swear there was some potential “swinging” action that was going down (If you saw the picture, you’d know why I had this thought). It was funny to see it all.

September 7, 2010:

We leave Kyoto and get back to Tokyo. We hadn’t checked out Harajuku, so we go there for the evening and for dinner. I find out that part of my lcd screen on my digital camera is busted but it is still functional. I’m not sure how this happened because I did nothing to it, that I can recall, to cause this damage. This is, perhaps, poetic justice for me busting the lcd screen on my work blackberry two days before my last day. Anyways…Harajuku was cool and we had some Indian food there. These Indian dudes definitely didn’t know Japanese (they told me they knew very little) but they were running their business there. We went back to Roppongi for a final beer and then called it a night.

September 8, 2010:

I know I’m leaving some detail out (I can think of some that I’m too lazy to find a place to add it) and I probably wrote too much.

The trip was over and it was time to take the JR to the airport. We went from point (Hotel) to point (Airport) pretty fast and it still took over 2 hours (I want to say almost 3 hours) to get there. Once we were at the airport, I ran into some trouble at the check in counter because I was entering Hong Kong as a visitor but I didn’t have a return ticket out of Hong Kong yet (or on me). I wasn’t concerned and it didn’t turn out to be a big deal with them (and immigration didn’t check). I have a working visa for Hong Kong but it was still in Hong Kong; no big deal, really, but it made check in a little longer. I can explain this process, etc, more as to why it wasn’t a big deal and why I wasn’t doing anything wrong if any of you are interested.

I did some duty free shopping and then waited with Tony at his gate since his flight was taking off first. Tony was trying to figure out if these two girls that were sitting nearby were lesbians. I thought one of the girls was a guy before he even mentioned it but it turned out she was a girl. I don’t think they were lesbians but this one dude that was sitting with them (I think he was one of the girl’s bf) was wearing a t-shirt that had San Francisco and New York written on it. What a weird combo and I’m not sure why both places were written on this shirt but I told Tony he should get the shirt for me since I’ve lived (basically) in both places. It was funny because Tony always gave me shit for wanting to tell people that I met that I’ve lived in both New York and in California. I figure I would appeal to more people by saying I’ve lived in both states. Now I was moments from moving to Hong Kong. How the hell am I going introduce myself to strangers now?