Old posts from my computer!:
Thursday, October 4th, 2007 3am Japan Time
So I was lying here in bed in my hotel in Osaka, my mind on fire with all of these things that I couldn’t wait to blog about, when I turned over and realized that my laptop was sitting dormant on the desk, just waiting for me to open up a Word document and begin!
But yet…where to begin?
My flights went perfectly according to schedule. The two domestic flights (Nashville-Denver-San Francisco) were smooth and I had plenty of time to get through the international security stuff and get to my gate; even enough time to charge my new iPod before the plane departed.
The flight to Osaka itself was okay; I couldn’t sleep much, and since I switched from a middle-row seat to an exit seat, though I had more room, I had no window to look out of—a significant thing when you have a long plane ride and have nowhere to rest your eyes! I tried to open the window that was between my chair and the person behind me, but it was a little Japanese girl who, when I asked, in Japanese, if opening the window would be okay, she just looked freaked out and like she couldn’t comprehend that I was talking to her. But that’s a whole other story.
I was very lucky in that I had a nice guy sitting next to me—a youngish Japanese chef who lived in California for a few years, who was going back to Kyushu (another big side island, like where I’m going) to visit his family. Incredibly, he also had an iPod touch (can you tell how obsessed I am?), and we both freaked out and talked about how we were the only people who were going to have it in Japan. I was able to speak Japanese with him, which was great (because I stink and need to practice!) and when I told him where I was headed in Osaka, he very kindly offered to escort me to my hotel. I didn’t really need him to, since the limousine bus service went right to the hotel’s door-step, but it was really thoughtful of him regardless, and allowed me to really relax on the bus and not worry about going to the right station, etc.
We parted ways quickly (his girlfriend picked him up at the station, and she was awesomely nice, just to note!) and I got my hotel room by 6:30 without a hitch. And this is when I came to my first big conclusion of the night:
Lucy’s Travel Rule that probably only applies to her because she’s really eccentric #1:
Do NOT judge your emotions according to how you feel when the porter shuts the door and you are left alone in a tiny hotel room in a huge city, after a transit period in which, in the span of 24 hours, you have not eaten anything substantial and only about four of those hours were spent in sleep.
Seriously, I’m not someone who really gets lonely; it was just that when I thought that to myself, I then heard my boyfriend’s voice saying “ronery” (a la Japanese pronunciation) instead, and I just kind of couldn’t control myself at that point. BUT! I went back down to the lobby, walked on over to the conbini right across the street, and got some AWESOME JAPANESE CONBINI FOOD, YEAH! I came back, had another hysterical couple of minutes, got in bed, was sad and ronery, and finally got myself to eat. Fried chicken, chocolate-filled French bread, apple yogurt, and two cartons of lipton tea…nothing soothes your soul like a full stomach, especially when it’s food you’ve been missing for two years. It’s needless to say that I felt about eight hundred million times better after that, and immediately fell asleep.
Upon waking up, I could just smile. I’m back.
October 4, 2007 Thursday 8:10am
Going to quickly type this up on my computer so I can put it on my zip drive and upload it from the lobby computer!
I’m feeling awesome. After about two hours of tossing and turning, thinking about all the fun things to come, I decided to give up trying to sleep (even though I feel pretty tired), called my boyfriend, and took a shower, beginning the day at 6 in the morning. Post-shower I had a few things to figure out, namely two: 1, where was the bus stop, and 2, goddamnit, how did I forget to bring deodorant*. The ONE thing you can’t get in Japan is good deodorant brahbrahbrah I’m so dumb, but anyways, I needed to figure out the bus situation. My hosts had warned that finding the bus terminal was “a little difficult,” and in fact, if they had tried to explain it its location, it probably would have been hard to find. Luckily I found it with total ease; the hotel is literally 10 feet away from two major stations, and the bus terminal was just on the other side of one of them; there were signs and everything, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Japan does transportation right. Trains, planes, ferries, and expressway buses are all ubiquitous, and from what I’ve experienced, clean, always on time, and just really festive and nice. I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily easy to figure out for a foreigner, though—if you can’t read Japanese and are going anywhere remotely “out there,” you’re in trouble—but luckily I know a few of the kanjis so I was able to get my ticket to Tokushima without a problem. However, LOL, I did have some trouble communicating my departure time to the guy:
“Is the 7 train okay?”
“Yes!” (Thinking: Hmm, did he just speak Japanese to me? Lalala, I can’t wait to get another carton of milk tea)
*prints ticket*
“Um, aaaactually, if I could get the next train, that’d be great.”
“Okay, is 9 alright?”
“Yes!” (Thinking: What number did he just say?)
*prints second ticket*
“Ummmmmm….if I could leave at 11, instead…”
Getting used to speaking Japanese again is going to be really fun. It’s just so weird; sometimes I feel like I can convey exactly what I need to, but there have been plenty of times (in just a day!) where I’ve been totally clueless. For example, I was able to ask the conbini store guys which flavor of potato sticks they liked best, and explain that I was buying so much candy (aheh) because I had a long bus ride to Tokushima. But when I asked a hotel person how long it took to get to Osaka Castle, I could only stammer, “where’s…station?” Not as in “where is,” but, “where possesses the station?” She just smiled and said, very loudly and very distinctly, “OO-SA-KA STA-TION”.
Anyways, I’m going to go ahead and post this so I can head on out—I have three hours to kill, so I’m going to jump on a train to see the aforementioned castle before I cruise on out to Tokushima at eleven. Castles! Trains! Milk tea!!! I’M SO HAPPY!!!
*My deodorant was hiding in the bottom of my suitcase. Yay!
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