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Well, after some initial problems, I finally got to Japan, and now that I'm back, I'm gonna share some of the things I remember from my time over there,(keep in mind this WILL be long and mostly pointless, so bare with me) but first, the problem side of trip ¬_¬
I WAS scheduled to leave Manchester Airport at 9:55am on Wednesday 28th December, but that never happened, because as I realized on Boxing Day, My passport which had been on the same place, on the cupboard, for the last 9, maybe 10 months, and that was still there at least 2 weeks prior, had decided it wanted to take a walk and vanished of the face of the earth...Not a good thing for it to do when I was leaving in a day (I was looking at night on Boxing Day) So all night we were tearing the house apart looking, and all day Tuesday, we did the same thing, this time with the help of my Sister and Brother-in-law, and even Steven and Claire came down and helped. When this didn’t work we headed to the travel agents to see if there was anything we could do, transfer flights to a different day, change my name on the ticket so Steven wasn't on his own. There was nothing they could do, so I went home, we and Steven talked, I game him some of the money I had so he could get the games I was after, and he said he'd try and find someone to buy a cancelled ticket so he wasn't on his own, and for then, that was pretty much it.
I found out on the net that you can get passports in one day, so My mum decided we should try to get one on Wednesday (if Christmas wasn't on Sunday, I could have done this on Tuesday, BUUTTT NOOOO, It had to be a fake bank holiday ¬_¬) and if I could get a passport, I'd get another flight and meet Steven out there.
Got the passport off, discovered that because it was a recently issued passport, as long as I could get the forms filled out, and to them by 1:30pm I'd have one that day...it was not 8:10am, and thanks to my brother David I had someone not related to me, in a profession who'd known me for at least 2 years (a lie...first time I'd met her :P I'd met her boyfriend a few times as he's in my brothers band)
After leaving the passport office I gave Steven a call at the airport to let him know I'd be there the next day now and he told me he'd found someone who could go with him, I let him know I was still going to go though. After a while though, I just felt like I couldn't be bothered going, so I sent him a message saying I'd probably not go, but my mum INSISTED that I went (she felt really bad about the passport going missing, and the fact that I was finally going after so many years of wanting to didn't help) so I rebooked a return flight (I wouldn't be able to use my original tickets as they'd have been cancelled) and sent him another message saying I'd rebooked and WOULD be flying out. And that was that, I went home, packed and went to bed.
I got up about 11 the next day (didn't have to rush as my flight wasn't until about 7pm) just sat at my computer for a bit, watched some of the anime I had before getting a taxi to Lime Street Station, then on a train to Manchester Airport. And then a few hours later onto the plane to Paris.
I'm not generally a nervous person (although it can tend to happen occasionally) but this being the first time I'd ever gone so far away on my own, I think I'm a little entitled to get nervous when a plane that started up like a piece of crap experiences turbulence. >_<
Aside from the one bit of turbulence, the first flight was fairly pleasant, nothing to complain about. As I got to Paris....I got scared I headed toward my gate, and was met by a hell of a lot of Japanese people, all talking Japanese....and a hell of a lot of French people, all talking French. And me, not a hell a lot of me, barely speaking English clutching a passport and flight tickets like my life depended on it. I didn't know if my seat had been called, but took a chance and was allowed onto the plane...made to walk through First Class and Business class before getting to my seat. Normally this wouldn't bother me....BUT as soon as I say in my window seat, and contemplated the next 11h45m I instantly
a) Hated Air France for making me see what leg room rich people can have on 12 hour flights, and
b) Wished my plan of winning the lottery before I went had come true
So....I settled down, watched the wings of the plane change themselves like a Mech...And sat there reading my book....until after feeding up they forced us all to go to sleep ¬_¬
Well...it was rest time, you didn't have to sleep and you could turn the lamp things above you on if you wanted to read......I chose to sleep :P I initially didn't felt like I slept at all, until about 2 hours later into my game of Solitaire on the little screen in front of me there is an announcement (initially one in Japanese, then in French before English) 'Attention Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to begin out decent into Tokyo'
I just sat there amazed; I'd managed to miss like 8 hours of that horrible flight
Day 1 - December 30th
Once I got off the plane, I checked to see if my phone could find a useable network here (it couldn't) and see if I could quickly get out of the airport and find my hotel (I couldn't) first I had to go through the filling out of immigration forms (or whatever the hell they were) which was difficult, but my legs were killing me so I got through them as quick as I could, was allowed to enter the country, and went to find a phone.
After spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use the phone card I had, I called home to let them know I got there fine, and was about to go to the hotel, and that I'd call again soon.
I asked about how to get to the Century Hotel, Southern Tower. Was directed to the Airport Limozine Bus (a coach) paid ¥3000 (about £15) and sat there until my stop outside Shinjuku Station about an hour later. The view on the coach was amazing, it was like the Blackpool Illuminations, only good.....or in Blackpool ^_^
It is such a breathtaking thing to see the way all the buildings are lit up at night, also in abundance along the motorways are the 'Love Hotels' easily identifiable by the tacky look of them, and the 2 prices 'Rest' or 'Stay' doesn't take a genius to figure that one out :P I also drove past Disneyland Tokyo, which looked nice all lit up ^_^
Once I got off the coach, I just wanted to get to my hotel as quickly as possible and sort out what was happening. When I asked, I found out I was only a 2 minute walk fro there....which was nice...it was also at this time I discovered how unsafe Japanese roads are, especially at 10pm If the light is red you stop cars go, if the light is green, you go....cars still go, they do stop, but they don’t have to be behind the lines or anything if they are turning, they just stop where there’s no one under the wheels.
Once I got to the hotel I first checked to see if Steven was booked in (well, FIRST I got lost...what kind of hotel has its main lobby on the 20th floor? ¬_¬) I was told he was checked in with his Uncle (so unfortunately, I couldn't check into that room) so I booked myself a night, decided I'd get a hold of Ste later, and we'd work something out, so I got his room number (4 doors away from my room) left him a note under the door headed to my room, got changed and just kind of sat there a bit trying to catch up and get it through my mind that I was finally there.
A bit later Ste shows up, we go back to his room to chat, I meet his uncle Colin, we discuss what to do about the room, we sort it out, so from the Friday night, we'd share the room. And all was right with the world. We decided to go get some food after this, which sounded good, as I hadn't eaten for about 25 hours (I hate plane food). They also took me on a short tour of the surrounding area...it was here I learned something about Japan...something that genuinely surprised me.....there is Porn everywhere there. I always heard it could be a rather perverted place at times, but this was ridiculous. On our little walk, we passed about 10 Karaoke places, 24 Pachinko and Slot places (not porn before you way anything), 7 arcades and at least 3 different places to buy something adult....and keep in mind we were only walking around a small group of alleys for like 10 minutes (don’t let 'alleys' fool you, this just where everything is, they aren’t 'shady' back streets, places are like this everywhere) not to mention the convenience stores (7-11 kind of places) are full of magazines both real and manga.
So after this shock, we went to a place called First Kitchen, which of the course of the week was very often referred to as First Chicken, because it sounds right, and they only sell chicken things there. It was here, that Ste and Colin were extremely happy to have me and my ability to read Japanese there, so I could tell them what they were eating :P
After finishing the food, I immediately thought of way of getting a First Kitchen back home, it was delicious...even IF the drumsticks looked crucified :P We walked back to the hotel, grabbed some beer from the nearest 7-11 kind of place (which surprised me, being underage there) and went to drink them there.
After that, I went back to my room to try and get some sleep....instead I discovered Japanese television :P I sat there for about 4 hours watching crap....Japanese Television is similar to a car crash, you shouldn't watch it, but you really can't look away ^_^
So I watched my first anime there, the first 2 episodes of 'Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan' (Beat-to-Death Angel Dokuro-chan) Great series, heavily censored on Japanese television, which I'm not entirely surprised at given how over the top violent it is :P) But I've seen it before, so no big loss. Then I watched Music Japan for a few hours, which I assume is a chart show. Was happy I heard music on there I already knew. Decided to go to sleep...that lasted 2 hours, then my proper holiday started...sort of.
Day 2 - December 31st
I woke up at about 5:15 am.....watched some more Japanese television...and discovered about 10 minutes later that the Japanese do the best adverts in the world. They very rarely make sense, have little point and almost defiantly won’t tell you a thing about what’s being advertised until the end. I think I managed to get some of them on my video camera so if I did I'll try and to get them online somehow.
After watching some early morning anime (Yu-Gi-Oh! - Duel Monsters and Idatten Jump!) I got a shower, and then headed to Ste's room; we sat there a bit, before starting out for the day.
We started with breakfast in McDonalds (My, how Japanese) which was something we did every day we were there (yeah...we suck at change :P) Ordering Japanese McDonald's was fun, especially as it went really smoothly and I'm sure the staff didn't get fed up of me (I suspect they may have been a bit annoying on the inside of Steven and Colin buy the end of the week :P
Also it was here I got a small idea of the difference in recycling in countries, over here you finish with a meal, you either leave the rubbish and trays at the table and leave, or you shove everything in the bin. In Japan you separate everything, cups and paper go in one bin, straws and plastic go in another one and liquid and ice go in something else...such a small thing, but it was surprising.
Today was pretty fun, we went to some arcades, played some House of the Dead and I finally got to try Taiko no Tatsujin which was cool, so I got to drum away to 'Kokoro no Chizu' (5th One Piece opening) and of course, Perfect combo...I rock :P (yeah, easy difficulty , but meh, I couldn't do it again the next time I tried though, and unfortunately that’s the one that’s on film ¬_¬)
After spending some money at the arcade and picking up a couple of Naruto Gachapon from the machines, we headed into one of the bigger shops here. First Floor was a games shop, absolutely full of stuff. Basically if a game is out for the PS2, Gamecube, PSP, DS, GBA or XBox in Japan, It was there, and then some. Second and third floor was where the toys were...so I spent lots of time in here ^^
Lots and lots of Japanese Disney toys, seriously, there was nearly a whole floor of them, ranging from small models to big models, Disney branded things, Disney versions of things, amazing. It was also here I bought my first real purchases from Japan, for my Nieces a 'Kimono Jenny' doll each (like a Barbie doll). And for myself, a One Piece 'Portrait of Pirates' model featuring Usopp and Chopper, I was going to get a few more, but they didn't have the ones I really wanted, so I decided to look elsewhere and if not, come back and get the others here (Smoker, Bellmere and Nami V2 [Water 7]). And there were some Gachapon machines here too.
The 3rd floor was more toys, but also a lot of CCG stuff ranging from starter decks, booster packs, card holders, etc. It was also here I saw the dispensers for the coolest card games ever, basically they are 3d fighting games, played using the cards. They had Naruto ones (Using the Narutimett Hero series graphics engine) and Dragonball Z ones (using the Budokai series engine) they looked so cool, I wanted to buy loads of cards, just to try them....but never did. Oh well, next time...next time. Oh and there were Gachapon machines.
The 4th floor was the most surprising....on one side train models, pieces of model train track. Pretty normal enough. I wondered why they wanted to show me up here so much....then I looked over to the other side. Absolutely FULL of replica firearms. Everything from BB Pistols, to Sniper Rifles and even Bazookas. All of them fired something. All Working...all going to be a bitch to get back through customs ^_^.
I'm not really sure what we did after here, probably went to a few more arcade (incredibly disappointing, everywhere had the same games) played the newly released 'Chou Dragonball Z' game, not back, bit awkward to play though. Picked up some stuff and headed back the hotel for a rest, we'd been out walking for hours and we needed to prepare for New Years Eve.
After resting, we headed out to get some food. Nice place, food was good, waitresses were nice (and being New Years, they were in Kimonos) and beer was cheep. After dining, we decided it was New Year, and we needed more drink......then we stumbled into one of Shinjuku, Tokyo's many Karaoke Clubs........guess what happened in here. After awhile we managed to figure out what the deal was, paid our money, were shown to our booth, ordered the most luminous drinks I've ever seen (nice though) and looked through the song list....which was friggin' huge. Ste and Colin looked through the English song lists, and of course I went through the anime section of the Japanese one looking for anything I knew. And I found them ^_^
So after Steven finished his ....*ahem* 'stunning' rendition of 'She Hates Me' by Puddle of Mudd, and we dueted on 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen. It was my solo turn. The song? 'We Are', first One Piece Opening Theme. How did it go? Well, it SOUNDED good to me at the time.....then I played it back in the hotel later (yes the majority of our Karaoke experience WAS filmed, and may be uploaded and shared on the net :P) But still, I'm glad I did it, and didn't mess up the song (I think I got one word wrong, but it was better than the next song I sang *shudder*) After a short break, I loaded up the next song 'Haruka Kanata' Second Naruto Opening. About...two lines into the song....the alcohol kicked in and...well, the words changed, I'm sure I was singing them right, but the words on the screen were wrong and I know it....yeah. That’s my story and I'm sticking to it <_< >_> <_< >_>
Few more songs for Ste and Colin...can’t really remember what though, I was TRYING to see what songs I could translate in the book from series that I knew. Stumbled across 'You Got Game' the First ending theme to Tennis no Oujisama (Prince of Tennis) Yes, I know this....and....yes, I could remember the words. PERFECT (almost) Unfortunately the guy working there kept coming in while I was giving my triumphant performance, so I kept having to stop, start, restart. Shame too, because I could tell I was singing that well :'(
Well, we left here after becoming Japanese Idols (a lie) and headed back to the hotel....with the full intent of leaving again to stay out longer...it never happen, we got comfortable, the shoes came off...and that was that, our Japanese New Years Eve celebrations ended at the spectacular time of...wait for it...10pm...yeah, we blame Jetlag.
Day 3 - January 1st
Well, we awoke early (not surprisingly) and kinda watched telly for a few hours. We saw one of the oddest things ever (but normal for Japanese TV) Basically it was a Nationwide School 3-man race event, except it was like class based, so like 15 kids all attached to each other running, trying to get to the finish in time to rank in. If they didn’t they all cried on film. If they did, they more or less cried on film. And I have some of this ON film so I’m gonna upload this with the Karaoke ^_^
Especially on bit of it, where one team, were doing relaxation exercises, that involved them huddled in groups of five sniffing what looked like a melon (they said Mikan, but I always thought they were like Tangerines) And when they were explaining the relaxation power, they got Bobby (this huge black guy who was there with a Nigerian team) and had the kids insult him, then make him smell the thing…and he’d calm down. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen ^_^.
We stuck around until this finished (probably about 11) and left with the intention of using New Years when everywhere is closed to do our sightseeing (After all New Years Day is like THE big holiday on the Japanese calendar…how wrong we were) More or less everywhere apart from the bigger restaurants were open. Even like the department stores were all open for business as usual. We still decided to go get ourselves lost though, which was fun, we found some really cool places.
One of the better places we found (other than the Karaoke/porn/pachinko places of course) is a place we all decided to dub ‘Über Quiggins™’ (Unless you live in or frequent Liverpool City Centre often, you wont get this) As it’s a similar place selling lots of various thing, only add a lot more various thing (including porn of course, we are in Japan) and multiply by 10 across 4-5 floors. Then you have some idea.
After spending some time in here, and a couple of purchases later (I never got anything, shame too because there was something I absolutely wanted to have in there, a Santa suited walking talking Tony Tony Chopper…for only ¥4000 (about £20). I intended to go back and buy it, but never did (shame too as I’ve not seen them anywhere else)
After this, we wandered into Taito Palace. Another arcade, another 4 floors, same old games. Except for Drum Mania and Guitar Freaks on the 2nd floor. Didn’t spend too much time in here, we had a go of this shooting game that 4 people could play, pretty fun. We sucked at it, but it was still fun.
We continued our walk after leaving here, and by that I mean we got rather lost and managed to leave Shinjuku, which was surprising considering how long it actually took to get to that point. Around here we found through a window that one of the convenience places sold ‘Weekly Jump’ the manga magazine I definitely needed to get a copy of while was over there…but, and for the life of me, I can’t tell why, they wouldn’t sell it to me…and I still don’t know why….BAH.
After some more wondering around, some pictures taken and whatnot, we finally found a sign we recognized and made our way to the hotel. Again rested up, left to go get food…unfortunately, it’s new years day…and as we found not a lot of places open, not even the Ramen place we found in Shinjuku Station that looked the nicest out of the, like 900 we’d seen. So off to First Kitchen, back to the hotel, (although on the way I bought myself a PSP Value Pack and a copy of Bleach: Heat the Soul for about £100) then my pain began.
As I took a bite out of some chicken, I managed to push some of it into one of the holes in my teeth, now to say this hurt like hell would be the understatement of last year and this year. This nearly ruined my holiday, at some times the pain was unbearable. Thank the Gods I packed some Paracetamol. I just wished they worked quicker…and better.
Well after eating, we were knackered so, off to bed…of course not at a silly time like 10pm like the night before…no we are men…this time it was 8pm :’( Yeah….still blame the jetlag.
Day 4 – January 2nd
Don’t really think we did much today, I was in pain pretty much all day because of my tooth. The morning was spent wandering around as usual. It was today we investigated the big department store behind the hotel, this place was HUGE, it was so easy to get lost in here, so we did just that (I think) One side of the place going up to the 6th floor was probably like a Japanese equivalent of George Henry Lee’s similar kind of layout.
I only bought two things in here, a set of chopsticks and a case for them…but I nearly bought so much stuff…including a children’s ‘One Piece’ electric toothbrush ^_^
After exploring this side we went over to the other side where the expensive clothes and things were…needless to say we didn’t sped long in here. One thing we all saw that we wanted was sunglasses, they we expensive, but they had what appeared to be a built in radio and earphones. They price was a little more explainable then…until we got closer and saw that they had makings like 126mb, 256mb. They were sunglasses with built-in mp3 players. We all wanted some…first thing to get when we have money when we get home ^_^
We went up to the 12th floor in here next; this is where the HMV is so I went in with the hope of finding some CD’s I wanted. I did find CD’s I wanted, but nothing I didn’t already have on my computer, shame.
After here, Colin headed back to the hotel, so me and Steven decided to just go for a look around. We stayed in this place a little longer, found a games shop. Saw one of the funniest things. There was a kid on the floor looking at some PS2 games, not sure what, but you know, kids games. Behind him, the kids dad was looking just to the left of the kid looking at …I believe it was a PS2 game called Mini-skirt Police. It was just such a surreal site ^_^
As we were leaving we both had a couple of quick goes on Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360. (I am so glad that it’s selling like crap in Japan)
When we left here, we just went for a walk, and found out the place where we got absolutely lost yesterday was right near the hotel on the other side ¬_¬.
Didn’t do too much else other than wondering around, went in a couple of arcades, found a game called Sogeki (which is the Japanese name for Silent Scope) Ste had a go on that and we left. Decided to check if that Ramen place in the station was where we thought it was and if it was open. It was, so we knew where we were going for food today.
We headed back to the hotel, rested up got Colin then headed back to the station for Ramen. I can’t remember the name of what I got (Shouyu I think) with some roast pork, Colin got the same but with some breaded ribs I think, and Ste got Miso ramen, which was full of onion and seaweed…so needless to say, he ate hardly any of it. I drained mine, it was lovely, I wanted more. At least I know what to order whenever I go anywhere for ramen again. Even my toothache couldn’t stop me enjoying it (It nearly did, but that isn’t the point, the iced green tea helped with that)
Well, because Ste didn’t eat anything else, we went to First Kitchen to get him something edible then went back to the hotel. I can’t remember too much of what happened in the hotel, but it probably went something along the lines of, Eat Drink, sleep.
Day 5 – January 3rd
Steven’s last day, so we decided to make the most of it…I don’t think we did, but no matter. We decided to go for another walk, just in a random way to the ones we had already been. Seemed we ended up in the Music district. Just wandered around here, found a really cool recycle shop there was so much cool stuff in here. Also it was around here we found the only Subway we have seen in Japan (the sandwich place, not the train things…they’re everywhere). Afterwards we went to the Taito Palace again, I said I’d pay for some game playing, seeing as I still had money. So I got ¥5000 changed all into ¥100’s. We spent a load on that 4 person FPS again (only with 3 people) then I passed out some more coins, before finally trying Drum Mania. All I can say is that I want one. Screw DDR, this is the kind of Rhythm game I like (Sorry Ryo….I didn’t see one DDR machine the whole time I was there) No moving your feet (well…one of them on the foot pedal) just you, a set of drumsticks, and five ‘things’ to hit in time with the beat and matching the onscreen display…it’s awesome.
Now I thought I did pretty well getting a full combo on Rewrite (the 4th Fullmetal Alchemist opening) I was quite proud of myself (keep in mind, first go I was on the easiest difficulty) then I left the machine, and some Japanese feller goes on it….then my pride flew back to England. I so wish I didn’t forget my camera….he was just flailing his arms around in what looked like a random fashion, his foot just kept hitting the panel…but when I watched the screen, he was getting all perfects….I wanted to cry :P
I also tried Guitar Freaks….but we don’t speak of that now….needless to say I sucked and failed extremely quickly :’(
I DID want to have another go before he went on it…but I felt the machine would tell me to piss off because I was crap before I even started :P
The rest of the day was pretty much a blur; I really can’t remember what else we did. And no, I wasn’t drunk. ¬_¬
Only thing I can remember is my tooth REALLY hurting me, me packing my suitcase, because I was in so much pain, I was going to try and go back with Steven and see if I could use my original tickets to fly home. I didn’t want to get home, but my tooth was hurting so much, I just wanted to go to a dentist.
Day 6 - January 4th
So, got up at 7am, got a shower, and me and Ste left, when Ste checked out, seemed we still had the room for another night, so at least Colin wouldn’t have to hang around the airport for like a day and a half.
So, after spending ¥3000 to get to the airport, I found out they had no ticket data at all for me…so…fuck. Goodbye to Steven, hello another ¥3000 train journey back to Shinjuku (what a waste of money) At least the hotel was still there, so I wasn’t homeless. Because we suspected this might have happened, Colin was waiting in the hotel for me, after this, we decided to go for food (It was later now) we went to some place that did all kinds of food…and they sold beer in like…2 pint glasses, No better pain killer than booze in my opinion. Got through 2 of them in the short time we were there, then left. Went back to the hotel, sat around for a bit, before ‘hitting the town’ one last time.
This involved first going to Sega Café and wasting some more money in there. Me and Colin finished House of the Dead 4 whilst there…also getting a little crows around us…which was cool.
Also...we andered into the...seedier area of where we were (which is a perfectly normal place during the day) now let me tell you, there is nothing quite like walking down a street and being asked 'You want Sex Massage yes?' A little bit of talking ensued and Me and Colin ended up in a Japanese Strip club....yeah. That was fun :P Bit expensive (¥4200, but that is for all day) shame theres no booze in there. The girls were nice though almost made it worth it ^_^
After this we went to Hub, Which is like an English theme pub and restaurant. It was here I got rather drunk. After getting through 2 pints, then…2 of these…huge measuring cylinders of booze…I can’t remember too much. The next thing I know, I’m in a Karaoke box with Colin and two Japanese fellas.
(I really can’t remember how we got here, but Colin told me in the airport what happened.)
After singing in here….really drunkenly (after al isn’t that what Karaoke is really all about) we left, in really high spirits with these Japanese lads. They exchanged e-mail addresses with Colin (I think he gave them mine) and we went our separate ways. I pretty much fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Day 7 - January 6th
And thus, my Japanese adventure finished here. Nothing else happened, we had our last breakfast in McDonalds, and left for the airport. In the airport I was scratching my head, when I felt a lump, and it hurt. I looked at Colin and asked
‘Did I fall over last night?’
<insert long thinking pause here>
‘…Yeah, it was a good one too’
And it was apparently my ‘good’ fall and the fact that me and Colin were both drinking containers of Booze meant for groups all to ourselves that got us talking to those Japanese lads. I just really wish I could remember it….Oh well, I’ll make sure I remember everything next time I go ^_^ |
