The beginning of the trip posts - Tokyo
Trip 2006…
2 March 2006
Where to begin, I’ve spent the whole year saving for this trip… and whining about working and being stuck in Canberra, so no one was more surprised than I about being upset to leave but I couldn’t help shedding a few tears… rather than justify it, I decided instead to just be in a bad mood until the plane took off from Sydney on route to Tokyo- Narita Airport.
Yes I was on the plane, (2nd plane, after 2nd bus)… only one more train, and one more taxi until I was safe and sound in my Tokyo hotel room. The trip really was a breeze… I didn’t even encounter the dreaded Tokyo train station’s stairs to lug my (overweight- damnit why can’t I pack light!) suitcase up… yes it was a breeze to Ikebukuro station.
Outside the Ikebukuro station (West Exit FYI) I found a taxi and decided to get in as it was pissing down and dark... and I’m no good a walking to hotels in cities I’ve never been lugging 30kgs of luggage + laptop+ handbag… ergh. Let’s be clear right here, I do not speak ANY Japanese… trip down 2 seconds down the road took about half an hour as the taxi driver and I wondered at the human capacity to communicate effectively without language, but hey, there’s always people to stop and ask for directions on the way.
The hotel seemed cute enough (yes, I do mean cute enough) and my room was teeny-weeny-tiny as I had understood Japanese hotel rooms to be. Believe it or not I had a window, shame really that the view was wall to wall heating vents from a building about half a metre away. All was not lost - there was a heater (Australian summer to 6 degrees not exactly great) – so I cranked it to 30. No, I’m not joking, 30 degrees Celsius. As it turned out this plan was lucky because my shower, I’m sure, wasn’t physically, possibly, meant to be working, the water was zero degrees, and truly the pipes should have been frozen. So I went to bed rather unclean.
Day two, 2 March 2006, started off rather promisingly with hot water and also a squashed apricot muesli bar from my purse, what more could a girl ask for! I decided that I need to take a trip to Electric city also known as Akihabara to purchase an adapter for all my charging needs (phone, batteries, laptop). Needless to say I left with a few extra things to support my increasing technology addiction (memory stick, optical mouse, headphones and the adapter) Japan is great for new-pretty-cute stuff (there was hello kitty and mini mouse memory sticks), but not that much cheaper than oz… unless you get some nice test products like I did, hooray for Japan as testing market.
Wondering around Electric city left me with quite an appetite so I decided to try some more of my obvious un-knowledge (yes that’s a word!) in Japanese language and culture by following some business men down stairs into a tiny traditional restaurant I felt so brave as the waitress asked me if I wanted a table for ichi (and I understood!) then she sat me down and let me stare bewilderedly at the menu for a whole 3 minutes before politely asking me if I’d like to see the English menu. Yes, I guess so… noodle with duck meat, as delicious and as messy as I’d hoped considering the bib they’d provided.
Is it wrong at this point to mention that I hope there’s an earthquake while I’m here. Just a little one of course, but it would be cool to experience it. This was my thought as I caught the train from electric city to Shinjuku. Shinjuku: land of business and just like CBDs around the world. I enjoyed finding my way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 1 to take advantage of the free view from the 45th floor. On my way wondering around looking bewildered at different coloured elevators I was accosted by a Tokyo public servant himself! Wearing his official name tag (did I mention I don’t read Japanese either) he asked me to fill out a form. Luckily enough the form was about how helpful Tokyo’s tourism facilities etc are, I felt that my 18 hours in the city truly qualified me to answer this questionnaire (including about my favourite transport – why the Narita Express of course!). Anyway for my trouble I got a Tokyo pin, 400th anniversairy of Tokyo, who knew?
I went to the top of the building to check out the views, there I saw Shinjuku Central Park below (and decided I would definitely not go there) and quite a few other skyscrapers. I was pretty glad to get a full-round picture of Tokyo and check out what was going on.
I was getting tired and passed ‘Piss Alley’ on my way back to the station to return to Ikebukuro. I thought ‘there’s no time like the present’ and decided to check out the two biggest department stores in the world at once (they’re right outside, above, and below Ikebukuro Station). It’s really amazing the ways you can tell that you finally getting old, I mean there are wrinkles, and then there’s just not being able to face 10 stories of shopping at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon. I had the obligatory look at some ladies fashion before heading down to Tobu’s food floors.
There’s so much delicious stuff I can’t believe it, of course not a fruit or vegetable in sight. As I wonder through French pastries and such I can’t help but being attracted to the sushi. Hooray for fish-eggs wrapped in rice and seaweed, I get a couple and head back to the hotel for an early night to face my tour of Mt. Fuji – Hakone tomorrow.
Thanks for reading soooo far!!!
... so when I get my laptop charged you can hear all abou that too... 'cos at the moment I'm writing these posts like word docs and then putting them on my memory stick to upload them when I'm connected to le internet!
xoxoxoox Ingrid
2 March 2006
Where to begin, I’ve spent the whole year saving for this trip… and whining about working and being stuck in Canberra, so no one was more surprised than I about being upset to leave but I couldn’t help shedding a few tears… rather than justify it, I decided instead to just be in a bad mood until the plane took off from Sydney on route to Tokyo- Narita Airport.
Yes I was on the plane, (2nd plane, after 2nd bus)… only one more train, and one more taxi until I was safe and sound in my Tokyo hotel room. The trip really was a breeze… I didn’t even encounter the dreaded Tokyo train station’s stairs to lug my (overweight- damnit why can’t I pack light!) suitcase up… yes it was a breeze to Ikebukuro station.
Outside the Ikebukuro station (West Exit FYI) I found a taxi and decided to get in as it was pissing down and dark... and I’m no good a walking to hotels in cities I’ve never been lugging 30kgs of luggage + laptop+ handbag… ergh. Let’s be clear right here, I do not speak ANY Japanese… trip down 2 seconds down the road took about half an hour as the taxi driver and I wondered at the human capacity to communicate effectively without language, but hey, there’s always people to stop and ask for directions on the way.
The hotel seemed cute enough (yes, I do mean cute enough) and my room was teeny-weeny-tiny as I had understood Japanese hotel rooms to be. Believe it or not I had a window, shame really that the view was wall to wall heating vents from a building about half a metre away. All was not lost - there was a heater (Australian summer to 6 degrees not exactly great) – so I cranked it to 30. No, I’m not joking, 30 degrees Celsius. As it turned out this plan was lucky because my shower, I’m sure, wasn’t physically, possibly, meant to be working, the water was zero degrees, and truly the pipes should have been frozen. So I went to bed rather unclean.
Day two, 2 March 2006, started off rather promisingly with hot water and also a squashed apricot muesli bar from my purse, what more could a girl ask for! I decided that I need to take a trip to Electric city also known as Akihabara to purchase an adapter for all my charging needs (phone, batteries, laptop). Needless to say I left with a few extra things to support my increasing technology addiction (memory stick, optical mouse, headphones and the adapter) Japan is great for new-pretty-cute stuff (there was hello kitty and mini mouse memory sticks), but not that much cheaper than oz… unless you get some nice test products like I did, hooray for Japan as testing market.
Wondering around Electric city left me with quite an appetite so I decided to try some more of my obvious un-knowledge (yes that’s a word!) in Japanese language and culture by following some business men down stairs into a tiny traditional restaurant I felt so brave as the waitress asked me if I wanted a table for ichi (and I understood!) then she sat me down and let me stare bewilderedly at the menu for a whole 3 minutes before politely asking me if I’d like to see the English menu. Yes, I guess so… noodle with duck meat, as delicious and as messy as I’d hoped considering the bib they’d provided.
Is it wrong at this point to mention that I hope there’s an earthquake while I’m here. Just a little one of course, but it would be cool to experience it. This was my thought as I caught the train from electric city to Shinjuku. Shinjuku: land of business and just like CBDs around the world. I enjoyed finding my way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 1 to take advantage of the free view from the 45th floor. On my way wondering around looking bewildered at different coloured elevators I was accosted by a Tokyo public servant himself! Wearing his official name tag (did I mention I don’t read Japanese either) he asked me to fill out a form. Luckily enough the form was about how helpful Tokyo’s tourism facilities etc are, I felt that my 18 hours in the city truly qualified me to answer this questionnaire (including about my favourite transport – why the Narita Express of course!). Anyway for my trouble I got a Tokyo pin, 400th anniversairy of Tokyo, who knew?
I went to the top of the building to check out the views, there I saw Shinjuku Central Park below (and decided I would definitely not go there) and quite a few other skyscrapers. I was pretty glad to get a full-round picture of Tokyo and check out what was going on.
I was getting tired and passed ‘Piss Alley’ on my way back to the station to return to Ikebukuro. I thought ‘there’s no time like the present’ and decided to check out the two biggest department stores in the world at once (they’re right outside, above, and below Ikebukuro Station). It’s really amazing the ways you can tell that you finally getting old, I mean there are wrinkles, and then there’s just not being able to face 10 stories of shopping at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon. I had the obligatory look at some ladies fashion before heading down to Tobu’s food floors.
There’s so much delicious stuff I can’t believe it, of course not a fruit or vegetable in sight. As I wonder through French pastries and such I can’t help but being attracted to the sushi. Hooray for fish-eggs wrapped in rice and seaweed, I get a couple and head back to the hotel for an early night to face my tour of Mt. Fuji – Hakone tomorrow.
Thanks for reading soooo far!!!
... so when I get my laptop charged you can hear all abou that too... 'cos at the moment I'm writing these posts like word docs and then putting them on my memory stick to upload them when I'm connected to le internet!
xoxoxoox Ingrid
posted by Ingrid @ 2:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home