BootsnAll Travel Network



Tokyo, Japan

The travel day between Taipei and Tokyo was a relatively late one for me.  I didn’t have to wake up at 4am, it wasn’t rushed, I was able to get breakfast from the local vendors and take my time.  I was getting picked up by the same limo service that took me to Taipei initially when I arrived several days ago.  Mrs. Chiang said it was the easiest and most convenient way and since I really didn’t pay for accommodation, I figured what the hell.  So I took my mercedes taxi to the airport and watched faceoff on my new little video mp4 player.  It is real tight and I love it.  My flight was at 1250, and luckily for me after some traffic and arriving at the airport later that I had originally planned, Cathay set up a special check in for flights to Japan, including to Tokyo.

The flight was scheduled for almost 3 hours.  Not bad considering there are usually good movies to pass the time.  I was disappointed with my short flight from Seoul to Taipei, as there really weren’t any movies to watch.  But I guess that’s fine considering the flight was about 2 hours.  But for Cathay it is a little disappointing, I mean if the flight is 50 minutes they still serve a meal.  Nowadays I hear that on airlines in America you have to pay like 10 bucks for a meal?  That is mindboggling considering how disgusting the meals usually are!

Anyway this flight definitely brought me back on the Cathay Pacific bandwagon.  This time they had like 10 movies to choose from as well as TV shows and a few games.  I watched “The Pursuit of Happiness” starring Will Smith and his son.  It was pretty good, it did the job and passed the time, and then after the movie was over I switched to playing a version of Arkanoid (any old school gameboy fans out there know exactly what i’m talking about).  I was also really hungry when I got on the flight.  There was no Burger King after customs and stuff, and only local crappy, overpriced restaurants.  I was out of cash, was not taking out any more, so I just sucked it up and waited for the usually dreadful but filling airplane food.  Well it was definitely dreadful, but was filling and did the job momentarily.  That was until I decided to have some Asahi Super Dry beer (Japanese beer, and quite good).  After several beers, I was feeling a little tipsy (altitude coupled with not drinking so much on the trip), I was craving munchies.  I contemplated calling the attendant to ask for some munchies or snacks, but resisted and just figured I would get something when I got to Tokyo.  Man was I wrong and really stupid for not getting something at the airport either in Taipei or in Tokyo.

When I arrived in Tokyo I did the usual customs, get your bags, and take out money spiel.  Narita though (Tokyo International Airport) was nuts.  So many people running around, things going on, trains underneath, taxi stands, money changers, a lack of English, it was chaotic to say the least.  Usually my first goal is to get money.  Now I knew ahead of time thanks to guide books and people’s advice that money in Japan is hard to come by via ATM’s.  Seems stupid again considering it is the second most expensive city (1st is Moscow and trust me on this, look it up if you want to test me), they would give tourists and foreigners easy access to money.  But no, no, many are not on the plus or interlink international system which allows us to take out money overseas.  So on the plane I figured out how much I wanted to spend or try to including the hostel.  I figured that 50,000 yen would get me started.  This was also separate from the 16,000 train pass I bought for the JR East Rail lines good for 5 days in Tokyo at the surrounding areas of eastern Japan.  I luckily found an ATM I think it was citibank and took out money.  At first when I typed in 50000 yen it gave me some stupid number in dollars next to it which is what I thought I had taken out from the bank in yen, but it turned out that the number was my remaining balance.  So after a mini heart attack of thinking I had just withdrawn my entire checking account in to yen, I moved on to finding out about the rail pass and train situation to my hostel.  The rail pass office was one level below and because I couldn’t find the elevator, I took the stairs which were a pain to say the least.  I sat down with the lady she took my passport, did a few things, and I was all set.  She handed me my ticket, passport, and map of the JR lines and I was all set.  I was reserved on the Narita Express to Tokyo station.  From tokyo station I had to transfer to the Ueno line.  Then on the Ueno line take that several tops to Minowa and find my way to the hostel.

This whole ordeal became very frustrating at the end when the directions given to me, even with the map provided online in my email was pretty much useless.  It was dark, the directions were basically symbols on the map, and it was shotty at best.  Now I know my sense of direction is not so good (thanks dad), the sensors are often enhanced in a foreign country.  Well Japan has bitten me right on the ass.  It is hard to find certain places.  Streets are not really straight forward like the avenues in New York and it’s just harder.  English is spoken much less than all places combined with the exception of Taipei when no one was able to speak English allegedly, when I was in a bind to order food or other things.

Anyway after I got off of three trains with all my crap I was ready to get to the hostel.  I walked in the wrong direction twice and finally figured out the right street.  I think I got out at the wrong exit or the directions just really suck (i’ll take door number 2 please).  I got on the right street and figured out that it was just a straight shot, but I had to cross the street because I was on the wrong side of the street to begin with.  Well I found the Pachinko Parlor which was close to the hostel according to the map.  The hostel directions forgot one crucial thing, what street is the hostel located on and that they failed to tell me that I had to turn off the road I was on from the train station and that I would have to make a left on to the street of their hostel.

I will have to find the suggestion box for that one.  Well I was all checked in, plopped down my stuff, hit up the internet, talked to a few people that I haven’t talked to in several days, so all good.  After that I met a kid named Adam from Hawaii and Indiana.  He had already been to Japan for a month prior to doing bangkok for the last month.  He was in Japan for a few days before he went back home to the Midwest and Hawaii.  He had mentioned that he really wanted to go out to a club, that it was a whole experience that shouldn’t be missed in Tokyo.  He initially was reading like a very touristy type “what is going on tokyo,” and suggested several pricey clubs.  But after discussing the fact that they would probably be ridiculously over priced and full of foreigners that it was NOT the place for us.

We decided that we would try and catch the last train to the city (we had 30 minutes) and just wing it to try and get there.  I mean he had some makeshift map from Kelly on how to get to this place.  She recommended it to us and we really enjoyed it as did she.  She mentioned drinks were relatively cheap for Tokyo and the cover wasn’t too bad.
Well after running from train to train and getting through the bells and whistles, we finally made it to our final general destination of Shibuya.  Shibuya is a really popular part of Tokyo that is just flooded with bars, people, and hills.  We then tried to use the makeshift map but it really didn’t work.  After asking locals for directions, being sent in the wrong direction, making wrong turns on our own, we finally got lucky with one group of locals.  They were close, but gave us the name of a building “Don Quixote”).  Without our friend handing out tickets to another club, he walked us to the building where we could find the club for sure.  After it was all said and done, factoring in eating, and getting lost in the area, we got to the club finally at like 130-2am.  Yea, I mean it was pretty empty, and we had been told that the clubs don’t really start up till 2am or 3am.  Oh I should mention that the trains in tokyo end at 12am, so you are staying out till the first subway back home (usually between 5am and 6am).  I’m like falling over asleep as I have not gotten much the past two days, as per stories to follow.

Stay tuned for the clubbing experience, my thoughts on the fashion and cultural differences between men and women in Japan

Thanks,

Josh



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