tokyo twist day 1

wheni first started writing this entry it was my first day in Tokyo. this was my test of introversion-my new adventure of traveling alone. it usually takes two to tango but here was my opportunity to see if i could do it solo.

i spent my day being lost. the confusion i had going to the hostel from the airport on top of adjusting to a new language was a bit much at first. not to mention i barely got any sleep because i took the redeye from saigon to narita.

the hostel was an experience. it was my first time staying in a hostel and i was surprised by the size of the room and the number of people that were crammed in it. four bunks plus luggage did not leave much floor space! as i arrived early morning there were still people sleeping in myroom so my nap idea was shot. so i changed out of my sweats, washed my face and headed out.

james told me i should check out shinjuku and i knewi wanted to check out harajuku and shibuya so i decided to head in that general direction. the hostel was in asukusa and for some crazy reason i thought i could walk it. it wasnt until i started walking and passing a station every 30 min that i realized how large tokyo actually was.

i knew i needed to find a map to get around and so i proceeded to search and ask in broken japanese where the closest hong-ya was that had english travel book. i only stumbled on one by chance. my first attempt i walked into a bookstore/dvd store where there were only a few rows of books followed by rows of porno magazines and hentai looking drawings. i had to swallow a laugh at how those rumors about perverted japanese were true.

with my map and guide in hand i succmbed to the tokyo subway system and went to shinjuku station. apparently 6 lines cross paths here and the station had people all over the place. i walked around looking for a place to eat and finally decided on a curry house called c&c.

what i was not used to was the vending machine style ordering and waited while three other people ordered until i felt confident enough to push those buttons myself. good thing i retained some of my katakana reading skills so i could order pork curry! i went in and gave the worker my ticket and they gave me in turn a huge plate of curry and rice...for only 430 yen! not only that there was unlimited daikon! luckily i didnt feel too weird eating alone bc everyone sat at a counter and it seemed like everyone was eating alone too.

once i finished my curry and made my way out of the station i walked towards harajuku.

in japan the street names are not always there so i had to guess a lot on which street to walk on and hope i was on the right one.

harajuku was awesome. there were people everywhere and the main streets were so crowded. on the side streets was where i found cute boutiques and some awesome tshirts stores. i even found a tshirt that had blindness the movie. the one that sakae and kevin worked on! but boy was harajuku bank. i tried on this knit vest and thought the price was 7100 yen but it was actually 280000 yen.

from harajuku i saw people walking into a park so i followed them and found a meiji shrine with a wedding going on. the wedding party was taking a portrait where no one was smiling and the bride was wearing this huge white hood. i of course acted like a tourist and snapped a few pics of it.

walking to shibuya i got very lonely because iw as doing such cool things but had no one to experience them with. i really watned to cut my trip short and go home and spend time with my friends.

in shibuya i looked for the famous crowsswalk and ended up at an internet cafe for a few hours. then headed over to the iron dog to meet kaori. i wanted to grab food before meeting her so i went to the tokyu dept store hoping it would be like other asian malls with a food court in the basement and i was right! i literally walked around there for 20 minutes because the selection was so huge.

kaori told me to meet her at the iron dog. so i asked information and ahse tried to see if there wasa store called the iron dog. i told her it might be a statue of some sort and she paused, then her eyes lit up and she said HACHIKO! just like one of those cartoon characters. haha. apparently this statue is of the loyal dog named hachiko who would go outside of the shibuya station with his master or something everyday. one day his master died but hachiko still went to the same spot every day for 20 years!

so this hachiko spot is like THE meeting place. sitting there i saw people on their phones calling and at least a dozen people greeting each other. its a pretty good meeting spot bc its a central location.

i have more to say about my first day. but i think i need to write a seperate entry about the night time. they sure know how to party it up here

siem reap salsa and phnom penh polka

my dad decided to make us go on a four day tour to cambodia. this trip reaffirmed my hatred of tours for sure. for some reason i thought there would be young foreigners on the trip. instead it was a group of 60 year old couples. can you say holler?? not only that,　the tour guide yapped on and on and on about stupid shit. he even started singing at one point. then proceeded to make the rest of the members of the tour sing a song. i beautifully sang `are you sleeping` in vietnamese. (yes i can also sing that song in four other languages...amazing)



so the first day of the tour was spend in the bus. it was a long trip of 12 hours from saigon to siem reap　stopping only to "di ca hat" and to eat at the predesignated tourist trap restaurants and rest stops. delightful. the term "di ca hat" literally means "to go sing"．i dont know why he decided to use that term...perhaps to be polite?




the second day of the tour we got to go to ankor thom and the place where tomb raider was shot in the am. later that afternoon we headed to angkor wat. now this was the main reason that i wanted to go to cambodia and i was not disappointed. that place was bad ass. my only complaints are that it was too crowded and it was full of little kids trying to sell me shit. the places themselves were kinda falling apart but there was such great folliage in the area that the overall feel of it was very peaceful and pretty. i will be sure to upload the gazillions of pictures i have.





the third day was spent on the bus again to phnom penh. i finally found a city that i hate more than bangkok. the traffic sucks, there is no public transportation, and there is absolutely nothing to do there! in addition everyone is trying to swindle you!! they took us to casinos, some stupid shopping market, and a mall that was so crowded that i got major crowd phobia. somehow in the mall their tacky shit was selling at the same cost of american stuff. theyre crazy!

what made me the most mad about this tour was that i didnt get to see toul sleng prison and the killing fields. we instead got to hear about the cambodia king and see his palace and go to a casino. cultural? i think not.

i am so glad to be back in a first world country where i dont have to worry about bringing paper with me to the bathroom.

the saigon shuffle

when i came to saigon two years ago with crew asia, it was the first city on our tour. here at the night clubs, we saw locals and foreigners alike become ecstatic at the sound of "happy birthday" and jump up and down. it was here at the local night clubs that the invention of the saigon shuffle came about. we would take the dances of the locals in each city and give it a name. at the end of our tour we had a sequence where we would yell out the name of the dance, then dance it for a few seconds, then move onto another city's dance.

this time im not so lucky to have the company of my amazing friends. but i get to spend some qt with the pops. i also dont partake in the night club scene where i could invent my own dance moves. oh well, another time.

the last time i was in saigon i didnt get to live like a local. i stayed in hotels, and took cabs everywhere. this time, i stay at my dads house and ride on the back of the vespas. despite the smell of gasoline, overcrowded roads and the constant honking, i find myself at peace on the back of the vespa taking in the sights around me and the hustle and bustle of the local people.

the first day i was here, my dad said to me "ok its noon. starting from now you cant speak anymore english." i just looked at him and didnt speak for a few hours except a few words here and there because i simply could not get a sentence together. over the course of that day, i started to think about what i was going to say in complete sentences before i actually said them and by day number two, it was easy to not speak english. at this rate, my viet will be almost native like if i could stay here for a whole month. i think to learn a language, the best way to do it is to actually think in that language for about 15 min a day and work up to thinking in it at all times.

vietnamese culture is odd to me. all i do while im here is eat, drink coffee, then sleep and proceed to do it all over again in the evening. at night, we go to night clubs to listen to a live vietnamese band and a singer attempting to sing classic american tunes. maybe its the crowd i roll with (ie my dad and his friends) but i notice that its mainly older men with younger women....

the food here is amazing. even though i had an incident last night and accidentally ate some maggots, i still want to EAT. my only wish is that i had the opportunity to eat more homemade food. most people only think of vietnamese food as pho or the rice plates but goodness, its SO much more. i think its one cuisine that i could eat all day because there are so many different flavors (yes, we use other sauces besides fish sauce in our food)

tomorrow its a 12 hr bus ride to siem reap. im so excited to see a new country!