Tokyo: Day 1

Needless to say, the flight was pretty long. I didn't get an emergency row seat so I was pretty cramped for the whole 14 hours. The good thing, however, was that every seat had a personal touch screen TV with a selection of about 20 movies, some games, and music. You could also view your flight information, which was just plain awesome because while sitting on the plane I could hit a button and see where the plane was on a map, how long until I reach a destination, and a lot of other information. I didn't do a whole lot besides watch movies and eat the airplane food, which wasn't too bad, they gave us three meals and some snacks. Anyway, I watched Jumper, Juno, No Country for Old Men, and Walk Hard. I also watched some episodes of a few sitcoms and stuff like that (they had some TV shows too). I got kind of burnt out on movies towards the end. Oh yeah, the woman sitting beside me was from Brazil, but she was Japanese and only spoke Japanese and Portuguese. I spoke Japanese to her a little bit. There was one point where I took out my textbook to look up a word. She had a lot of fun with the book, pointing at things and asking me about stuff and making me read things in Katakana. She went to the bathroom and a middle-aged Japanese man sat in her seat and started talking to me. He was really curious about me and why I was learning Japanese. They were all pretty interested in me, it was kind of fun.

When we got off the plane we had to go through the initial passport check thing, which was really quick, actually. They had a really cool machine that took your fingerprints and picture, it was all happy and colorful too. I liked it. Baggage claim is actually what took the longest. We had to wait, maybe 20 minutes for our bags. The lines for everything else were really light and customs just looked at our papers and moved us along. Yasu met us at the front of the airport and helped us figure out the trains. We had to wait a little while for our line, but once it came we got on and we were off. Yasu and I chatted mostly on the train and Erin said she was feeling a little nauseated so she just closed her eyes and waited. We were on the train for about an hour until we got to Asakusa. I enjoyed watching the people coming on and off the train. Some people were wearing really funky clothes, and a guy had a braclet with my name on it which I found really funny. OH! The cell phones here are really neat and very intuitive. I am really kind of jealous and will go into cell phones later once I know more.

Anyway, when we finally made it to Asakusa we got off the train and walked outside the station. The we were all kind of like "ok... now what?" We had no idea where the hostel was so I went in to post office and asked one of the clerks. I asked him in Japanese but he still insisted on exaggerated pointing motions and giving me non-verbal directions. I don't think he realized I could actually speak some Japanese even though I asked him where the hostel was in Japanese. We walked for a bit, following his directions and when I thought I knew where it was Yasu insisted that it was a different way. We soon got lost again and this time I asked a guy on a bike where it was. I think I really surprised him because I said "excuse me" while I was behind him and he turned around and was kind of surprised at my size, I think. Then I asked him in Japanese where the hostel was, he looked kind of delighted and pointed and told me in Japanese that "it is over there to the right", or that was the basic jist of what he said. Erin and I then proceeded to make fun of Yasu because the American guy did a better job of figuring out where the hostel was. We had some laughs and went to check into our rooms. The hostel is really small, but pretty nice in my opinion. Well, nice for $20 a night, anyway. It is really cozy and the staff is friendly and the location is in a really cool part of downtown Asakusa. What more could I really ask for? By the time we finished checking in and put some stuff in our room, which has a balcony by the way, the fact that we were in Tokyo had actually set in. The area we are in is so cool. First off, it is really clean. Second, it feels really safe and friendly. We figured out where a softbank was and when to get out phone. There was a little bit of a hassle with me actually getting the phone, so we just decided it would be easier if Yasu just got the phone and gave it to me. We got the phone and then decided to get dinner. We walked around a bit and found a restaurant that we eventually decided on. I got some Ramen, which was delicious, and I have no clue what Erin got for dinner. We were pretty tired after we ate, so we just meandered back to the Hostel. When we got there Yasu decided that he should go home since we were so tired. I pretty much just set up the phone, checked my email and then crashed, and here I am. Here are some pictures of the area we are in.


All of the restaurants have their menus made out of plastic food in windows outside. I thought that was kind of neat.


Here are some pictures from our Hostel's balcony outside out room.


Japanese TV is interesting. The commercials are cool and they shows are all really energetic, as far as I can tell right now. I am watching some kind of morning show, and before that there was a children's show in English, which was just plain hilarious. I think Erin and I are going to go grab some breakfast, so bye for now!