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Published: September 10th 2006
Hey everyone! As most of you know i left Melbourne bound for "The Land of the Rising Sun" (Tokyo) on Friday at 9:30am. As i type this, the first of many blog entries, im sitting in a crowded internet cafe in Qingdao China. So much has happened in the past 48hours, hopefully i will be able to give a basic run down in this first entry.
Firstly just like to thank all my friends, family and wellwishers who saw me off the week prior to my trip. Token phrase i know, but those cats from Counting Crows were onto something, 'you dont know what you've til its gone'. Was laying in my wooden bed last night and i have never felt so alone from everything i have ever known in my life. Perculiar feeling indeed. So... Tokyo here we come aye?
Mum, Dad and Ash all came to the airport with me Friday to drop me off. That all seemed to happen so quickly. Always knew it was gonna be tough, but nothing could have prepared me for that. Perhaps its cause i have never been away for more than a couple of weeks, maybe cause im an only child, no idea, but walking through those big steal doors wasnt easy. ITs like they try and dramatise the moment as much as they can by making u walk through some enormously overwhelming threshold of uncertainty. Luckily i was with Greg, another Aussie bloke doing the same thing as me. Travelling alone wouldnt have been flash.
Airplanes and everything about air travel is boring, so im not going to bore u by writing about it to much. Watched Xmen 3, Mission Impossible 3 and Nacho Libre. The latter is a new Jack Black E grade movie about some mexican monk who is a chef at a convent and wants to become a wrestler. He is torn between obeying the good book and achieving stardom in the wrsetling ring. Gold plot i hear you say? Guess again, it was horrendous. Luckily before i knew it we were arriving in the technologically over developed country of Japan.
Japan is just simply an amazing place. I was so impressed and i wasnt even there for 24 hours. I lost track of the times i said to myself, 'Thats genius, why didnt i think of that'. The airport is so big that once u get off the plane u have to catch a train through the airport to customs etc. After Greg and i braved our way through the crowds and queues, we thought it would be wise if we could acquire some Yen. Never seen so much red tape for executing such a simple task! They have a document and system for everything over there. So frustrating that everything minor becomes such an effort. Just finding our bus, asking directions, getting money, ordering food. Certainly wears you out. So we finally arrived out our hotel, the Narro Narita. Quite a nice middle sized hotel located 2hrs from Tokyo City. Once settled Greg and i decided it was time for dinner. We were really exhausted so we thought we would just go up to the hotels restaurant. Now here is a lesson for you budding young jetsetters. Japan is NOT, and i repeat NOT a place that accommodates young backpackers still wet behind the ears hoping to see the finer parts of the the country on the Aus Dollar. 1 x bowl of fried rice and 1 x 300ml coca cola......... cost me .........$AUS 30! To make things worse, the waitor, being the hospitable fellow he was, brought me another coke without asking and topped up my empty glass. Pushed the bill up to $36 for some fried rice and 2 cokes. I walked out and all i could hear was Simmo saying "...Experience... cant by that in a shop!"
Anyway, both feeling rather dejected we went for a stroll through the town and then retired to our respective rooms for a long awaited shower and rest. Anyone who knows me well would know that i am quite the shower connoisseur. Well perhaps not connoisseur, but i like a good shower and have known to be critical in the past. In the shower business, looks can be quite deceiving. This Japanese pocket rocket didnt look much at first, but neither did James Hird, it had all the bells and whistles. Every single form of customised pressure and coverage a sweaty ripped off Australian could need. As for the tempreture, bloody ripper....bloody unreal. They have a dial for degrees, more accurate than Peter Hudson and the added choice of removing the shower head for maximum coverage and concentrated removal of dirt and build up! After that i was a new man, jumped in bed and turned on the TV, it was just unlike anything i have seen. Game shows are just ridiculous, sport is all baseball and the news is just weird. I was watching the MLB and couldnt even understand who was winning, i thought Stratomatic Baseball at Logo's beach house was confusing! So that was me done for the night, time for 40winks.
In the morning i awoke to the sounds of my phone blaring Bodyjar at 6.30am. Had a brief moment where i had no idea where i was. Once showed again (awesome), i went down and had breakfast with Gregory. Wasnt really hungry and breakfast so just had some pasta. Let me tell u, they eat some perculiar stuff those loveable Japanese folk. I have no idea what some stuff was and its just difficult to explain. Just looked very glossy and almost artificial. I was carrying a dodgey stomach all week leading up to the trip so the last thing i wanted to do was upset it again. I just stuck to what i knew. After breakfast it was off to the airport and bound for Qingdao located on the east coast of the Peoples Rublic of China (that one was for willy. Im sure he would also have accepted 'China, the former Ming Dynasty'). Greg and i waited around aimless after catching the train to our gate. Sounds ridiculous but u have to see it to believe. I used the last of my Yen to buy a mentos and what i thought was water. Turned out to be some sugared water. Foul merit! We finally boarded our plan and established that we were the only 2 crackers on there. Flight attendants from Japan Airlines were absolutely lovely to us and tried to get us to try everything. They serve steamed rice wrapped as a present. Comes in paper with ribbon around it. Just weird. Along with this jelly number that everyone else was eating like it was going out of fashion. Once again i just ate minimal chicken and drank my coke to be on the safe side. Before we knew it the pilot came on speaking absolutely rubbish for about 5 mins. Then at the end of his spiel said in english 'We are in Qingdao, landing soon'. Not that abrupt but it seemed like it was just an inconvience for him to even try english. So the seatbelt light came on and greg and myself knew that for the next few months this place was gonna be home. Stay tuned for the next update, much more to tell u. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Speak to you all, Tom. ps. Collingwood....sake!
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Simmo
non-member comment
Experience...
Experience may be the one and only thing you can't buy from a vending machine in Tokyo my friend. Keep your eyes open out there.