Yes, I know that's not a classy way to start a post but I've been saying this from the second I landed. I've been sort of obsessed with the idea of making a return visit to Japan after I fell in love with Kyoto about five years ago. I played around with the idea of coming to Tokyo to visit some friends when I'm done with my Sydney rotation at the end of September but tickets were so darn expensive. So I arrive in Sydney and a few days later my boss asks if I'd like to go train a new hire in our Japan office (the team is so swamped there that nobody has time for the poor girl). It's funny how things turn out (and yes, I keep pinching myself over my luck).
So here I am in Japan. I have now hit 6 of the 7 continents in 8 months. For those of you who don't know here's the list:
Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, & Zimbabwe): December
Europe (free stopover in Germany my way home from Africa but turned it into a cheap ticket to Paris for Xmas)
South America (Brazil & Argentina for work in February & March)
Australia
...and now Asia
So with my home continent, I have now stepped foot everywhere but Antarctica in the last 8 months. I am so tempted to blow my entire savings to go down there just so I could contemplate writing a book about hitting every continent in one year. Though I heard the boat ride down there from South America is hellish...and I'm not a huge fan of the cold...so it's pretty unlikely.
I have to admit, I am growing really attached to Sydney again. I made some great new friends so quickly and my team and my manager are great. There are quite a few American expats in the office so it kind of feels like home. I was sad leaving my friends for an entire week when my job rotation is so short but I could not pass up this opportunity. Plus, as I mentioned before, I have a few friends in Tokyo already so was really happy to be able to reunite with them and meet my Japanese team at Google.
I had to wake up at 4am and though I had a fairly tame night out last night with a group of friends (only one gin & tonic and one martini), I had a really restless night sleep. I hate knowing that I have to wake up early and my flight this morning left at 8am so I set my alarm for 4:45. I ended up tossing and turning all night and after about two hours of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed around 4:15 knowing that going back to sleep for such a short amount of time would probably make me even more tired.
So I get a taxi to the airport and was totally ripped off (I forgot to tell the driver to NOT go the long way) but the guy was adorable and would not stop talking to me about vitamins and his exercise regimen and moving from Lebanon and other random shit. Cab drivers in Sydney are pretty friendly for the most part, maybe because they are paid like $20 an hour...but yes, I still probably dumbly tip them when they are super nice because not tipping feels so weird to me (it isn't customary to tip in Australia or Japan). So yeah, I get to the airport way too early and then find out I don't have an aisle (I hate having to crawl over people). I'm told I can pay $350 to move to premium economy but obviously say no. Then when I ask at the gate the sweet Japan Airlines employee tells me that she thinks she can get me a window in the bulkhead. Five minutes later she comes up to me when I'm checking my email in one of those free kiosks and says it's a done deal. Score! I had so much leg room I felt like I was kind of in business class. Except for the shitty food.
OK, I take that back. Breakfast wasn't too bad. What was weird though was that at 9am, we were served our choice of poached chicken or Japanese pork curry. Not only was this strange so early in the morning but the curry (my choice, I figured I'd start being Japanese immediately) came with cheese, bread, a weird potato onion salad, and a Tim Tam (chocolate cookie). I picked at my food while watching Sucker Punch (strange but kind of cool), slept a little, ate lunch (this time an Aussie meat pie with Anzac cookies), watched half of Valentines Day (utterly ridiculous), slept a little more, and before I knew it 10 hours had passed and we were landing in rainy Tokyo.
Side note...I can't get over how much nicer the service is on international (meaning not American) airlines is. The Japanese have service down better than any other culture I've experienced and every time I stood up to get something out of the overhead bin, they were there to help. They constantly walked by with green tea and coffee, bowed every time they took your tray or handed you a bottle of water, and just were so adorable. Every single person on the plane thanked me in English when I left (I was one of about five non Japanese on the plane...Sydney is either a really popular vacation spot in the sticky humind summer months or they do a lot of business there).
Anyway, I get off the plane and quickly whiz my way to the front of Customs (while what I saw of the airport wasn't overly nice, Sao Paulo still wins the prize as the crappiest big city airport and Customs once took me over 2 hours). An American guy standing behind me started talking to me about recently being in Brazil and how crazy their visa system is (you have to get a visa in person at the consulate, even as a tourist). I was kind of surprised that you not only have to get finger printed in Tokyo, they also take your picture. Hardcore. It was pretty funny, apparently I wasn't pressing my two pointer fingers down hard enough and I kept getting rejected. I told the guy that I was pushing as hard as I could and was starting to get frustrated but it finally accepted my level of strength and I was able to pass through.
I got my luggage pretty quickly and found the bus counter for the airport limousine bus that my Aussie coworker told me to take. The woman told me that there was a big accident because of the rain and that it would take over two hours. She suggested I go downstairs and get the train (like my American friend here suggested). I was a bit reluctant because the bus would drop me off at the front door of my hotel but figured I'd save some time taking the train. Man, was I wrong! So first I go to one counter and ask a woman who barely speaks English if it goes to Shibuya and it doesn't (mind you, all of the bazillion signs everywhere are in Japanese), then I go to another one that she tells me to go to and that's the wrong one. Finally, I find the Narita Express train office and purchase my tickets and go find my train. Again, all of the signs downstairs are all in Japanese. I'm sweating buckets (it is SO hot and humid in the summer in Japan, I remember having to stop and cool down every few minutes when I was in Kyoto in the summer). I finally go up to a worker and just show him my ticket (English is very limited here) and he walks me to the platform and points to the ground. I see that every few feet there is a number for what car you are assigned to.
So I kill some time eating up all of my phone credits checking my email and answering some text messages (I think it ate like $20 in 15 minutes because of my roaming charges). The train finally comes and an Australian girl helps me find somewhere to put my suitcase and I find my seat. It was so nice to finally sit down and cool off but I was so worried that I was going to miss my stop and really had no clue that it was over an hour away that I didn't really relax. It was so funny, the train was not only so clean and comfortable, a woman came by about a half hour in selling booze, juice, and snacks. I could have killed for a glass of wine or a stiff shot to take the edge off and relax my muscles but I'll save that for when I'm a more experienced rider. I got up like 20 minutes too early when I heard the loud speaker say Shibuya was coming up (she probably said in 20 minutes but since my knowledge of Japanese is "Thank you", "Goodbye" and "Excuse me", I had no clue).
I get off at Shibuya and am starting to get a little worried that getting a cab might be difficult. It's raining and everyone was getting off of work but I figured it was a big station so I wouldn't have a hard time. Holy crap, was I wrong. I stood out in the rain for about 30 minutes, watching every cab pass me by for a Japanese person. At first it was kind of funny, like I was invisible, but then I was starting to get tired and irritable and was soaking wet and soon I was full on pissed off. I finally see a cab and he goes forward to get me and this woman runs up and steals the cab from me! He was pointing at me and saying something in Japanese and she just ignored me while he stared at me with a, "Sorry but I'm too lazy to do anything about this situation" look on his face. I said to the woman, "Excuse me, this was my cab." She starts yelling at me, "NO! I was here FIRST!" in perfect English. I said, "No lady. I have been waiting for 30 mintues!" She just ignores me and gets in the cab. I'm now feeling so defeated, thinking I'm never going to get to my hotel and I'm starting to cry. I stopped myself immediately saying, this is going to be over soon. You are not going to be stuck on the street corner in the rain all night...night will turn into morning. No, just kidding. About 5 minutes later I finally got a cab.
The cab drives like a bat out of hell but by now, I'm just so happy to be dry and heading to my destination. We pull up and I swear, I think I heard angels sing. The lobby, gorgeous. The people in the lobby, rich and gorgeous. The decor, the people, everything was just so....Japanese. I suddenly got really giddy. I check-in and find out my office is literally right around the corner. Like, it will take me 5 minutes to get to work in the morning. The sweet bellman brings me up to my room. O.M.G. This room is amazing. It is absolutely gorgeous. Everything is so high tech. Huge sunken bathtub, rain shower, complimentary tea, coffee, water, toiletrees. No detail has been missed. Since I'm a Hyatt Gold member (not sure how that happened, I don't think I've stayed at that many Hyatts), I find out that I get to use the gym and spa and wireless for free. Even my American appliances work here! I'm so excited as the bellman is showing me everything. I think I amused him, he couldn't stop laughing and kept saying, "You're so funny!" (my new best friend)
I was planning on meeting up with my American friend Cass who booked a whole ramen dinner at this amazing sounding restaurant with some of her friends but I was feeling so tired and wet and gross from the plane so I decided to stay in and just order some food and shower. I ordered some $30 tempura soba dish from room service and it came in about 20 minutes with a pot of hot green tea. I actually had to be told how to eat it but the man found that pretty amusing. The noodles were in little clumps and you dip it in a broth that you can add seaweed, green onion, and wasabi too. I sat down to my meal and was soon in bliss. I still am as I sit in my bed that could sleep 4 people side by side comfortably. I can't wait to explore the city tomorrow. I can't wait to go to work on Monday, even. Everything lately has just been one big unknown adventure. I really feel like I might need to come back to this region of the world sooner rather than later. It might be time for a change.
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