Tokyo - not very descriptive, but too bad.

Alright, so i made some notes to myself about my tokyo trip, i apologize if they make no sense to er.. anyone but me. But its likely the best you will get out of me before school starts again and things settle down into boring normalcy again. Maybe if i hurry i will have time for phoooootos.

monday - train to hakone(tourist village where you can see fuji). i got lost trying to find shintanabe - the only eki in my trip that i had actually BEEN TO before. Arg.
otherwise fine. it POURED in hakone - i stayed in. went to the conbini (convienience store) - a five minute walk. The weather was so bad that when i got back my umbrella was a piece of modern art, but not good for much else. i bought a magazine, read and hung out in my room. planned, slept.

tuesday - saw hakone. took the pirate ship (!) across the lake - was really windy.




saw fuji a little at the end,
decided to take the cable car up to the sulphur mines where you can really see fuji. saw fuji, was impressed. the weather was gorgey, only a few clouds.

actually, i saw fuji first from bus on way to pirate ship. trained to odawara (the main station for the area) ,very slowly. then from there to yokohama (big city outside of tokyo - famous and stuff) . i saw a hick-esque couple pop open a couple of beers on the train, cool as can be. and i thought eating on the train was rude! and it was only like 1pm. got lost in yokohama. bought some cake - the cake guy was really nice after i complimented his english, it was sweet, and i felt bad, because i was sort of being sarcastic, to get back at all the people who say my japanese is sooo good when its not. found the worlds biggest ferris wheel. it kicked bum. decided to get chinatown on the way back. (too bad i didnt, oops) it was getting dark, and rainy, and late, so i just went to the station and then to asakusa, for my capsule hotel. the capsule hotel was scary, and creepy, but alright, all things considered. took a while to find, the guy didnt get that i got japanese, even though i was speaking it. wtf. was really beat, eventhough it was like 8 pm, so i settled in, had a bath, and went to sleep.

wednesday - got up, settled my stuff, (heavy fricking backpack!) ate some breakfast at a coffeeshop, started for ueno, to look around. saw ueno park, the statue (saigo something - the real last samurai, people!), some buildings, a shrine. gave the zoo a miss. a zoo`s a zoo, right. then i found tokyo university!

after that went to asakusa again, saw kaminarimon,

nakamisedori, sensouji, and then checked into my hostel. which was a welcome change after the capsule hotel. I spend about an hour just settling in, and then went out to see the imperial palace a bit. really only a bit. ate lunch at the funny swiss place. then went to shibuya to see the lights.

it was cool, i shopped. wished i could be meeting people by hachiko - a famous meeting place - turns out i would be! sweet! came home at 10 30 ish alone, it was dark and scary. slept like a rock.

(f this picture thing is taking forever. i give up for now)

thursday - met sarah- the girl in the bed next to mine. german on exchange in akita, northern japan. no sooner had we realized that we both liked manga/anime then she asked me what my favourite slash pairings were! i went on the sumida river cruise thing - saw lots of bridges. went to odaiba - saw the rainbow bridge on the way. then saw odaiba`s dream bridge. v. pretty. felt a bit emotional/moved. shopped afterward. bought a hat! found this fountain thingy. saw some business district while trying to find it. then at night went to tokyo tower, it was gorgey, but all couples inside, so i felt a bit lonely. came home, hung out.

friday - walked to the eki with sarah that morning - we were accosted by school kids. it was cute, the first three times. then we sought out higher ground. boy im sick of origami - they kept giving it to us as thanks for helping with their survey. i went to azabu-juuban, where sailor moon is set. saw the girl with red shoes, explored the neighbourhood - it was pretty. saw darkness hill, the shrine rei`s is based on in the manga, the lady there was really nice with me. explained all the charms. then i saw the anime shrine - which was gorgeous and really moved me. then i got an email from jen that was totally inappropriate and hilariously timed. took a lot of pics, left rei a thank you, left and saw the diet (government) building. went to roppongi, saw maman (giant spider sculpture), tokyo city view and the museum - the displays were a lot of modern art about laughter. I laughed. A lot. I was like the only one. But ok - Im watching this video of a shoe lace coming untied.. the lace is being pulled by a string, but you cant tell whats pulling the string. Then i look at the title. "untying a shoe with an erection." Dang i laughed. and there was a display you were supposed to interact with, part of which was to stick this teddy bear into your fly, with the head poking out, and try to be serious, and think about philosopy, while also imagining that your mother can see you. it was weird, but amusing. went from roppongi to shibuya to have dinner with sarah (reeeally good pizza), then we went drinking with her two friends from akita - nic and sam (?) in shinjuku, nic was hitting on me, i think, because he cmailed me alot that night, but he had to leave the next day for kyoto, so. (the mothertonguers can take the toefl?) we all only just made the last train home.

saturday- woke up not really hung over, went to ebisu garden place. shopped a bit, took pics. not sure what else i did that day. (?) went and ate with sarah again - we ate sundaes at some place, then bought combini pasta and ate it around the hostel tv. after that, sarah went upstairs, and i befriended chris (texan, from okinawa) and rich (english, backpacker). we talked until 12 ish, and i got the impression they were both hitting on me, chris moreso, which is a big zannen (pity), because rich was deffo the cuter of the two. well, the only cute one of the two. then some random (dutch) guy came and invited us all to karaoke! we went. we got reeeally drunk. i sang mostly in japanese. in fact, i dont really remember what songs i did in english. i know i picked queens "somebody to love" but did i sing it? prolly bodes badly for how well i sung it, if i did.

the aishiteru, chulip, sunday bloody sunday with the dutch guy, uhm.. bohemian like you, with the kiwi, tom, sailor moon theme in japanese, beatles, there was a LOT of beer. in the end just dutch guy, tom, me and rich were left, and we were all very, very drunk. trying to pay, rich did the old "put something behind your back so the girl is forced to semi-hug you thing" and i called him on it, drunkenly. we all stumbled home, and midway tom talked about having a quiet spit into a glass back at the karaoke place. LOL. god im glad i remember that! a quiet spit!! hahahahahaha. i can only assume that is kiwi for vomit. (more should go here, but it will make more sense as a whole, i think)

sunday - next day, woke up late, forced some toast down my throat, felt ill. went with cee cee, chaz, chris, and rich to harajuku, where we watched the costumed kids - some were nice, some were rude. there was a guy with a sign "free hugs". he said it was his bday. he was really cute in the sweet way, and when cee cee started pimping his hugs ("come on people, FREE hugs! FREE! Hug the man!"), he got all teary, i think he was severly lonely, or something. We saw Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi Park. then we went in search of a coffee place, found one, and ate dessert there. yum. chaz and his "wet paint" tactic - he was about 50, and reeeeally british. he should have had a safari hat on, you know the type? He was trying to get through crowds by whacking people with his umbrella, saying "Wet Paint! Mind Yourselves!" Most of the time i was very glad that the japanese people couldnt understand what he was saying. cee cee laughs like Em, and has a similar face. we went home, i tried to nap, but it was no good. in the evening, walked around ginza with rich, went to bar near the hostel, with crazy japanese bartenders. Rich and i had a nice talk, and i think he nearly jumped me when i told him i understood the offside rule, which i thought was damn funny. the bartenders forced some 96% vodka on us! I drank like.. a millimeter, and protested loudly in japanese when they tried to give me more. They were amused, i think, because i was being so firm about it, in japanese.

monday- went with rich to harajuku again - the shopping street. the crepes there are famous for a reason! we saw yoyogi koen again, the crows there could carry off cats, theyre so big! then yasukuni jinja, and the sony building. I ate okonomiyaki with sarah because it was her last night in tokyo. then rich and i went to shibuya and saw "little miss sunshine". What a great movie! I cant even tell you how much i enjoyed it! We ended up hanging out in the lobby again, but people kept sitting down and hassling us! Including this one guy i wanted to like.. stab. He was throwing random japanese into his sentences, but it was clear he didnt actually speak it. And he had the nerve to ask if i understood. grr. Eg: "Ever since i was a kodomo(child), I have been spiritually Japanese, you know?" Yuck. I admire his perserverence for trying to learn the language with no help, but...

tuesday- mandarake (seriously geeky manga/anime stores), shibuya for shoes, packing, pizza, quiet drink in shibuya, home.

wednesday - packed, left on the train for home.

Frack thats a looong post for such a crappy explanation. But i think its mostly all there, and regardless of whether you guys understand or not, it will help me remember, so. I should also explain the whole rich thing - but it might make more sense as a post on its own, since this is already so long. right, thats what ill do.