A Crazy Start...

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Konnichiwa from Tokyo! Yes I made it to Tokyo and have been having an awesome time. It's Thursday afternoon and I arrived on Saturday, so my trip is more than halfway over...we go back to Osaka on Saturday night. It's raining and cold outside so we're all just taking a day off to relax and hang around the hostel and recover from last night lol. So I thought it would be a good time to get a start on my Tokyo entries, since I have so much to write about!

So let me tell you about the crazy time we had trying to get to Tokyo...

Ryan had bought his night bus ticket separately, so he was on a different bus than me and Michael. Both tickets said they left from Umeda Station, so we figured all the buses would leave from the same place...well we were very wrong! We found Ryan's bus station but when we showed the our tickets they couldn't find Michael's name on the reservation list. By this time Ryan's bus had already left, so we told him to pray that we make it to Tokyo and to call us when he arrives. Well after they had checked for Michael's name multiple times, they sent us to talk to this guy who spent about 45 minutes trying to find his name and making tons of phone calls. Finally he called the emergency number for the bus company and they informed him that our bus was actually leaving from a different place in Umeda. Oh and also that it left in 30 minutes!

So we asked how to get to this place, and the guy tells us to take a taxi since it will be fastest. So me and Michael literally run down the street to where a bunch of taxis were. He held out his hand to get one but no one would stop for us! Finally they were all stopped at a red light so we pretty much just walked up to one and forced ourselves in.We showed him the name of where we needed to go but he had no idea where it was, and neither did we so we just got out! We tried another taxi and he didn't know how to get there either...By this time we were starting to panic, because we didn't even know how long it would take us to get there and we hadn't gotten a taxi! We were getting nowhere, so I decided to walk into the Family Mart right beside us and ask for directions. One of the guys working there kind of knew where it was located, and so he came out of the Family Mart and flagged down a taxi for us, then explained to the driver where we needed to go. The driver still wasn't sure, so the guy told him to pull over and wait. He went back into the store and got a map and brought it out to show the driver, and finally he understood! We were so relieved! Thank goodness for Japanese people...they are so nice! They always go out of their way to help you...

So we were finally on our way to the station, and we only had about 10 minutes until our bus was supposed to leave! About 5 minutes later we arrived at the right place, but there were about 5 buses waiting to leave. So we ran up to the closest one, but they pointed us to the next one, who then pointed us to the next one. Then at the 3rd bus we went up to the guy outside and asked him if this was the bus going to Tokyo Station. And the guy's eyes just light up and he's like "MICHAEL VEGA!!" like he had been waiting for us or something. He told us our bus was the next one down and walked us to it and explained where to get off. So we quickly got on our bus and took a big sigh of relief! We made it just minutes before the bus left...it was pretty crazy lol.

After that I was so exhausted and stressed out, I just wanted to sleep the whole 8 hours to Tokyo. Unfortunately, the bus wasn't comfortable enough for me to do that. It wasn't as spacious as the one we took back from Hiroshima. It was like a regular charter bus with 2 connected seats on each side. Not individual, separate seats like on the Hiroshima one. It wasn't bad, but just not as good as I had hoped! So I barely got any real sleep. I would doze off for maybe an hour, but I kept waking up and couldn't stay asleep. So me and Michael just listened to his IPOD the whole time, which was interesting because he listens to bands I don't usually listen to...bands like Incubus and a lot of others I've never even heard of.

Well I guess this would be a good time to tell you about my travelling buddies...Michael and Ryan.

Michael is a really cool, laid-back, somewhat alternative guy from California, but he goes to school in New Mexico right now. He has some pretty cool tattoos, and definitely has the whole skateboarder thing going on. He actually brought his skateboard to Japan and rides it around sometimes.

And Ryan is my Indonesian friend from the Netherlands! He's such a funny kid...I say kid because he's only 19, so he was kind of like a little brother lol. But he's really into sightseeing and had a ton of stuff planned to do in Tokyo. Him and Michael had become friends during orientation week, and the three of us had all hung out one random night in Michael's room and just talked for a few hours. So when I heard they were planning to go to Tokyo together for spring break, I knew I would have a lot of fun with them. And so that's how our little group came together...

So finally, we made it Tokyo! I was so happy to get off of that bus, and it was only about 6 in the morning. It was strange because no one was out on the streets. The city seemed empty! It was just strange because I was expecting Tokyo to be extremely crowded, and this was definitely unexpected. Of course it was incredibly early, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised...

And that was the start of my trip to Tokyo! I'm just happy we made it here lol. But that's just the beginning...we still had to find Ryan in Tokyo, and he didn't have a cell phone. But I'll save that story for next time. And I will also put up some pictures, because I do have a lot! But I won't be able to do that until I get home. So now I'm going to go enjoy my last few days in Tokyo...tonight we're going clubbing in Roppongi! But I'm going to take a nap first...oyasumi!

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