10 posts tagged “travel”
I'm back! A friend I stayed with in Tokyo interrogated me over IM, and I think that makes a better summary than I would have written:
(10:25:33) Friend: did you meet Bob yet?
(10:25:39) Me: Not yet
(10:25:59) Me: My cell phone won't charge, and I think I put the charger in a box of stuff I mailed home that won't get here for weeks.
(10:26:21) Friend: aww
<...>
(10:29:31) Friend: so how was your bus ride?
(10:30:17) Me: The bus ride was fine. I was the only person to get off at Terminal 2, and I took a little bit of time to get off the bus because of all those little plastic bags [ed: souvenirs], so the guy unloading luggage looked a little confused and a little annoyed.
(10:31:04) Me: Narita airport is one confusing place when you first get in. None of the counters say "check-in" and all of them say "American Airlines," even though less than half of them are.
(10:32:15) Me: I bought souvenirs, but the store looked closed, so I asked, "aiteimasuka," and she just stared at me until I asked, "Is this store open?"
(10:32:30) Me: But then another guy walked up and asked a question in Japanese, so I was really confused.
(10:32:41) Friend: lol
(10:33:06) Me: I got home late, and I haven't had any meal since getting here.
(10:33:18) Me: I hope Mike gets my message soon. I haven't called yet.
(10:33:21) Friend: whaaaaaaaaat!?
(10:33:46) Friend: did you eat those chocolate cigaretts?
(10:34:00) Me: Not yet.
(10:34:03) Me: Maybe I should.
(10:34:03) Friend: oh
(10:34:12) Friend: how about copan
(10:34:21) Me: I think I'm going to put all my candy together to decide which ones I want to share with family.
(10:34:32) Friend: lol
(10:34:34) Me: I didn't eat that one yet either because I was afraid I would be too thirsty. :-D
(10:34:43) Friend: I see
(10:35:06) Friend: I thought after you left that I should have bought two cc lemons for you
(10:35:29) Friend: I am sorry that I didn't
(10:35:30) Me: heh
(10:35:43) Me: I had exactly the amount of liquid I needed, so thanks.
(10:36:11) Friend: how was your airplane ride?
(10:36:21) Me: Long, but well-timed.
(10:36:52) Me: I read HP, then watched Fullmetal Alchemist until my battery died, then read more, then slept, then read more. That flight ended before I knew it.
(10:37:33) Friend: I see, so you didn't do any Kanji training?
(10:38:12) Me: Transferring to the next flight in Chicago was pure madness. I had to fetch all my luggage (!!), go through all the customs lines, drag my luggage to the next check-in, and then find my new gate. They had to put me on a later flight because moving through all those lines took too long.
(10:38:24) Me: No, I haven't done any of that yet. I should. I did play some Bleach last night before bed. :)
(10:38:40) Me: I wonder if I have the reflexes for that game
(10:39:21) Friend: oh yeah, you had to pick up the luggage at Chicago...
(10:39:37) Friend: I have to remember that too, since I am going to do that in 21st
(10:40:02) Me: It's no fun at all.
(10:40:10) Friend: yeah, I know
(10:40:29) Friend: well I have a trip tip for you
(10:40:47) Me: Pack less?
(10:40:55) Friend: yep
(10:41:03) Friend: only need one suitcase
(10:41:12) Me: haha
(10:41:15) Friend: and one carry-on
(10:41:16) Me: You lie!
(10:41:20) Me: I need seven suitcases!
(10:41:23) Friend: no I am not
(10:41:30) Friend: I have only one suitcase
(10:41:35) Friend: that is all I need
(10:41:54) Friend: 9days of clothing, and you wash them little by little
(10:42:11) Me: That's no fun at all.
Two days ago, I was up very late talking with friends, and only got two hours of sleep. Yesterday, I was up very late because we had a closing JTW dinner, and then I had to finish packing, so I again got only two hours of sleep. I woke up at 5 AM so that I could catch a 5:30 AM taxi to the airport (and have my room completely cleared out -- sorry Mack!) for a 7 AM flight to Tokyo. My host mother and father were there to see me off, and my conversation partner meant to be, but he accidentally slept in.
When I got on the plane, I immediately fell asleep, and didn't wake up until it landed around 9 AM. I then bought train tickets to my friend's house, slept for most of the express train trip (until around 11:30 AM), and navigated the local trains until 2 PM when I finally found my destination. I should have been there at 12:30 PM, but I took the wrong train, then I didn't get off when the train turned around, and carrying around 4 bags was a huge pain. But I finally made it.
After that we tried to go to Mr. Donuts, but there wasn't enough room for my bags, so we waited an hour for a bus to his house, rode the bus for about an hour, then rode the bus back and had some とんかつ (tonkatsu) for dinner instead. Then we walked around for a bit and eventually wandered into a book store where he bought a joke book and I bought Harry Potter (!!) and a tiny English comic that had Japanese translations. Then, after stopping for some breakfast bread, we came back and, of all things, Facebooked until 11 PM. Then I couldn't take the lack of sleep and more and collapsed. I slept for 12 hours, and now I feel pretty refreshed.
I took a bath here, which means sitting on a stool and pouring water over yourself, which was a rather unique experience for me. Life in a traditional Japanese setting is still awkward for me.
There you go, you've made it to the present.
Well, you will be after seeing this: goodbyes from JTWers after the closing ceremony.
Flickr got more love today. No time to talk about it; tagging took long enough, and I have a big final tomorrow! Just look:
Rice-planting study trip photos
A teaser, perhaps? (Or perhaps, you've viewed my photos?)
The longer you sit, the more the garden fascinates. The branches of the trees beyond the earthen wall with its peculiar but natural designs are "borrowed scenery" - they bend and straighten, they cast fantastic shadows with the moss that fills the pocks and spaces in the rocks. The raked lines are circles around the rock groups and yet straight elsewhere - and you will love how the lines stop without a single misplaced pebble when they touch the circular patterns, and then resume unchanged beyond them as if the rocks are islands. It changes with the seasons - cherry trees beyond the wall blooming in spring, snow clinging to the moss in the winter. It is never the same twice. And although the rocks do not move, there is something about those spaces between the rocks.
-- Taken from "Ryonaji Temple in Kyoto, Japan"
The trip is almost over (I come back Sunday night), but it's still really hard to find affordable Internet on the road. It's okay, though; I bought a bigger memory card for my camera, tripling the number of photos I can take without a computer. I'll do the uploading when I return.
It's not entirely planned out, but it's definitely happening. I'm spending the greater portion of Golden Week in Osaka. I know it's happening because I already paid the kick-off to an entire week of dropping money everywhere: ￥４，３００ (~$36 USD) for a bus to Osaka, which is very roughly ￥１４ (~$0.11 USD) per mile. (I calculated by clicking along the most likely highway path in Google Earth to get 313 miles total. See the map on the right.)
David, QZ, Gorgeous, and I plan to leave Tuesday night and come back early, early Monday morning. (Names were mangled to protect the innocent.)
As for the rest of the trip, thank goodness the lodging situation has improved since my last conversation with mom. At that point, only one night had been confirmed. Now, we have confirmed lodging for three of the four nights, with a tentative plan to stay at an Internet cafe or capsule hotel (introduced to me in Survival Phrases 10 of JapanesePod101) on Thursday night if we can't find a room that day. I really, really hope we can find a room, although staying in a capsule hotel is on my list of weird things to do in Japan.
Why take such a risky trip? Well, Golden Week is the closest we get to a vacation for the whole semester. We have time after all is done, but it looks like everybody is already pretty set on what they want to do with that time. If we don't travel now, we won't get another chance like this.
Besides, only one night is in the air, and we have a general idea of what to do if things don't go our way. It'll be fun, and we're young.
I forget the name of Wednesday night's hotel, but it will cost ￥１，５５０ (~$13 USD), which doesn't make any sense unless QZ reserved us a single bedroom and we'll be sleeping all over the furniture and floor. I don't know the prices for the other nights, but I think they'll be comparable. For comparison, a night in an Internet cafe costs about ￥２，０００ (~$16.70 USD).
Our first day will likely be spent at Universal Studios Japan for ￥５，９００ (~$50 USD) If it's like the Universal Studios I remember in the US, we won't be there all day. I remember cafes and restaurants more than engaging attractions, but my memory's known to be faulty, and that was a very long time ago. I do remember a man painted as a statue that would stand very still and surprise people. That would be entertaining for at least half an hour..
The second day, we plan on getting the Osaka Unlimited Pass for ￥２，０００ (~$16.70 USD). This gets us discounts on various things around town, and makes travel cheap (free, I think). My "homework" is to look at the list of discounted attractions for discussion tomorrow. I might do that, QZ, I might...
After that, who knows what we'll do? I'll keep you posted.
Note to self: use an ATM when you wake up, or you won't have cash!
もう疲れたです。今日はスペースワールドに友達と二十人ぐらい行きました。 (I'm still tired. Today I went to Space World with about 20 friends.) 午前十時に着くために、電車とバスを[mobbed]. (We mobbed the trains and buses to get there by 10 AM.) 私たちは六時までとてもつかれましたけど、私はちょっととまりたかったです。 (We were all very tired by 6:00, but I kind of wanted to stay.) The rides were excellent, and much more consistently good than I remember encountering before.
I found that I'm much more tolerant of being twisted and spun and tossed around than the people I went around with. I was ready to ride roller-coasters and spinny rides (like the one below) all day long, but after 3 PM, people kept making sick faces and pointing us toward the baby water rides instead of the actually entertaining attractions. Maybe I visited more amusement parks than average during my childhood.
Regarding the ride above: it's not nearly as painful as it looks, though as you can see, it looks pretty painful. Whoever crafted this piece of work decided that humans can't be trusted to pull down their own restraining harnesses, and that only one harness isn't enough. The result is that the machine straps you in. The first attack drops around your neck and nails you in the crotch. The second comes from in front like a falling mallet, smashing the first into firm position. I wish I had the audio from the first time we underwent the process. But the ride was awesome, so I went twice.
The other rides were great, too. My comments on some of those are in the photo set, and while I'm mentioning it, I may as well mention the photo set I just uploaded for today.
I should also make note about the price. I don't know how much the entry ticket and train transportation cost individually, but together they were ￥５，５００ (~$46 USD). Not bad, I s'pose. I spent another ￥３２０ (~$2.70 USD) on bus fare to and from the train station, and another ￥１，０００ (~$8.36 USD) on food. I could have spent another ￥７００ (check it yourself) on a rather good roller-coaster photo, but I decided to pass.
Just to completely change the subject, I looked at the dates on my photos and found that I've been getting out and seeing Japan once a week since arriving (except last week, which is okay, because one week I went on two trips). And I'm doing moderately okay on money so far.
I didn't get very far with the Japanese. :\
The flight to Japan was my second flight out of the country, only this time, I was alone. It crushed four of the preconceptions I had about flights that long:
- Getting around would be hard because of the language barrier. When there was something that I needed to know to not miss a flight or not get lost, there were written translations, and English speakers. At Tokyo Narita International Airport, every PA announcement was bilingual: they would say the Japanese, sound a tone, and say the English version. I could have gotten around without any Japanese.
- I would lose my bags. I didn't lose my bags. I almost lost my bags when I didn't know to transfer the bags from my international flight to my regional flight. However, one of the staff members called me on the PA, walked me back to the baggage carousel, and walked me back to the check-in counter. That was my first encounter with Japanese-style customer service.
- I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone in English. There were several Americans on my flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. They were headed to the US military base in Sasebo, I believe.
- I would die of boredom before arrival. There were video displays with movies playing constantly for the international portion of the flight. The buttons on mine were broken, but I listened to music endlessly, played Game Boy, and fit a nap or two in there somewhere. I felt like dying every time I saw the airplane icon as it slowly made its way from Chicago to Tokyo, but when I ignored that (and took off my watch), the trip became much more bearable.
My favorite part about our bike ride to Fukuoka Tower was our stop at Nishi Park on the way back.
It was a gigantic fusion of old and new in one of the strangest ways I've seen. The main stairs lead to a shrine, which I assume was the original reason for the park's creation. Shrines only ever seem to be the center of attraction. However, this shrine had bright, red, Coca-Cola--branded benches, and loudspeakers broadcasting traditional Japanese music. There were power lines running overhead, and a samurai helmet on display near the entrance as if it were in a museum. Oh, and the tiny papers used for tying wishes to trees? Those were supplied by vending machines.
Unlike the author of this review of the park, I didn't feel that it was creepy at all. However, since this is the 花見 season (はなみ - hanami - flower [cherry blossom] viewing), the place was packed with people. Every sit-onable area was sitted-on, and every slightly-less-comfortable-to-be-sitted-upon area was covered in tarp and then totally satted-upon. There were lots of open bottles and red Japanese faces.
There were also plenty of tiny shops along the road leading into the park. Many sold food, one sold video games (?), and some sold souvenirs. I wanted to buy a Stitch mask (Lilo & Stitch is everywhere in Fukuoka), but I forgot.
Anyway, go to the park when you get the chance. And look at my photos if you can't!
This last month was an unofficial blogging break, and surprisingly not because I was tired after writing that series on the welcome packet. To put it simply, nothing happened. I gathered and mailed my materials for the application for the "certificate of eligibility" from Kyushu University (which only required passport photos, personal information, etc.), and bought some plane tickets (through cheaptickets.com, by the way). Quite the boring month, I must say. There's a lot left to do, but I'm ready to quit the planning stages and go there already.
What prompted me to write now is that today I pre-emptively called the university to check on the status of my application*. They told me that it had been approved and that they were planning on mailing it later today (where by "today" I mean their "today," which begins just as mine is ending). Nice timing --- a few days better than their 14-day forecast --- and especially nice news given how little time there is left for error in this visa application process.
According to the page on travel visas on the Embassy of Japan in United States web site, my closest consulate is in Detroit, Michigan, whose application predicts a 5-day turn-around time for student visa applications. Given that my certificate of eligibility won't arrive until later this week, and I have a plane ticket for March 26th, there is reason for alarm. I need to stay on top of things, because there is no longer room for error.
It's nice to see things falling into place.
* I've called the university so many times for similar reasons that by now every person on call knows my name. Every time, I listen to their introduction (in half-understanding) and ask, "英語で、大丈夫ですか (eigo de, daijoubu desu ka - Is English all right?)." I hadn't realized the impression I was making until this time I was immediately asked, "Oh, is this Thomas?" The good part about calling so often is that now I recognize their voices, too, and know when they answer the phone whether the person knows English or will forward me to someone who does.
