Blog This

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tokyo!










































On the weekend of June 23rd and 24th I took my first trip to Tokyo and it was a lot of fun. I left Okazaki around 12pm on friday night/saturday morning on a night bus and I arrived at Tokyo station around 5am. The night bus was ok. I didn't sleep much, but I think I have an inability to sleep when I'm supposed to sleep. Once I found the closest subway station I headed to the fish market which is world famous for the auction of fish that takes place early in the morning. I didn't see any of the huge tuna that I was hoping to, mainly because I wasn't entirely sure where to go and I didn't want to wander somewhere where I wasn't wanted. After checking that out I headed off to Disney Sea! Disney Sea is in the same resort as Disneyland but I think it's geared towards an older crowd, but still very family oriented. I was able to skip so many lines because I was a single rider, so basically I was a seat filler. I left Disney Sea around 2pm and headed to Roppongi. I was going to check out a Monet exhibit that was in town but the line up was about 50min and I was going to be meeting a friend in about an hour and a half, so instead I wandered to the closest park and took a much needed rest. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on the grass and it was just what I needed.
Around 6pm I met up with my friend Sybille who I met in training for Peppy. I met her in Shibuya at a famous statue, which is a popular meeting place but because it is such a popular meeting place it is very difficult to find the person you are looking for because there are so many other people looking for their friend at the same time. Once I found her, we found her friend Nick. We then headed out for some food and then wandered around Shibuya for the rest of the night. It is definitely a city that doesn't sleep. Since we missed the last train we ended up wandering the city till 5am and then we caught a train to Nick's neighbourhood and managed to get 4 hours of sleep and then I headed out for another day of sightseeing.
My first stop of the day was Harajuku. This area is famous for unreal fashion. I saw a few crazy clothes, but nothing that shocked me too much. Since i've been living here for a while now, the unreal fashion doesn't affect me the same way it did in September. After Harajuku I went back to the art museum in Roppongi and I was able to see the Monet exhibit. We were packed like sardines in there but luckily I was taller than most and I was able to look over most of their heads. After the art gallery, I grabbed a bite at Subway, which was very exciting because the last time I had Subway was in Thailand; there isn't one anywhere near me. After lunch I headed out to Uneo. In Uneo I wandered an outdoor market for an hour or so. After that I went to Asakusa and saw a shrine, pagoda and giant lantern. After that I went my first onsen. This onsen I think was more like a bath house. It can be a bit uncomfortable at first, cause you have to strip down and shower with a bunch of other ladies and then you soak in the scolding water. It was nice though because I was so sore from walking and hadn't showered in a day and half or so. After that I had a delicious diner at the cute little restaurant across the street from the onsen. My last stop before heading to the train station was Shinjuku, but at that point I was kind of out of it and tired, so i didn't see anything worth noting. I made my way back to Tokyo station and with some help from people around the station I managed to find out where my bus was leaving from. I got on the bus around 11pm and pulled up to my stop around 5am. I came home, unpacked a few things, went to bed till noon and then went to work a few hours later.
The weekend was a packed and a lot of fun. I look forward to my next trip, I just need to figure out where it will be.






Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Bugs!!!

ok, i had my first encounter with a cockroach about half an hour ago. Oh my god!! i was washing my dishes and i noticed something big and brown moving around. luckily i had my rubber gloves on, so i grabbed some paper towel to try to catch it, but those little buggers are fast! so as it ran around my tiny kitchen with me screaming and trying to catch it, it managed to escape me by hiding under my fridge. I tried wiggling the fridge to see if it would come out, but it didn't, so i was sat on the opposite side of my apartment trying to convince myself that the last 10 min never happened. my phone rang and i picked it up and looked up to the ceiling and there it was! so naturally the freaking out started again. i was going to throw my heaviest book at, which i'm pretty sure is my lonely planet book, if it worked, i would have let them know that not only will the book help you get around but it will keep the bugs away too. anyways, i thought before i acted and realised my aim at trying to catch it wasn't working, so tossing a book at the ceiling probably wouldn't work either, so then i took out the vaccum cleaner. i sucked the bugger up, put a plastic bag on the end and tossed it on the balcony. as i put it out there i noticed either another cockroach or the same one that happened to fall out of the vaccum cleaner. either way, i don't want to open my balcony for a while. I just pray that while it was in my apartment it didn't lay eggs!!!!

i think now that it's warmer outside, the bugs are coming out and apparently they're pretty damn big here. anyways, i hope that was my last encounter with that and any other similar bugs