In Japan again...

This entry was typed on Friday the 20th at approximately 7:30-8pm. I am posting it Japan time Saturday the 21st at about 4:30pm. I am on an island called Miyajima near Hiroshima in a lovely Ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn, and this is my first time on the internet in about two days. Seriously?

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Woah. So yeah, we’re pretty much in Japan, and it’s basically the most awesome thing ever. So let’s get this extremely long update out of the way because I was too tired to so much as open my computer yesterday (it’s Friday evening here right now by the way, that means like, 5am Friday home-time).

I got up at the crack of 4am on Wednesday the 18^th to the sound of my Dad opening the door. I then blearily finished up my packing and cleaning (yes, I am that much of a procrastinator), dragged my bags downstairs and greeted my equally sleepy brother and his girlfriend, Lacey. Zack had volunteered *coughcough* to drive us to the airport, and Lacey kindly stopped in to say her final goodbyes.

So we reached the airport, I checked my thankfully under 50lbs. suitcase, and made our way through the very crowded airport security line. Soon, Mom and Dad were on their plane and I was waiting for mine. After an uneventful wait, I was off and in the air. My flight had two legs, first to Newark, then to Narita, Tokyo. Mom and Dad’s flight went through Chicago.

The flight itself was pretty boring of course. I slept from somewhere over Ontario to about Alaska I believe, then watched some movies and TV shows. When I arrived in Narita at 1:34pm on the Thursday the 19^th, I had two tasks before Mom and Dad (from here on out referred to as M&D because I’m lazy) arrived at 3pm. I had to find out how to ship my ginormous bag with all my college stuff to Osaka, and I had to find our first ATM to use. I was prepared for difficulties, but that proved unnecessary. I used Kuroneko Yamato delivery service to send the bag, and it was super easy, and there were signs for the ATM. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeesey!

…I’m never saying or typing that ever again.

M&D arrived, and now we were headed for our hotel. We got on the Narita Express, which I did have experience with, to Tokyo station. From there we knew that the hotel was a short walk, but we didn’t actually have directions because the map we printed turned out to be useless. So we hopped in a taxi. Interestingly it was my first Japanese taxi ride, for in my 6 weeks last summer, taking a taxi never really even occurred to me.

The hotel is called Sumisho Hotel, and it is a Ryokan, or a traditional Japanese Inn. Well, in this case it’s kind of a mix. Apparently, triple rooms in Japan are kind of rare, and even more so when it comes to traditional Japanese rooms, so our room is a pillbox sized room with three small beds squashed in. While I was relatively used to the smallness of some quarters in Japan, M&D were amused, and Mom claimed several times to feel like a giant, a common feeling amongst foreigners here.

Apparently there is a bath here somewhere downstairs but we haven’t had the time or inclination to make use of it yet. So whenever we aren’t out and about (which we almost always are) we are sleeping or chilling.

So after settling in, dropping our stuff and fixing ourselves after about 14-17 hours of traveling, we headed out in search of a restaurant. Aaaaaand of course the strip of road we choose to check out turns out to be really difficult to find a good restaurant that had a bit of English for us to go off of. So after a longish walk, we finally end up in a restaurant.

Our next problem is figuring out how to order, and the portion sizes. You see, the establishment we ended up in was the likes of which I had only seen once before, and that was with someone who knew what they were doing. It was kind of like a bar/restaurant, where you order several small portions of different things. Now we wanted to order some sushi, and communicated to the server that we wanted two of this and two of that, etc. We also ordered a salad, a couple of sushi rolls, some gyoza (dumplings), and I specifically ordered this fried shrimp and cheese on a skewer thingy. This would have been the perfect amount. However, due to a miscommunication, the server thought we wanted four orders of 4 pieces of sushi totaling 16 pieces in addition to the rolls, when in fact we only wanted about 4-6. The second he brought the food, we thought, Oh No.

It was SO MUCH food. And I have to say unfortunately I don’t feel that I held up my end of the eating because at that moment, the weird on and off fever thing that I had been having since Tuesday morning had returned and sapped me of any appetite. And then I had a fever of course and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. However, M&D braved on and consumed the large amount of food with amazing, if uncomfortable, success.

We stopped at a 7-11 on the way back for some water, and Mom got yogurt for the morning and we turned in for the night.

The next morning, this morning actually, started quite early. We got up at about 4am again (though it was Japan time this time, and given the whole jet lag thing, I have no idea what that means in our sleep schedule) and at 5, headed out to the nearest subway station. About 10-15 minutes later we were at Tsukiji Fish Market. Now the reason for the early start is that Tsukiji is a famous fish market that deals in fish that had probably just been caught the day or night before, and the idea is to get all of the fish out to the various buyers by 8am.

What can I say. It was big, and full of fish. Don’t get me wrong, it was totally awesome, but pretty straight forward. There were all sorts of people walking around, selling fish and driving these little carts around like crazy. So after obtaining a lot of photos, we headed off the main drag and did some shopping. We found a sushi restaurant that someone suggested to Mom and had a sushi breakfast there (it was only 730am at this point). BEST SUSHI EVER. Seriously, we are all ruined for sushi anywhere else, ever. I mean, the sushi was literally the freshest we could possibly obtain and if the price was any indication, some of the best.

We then followed the waitresses’ directions towards Ginza, a moderately upscale shopping district in Tokyo that Mom wanted to check out, and that I had never managed to see the first time around. Unfortunately, we came to the realization that while we were up early for the fish market, that didn’t mean the rest of Tokyo was up at 8am. Or the stores at least.

So we wandered, stopped at an ATM where Dad had to call the HSBC collect number to straighten out a problem with his debit card, and eventually ended up at a nearby park where we planned to kill some time until the post office opened so we could cash in some travelers checks.

Once our business there was done (the time being around 11am), we stopped in at the Sony building because it was cool. They had all sorts of awesome 3D TVs and video games and things on display that made me wish (once again) that I was filthy rich. Alas and alack.

We then hopped on the subway and took a couple of lines to get to our next destination, Asakusa. Out of all of the places we visited today, this was the only one I really had any experience with. If you followed my blog from last summer you might remember that I actually visited there twice before, but it was nice this time to show it to my parents.

We shopped around the long alley with all sorts of vendors, and then wandered off that main drag in search of food. After a bit we found this perfect, small venue that seemed to attract the locals, and therefore we deemed ‘authentic’. M&D enjoyed their food more than I did (I had a fried pork meal that when I had the same dish in Kyoto was much much better), but it was overall a lovely meal, and we headed out in search of a nearby department store of note.

We only spent 20-30 minutes in the Rox Department store, but that’s okay with me, because if I had had time, I could see myself spending a lot of money there. Awesome clothes. As it was I ended up buying a necklace that was Alice in Wonderland themed (not the recent movie though). I have however vowed to myself that once I get some girlfriends at Kansai, we are going shopping.

Next stop was Sensoji temple. We had to back track a bit because our search for food had taken us a bit further afield than originally planned, but it was worth it. This was M&D’s first temple experience here I believe.

Back on the subway, our next goal was Ueno. The park, specifically. This was to be our last stop thankfully, because all of us were in considerable pain from the ambitiously long day. We made our way pretty directly through the park with the Japanese National Museum in our sights.

Apparently today was out lucky day too because though the museum usually closed at around 5:30 (the current time being 4:30) today it was open until 8. Not only that but they had a special exhibit about the origins of China. While I focus on Japan and Japanese history, China is still very interesting to me. Not to mention the fact that Mom had taken a Chinese history course in college and retained a certain fascination for the subject.

We wearily but enthusiastically toured the China exhibit, and then with our last remaining strength glanced at the rest of the museum to the best of our ability. I got another necklace (I know, I know) that I couldn’t resist that featured one of the artifacts from the earliest known Chinese civilization that was also really pretty.

Mom got a special stamp that represents her name. She told her name to a friendly Japanese woman nearby who translated it into the closest Kanji approximation for the Chinese woman who was selling the stamps. That woman then translated it into the old Chinese script that the stamps were of. It was very cool.

We could not even comprehend the agony taking a subway or train back to the hotel would entail so we took another taxi. I should start giving Dad more credit for his good ideas…

So here we are, crashing at the hotel. M&D at this point are napping and I think I might join them. It’s about 8:30 and I’m hungry but sleep seems more important now. We might just get something from 7-11 later.

Will update on that and more in my next entry. Oyasumi nasai minna-san! Good night everyone!