Monday was Chinese New Year (or as it's know in Korea, Lunar New Year), and seeing as it's the one of only two holidays between Christmas and the end of my contract, I thought I should probably make good use of the time. Before I came over I said I wanted to see Japan and China, so I took this opportunity to make my way over to the Land of the Rising Sun.
I have a friend from Olaf who is currently teaching English near Tokyo, and she agreed to show me around on the weekend. And since she had to work on Monday, her boyfriend Stuart (who was visiting from Sacramento) agreed to show me around on Monday.
For those of you who haven't been to Tokyo, it's a bit like Manhattan but bigger, with less English and more people. It seems to be trying to be a western city. It feels a lot like New York because pretty much everything was built in the last sixty years, and there are huge neon signs everywhere. Whereas both Seoul and Busan feel like a whole bunch of people who happen to live in the same area, Tokyo feels like a city with its own identity; it embraces its identity, and its role as a hub and an international city.
After an hour delay in Busan (all the flights were delayed because of snow in Seoul) I finally got into Narita where I took the Narita Express to Shibuya Station. I was supposed to meet Lisa and Stuart there, but I had been unable to get ahold of Lisa on her cellphone, so I left Shibuya Station in search of an Internet café and, completely unknowingly, made my way to Shibuya Crossing. After standing at the Crossing for a few moments, the light turned green. A mass of humanity surged forward from my side of the street, as I watched the a tidal wave of black hair coming across the street towards me. I had never experienced anything like it, and was completely unprepared for the experience.
I eventually made it back to the Hachiko exit, which was where I was supposed to meet them, and found them in the massive throng of people. That evening we went to Lisa's friend Mario's birthday party.
We went to a nice restaurant and where the just kept bringing us food and I got something of a crash course in Japanese food. It was very expensive, but it was also very good food. After dinner I found my way to my hostel. It was called the Sakura Hotel. The room was hardly wider than the four sets of bunkbeds in the room, all the beds squeeked awfully, and the room was only about 55 degrees, but it was clean, with warm blankets and interesting people. What more can you really ask from a hostel? So I was getting set up in the room and a Japanese man in his late thirties (who was also staying in the room) came in and decided he wanted to have a conversation with me. He only spoke about three words of English, so the poor Taiwanese kid in the bed across from me was forced to translate the entire pointless conversation, most of which consisted of him asking if he could smoke in the room and saying everything he knew about the United States.The next day, after walking around Ginza for a while (a very trendy area with a lot of high end shops), I met Lisa and Stuart at the Kabuki-za Theater near Ginza. They have a deal where you can stand in the back row of the theater for one act for 1000 yen (about $10). For those of you who don't know, Kabuki is a form of Japanese theater that involves actors (all male) in rather elaborate costumes with white makeup, using very stylized movements and strange, almost yowling voices. It was an interesting experience, but not as enjoyable I had hoped. It was probably in large part because we had to stand for the whole hour and a half, I had a pretty terrible cold, and I couldn't understand anything that was going on. Other than that, it was a very interesting show, and nice to see in person something I learned so much about in Theater History.
After the show, Lisa had to go back to her apartment because her gas had broken the night before, and this was the only time the guy could come fix it. So Stuart and I hung out, got a burger (since it's been a long time since I've had a good burger). met up with his brother for a while (who is living and working in Tokyo) and finally called it a night. When I got back to the hostel I started hanging out with these really cool Australian guys who were on their last night in the country after a two week vacation. We drank and talked and as Sunday night turned into Monday morning, I found out that Monday was Australia Day. Seeing as I had been hanging out with them all evening, they made me an honorary Australian for Australia Day. The
restrictions were 1) I was supposed to drink all day (didn't succeed on that count), 2) eat sausage or meat pie sometime during the day (managed to have some sausage at dinner that night), and 3) hate New Zealanders all day (I did as well as I could on that one).On Monday, as I was waiting in the lobby of the hostel for Stuart, and I glanced at one of the computer screens and noticed the St. Olaf logo on the screen. So I went over and tapped the girl on the computer on the shoulder. It turns out she just finished Global Semester and was spending a few days in Tokyo before going home. Then as Stuart and I left Ikebukuro Station (the station near the hostel, which is the second busiest train station in the world) we saw two more guys wearing St. Olaf sweatshirts. So I went to the biggest city in the world, and still managed to run into three people from a school of three thousand people. There are Oles EVERYWHERE.
That afternoon, Stuart and I went up Tokyo tower, and then found a really nice little temple to explore right outside of the Tower. After that, we made our way (slowly, and rather precariously) to Odaiba. It's a very touristy area with a lot of shops (with mostly English signs) as well as Tokyo's model of the Statue of Liberty. After some wandering and picture taking we made our way back to Ikebukuro, where we met up with Lisa who was now done with work. We went out for Okonomiyaki (pancakes with vegetables, meats and seafood inside that you cook at your table) as well as the sausage I had promised the Aussies I would eat. After dinner, we wandered around Ikebukuro a little and then they went home since Lisa had to work again the next day. After talking to the girl from Olaf at the hostel, as well as another Aussie and a New Zealander (despite my Australia Day duties), I was pretty exhausted and pretty much called it a night. The next day, I didn't have much time to do anything but take the train to the airport and get on a plane and go home.
It was nice to get out and travel a little again. I haven't done a short trip like that really since Paris a year ago. So while I didn't get to see everything I would have liked (the city is enormous , and I was only there for three days), it was still a great experience, and got me excited about traveling more this summer and at the end of my contract in August.
I hope everything is going well wherever you are, and I hope to hear from all of you soon.
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