Things that surprised me about my trip:

1.) The 13 hours flight didn't feel that long and I didn't sleep that much. So if you can somehow sleep (a mask and ear plugs help) you can probably really feel like it is nothing. My metric is flying NY to Amsterdam. It is usually about 7 hours and you are definitely ready to leave at the end of it. While I was ready to jump into Tokyo, it wasn't twice as bad.

2.) The Japanese aren't short. The idea we have of them being short goes back to when they were malnourished. Kids my age were about an inch shorter on average than the average American. What they are, though, is very thin. The older generations are very short.

3.) Tokyo is surprisingly affordable. Our hostel was about 25 bucks, and in London a 6 person hostel is about 40. 7-11 Bento Boxes (if we only had these here...) were about 4 bucks. A trip on the metro was never more than 2 bucks and cost 8 for a city wide day pass.

4.) Sushi is not as common as I thought. Sure you had lots of them but you have lots of everything. I would say Sushi is about as common as a Bennigans/TGIF/Applebees type family restaurant.

5.) Not really a surprise exactly, but I found a city to knock Rome off my list of cities I would be least likely to drive in.

6.) Mount Fuji is a lot bigger in person. It was so big, Em didn't see it (yeah figure that one out) on first approach.

7.) The Japanese are excessively polite. From them asking you if they can go through your bags at security checkpoints to the baseball players ending the game with a bow to the audience, you really feel like everything you are doing is probably rude.

8.) The English spoken is not even close to being on par with Europe. I figured Japan would be like Italy in terms of English proficiency. They are more than willing to try if they have anything at all but often they smile and say Hanasemasen (I don't speak [English])

9.) Despite Tokyo having three main train systems (JR East, Metro, Toei Metro) all owned by different companies, it isn't that difficult to navigate...once you get used to them. The three work really well.

10.) Shibuya was smaller than I thought...sort of. It was crazier than I pictured but I really thought that cross walk from "Lost in Translation" with the Brontosaurus' on the jumbotron was longer. The heights of the buildings seemed about the same.

11.) Getting used to not tipping and bowing was not as hard as I thought it would be.

12.) The vending machines rule (and we didn't even see the cooler ones with odd things for sale). On the ones inside the subway stations you can use your prepaid Metro hard to buy a drink by waving it past the sensor. How cool is that?

13.) Stitch was more popular than Mickey at Disney. The whole setup of the parks was like a dream sequence where you take a familiar place and then change it around a little.

14.) Teaching English is very easy. At one point, a guy meeting someone to finalize teaching plans offered to introduce me to his boss who was desperately seeking a few native English speakers.

15.) Kyoto was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Even though I knew better I kind of pictured Florence when I thought of Kyoto. Large city but the area of general interest is small. It is more spreadout but still beautiful (and we saw it on a crummy day) and a definite highlight of Japan.

16.) Americans in Hiroshima don't get the slightest harassment. Even the museum points out problems with Japan during the war. Yet Nanking is at times referred to as an incident. (Never saw that, I am just passing along gossip and 2nd hand information)

17.) Japanese of all ages read manga.

More to come...

Just plane dumb

So after a surprisingly decent night in my very own morgue, I got up around 7 and headed to Sakura to pick up Em, shower and update my blog (I was finishing up my Hiroshima post). By 9:30 I began to wonder and had the front desk call her room (yes, Sakura has phones in the room... not bad for a hostel). Apparently the alarm clock decided to run out of juice around 1am.

So like yesterday we were getting a late start. On the list of to dos were to visit Akihabara to look for Joe's requests (maracas and toy) and Dad's souvenir. With our flight at 4p, we backed out two hours for checking in, and an hour for the train to the airport. If my math serves that is 1p.

That leaves two hours to do all of this. Hmm...well worst comes to worst, we probably can squeeze down the two hours a little. From experience I knew that the international flights at times will shutdown the baggage conveyor around 45 minutes before takeoff. So it would be wise not to push it.

Akihabara is fairly easy to get to, just take the Ginza to Ginza the Hibya to Akihabara. If any place would have Maracas controllers for Dreamcast this would be it. Interestingly, every shop knew EXACTLY what this Samba de Amigo maracas were only no one knew where to buy it. We finally settled on the 10 story electronics haven known as Yodabashi Camera. Still no maracas but they did have a toy section. Apparently there is a fairly famous Japanese tv show with a fairly famous character with the unfortunate name of harudogei (pronounced Hardo Gay). Each person on the toy floor knew about this also "Ahh yesss hardoo gay no it does not exist here". Sorry, Joe, we tried.

So with time ticking away we were at the 1:15 mark. Later than I had hoped but still doing okay. It was time to book it to the hostel again. It took about 30 minutes to get back due to the lunch rush hour. Back to backwards math. 4p - 20 minutes to get to and from the hostel minus an hour train minus 30 minutes and we are looking at the current time, meaning in order to beat that 45 minute cutoff we would have to run, to beat an hour cutoff we would have to pray.

Having never been in a hurry during the day I underestimated how long it would take to navigate the souvenir shops stretching from Kaminarmon gate to Sensoji. We knocked into half of Tokyo on the way to the subway while we yelled "Sumimasen!"constantly. We even bumped into a French woman on the train who gave us a fairly disgusted look and asked us where we were from. Em and I in unison said "Canada". I added in "Tranta" for a little something extra.

Em and I nearly threw up from running with packs on and by the time we caught the metro to Ueno, bought our ticket and walked the long corridor to the Keisei line our only hope was for a delayed flight or to fly some other way. Japanese punctuality was offset by their cleanliness obsession as that prevented us from taking off early. We took the 2:40 train putting us at check in 5 minutes before take off. At this point I was resigned to missing the flight but was not looking forward to the inevitable question "Why, again did you miss the flight?" "::sigh:: we were looking for a Hardo Gay toy"

Unfortunately for us the flight was on time. Very fortunate for us there was a flight in 25 minutes to Newark...that had also stopped check in.

Continental rocks. If you ever have a choice in airline and the price is pretty close, pick em. The lady reopens the baggage line and tags our packs while throwing out requests to other employees to help us find our gate. We were literally walked from the counter the gate to make sure we would make the flight all with no extra charge for the new tickets. As in Amsterdam a year earlier, Em and I heard our names over the intercom for the final boarding call. The security check was a bit haphazard and again the staff asked us if they could check our baggage. We may have lost our aisle seats for that flight but we felt very happy to have made it aboard. The 11 hour flight mostly zipped by and before we knew it we were touching down in the big apple. At customs we were greeted with this New York accent yelling, ¨Hey YOU! You... you get ova´here."

I missed Japan already.

We had some time to kill in Newark (5 hour layover), so we found a bar serving Brooklyn Breweries' line up (I found the IPA to be just ok) and a Borders mini where I looked at some guidebooks for my next trip to China next year.

Having been up for about 30 hours we got 8 hours sleep in some very comfortable beds.

I will post a few more pictures, a wrapup, and a youth hostel supplement over the next few days.

Until next time,

Joey

Stitch; Not in time, saves nine...bucks


We were running late on our second day back in Tokyo (shocking I know) and headed out to Tokyo Disneyland via Tokyo Station. At Mahaima station you get off and walk 20 feet to the entrance. Having spent roughly two months of our childhood at Disneyworld, Em and I know the parks like the back of our hands which made us question whether we really should visit them or not. Two words: absolutely.

The first thing Disney World visitors will spot is the insane obsession with Stitch (of Lilo and Stitch) We think we came up with an explanation. Tokyo to Honolulu is only 7 hours. This means a lot of Japanese think of kawaii Hawaii when they think of the US. So given that many Japanese travel there the Hawaiian themed movie holds a more personal appeal than it does to North American audiences who consider Hawaii to practically be another country.

Running late can have its advantages. by arriving precisely at 3 we were able to buy a reduced fare ticket saving us about nine bucks. Inside we headed immediately for some food. Our favorite Disneyworld place to grab a bite is Cosmic Rays Starlight cafe. As kids we used to like the ridiculous jokes and musical parodies by Sonny Eclipse an anamatronic lounge singer/entertainer.

Not to be out done in the weirdness category, Japan gives you Tony Solaroni an Italian accented alien in charge of the automated pizza maker. The language swaps between English and Japanese (the other language being captioned) with a healthy dose of Italian songs from Japanese chefs.

Stomachs not so full, (like ski resort trails, the portion sizes are very much relative to resort) we walked to the newly "relaunched" Space Mountain. Apparently the inside stars changed... that was about it. Having so little room for expansion, *NEW*ness comes in the form of renovations. Em was a little worried about the ride given the Japanese love for real thrill rides that she was worried what this coaster might have different from its Orlando counterpart 8000 miles away. It was very different. This was barely a roller coaster. Our flight's turbulence had better drops then this thing.

In Fantasy land they have a Pinnochio ride that piqued our interest simply because it was not in the Magic Kingdom. Then it was on to Pecos Bill Cafe (hoping for some Mexican food...only churros) and on to the Haunted Mansion which was an exact replica of the one we know and love (it seemed like the hitchhiking ghosts may have been shorter...) only with a "scary" narration in Japanese.

As we exited we caught the tail end of the Night Parade which has the same music, similar floats, and even white stars for the main characters (minor characters were always Japanese).


For..relaxing times..make it...Suntory time

Hiroshima and Miyajima

Em and I left our Tokyo pseudo-Ryokan for Hiroshima. This was destined to be a fairly long day since we were headed back to Tokyo that night. The shink can make some distant sites remarkably achievable daytrips.

We arrived, threw our packs in the locker and were out. If you didn't know any better, you would not know there was ever a single bomb that fell on Hiroshima. It looks like Tokyo, Kyoto or any other decent sized city. In fact the only sign of the attack was a government building left in its partially destroyed state.

Across from the A bomb dome (seriously, this is what they call it) you have the field where the Hiroshima Carps play and on the other side of the river, the Hiroshima peace park. They commemorate the attacks every morning with a bell at 0815. They also have a before and after section within the official museum which doesn't so much blame the US for what happened but simply calls for peace and uses Hiroshima as an example of the costs of war. They wisely choose not to throw stones from their duct taped pyrex shack.


I am sure some people would think that Americans would be personas non grata in this town but we didn't find that at all. In fact, as we walked through the peace park groups of Japanese children would walk up to us say hello and then, if they were girls, giggle.

Whether you agree with dropping the bomb in Hiroshima or not (I being in the camp of the former) the photos and memorials show you that just because because a decision was right and necessary doesn't make it good. Inside the museum I came so close to blocking a few cameras. They have signs everywhere that say "No photography" in several languages. Yet here were some Nigerian military taking photos in plain site with full flash and everything. Not only was that incredibly disrespectful but the photos won't come out behind glass!

With time quickly disappearing we cut our visit to the musem short and headed to the sacred island of Miyajima. Its most famous attraction is the floating torii (considered one of the top three views in Japan; similar to wonders of the ancient world). The island is really beautiful and I wish we could have camped out there. After a few pictures we had to jump back on the shink to Tokyo. Given Japanese punctuality that makes Germany seem like Spain, when the train to Hiroshima was two minutes late we started worrying a bit.

With 10 minutes between us and our last train out we ran everywhere from the train to the lockers to the platform and made it with a few minutes to spare. Exhaustion makes for decent sleep. Around 2330 we pulled in to Tokyo station where we got the sardine treatment on the way to Ueno and ultimately to Asakusa via the Ginza line. We were actually double booked with accomodations at an Akihabara capsule hotel and the Sakura hostel and when we arrived at Sakura at midnight, I was glad I didnt have to go wandering for my accomodation.


--Joey

Emi-chan Takes Over 5/6/07

Hey everyone! I arrived in Tokyo this afternoon and my brother picked me up at the airport (thank goodness because I would have inevitably gotten lost and probably cried). The city is very crowded and confusing. I did learn and identified a few kanji characters: "stop", "exit", and "yen". Joey's Japanese is better than he says. He was able to ask directions, buy tickets and talk to people. We went to Starbucks in Narita Airport where I tried out my Japanese for the first time. I predictably ordered my chocolate milk over ice and the barista understood me! That was pretty exciting.

After dropping our bags at the Sakura youth hostel, we headed out to explore this lively and very overwhelming city. (Above　is a picture I took a little ways outside our hostel. Look at the tree: there is a prayer pinned to the trunk.) It is very crowded but clean. The streets are colorful with advertisements and neon lighting that illuminates buildings. Everything is smushed together. There are pagoda style homes that are about a foot apart. The people are overly accomodating. When asking where places were, people would actually walk us to our destination.Joey took me to Shibuya for a little while...Wow! Above is a picture of an arcade in Shibuya.

I'm exhausted so I will wrap this up. Japan is awesome. Enough said.

5/7/07

Emily writes again:

I'm really tired so I will make this quick: Joey and I are at a hostel near the base of Mt. Fuji with our new best friend, Gail. She was staying at the Sakura hostel the same time we were and she will be traveling to Kyoto with us as well. We had to take our shoes off before entering the hostel :-D and they have Japanese toilets! (I'm not gonna lie, there was a bit of an incident lol). More on everything later...night night! Love yall!

P.S. To Amy, I will try to find a charm for you.
Since today is a school day, we saw a bunch of kids in uniforms around town and on the subway. They were adorable!

More photos to come...