City life -- for one night

Itching to get the hell away from the inaka (Japanese word for bumfuck nowhere) and all the rain that's been pishing down on Niigata lately, Aaron and I bucked up and headed into Tokyo on Saturday. After a brief scare that all the parking lots were full at Tsubame-Sanjo station, we managed park my car and hopped onto the 9:30 Shinkansen where we finished off our JET Japanese courses to send off and just chatted a bit. We pulled into Ueno station at 11:22 (have I mentioned how much I love the Shinkansen?) and immediately started weirding out Tokyo.

We had decided that we'd walk through Ueno Koen and then make our way to the University that Aaron studied at during college. First stop was the dorms where we needed to print out directions to our hotel and to see if we could find Aaron's cousin, Nichole, who is studying abroad now. We managed to sneak in and use the computer and draw out a map (which we subsequently forgot - we are such tools!) then since Nichole wasn't there we dropped in to talk to one of Aaron's old Japanese professors. This woman was really nice and spoke amazingly natural English and before we knew it, an hour had passed. So we headed back to the dorms, managed to find Nichole and her friend and then hopped on the subway to Jimbocho where our hotel was. It was at this point that we realized we forgot our map (and Aaron's beloved pencil!) but between the two of us and our stellar memories and indisputable intelligence we managed to find the place in like 5 minutes -- if you've ever been to Tokyo you know this is no easy task.

Let me take a moment to descibe this hotel. It's called the Sakura Hotel and since Aaron and I are trying to, uh, save money we went with the "dorm style" accomodation for 3500yen. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't stay in dorms when I travel so this was a big stretch for me. We checked in and rode the shady elevator down to the basement where the dorms are. We were separated into men's/women's dorms which was actually good for me since guys are filthy and disgusting (especially backpacker ones, heh). My room had 3 sets of bunk beds. All of them had crappy flourescent lights and curtains to pull closed. I was pleased to see that the sheets were clean (this is, after all, Japan). So other than all the other girls' make up and shoes strewn about, the room was actually ok.

Anyway, we dumped our crap into our um, cubbies and took off for Ginza. I had been looking forward to Ginza all day cause I really wanted to hit Zara and buy something hotty to wear for New Years (to go with those hot shoes) but by the time we got there it was just after 3 and I need to be in Gaienmae for my 4:00 hair appointment. I didn't think I'd have time to do Zara justice so I separated from the group and just headed into Gaienmae. Ah, well.

After my hour and a half or pampering at the hair salon, I had an email from Aaron that said that he was in Shibuya, so I hopped on the subway and met up with him, Nichole, her friend and Aaron's old friends, Asuka and Dondon. We immediately made our way through the neon lit streets and the incredible crowds into TGIFridays where we had Ultimate Margaritas and massive cheeseburgers. Oh, a slice of random American heaven! After dinner there was some confusion about where to go out drinking and how to co-ordinate the other people who were meeting up with us. Since I didn't know any of these people, I just kind tuned out and let everyone else do the planning (the tuning out girl is usually so not my role!).

Well we met up with Saki, another one of Aaron's friends from his study abroad time and we ended up going to a few bars. Every so often another group of Minnesota college kids showed up to join us. I don't think I've ever sat at a table with so many Mid-Westerners in my life, haha! I had no idea what was going on so I just tried to act cool and make small talk and enjoy the fact that there were unfamiliar faces around.




At some point a group of young Japanese people struck up a conversation with Aaron so when I got back from the bar with our round of drinks, I sat down with them. It was two guys and two girls and so we hung out with them for pretty much the rest of the night conversing in both English and Japanese. It was exactly what Aaron and I were looking for - mingling with other young people. The young people up in Niigata are so damn shy not confident in their English abilities that it can be quite hard to make friends here. It was refreshing to meet some people our age who just, like, aren't afraid of us!
We decided to call it a night around midnight cause our hotel was too far to take a taxi without paying 900000yen.

The next day we headed Korakuen where we did a tiiiny bit of shopping (I got a fantastic green sweater from United Colors of Benetton) and ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Then we walked back to Ueno and headed to Asakusa where we hoped we could pick up some souveneir type stuff for Christmas gifts.


Eventually we headed back to Ueno to grab the Shinkansen back home. We didn't get reserved seats so we were out of luck. We ended up standing at the back of the Car 1 where there was a mother and her adorable (although mulleted) 4-year old son. The little boy noticed Aaron and I and announced loudly "Eigo shaberu!" (They're speaking English) so I looked at him and smiled and said "Wakarimasu ka?" (Do you understand?) to which he shook his head and said "Wa-ka-ri-ma-sen. Zennnzen wakarimasen" (roughly, I really don't understand) at which just about everyone on the train erupted with laughter. It was such a lovely little exchange that reinforced my love for innocent, wide-eyed Japanese children.

Overall we had a great time in Tokyo and also, AMAZING weather. When we got back to Sanjo, it was still raining (of course!). So we went to the movie theatre to see the new Harry Potter. Which was fantastic even though I had to miss my Sunday night curfew by like 2 hours! Shock!

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And two random thoughts:
-19 days till I go home - 6 days at Maki Nishi, 4 days at Higashi, 2 days at Shogakko, 1 day at Nursery school, 1 day of private eikawa class! Woohoo!
-10 days till snowboarding season opens. I hope the snow's good enough so I can go once before I leave for Christmas, that's slightly doubtful though.