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