TsuRuTonTan

After enduring a sweltering day in the sauna… oh wait, I mean Tokyo… we woke up the next morning at 4:30 to discover that the scorching heat was still going strong. About half an hour later, Erin had to practically push us out the door to make our train, but we ended up leaving approximately thirty seconds too late... And then those thirty seconds ended up costing us our morning itinerary. We were planning on visiting Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, which is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world; but ended up getting there after the entrance doors had closed. I guess we had some tough competition even though it was only 5:30 in the morning... Erin seemed to be the only in our group who was disappointed though, as Rochelle and I really didn’t know what we were missing out on. So we ended up walking around some street shops, did a little window shopping, and discovered a bunch of stuffed animal corpses in plastic bags on display with messages like “PLEASE DO NOT ENTER!!” …Tempting… but I think I’ll pass.

Rochie, I stole this picture from your facebook, hope you don't mind!

Our day consisted of a variety of things including my first Japanese Shrine/Temple visit (to be honest with you, I’m still not really sure what the difference is… even though I had a huge explanation on it in class today, I still don’t understand). Then we wandered off to grab some water (as we were still sweating heavily in the sauna-like heat) at a convenience store that had a big billboard with [one of my] favorite Johnny’s right outside! For those of you who know nothing about me, I am in love with hot Japanese celebrities. A company named Johnny’s Entertainment employs many of these good-looking guys, so they have the public title of being a Johnny! *Sigh… *I love seeing giant billboards of hot men everywhere I go… definitely something that I wish they’d bring to Canada.

We then wandered over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and took a bunch of pictures at the top. Unfortunately though, my camera battery died about an hour into our day, so I’ll let your imaginations conspire what Tokyo might look like from a really tall building… Okay I’ll help you; in every direction that you looked, it was a whole lot of tall buildings - beautiful, nonetheless.

Then, we wandered over to a fabulous restaurant called Baqet that included an unlimited bread buffet. While I’m not a huge fan of bread, I am a big fan of Japanese bread! So delicious and flavorful… and oh so different from Canadian bread. I don’t know how many servings I had, but I do remember my stomach aching as we walked to our next location - my first Japanese shopping mall (with air conditioning, yay)! How delightful it was. Their malls (if that’s what you can call it) are kind of set up like… Holt Renfrew(?) – kind of. Hard to explain, but they are small stores, all closely linked together within a building with many floors.

After that, we wandered off to a few more mall/stores including a quick stop at a fancy department store to pick up designer-brand sweat rags. In Japan, everyone carries around sweat rags/handkerchief-type cloths to dry sweat and/or dry your hands after washing - as certain restrooms have neither paper towel nor hand driers. Oh, and I almost walked into some private area of a store because their English sign didn’t convey their message of “Staff Only”. I don’t know who was advising them on what to write, but whatever was written on the sign did not convey the message of Staff Only. Welcome to my life of being a foreigner in Japan who doesn’t understand Japanese – continuous confusion.

Eventually, after wandering the Shinjuku streets, we made our way to a gothic-inspired restaurant called TsuruTonTan. However, we had to endure a bit of a lineup to get in. I guess you know the place is good though if they have a lineup that reaches street level from underground, right? And indeed it was. Our bowls of udon were probably about 2 times the size of my head, oishikatta!

Finally, we made our way to Maruetsu Petit for our evening grocery run and I got to re-buy a Japanese textbook at the bookstore next door. Unfortunately for me, I have a tendency to misplace things... and in this case, a week later, the old textbook that I just replaced was found in my parents’ Venza in Manitoba… Anyways, it was Rochelle’s bedtime again. What we thought was jet lag was actually her internal clock telling her that it was bedtime…

The Adventure Begins

The last few weeks before this trip were a little hectic, to say the least. My social life took a steep uphill climb, as everyone, including people whom I’ve hardly even known before, all seemed to want to say one last farewell. I shouldn’t complain though, I loved every minute of it. But thanks to everyone who cared enough to say goodbye! You know who you are...

September 4^th

After I awoke from a three and a half hour sleep, I began to pack frantically until Erin and Marty came to pick me up. Upon arrival at the airport, Rochelle seemed to get a little lost finding her way out of security... And after an hour or so of trying to locate exactly where she was, we discovered that she was trapped with no escape - no farewell lunch with Marty *tear*.

Then, on the plane, we found out that Air Canada temporarily misplaced a carrier of luggage and we’d get to enjoy an extra half hour of rest before take-off. How lovely…

Finally, we arrived in Japan and began to sweat more than was thought humanly possible. Heavy humidity combined with 30+ degree heat and carrying your weight in luggage is not a good combination. I fell over backwards in the subway because of my backpack weight and created a confusing spectacle for the other passengers. A few people got up to help, and then quickly sat back down when they realized I was foreign (apparently, helping foreigners in such situations isn’t a common practice in Japan). Upon arrival at our final metro station, we found a staircase to lug our baggage up. Oh joy... I thought I’d die – until some nice boy came to my rescue and helped me. I was delighted… until I realized how far our Weekly "Mansion” was from the station. Enduring that hill was probably the most uncomfortable experience I’ve ever had in my entire life (until that point; ...little did I know, I’d be experiencing a whole lot worse in the next two weeks). In the end, it wasn’t really that far and the hill wasn't really that steep, I was just hot and whiney. We got to our mansion, went out to grab some food, and hurried back to our new home to put Rochelle to sleep. We had all been up for over 24 hours, but it was waay past her bedtime - as we would find out in the following weeks, is apparently about 8 pm.

Yokoso Japan!

Maruetsu Petit: The grocery store we visited every night

Akasaka Station