The flight was so long. Seriously I feel like I have been traveling for days. I left at 2:30pm monday, and didn't get into Tokyo until 5pm the Tuesday which in Portland time was around midnight because of the time delay and crossing the international dateline.. One of the best things about international flights is you get your own tv, where you can watch any movies on demand for free and you can play video games! Sweeeet!
I sat next to this Phillipino girl from Hong Kong who had the most beautiful british accent. I guess since Hong Kong was ruled by the brits for a long time that they speak with a british/chinese accent, strange, but I loved the accent. She was beautiful, lived in portland for the last 2 years studying her Master's in Psych....she talked my ear off and told me lots of things I had to look forward to being a white person in an asian world. She told me how many opportunities I would have in Japan and in hong kong just because how much chinese and japanese love white people. She was going on and on about how people will want to be my friend just because I have pale skin. This was all very shocking to me as she described how asian women are constantly buying over the counter products to bleach their skin, and feel like white people are superior over them. Isn't that strange? I was perplexed.
Ok so Tokyo is the craziest place I have ever been in my life. I have never encountered such amazing hospitality. I got off a bus in Shinjuku which is a very busy area that is close to the leasing office where I am renting my room .... I get off the bus and my bags are so big and there are so many people on the street, I have problems even walking 2 feet.....I asked these girls if they knew english....They decided to befriend me! This girl not only pulled one of my bags for me but then drew a map for the cab driver to take me to the right hotel, and then gave me her phone number and her email address even though she doesn't speak any english.....cute... I'm making friends without even trying.
Everyone is so tiny here that my suitcases barely fit in the cab. The cab driver spoke absolutely no english. He told me the fare in Japanese I had to look at the reciept to pay it. At this point I am really kicking myself for not learning basic Japanese before coming! Oh well I have a year! But still, talk about making it hard on myself. At the same time, I get a big kick out of looking around and not recognizing any words and having to communicate through charades. It makes me feel like I'm in my own little bubble... I love it!
Then when I got to the Star hotel they didn't have any vacancies. I had missed my opportunity to go move into my house tonight cause the bus got in too late and the leasing office was closed. So here I was in one of the busiest parts of Tokyo with 2 huge bags, and no one really speaks english, I don't have a hotel room, and I am starting to wonder if I am going to have to sleep on the street......everyone is staring at me like I am either the most beautiful or horrific thing they have ever seen.... I can't really tell. I just can't get over how amazingly stylish and sweet and beautiful everyone is. And I feel like a sweaty, traveling train wreck, and yet everyone wants to help me, and that is when I realized I LOVE THIS CITY!
If you ask someone if they speak english they are delighted to practice it on you. At this first hotel with no vacancies, I had 2 new people carry my bags up the escelator cause they were too huge .... When the hotel declined me cause they were full I almost lost it. I guess my plan to reserve a hotel room prior to me leaving got shoved to the wayside to do other things like work, being hung over, and hanging out instead of planning this better....
Anyway, after the first hotel denied me this group of freshly graduated college students who were dressed amazing actually not only called and booked a room for me, but pulled my bags down the street . The room is a mere $220 for the night! HAHA! I knew that it was going to be about that expensive, but I am just doing it one night, and I am choosing to be near the leasing office opposed to staying at a cheap hostel and having to cab it too far. Honestly I would have paid $500 to take a shower after an 11 hour flight and a 3 hour bus ride from the airport to tokyo. I am so happy to be looking at some crazy neon lights out my window as it is only 9:49pm here, and it's 5:49am back home.
I must sleep!
Oh one more thing...my phone doesn't work! GOD DAMMIT! THe tmobile people said it should work on the wifi but I haven't got it to work yet. Maybe this will change but in the meantime if you need to get ahold of me either email, myspace, I think I am going to get skype or some other VOIP system.
xoxox
I sat next to this Phillipino girl from Hong Kong who had the most beautiful british accent. I guess since Hong Kong was ruled by the brits for a long time that they speak with a british/chinese accent, strange, but I loved the accent. She was beautiful, lived in portland for the last 2 years studying her Master's in Psych....she talked my ear off and told me lots of things I had to look forward to being a white person in an asian world. She told me how many opportunities I would have in Japan and in hong kong just because how much chinese and japanese love white people. She was going on and on about how people will want to be my friend just because I have pale skin. This was all very shocking to me as she described how asian women are constantly buying over the counter products to bleach their skin, and feel like white people are superior over them. Isn't that strange? I was perplexed.
Ok so Tokyo is the craziest place I have ever been in my life. I have never encountered such amazing hospitality. I got off a bus in Shinjuku which is a very busy area that is close to the leasing office where I am renting my room .... I get off the bus and my bags are so big and there are so many people on the street, I have problems even walking 2 feet.....I asked these girls if they knew english....They decided to befriend me! This girl not only pulled one of my bags for me but then drew a map for the cab driver to take me to the right hotel, and then gave me her phone number and her email address even though she doesn't speak any english.....cute... I'm making friends without even trying.
Everyone is so tiny here that my suitcases barely fit in the cab. The cab driver spoke absolutely no english. He told me the fare in Japanese I had to look at the reciept to pay it. At this point I am really kicking myself for not learning basic Japanese before coming! Oh well I have a year! But still, talk about making it hard on myself. At the same time, I get a big kick out of looking around and not recognizing any words and having to communicate through charades. It makes me feel like I'm in my own little bubble... I love it!
Then when I got to the Star hotel they didn't have any vacancies. I had missed my opportunity to go move into my house tonight cause the bus got in too late and the leasing office was closed. So here I was in one of the busiest parts of Tokyo with 2 huge bags, and no one really speaks english, I don't have a hotel room, and I am starting to wonder if I am going to have to sleep on the street......everyone is staring at me like I am either the most beautiful or horrific thing they have ever seen.... I can't really tell. I just can't get over how amazingly stylish and sweet and beautiful everyone is. And I feel like a sweaty, traveling train wreck, and yet everyone wants to help me, and that is when I realized I LOVE THIS CITY!
If you ask someone if they speak english they are delighted to practice it on you. At this first hotel with no vacancies, I had 2 new people carry my bags up the escelator cause they were too huge .... When the hotel declined me cause they were full I almost lost it. I guess my plan to reserve a hotel room prior to me leaving got shoved to the wayside to do other things like work, being hung over, and hanging out instead of planning this better....
Anyway, after the first hotel denied me this group of freshly graduated college students who were dressed amazing actually not only called and booked a room for me, but pulled my bags down the street . The room is a mere $220 for the night! HAHA! I knew that it was going to be about that expensive, but I am just doing it one night, and I am choosing to be near the leasing office opposed to staying at a cheap hostel and having to cab it too far. Honestly I would have paid $500 to take a shower after an 11 hour flight and a 3 hour bus ride from the airport to tokyo. I am so happy to be looking at some crazy neon lights out my window as it is only 9:49pm here, and it's 5:49am back home.
I must sleep!
Oh one more thing...my phone doesn't work! GOD DAMMIT! THe tmobile people said it should work on the wifi but I haven't got it to work yet. Maybe this will change but in the meantime if you need to get ahold of me either email, myspace, I think I am going to get skype or some other VOIP system.
xoxox
I LOVE making friends! And I LOVE own-little-worlds!
I envy you!
Hope you have a great time!