Okay, now to dig through my memory of four days ago... So much has happened, its kind of difficult to do that right now, so bear with me.
So I left Fukuoka late Friday morning and arrived at Nagoya in the afternoon. Actually the train ride wasn't too long... I think it was about three hours total, which was an incredibly nice change from the seven hour trip from Tokyo to Beppu. Or even the four hour one-way train ride from Beppu to Nagasaki. Nonetheless, it was nice and short. I was a bit concerned, however, since my hostel did not provide very detailed directions to their location from the website. It was basically, "take bus #(some bus number I dont remember) from Midway. Okay, where the hell is Midway? WHAT the hell is midway? It did not say which direction from the station, either. But I figured it was in front of some part of the station, and so when I saw the giant spiral outside I figured that was it.
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| From July 10 - 12 |
Luckily, I was right-on. Though I did not discover this Midway until I crossed the large street and went to the right... Oh look, MIDWAY... A giant department store building with really expensive brands... Of course. I walked a bit further and finally found a bus stop. Great, dandy... Oh look, a bus was coming and I could sit for at least five minutes... So I got on the bus and got off at the stop recommended by the website. It was a short bus ride, so it was kind of a waste of money. Oh well. The next part on the directions were, "now walk for three minutes." ... Walk for three minutes... IN WHAT DIRECTION? I finally got irritated and gave them a call (thank god for cell phones...). Unfortunately, the woman did not speak a word of English. And there was no one there who could. So, I had to rely on my broken Japanese. I finally handed the phone off to a random person and asked them to help me. I was able to get in the right direction, but eventually I had to call the desk clerk back and ask her where the hell to go from there... She asked me if I saw a 7-11. YES!! I saw one. She said, "Go there, I will pick you up." Finally... So I arrived at my hostel in one piece. The building was a bit... Well, unpersonal. It truly was a giant concrete building inside and out. The only difference was in the actual rooms, where tatami mats were placed and a nice table sat in the middle of the room.
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| From July 10 - 12 |
There was no internet save for a crappy 15-minutes for 100 yen computer in the lobby, which shut off from midnight until 6 AM. There was also a curfew at 11. And one public bath, well two technically with the different sexes and all. But that closed at 10.
But I ended up meeting some pretty cool people there... We all gathered in the laundry room one night. Had some good conversation... I met a Swiss girl that I ended up walking around with a bit on the first night, and got some cool pictures of Nagoya city at night... I also met a cool canadian that I ended up hanging out with in Kyoto (will post in later post).
Saturday morning I met Lyndsay at the station, and we took the Shinkansen into Tokyo, about a two hour ride.
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| From July 10 - 12 |
Our first stop was in Akihabara... Lewis took forever meeting us, so we didn't really get to do a whole lot... GOD Lewis you're so slow! haha, just kidding. Anyhow, our first stop was in an infamous Maid Cafe... I have to say, that is definitely one of the more wierd experiences in my life. When I get ahold of that picture, I will post it up here. Basically, these waitress-maids treat you like Kings, or queens... They call you husband, if you are male. For females, I don't really remember... Their japanese was so formal I could barely understand a word they were saying to me. Whenever we would recieve a drink or our meal, we would do this little cutsey hand movement to make it taste good. One of Lyndsay's friends got an omelette... The maid drew a cat on the omelette with catsup. Yeah, so wierd... Then they did a whole-restaurant participation thing that involved more cutsey hand movements and yelling, "food, become delicious!" in japanese.
The food was so-so, but those kinds of places are hot spots for crazy nerdy Japanese guys who could only dream of getting a cute girl to pay attention to them.
Our next stop was a giant toy store... I didn't take much pictures, and at that point I was pretty exhausted. Lyndsay and her friends from her summer abroad program went to Odaiba to see the giant gundam... I believe the pictures from my experience there are in my first post. I stayed with Lewis for a bit. We ate at this cafe because I needed to sit down... So I had some cake and some fruity drink. It was nice to sit in air-conditioned rooms... Then we went to Roppongi for about 20 minutes before I had to head back to Tokyo station to meet Lyndsay. Well, I never did get to meet up with her since Tokyo station is goddamn ginormous. So we ended up taking seperate trains back... And we met in Okazaki the next day before I was to head to Kyoto.
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| From July 10 - 12 |
Yes, we went to a Denny's. Yes, they have Denny's in Japan.. Crazy, right? The facility Lyndsay is staying at allowed us to borrow bicycles and ride around. That was pretty cool, except mine had a loose seat and sub-par breaks... Oh, and NO GEARS! Thoe hills were a bitch without gears, let me tell you... And on a rickity old bike, its scary as hell going down hill on those narrow sidwalks, when they even exist. But it was still really fun to get to hang out with her and a new friend, Yoko, at a leisurly pace. By the way, Yoko looks 18, right? Well she's actually 23!! Those crazy Japanese...
I awesomely booked last-minute at my hostel in Kyoto, where I had to change rooms each night I stayed here due to the fact that I am just THAT awesome. But I made it to Kyoto safe and sound and with a place to rest my head for the night.
Nagoya post: END.
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