First Experience in Japan

So begins my adventures in　日本, or Japan. To be brief, my 9.5 hour flight went well, food was fine, didn't get much sleep, etc. Upon arrival, I hardly had time to think as I was rushed through immigration, baggage claim and customs. To my amusement random people standing in the immigration line asked me pronunciation questions for Japanese words; I really don't know how they thought I knew any Japanese at all. To the hotel, and then off on an evening of exploration.





My two roommates and I headed out into Shinjuku in search of dinner. I was completely speechless as we walked through the streets. All the flashing, bright, neon lights, throngs of people, sounds, smells - all very new to me. Essentially I was in a sensation trance, since I typically observe in all my senses. As one of my friends would say, over-stimulation leaves me overwhelmed. Our wandering led us past a sushi place, the kind with a conveyor belt that I frequent in Seattle. To my amazement as we sat down, there were spouts at each sitting place that pumped out hot water for matcha (green tea). Needless to say, this enthralled me enough. Then the sushi came around, and as I eagerly pulled various kinds off the conveyor belt, my tongue certainly experienced its own euphoria because this sushi was amazing. To put it simply, it tasted like sushi I would get at expensive restaurants at home, and yet cheap. Brilliant.

Then on our way out we stumbled across a video arcade with a taiko drum game similar to DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). My roommates played it first, and I watched, laughing of course since it was so ridiculous. Then I had a try, and of course I was hooked. Banging the drums to the little beat marks as they went past. A Japanese man stopped and gave us additional instructions since apparently we were doing something wrong. I ended up winning the game with my amazing drum pounding skills. Who knows where those came from. Or if its even a skill.

We purchased some mochi (I had peach yogurt flavored, basically its a rice ball with flavored bean paste and in my case, some yogurt type cream also inside) on our way to the Metropolitan Building. We took an elevator up an extensive amount of floors, though at this point I don't remember how many floors, to the observatory to see ALL of Tokyo at night. It was amazing, and I was sad I couldn't check it out from outside. Oh and I should also note that the vending machines are FANTASTIC here, as I can get green tea out of all of them. Green tea at my every whim... amazing.

We ended up eating our mochi on some random bench outside of a convenience store facing oncoming traffic, since we have heard you aren't supposed to eat and walk at the same time. The entire evening I was laughing since I knew we probably appeared as crazy tourists... which leads me to my next exciting adventure of TODAY (Tuesday, July 29).



I decided to skip out on the boring lectures this afternoon and head to Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo. This would be of course, my first time exploring Tokyo alone, and my first time riding a train alone. With some instructions from a friend who knows Tokyo pretty well, and Japanese, my map and other important items, I headed out to Shinjuku station. Upon arrival, I was suddenly overtaken by all the people, walking here and there, all over the place. Reminded me of an ant hill in some ways. Considering that this alone overstimulated me, and the fact I had never been there before, it took me about 45 minutes to figure out how to purchase a ticket and then how to get to where I wanted to go. After walking back and forth a dozen times, analyzing signs and my map, I finally discovered how to purchase a ticket and headed through the ticket receptors and off to the colored, numbered, train lines to find where I needed to go. Of course, I ended up getting confused, since Akihabara is near Tokyo, I thought oh well it should be on the same line that goes to Tokyo. I was wrong. I got on the train, heard the names of stations that weren't on the rail line I was supposed to be on, and so decided to get off at the next stop - Kanda.

It turned out well, however, since Kanda was right next to Tokyo, and ironically enough, next to Akihabara. Unfortunately I could only wander around Kanda for a little while since I had to get back to Shinjuku to meet one of my roommates for dinner, so I didn't get to visit Akihabara today sadly. Of course, now I know how to ride the trains and feel confident enough to figure anything out next time I try. Practice makes perfect and all of that.

My roommate and I decided we wanted tempura, so went in search of a Japanese restaurant (surprinsgly, many of the restaurants around here are foreign food). We ended up in an underground restaurant area and were trying to decide which restaurant to eat at, especially since most of the meals were expensive. We finally picked one, starving... and basically made fools of ourselves attempting to order. I can order food, but didn't know how to say we wanted to share a meal. Apparently, this isn't normal or good or something, because the waiter was confused, and he had to go call out the guy in the restaurant who spoke English to talk to us. Then my roommate had no idea what she was eating (a variety of fish/shrimp tempura but I only knew what part of it was), which made me laugh incredibly hard at the whole situation. Finally, as we were leaving, the one man who spoke English told us next time we visit we each order one thing. After we left, I don't think I stopped laughing.

Then suddenly a thunderstorm appeared and it started sprinkling a bit...as we headed on our way to Krispy Kreme for donuts. As we sat eating our donuts, (this time our ordering was actually competent and we felt made up for our ridiculousness at the restaurant), we watched as the streets became like little rivers and I commented, "we are going to get soaked walking back to the hotel." So as we left, the doormen said "no no no no no!" as we took off running across the street to the next shelter. Our quick jaunt across the street left us completely soaked, and I was literally doubled over, laughing, trying to control bodily functions....

After I composed myself, we took off sprinting again for the next shelter, as one man we passed yelled "WOOOO HOOOO!!!!" to which we laughed harder as we kept running. We were in search of an umbrella at a convenience store I should add..... Then we ran past some young guys about our age who looked at us, laughing and yelling "Heavy rain! Heavy rain!" I am surprised I maintained control of unsaid bodily functions as we ran through the rain and small lakes, completely soaked. Sure enough, found a 7-11, purchased an umbrella, and then it stopped raining. Go figure.

Needless to say, I am glad that I can laugh at myself and that I DO laugh at myself, because the entire day was rather ridiculous, and I made a complete fool out of myself. As my roommate put it, "this gives us a taste of the year to come."

Sure enough.

I have to say that I have really enjoyed Japan so far, though I've experienced so little of it, and look forward to experiencing more. I'm heading to my "home" tomorrow in Shizuoka, so I will update again later, probably after I get internet! Until then, Matta ne.