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Sunday / Monday / Tuesday Jan 19 - 21
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I took the day off before my trip as a preparation day which was a smart Idea. I know
by now that I am a procrastinator. I started out by having breakfast with
my former coworker Yuki and we talked about what we are both looking for in our lives. After
5 years in America She will be returning home to Japan soon because She did not find
Mr. right either. I have always liked Yuki but I know that we are traveling down two different
paths in life. I hope to see her again
before she leaves for Yokohama in a month or so. She wants to hear my impressions of
Japan.
Afterwards I spent the rest of the day buying last minute gifts and making last minute phone
calls to my family. And trying to organize my household here beefore I left. Of course there
was the great fun of packing everything also. I got everything done in time but I basically
pulled an all nighter especially since the taxi picked me up at 4 AM to bring me to the bus
stop for the bus to go to LAX. I slept most of the 1 1/2 hour drive from
Santa Barbara to LA. Checked in and I pulled my film out for a visual inspection. I walked
through the machine and there it goes off. --- OOPS I forgot that I was wearing my steel toe
sneaker type work boots --- okay take them off run them through the machine and assume
the position ! After I got the royal wand treatment, I bellied up to Burger King for a so called
expensive breakfast, and I remembered why I avoid BK like the plague.
Since I was 4 hours early for the flight, I bought the paper and read through that quickly. I
wanted to sleep but I knew that wasn’t a good idea so I read some of my Culture Shock
Japan book. I tried to just remain in a relaxed state but
after an hour - hour and a half the Filipinos started arriving and chattering amongst
themselves. Apparently PAL doesn’t fly to the USA too much so about half of the plane was
transferring at
Narita to PAL. They were a friendly bunch I suppose, and it was not their fault that only
got about 1 hour sleep. I talked for about an hour with Connie a older pinay from Long
Beach and she tried to psychoanalyze my life and she told
me to go to the Philippines to the provinces to find a nice girl ha ha ha gee I wonder
where I have heard that advice before?
I boarded the plane and I probably slept 7 hours of the 12 hour flight. I had the seat
with the extra leg room but it was in a traffic aisle so I had to be careful where I spread
out though. I had a couple of 25 year old Filipino guys next to
me and we were all pretty quiet and we slept. But they were nice guys and we swapped
parts of our inflight meals. I didn’t even bother to plug into the movies or music
selections -- Whoever is responsible for selecting those choices should be shot. No I do not
want to listen to the Rod Stewart / Heart music selection channel I’ve heard way too
much of that over played stuff already on every
classic rock station in the country.
Finally arrived at Narita. did the Customs thing. I observed a stout black guy in line
wearing a full length black and grey fur coat and matching hat with spiked fur tufts ha ha ha
he
looked like a porcupine. but to each his own right? I also heard a couple of guys ripping
Ghandi jokes about a man wearing an orange robe like a monk but I already had observed
this guy back in LA. Picked up my bag after I couldn’t find it at the
the carousel for it. Apparently I dilly dallied too long before getting there but someone at
a counter held it for me. I went to The JR rail pass office and I activated
my 3 week rail pass starting on the next day. I went upstairs and I exchanged $ 100 and
I bought a ticket for the limousine bus to the Four Seasons for 3000 yen ($ 26). Glad I
did this for the 1 hour ride into Tokyo because I was tired from traveling and I really did
not want to figure out the Train system and subway system right away. The taxi ride
from the nearest station to the hotel would have been $8 anyways. It was dusk as I took the
bus from Narita but I thought hey
this is like Canada only they drive on the other side of the road. But as I got closer to
Chiba and Tokyo I changed my mind -- Welcome bright lights big city -- lots of neon.
I checked into the hotel and tipped the bellman even though Japan is a non tipping country for
the most part. the women working there were very pretty too much eye candy for me to
take in ha ha ha or have I been deprived of a good thing for too long? WOW my room
was on the 10 Th. floor and I had a nice view of the city lit up at night. Four Seasons
Chinzan-so = ultimate luxury. my bathroom alone was half as big as my apartment in Santa
Barbara. Marble and brass everywhere separate shower from the bath tub. They even had a
separate room for the toilet and the heated seat / Bidet gizmo was interesting too.
Man you goot appreciate the buttons that opened up the automatic draperies. But I
remembered the number 1 rule -- DON"T TOUCH THE MINIBAR!
I took a shower and I went for a 15 minute walk to the nearest commercial area.
Guess where I went to eat ... Yep McDonalds it was familiar and Convienient -- Tastes just
like America except there is a slight hint of horseradish to their pickles in their Big Mac.
It took me a little while to figure out how to order though. I stopped at the local
convenience store for their version of chocolate milk, and just to check out all of the items
the had inside. they had weird things boiling away in a steam table too. It was
interesting to find porn magazines / comic books mixture readily available for anyone to
access like any other magazine. Not hidden like they are at 7 / 11 's or bookstores in America.
But hey did n’t I read something at customs about how it was forbidden to bring porn into
Japan? this was a strange contradiction. Actually come to
think of it every convenience store I went into (and there are many of them all around
the country) had people (both men and women) reading the selections of magazines at
these stores. Bookstores every where I went were always busy too.
I walked around the area, stepped into the local Pachinko Parlor for about a minute reminded
me of Vegas -- been there done that. I went to the Dennys to scope out their menu but I
never did return there -- no time. I checked out a real-estate office’s outdoor display to get a
feeling for apartment rentals. and then I walked back to The hotel. I slept well on their
good beds -- I should buy one for myself through my hotel as they are very comfortable
but that is a commitment to settling down that I am not ready to make as I think there
will be changes for me soon most likely.
