JAPANESE Madness; WEEK 1

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Ahoj, JAK SE MAS?

No worries, my name is not Borat:-) I am an ordinary guy from the post communist country of the Czech Republic. My name is Michal.

It is a very nice country which could be characterized by a blend of rich culture, dignity and Svejkovstvi. This could be thoroughly understood only by native citizens:-) Please search for this at Wikipedia even though it is not there...

I have been fortunate enough to be able to study in THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND!!! As I consider myself being a keen in the educational process, I have enrolled in the Westminster University, London, ENGLAND.

Right, here we are, I am on the plane now! The Aircraft Airbus Industrie A330 is taking off!!!
BLIMEY, I am flying over Russia and the final destination is Tokyo, JAPAN. Very nice!!! Nevertheless, before the actual departure, I have experienced some delay of 155 minutes. NOT VERY NICE!!!

Some of You may be interested how I ended up on that Air China flight from Heathrow to Tokyo with stopover in Beijing. Well, actually I was chosen by my University to represent both, the UK and the Czech Republic in the land of Rising Sun...

I was also granted a scholarship from the Japanese government as one ov 12 students from Asia Pacific University (APU). As one of my dear friend once upon a time expressed,
"You are the luckiest Eastern European". I must admit, I am indeed :-)))

Here we are, the capital of China, Beijing in the late afternoon hours on the 10th September, 2009. I was welcomed by Immigration Officers wearing the masks. I can tell that the pandemic threat of Swine Flu is looming in Asia, BIG TIME!

Right, so we arrived in Beijing where English language is not much in use. There were some confusions with the connection flight though. I was told that we will be booked in some hotel. A bit later, while going through another immigration check, I was told to catch another flight to Tokyo which was departing in 30 minutes. VERY NICE:-)

It happened to me to meet some British chaps at the airport. They were in the same sort of situation. Lost in Translation in a way. We all rushed to baggage reclaim to get our bags and then back to check in for the connecting flight CA421.

I am sitting on the aircraft Boeing 757-200 from the 80s, being completely sweat. There were still some ash trays in the arm rest holders. Also, there was very old school TV on the ceiling. In some 20 minutes there was an announcement that Narita airport would be closed 5 minutes before our arrival. Therefore, we are staying in Beijing over the night. LOVELY JOBELY:-)))

It is close to midnight, I ended up in a room with a Scottish geezer. Jim, 56 years old is one of a kind. He has been traveling all over the place on his own, even having a girlfriend back home. This time he was off to Japan and Korea. South Korea, obviously:-)

3.30 oclock in the morning, we were woken up by the hotel telephone, time to leave the hotel for the airport. Luckily, we departed this time, 6am on 11th September, 2009.

TOKYO, groovy baby!!!
Eventually, we got here. We all British fellows traveled together to the center. Our destination was Ueno Station.
We had a couple of cans of lager with Raury in the park and I met my 1st Japanese person. An old man who stopped on his bike and was swearing a lot:-) It seemed to me that this guy did learn his English from American movies. As expressed by him later, he did so:-))

Off to Lacis place. Off to the Dutch Ambassadors Embassy by the underground. I was pleasantly surprised that all public places such as train and underground stations, pavements and roads are kept very clean and tidy. I have not experienced this cleanliness in any European capital. Well, it seems to me that Japanese are correct when naming foreigners as people from outside or arbarians...

I arrived at st. and jumped into a taxi. I realized that the doors open automatically, therefore there is no need to close doors behind you. Lada was welcoming me with a smile, looking very smart. I carried my luggage into his flat and then he offered me local lager. The largest producer of beverages, Asahi is supplying him with several crates each month to avoid the thirst.

Later on, his wife Masae arrives from work, she works as hairdresser. We all drinking lager and chill in his flat. He shows me his little music studio where he performs some extraordinary performances! I managed to record some of these on my mobile phone:-) Nevertheless, these were accidentally deleted by Laci while he was a bit tipsy for a change...

Following day, which is Saturday, we went to some restaurant for breakfast/lunch.This area is sort of office based and therefore not many restaurants open at weekends. Later on, in the evening we left fro Roppongi, to experience what the nigh life feels like. It is a vibrant city indeed! We went to Heartland and another bar nearby.

On Sunday, we got up while it was getting dark already. In this time of the year, the sunset is between 5 to 6 oclock. Laci had a really bad hangover, even tore his tonsils a bit due to vomiting:-) He will however recover, he is a strong lad!

On Monday, I was off to Imperial Palace with my new Japanese friend Maki. She showed me around the palace because it is closed on Mondays. We went to see Shrine instead. Really warm temperature makes me feel tired and sleepy. Luckily there are vending machines everywhere so I can avoid dehydration. She also helped me to buy a train ticket to Beppu. I have noticed that not many people speak English, even in the capital though.

In the evening I traveled to Akihabara to explore the electronic district. It was a bit late but I still managed to check one big department store where each floor was dedicated to certain product. For instance, cameras were of my particular interest as I wist to buy another lenses for my Canon SLR.
i was also impressed by the PC section where I have seen laptops you hardly get to see in European outlets. In addition, the mobile phone industry is just vast! So many different models of handsets blew my mind! You can also see on the trains and especially underground that people are on their phones during the entire journey. Text messaging is not supporting by most mobile providers, therefore people use emailing instead. Nevertheless, majority are hooked up on the internet.

In the following morning, I supposed to go to Tsukiji market, the largest fish market in the World. Nevertheless, I did manage to wake up and supposed to go to the market with Masei. When we got up we however decided that it is a bit early...I never went to Tsukiji market even though I attempted to get up twice:-)

Wednesday morning, I was off to Tokyo train Station by taxi. I was a bit confused when I got there but a member of staff directed me to the platform in English language which was very surprising...

Here we are, we departing from Tokyo by the fastest train in the world, the Shinkanzen. What a nice journey ahead of me, 1.228km which takes about 6 hours. Not too bad:-)) I was trying to use internet on the train but was not able to do so because I wasn registered for the service. Nevertheless, I met very nice people on Shinkanzen. I did not get a chance to buy anything to eat that morning therefore I was expecting to buy something on the train. I was a bit naive assuming that I can you a Debit Card anywhere in Japan. I was mistaken on this occasion. Nonetheless, my friends that I just met bought me a nice lunch box for 1,000. That was very kind of them and I realized that Japanese culture is really different to the European one. The journey was pleasant and I safely arrived at Kokura where I had to change the train to continue my journey to Kamegawa Station. I traveled by a local train to Beppu and then changed for another train to Kamegawa which supposed to be the closest train station to APU Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

When I arrived at Kamegawa, I faced another adventure. Wow, what a tiny station in the middle of nowhere and obviously nobody speaks a single word of English even teenagers. I was not able to ask where is the bus stop for APU shattle therefore jumped in the only taxi outside of the station.

I managed to told him that I want to get to APU University in Japanese. Well that was just beginning of this story. I asked him if I could pay by card because I did not possess any cash since I left Tokyo. He was shaking his head and therefore I tried to explain him that I need get to the Bank. A tiny town of Beppu welcomed me with cozy streets and a driver who could not speak any English. He took me to the first bank where they did not accept any of my 3 Debit Cards, neither Credit Cards.

I managed to told him that I need to go to another bank in order to withdraw money. NO LUCK again! Nevertheless, there was a telephone next to the cash machine. I rang the number and tried to speak in English but no success. Then suddenly one woman came out of a littel doors next to the ATM machines, There were no Cashiers or counters as we know from Europe.

Suddenly, I was at he back of the scenes in their offices and several staff members of the Bank were looking at my cards and were asking which country they come from. Maestro neither Visa nor MasterCard are accepted in any Japanese ATMs are accepted as I found out later.

NO CASH, not being able to pay by card for a taxi that drove me around the town and a taxi driver who was waiting at the carpark behind the bank for 10 mins. They also phoned to other brances but would not be able to help me. A manger was willing to help too, however at he end he phoned to APU and then said to me I am sorry I can help, you need to speak to the driver and bowed.

I persuaded a driver to take me to APU because I was getting irritated that the second largest economy in the world DO NOT accept world-wide accepted paying methods.

Arriving at APU, AP House 1. Thats the first time that driver spoke in English. He asked me if I need to go to AP 1 or AP 2 as there are two main dormitories. At the entrance I met guys in orange T-shorts who were expecting new arrivals. Taxi driver explained him the situation and a guy named Kenzo lent me 3,000.

Here we are,
WELCOME TO APU and the generosity of local people....

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