Beijing so far

Beijing is great. Its dirty, smelly, and full of people who try to gouge us on everything we buy. Starr and I have gotten use to using the yuan and seeing things priced in it, so when someone says 'give me 70 for this' we know they're on crack, because nothing here should cost that much (which is about $9). So far I bought long johns for $2 (everyone warned us that the Great Wall was going to be freezing), a Buddhist bracelet covered in Chinese characters for $1, a cool hat for just under $4, a stupid hat with ear flaps for $2, a ton of post cards, a charm for my backpack, and probably a few other things.

We left Kobe harbor on the 26th at noon and spent more than 2 days on the boat. The boat was fun and I met its Chinese nationalist captain. He speaks a bit of English and was always on hand for the meals. When he saw me, he, like all Chinese people we've spoken to, wanted to know where I was from. He then told me all American food was potatoes and hamburgers and how its no good. He then held up a Qingdao beer and asked me if I wanted one, adding 'its the best in the world.' I still hate him. The food on the boat was pretty bad but I stuck it to the Chinese crew by eating only the Japanese dishes available. They were also pretty bad.

Off the boat, we got to Beijing around 6:30 maybe. Getting a cab was fucking ridiculous. We said goodbye to our friend from Singapore, Christopher, and then made our way to the row of cabs in front of Beijing station. A bunch of guys were gathered near the front and approached us for a ride. We assumed they were with the long row of cabs directly behind them, but once we agreed to let one of them take us to our hotel, they tried to lead us way the fuck off into the distance. Starr said behind me, quietly enough so none of them could hear, 'theres no fucking way dude' and then just walked off in a different direction, trying to cross about 8 lanes of traffic in the process. I followed her. The guys all followed us. We told them something about getting food but they herded us back towards their cars. One of the guys was a legitimate taxi driver but he looked like he wasn't getting involved. Nice. We just left, quickly but casually, and could not for the fucking life of us figure out how to make a phone call. There weren't any pay phones nearby and when we found a government run phone center thing, the guy at the hotel couldn't speak a word of English and sounded really angry for some reason. We made our way back to the taxis after everything else we could think of didn't work and were, again, confronted by guys hanging out near the front of the line. I went past them to the taxi drivers but none of the real drivers were willing to take us and couldn't understand where we wanted to go. The sketchy guys all had cell phones and were dialing the number for us before we asked them to. We eventually went with a guy who had half of the teeth in his fucking head and an unmarked car a mile from the station. Brilliant. We agreed on 50 yuan, down from 180 with the first guys, but when he got us to our hotel that number became 60. He was cute about it though. I handed him 50 and he just kind of squinted, cocked his head to the side, and went 'mmmmmmmm...'

Finding the hotel was an adventure too. We are staying in one of Beijing's hutongs. These are really old alleys that are, while our guide highly recommends and are listed in '1001 Things to See Before you Die,' ghettoes. The thought flitted through my mind that we were going to get hacked up and sent back to the US as parts, but we were ACTUALLY where we were supposed to be. Imagine taking a drive down an alley that gets smaller and smaller and takes sharp turns that you're not even sure if the car can fit through, where the people are all looking at your car distrustfully and you see NO other foreigners, and the cab driver has to get out multiple times to ask for directions and no one even wants to talk to him. Our hotel is run by a creepy heroin addict that we call 'Lurch' and the bathroom smells like... there aren't even words.

We've become used to the hotel and now we even like it, but we were NOT happy when we showed up. I think it was culture shock to no small degree.

On our first full day we saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the hill behind the city where the last Ming emperor killed himself. We ate Peking Duck (so fucking good) at a really fancy-ass restaurant, treating our friend Christopher from the boat, and only spent $45. The second day we took an all-day tour of the city including stops at a jade factory, pearl factory, cloissonware factory, lunch, tea, the Great Wall, and the Ming Tombs. We only wanted to see the stupid wall, but all tours that are run by travel agencies include these tourist trap factory tours where you are required to spend like 20 minutes in the gift shop at the end. We went to not 1 but 2 fucking jade factories. Our guide gets paid by the government (all the factories were run by the government) so we couldn't skip them either. At the last factory we just gave up and tried to talk to the Chinese girls who worked there and they admitted they just wanted to practice their English.

Today we were going to go to the Summer Palace but gave up and shopped. Starr has bought quite a bit of stuff but I'm in this for the long haul so don't expect much to be sent home. Sorry guys. Lets see. I guess thats it for now. Tomorrow we'll do the Mao-soleum and the Summer Palace and we've already bought our overnight tickets to Xi'an. We leave at 9pm tomorrow night and I think I've spent $150 so far. Some big ticket items make up the bulk of that...

Beijing - Jan 31 6:30pm

Starr and I just paid for internet use at this cafe (20 RMB per hour) because we've already been to three places today with free internet and we were unable to upload our pictures at any of them. Our hotel has free internet but I think the firewall is preventing me from using Flickr's uploading program. I tried to disable it but I couldn't figure out what I was looking at since everything was in Chinese. Also, as I put all of my photos into the trashbin, I noticed someone else had taken quite a few shots of their own erection and forgot to empty the bin. Quite impressive but totally shaven which I simply can't tolerate. The second place is where we got breakfast and again I had problems with the stupid uploading software. I could have gone online and uploaded 6 photos at a time with their web-based thing, but since I have over 450 pictures, I copped out. The third place only had wireless ACCESS but we couldn't tell from the sign out front.

So here's attempt number 4 and if I fail again, I'm going to... try a fifth time. But I won't be happy about it.

Beijing - Jan 29, 2007 9:24am

I can only use this computer to check my email so don"t expect any photos yet. Starr and I arrived in Tianjin and made our way to Beijing yesterday. The boat ride was alright. I liked it but I think Starr got pretty fucking bored at points. What compounded it was that I prefered to read and be quiet and without someone to talk to she almost went nuts. She did make friends with this guy from Singapore named Christopher (that MIGHT be his name) and he was headed in the same direction that we were. This turned out to be the hand of God reaching down to help us out, because when we got off the boat he shared a cab with us, got us to the station, helped us buy our train tickets to Beijing, but couldn't get dinner with us because he had to be somewhere. We made plans to meet him by the Forbidden City tonight to get something to eat so that's what we're up to.

This hotel is run by the Adams Family (actually they're all really nice people, just a little off) but its alright. Last night we had a fucking adventure trying to get a cab from Beijing station. Of course we were bombarded by people asking us "where you going?" at the entrance to the station but when we went to get in line for a taxi some guy told us he would get us to our hotel for only 160 yuan, which, when I asked him to confirm that he just said 160 yuan, he paused and the number magically became 180 yuan. I was enchanted. When we started to walk away that number became 120 yuan in seconds but the guy we eventually got charged 60, and even that was probably gouging us.

The hotel is in a hutong of Beijing which is Chinese for the middle of fucking nowhere where you're completely fucked. Its only 15 minutes from the Forbidden City if we can find it.

I love you all. Expect more detail and pictures when I get to a computer that isn't this one.

7pm

We got into Osaka last night around 9. We got lost on the subway and wound up at the Universal Studios stop, but were able to check in by 10ish. Hotel Chuo has a curfew of midnight, but we were able to meet up with some friends nearby and get back in time. It turns out a friend of ours from back home lives one stop away from our hotel. Pure coincidence. Mike Perry is a guy that Starr knows pretty well, but I've never met him before. Good guy. He leaves on the 30th to do the exact same trip that Starr and I are doing, only he's going backwards and then taking the trans-Siberian railroad to Moscow. He was drinking with two of his buddies, one of whom graduated from Brandeis in 1999. Small world.

Today we fucked around online when we woke up (taking full advantage of the free coffee) and were able to cash some of my traveler's checks near the hotel. We went to the Osaka aquarium and saw its much advertised Whale Shark. After that we went for a spin on what used to be the tallest ferris wheel in the world (thank you very much London). I boozed while Starr almost choked to death on a chocolate-covered almond.

After that we came back to our hotel to upload all of our pictures and video and charge our cameras, both of which died. While here, I was able to check my gmail but I still haven't received a reply from the guy that handles FAQs for the Kobe-to-Tianjin ferry. I wanted to confirm my reservation and ask if meals were included with our ticket. I used to think they were, but looking at pictures online of the restaurant on board, I'm suddenly afraid I'm wrong. Anyway, we need to wake up tomorrow at 7ish and get our asses to Kobe, so we'll figure it out soon enough. While searching though I took a look at what the more expensive cabins look like on this boat. I had always just assumed we would get whatever the cheapest tickets were, but for only an additional 3,000 yen, we can switch from futons on the floor (top picture) to bunks (bottom picure). So I guess we'll ask tomorrow if we can upgrade our beds.

Osaka and a map

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Starr and Benn's World Tour 2007 - The Japan Leg finished

Osaka, Thursday 10:36am

Starr has signed up on Flickr, and her photos are here. Click on that link to see her shots, and as always, mine are here.

01.24.2007 2:18pm

I just uploaded all of the photos I've taken so far of my trip with Starr. So far, we've been:

January 16th to the 19th - Tokyo
January 20th - Nagoya
January 21st - Nara
January 22nd - Inuyama
January 23rd - Kyoto

and today is the 24th, but tonight and tomorrow afternoon we'll be in Osaka (Starr really wants to go to the aquarium) and on 26th at 11:00am we'll board our boat to China. We'll arrive on the 28th and then its on to Beijing for 3 or 4 days. Expect updates from China.

So far the trip has been fantastic. In Tokyo we went to the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt (where Lost in Translation was filmed), saw the Tsukiji fish market (the largest fish market in the world) and got sushi there right off the boat, saw the Todaiji (containing the largest Buddha in Japan), the deer, and some other temples in Nara, an original castle with a great view in Inuyama, temples in Kyoto, and we've been steady boozing in the meantime.

The deer in Nara were awesome, ((click here), mostly because they kept attacking Starr and I found it hillarious. Thank God they got their horns cut recently because they would have kicked her ass if they still had them. It was only because she had a handful of sembei and they were hungry, don't think its actually dangerous there. This was the first time I saw the deer bow too. Last time I wasn't sure if what I was looking at was the real thing, but if you put a handful of food out, they step into line and show some respect. Cute.

On our way to Kyoto we got separated which I also found pretty funny. We were on a slow train and switching to a fast one when Starr realized she left her camera on the last train. She paused for just a second, the doors closed, and I waved goodbye to her from inside the train. The look of absolute shock and horror in her face made it all worth it, but I just got off at the next station, Yasu, and waited for her slower train to show back up. I found her totally unconcerned, back in her seat with her camera.

We ran out of yen in Kyoto and were left with Starr's Bank of America card and my traveler's checks. We couldn't find anyone who would accept either one, so we had to figure out how we were going to eat dinner, maybe get some coffee, tickets back to Nagoya and booze for the ride on less than $10. It was pretty fun. We got some food off of the McDonald's dollar menu because it was all we could afford and walked across the whole city to Kyoto station so we could save enough money to get back on the train home. I was able to get my traveler's checks cashed in Kyoto station but it was pretty touch and go for a while there. It made me nervous but was fun just the same.

I hope to update this again before I get on a boat for China, but that might not happen. If not, expect the next post from Beijing. Love you all.

January 14th Going Away Party

This is the Disneyland skit from a comedy show Yuka and I like.

Pictures posted.

January 18th, 9:08am - Tokyo

This is how I'll start labeling these entries. I don't have a lot of time to write as I'm at the only computer terminal in this hotel (with heavily advertised free internet) and there's probably a few people who are just waiting for me to get off. Starr and I have already had a great first couple of days.

My vacation started after work ended on Sunday. The last day was great and I got some pictures with students that I'll post tonight. That night we had a going away party in my apartment (I'll also post those pictures tonight). The next day Yuka helped me to get a Citibank account and check postal rates for the two bags I'm sending home. The following day Yuka slept over and we said our good-byes, then I packed my backpack and left Nagoya. I hate that part of any trip. Packing and saying goodbye to a place as familiar as Kyowa has become sucks. It reminded me of packing for Japan and leaving college Senior year and leaving home for college. At least this time I didn't have a lot of crap to pack.

I met Starr an hour late at Narita airport (there were three stops on the train for Narita Airport and I didn't know where she was going to be) because the train leaving from Shinagawa station took an hour and a half to get there and to take the airport express was $30 I wasn't going to spend. We drank on the train as we headed back towards downtown. The first step was to book a hotel for the night so we went to one that I had gone to earlier with Yuka. Full. So we headed to another station and tried to ask some people, check Starr's guide book, and ask some cabbies where we might be able to go. This was our practice run for China and we weren't doing so well. I wound up calling Yuka and asking her to help us out. She found a hotel and booked it for us near Shinjuku. We checked in, went out for a little while, just drinking and walking around some of the busy parts of Tokyo and got home by 2am. Starr was up again around 6 and couldn't sleep. She said that she slept for the entire flight over but despite that she was a little fucked up from the jet lag.

Yesterday we again called Yuka and she found us this place in Ikebukuro. Cheaper than the first night (3,800 instead of 4,200) and this place included the internet and breakfast. We dropped our bags off at around 11am and did some sightseeing. We went on a tour of the imperial palace, saw the Yasukuni Shrine (see wikipedia and any news article on why people are currently burning Japanese flags in Korea and China), and then got a drink at the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt Hotel. That's where most of Lost in Translation was filmed and that bar is where Scarlett and Bill meet for the first time. It was a really nice place, live music, a great view of the city, and we wound up spending $75 for a beer and glass of champagne. The champagne wasn't something we wanted but apparently it was opposite day with that particular waiter. 'Would you like some champagne?' 'No.' 'OK, here you go.'

Today we'll do some more sightseeing but I'll post those pictures tonight.

I lost the mailing addresses for all of my Brandeis and high school friends. Could you all email me where you live? bennegan@gmail.com. Thanks.

I'm crushed

I'm 5 days away from payday, and in my excitment I walked around Nagoya today asking about the forex rates at the biggest banks. I'll have 1,000,000 yen on my last day of work (with another 100,000 being sent back to the US by Nova after I leave), and until today that meant $10,000 in my mind. Well, now reality has snuck in and I'm completely disappointed. 1,000,000 yen is about $8,300 if I convert it with any of the banks here, Mitsui-Sumitomo, UFJ, Citibank, or Mizuho. That sucks man. That sucks so god-damned hard that I want to smash something. I could have put $2,000 in my Citizen's account (for my college loans), which would have gotten me all the way to August or September of this year, and I would have had $8,000 to travel with. $8,000 would have given me almost $22 a day, for an entire year, to live on. That might be impossible in Japan or the US, but hostels in Cambodia are about $1.50 a night, so $22 would have been a heap of cash.

I don't know how long I'm going to travel for but those fucking loans are a black cloud hanging over my plans. God damn Brandeis and its fucking outrageous tuition. I would be so free if it wasn't for those loans. They'll pay themselves off over time but I want to be free NOW.

On another note, I'm headed to a non-English speaking dentist tomorrow with Yuka, so wish me and my teeth luck.

January 2nd and the present

We got up early on the 2nd and caught a train towards Yokohama. We reached Kamakura before 11am and dropped our bags in a 300 yen/day locker. We tried to figure out how long we could spend in the city and still make the last train back to Nagoya, but failed miserably. To solve such a tedious and complex problem as catching the last train was outside of my ability and her patience. The JR station attendant just gave us his time table to figure it out and as it was all in Japanese, Yuka was on her own. The time table was thicker than a phone book, so we agreed that 5pm was a safe and arbitrary number, so we went with that.

We saw the Hase-dera and Daibutsu before returning to the station to grab our bags. The Daibutsu was really cool to see and I took some of my favorite pictures from our trip in front of it. We payed an extra 20 yen and were also able to go inside of the Buddha.

The Hase-dera was also cool. There was an art museum attached to the temple and inside there were 33 hand-carved statues of the reincarnations of the Buddha. There is apparently some text that describes the many forms that Buddha took on, including different demons, a prime minister, women, children, and a half-serpent half-man creature. It made me want to find an English translation of the stories.

There is also a cave located underneath the temple and Yuka and I walked through it. There are statues inside that you can light candles to, asking for specific help in love, business, cooking or whatever, but what I remember clearly were the prayer cards outside of the cave. You can buy and hang wooden plaques near the cave entrance asking Buddha for his help and one in Spanish began: 'Los Goonies nunca dicen 'muerte'... it was unexpectedly awesome.

So then we came home, blah blah blah.

I finished work today at 9pm and that leaves only 4 more days with Nova. Two of those days are only 4-hour shifts and this Thursday I have a dental appointment. Getting my teeth checked was on my 'things that are absolutely necessary to do before leaving Japan' list and it feels good to be getting it done at last. I think I'm 2 or 3 years past where I should have had them checked and if any good will come from this appointment, its that I won't have to have an excruciatingly painful tooth removed by a fist-shaped rock, smashed into my jaw in Vietnam, two months hence.

Takoyaki Party

I've uploaded a video of our takoyaki party. Three Japanese friends, my roommate David, and Pat threw me a going away party on Sunday night, the 7th. Takoyaki is an Osaka dish, which, for lack of a better way to describe it, is octopus balls. In the video, Yukio (far right) freaks out when Ayami (far end of the table) tries to put kimuchi in his takoyaki. Kimuchi is just cabbage in this spicy tomato-based sauce. Yukio maintained that it tasted like ass but I liked it. We added a bunch of other stuff, including sliced up hot dogs for Pat, who hates octopus (which is what Yuko puts near his face), and then put this special sauce on top with mayo on the side to dip them in.

Also, as Yukio found out the hard way, not once but TWICE, takoyaki is extremely hot when it comes out of the pan.

January 1st, 2007

We checked out of the hotel at exactly 10 and again Yuka used her cell phone to find and book our next hotel. We agreed later that the next place was the best place we stayed at in Tokyo. It was a little hard to find (there are TWO FamilyMarts. This would have been helpful information) but it was cheap and had personality. It was run by a Korean woman near Ikebukuro station. Some older guy was watching tapes of Korean dramas, all the books were in Korean, and in addition to the sweet-ass free internet, there was all the Korean tea you could drink. Sidenote: Korean tea sucks. It tastes and smells more like soup broth than tea, but Yuka liked it. So it felt like we had walked too far and wound up in some Korean woman's living room. The fact that the Korean owner played some weird card game online through Yahoo! reinforced this.

Late breakfast at Denny's and that's not as lame as it sounds. Denny's in Japan is alright. Its a far cry from its American counterpart and the deserts are genius: take a big ass chocolate sundae with banana slices and other dope stuff mixed in, and precariously balance an entire slice of cake on top. Oishisoo. Soo da ne.

On Yuka's suggestion we headed for the Imperial Palace, because on New Year's Day the emperor comes out of hibernation and waves to the people. Imagine our disappointment when we found the entire palace had already closed for the day. I guess the emperor gets up pretty early to wave...

We sat down near the moat and tried to figure out what we still needed to see. I saw an advertisement along the border of our map for the Tokyo Met. Government Offices, located near Shinjuku, so I convinced Yuka that if we trekked all the way out there the view from the top would be worth it. So we went to Shinjuku and got swept up in the crowd again. We made it to the towers 4 minutes before they closed for the night and got some good shots of Tokyo as the sun was going down. While we were leaving the building, a Japanese couple in the plaza was training its dog to come when its name was called.

We made it to Ginza, which would be Newberry Street in Boston or maybe Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, and walked up and down the nearly abandoned shopping district around 8pm. The only thing that seemed to be busy was the German-style beer hall near the station. We did some window-shopping and much more crucial beer-drinking. We headed back towards our hotel as we were starting to feel wiped out from all the walking we had done.

Updates again soon...

The Daibutsu at Kamakura. It gets up in the middle of the night and takes giant bronze shits in a river nearby. The smell is unbearable, but no one has the balls to say anything.

And by the way, feel free to post comments. I need them to build my time machine.

New Year's Eve 2006

We left our hotel in Shin Nihonbashi by 10am (exactly at checkout time) and Yuka was able to book our next hotel with her crazy-ass hi-tech cell phone. We found a place right near where we wanted to do the countdown, it only cost us $50 each, and it was on New Year's Motherfucking Eve. We were jazzed.

We again went to our hotel early to drop off our bags and then we went to Asakusa. It was probably my favorite part of Tokyo. There was a temple there, and a long approach filled with merchant's stalls. The stuff they were selling was more or less the same in each location, but there were some cool things to make the area more than just a tourist trap. We got a cup of sweetened sake to split and Yuka insisted on trying some fried green-tea rice cake. I bought a dope headband that looks like something out of the Karate Kid (its white with a red sun in the middle, and it says Kamikaze in bold, black kanji. I love it).

(side note: I wanted to stop at the Vietnamese embassy while we were in Tokyo to get my Visa, but as it was New Year's that was a pretty ridiculous expectation)

After Asakusa, we headed for Shibuya. Naturally, we grabbed beers for the long-ass subway ride across town. Shibuya is where that famous crossing is, the one used in Lost in Translation and tons of other advertisements for Tokyo. It was pretty crazy I guess. Just a bunch of people on their way somewhere else. There's this statue of a dog right near the crossing and a touching and probably bullshit story to go with it. Everyday (who knows how long ago) this man used to meet his dog at Shibuya and one day the guy died. The dog never figured it out and no one bothered to tell it, so it died waiting for him to return. Quite touching. You can see this monument to loyalty today, surrounded by tourists and homeless Japanese that masturbate publicly.

We walked off towards the next stop on the subway, Harajuku, and passed by a group of Japanese guys, dressed up like 1950's American greasers, dancing in a public park. It was probably one of the highlights of my trip. They looked cool man, and I'm not joking at all. There was a long line of tourists taking their picture and it made Yuka and I feel so lame to be a part of it. But we redeemed ourselves by actually getting our picture with them and (along with the picture of us with the Daibutsu at Kamakura) its my favorite shot from our trip.

We walked through Meiji-jingu on our way to Harajuku and found out that there was going to be a countdown there as well. Actually, my friend and coworker, Michelle from Florida, was there that night with friends of hers from back home. I'm going to head into Nagoya after I finish uploading my pictures and watch all of this year's ATHF with her, so I'll find out if it was fun or not.

After Harajuku we went to check into our hotel (we had only left our bags there earlier) and get some dinner before the countdown. We didn't manage to stop and eat so we got food from a convenience store and beer to wait in line with. When we got back to Zojoji there were less than 1,000 people there, so we were right on time. We ate standing and got our little slips of paper. At that time a friend of Yuka's, Mika, along with these two Nova teachers showed up. I knew one of them, a gay Irish guy, but it was the first time I met this girl. What a bitch. What an obnoxious, selfish, whiny, and control-freak of a bitch. Man. I'll elaborate later I suppose, but what a cunt. Seriously.

We ditched them to go watch some guys making traditional Japanese rice cakes. What made it traditional was that they were using giant wooden mallets to soften the rice dough. They kept picking big guys out of the crowd watching and making them participate, which was awesome. They picked this giant American guy next to me (I felt like the last kid picked at dodgeball) and he embarassed himself and our country so badly that I wanted to shun him. These Japanese guys who looked over 50 looked tough swinging those mallets and thanks to their perfect form, made these impressive sounding WHACKS in the dough. This American guy apparently couldn't figure out the physics of swinging a giant wooden stick and made these little weak PIFF noises that made everyone around him get quiet and check out why he was fucking up. They stopped him after a few swings and he thanked everyone around him like he was the star of the show or something. I could totally sense what everyone was thinking because I was thinking the same thing: that guy was a giant pussy.

Some Japanese guy saw me after that and we made brief eye contact. I stopped smiling when I saw him and tried to look off into the distance in order to become invisible. After seeing that foreign guy being quietly judged I didn't want to suffer a similar fate. He walked over to me and grabbed my arm, saying in English: 'Challenge! Challenge!' and I couldn't refuse. The crowd of like 50 people around me were checking me out to see if all foreign guys were such damned pussies, but I didn't let myself down. I KILLED that damn rice dough. I was trying like a motherfucker to put everything I had into swinging that mallet. Yuka got some pictures but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them. The older Japanese guys in kimono smiled a little bit and nodded their heads approvingly.

We met up with that bitch and Yuka's friend Mika a little while later for the countdown. We waited in line a second time to get balloons and then thought long and hard about what to wish for. Long story short: my slip of paper containing my wish fell off of my balloon before it got airborn and I didn't find it until a few minutes after midnight. So God got my balloon but no wish. We counted down with this giant crowd and right at midnight the year on the Tokyo Tower changed and it was a lot of fun.

I don't have a lot of time left at this cafe so I'll update again later.

Miss you all.

Saturday, December 30th

Yuka and I left together from Okazaki (her hometown) on the 8:33 Local. She had bought a special ticket that allows for 5 days of unlimited travel on the regular trains (no Shinkansen) for about 11,000 yen ($110). We got to Tokyo around 2pm and went to our hotel to drop off our bags. First stop was Akihabara for the freaks. Everyone tells me that the reason you go to Akihabara is for the freaks and the maid cafes, so I was ready for some freaks of the 'I dress like my favorite anime character everyday and only answer to Doraemon' kind of freaks, not the 'I love technical gadgets and can't believe you don't have a Hydrogen-powered PS24-35a Beta 100 TB harddrive yet' kind of freaks. The latter variety are much less fun to watch and the only kind that we saw there.
We stopped in Ikebukuro next, which is again, just a giant, busy, crowded section of Tokyo where you can walk around and bump into people. It was much better than Akihabara but it didn't really stand out for any reason. At least Akihabara had the body odor and sexual frustation. We passed a British pub heavily advertising its fish and chip dinner special, and Yuka, ever the Anglophile, wanted to stop. It was pretty good. In the pub I saw this foreign guy sitting alone for the entire time we were there, nursing some drink and looking off into the distance. I was a well-oiled machine by then (we had been picking up beers and chuhi from convenience stores and walking around with them for hours) but didn't ask him what I couldn't figure out: what the fuck was he doing? He made me feel sorry for him but it looked like the most natural thing in the world for him to sit still and stare at the bar for over an hour and a half, saying nothing to no one. Maybe thats just what you look like when you travel alone.

We went back to the train station and got to Hamamatsu-cho to see the Tokyo Tower by 8ish. We hadn't decided where to go or what to do for New Year's but found out that there was a big event on that spot the following night. For the first 3,000 people, the temple nearby, Zojoji, would provide balloons and cards on which to print your wish for the new year. At midnight, those people would all release their balloons and then participate in a massive orgy fueled by violence and free heroin.

We got back to our hotel pretty early, maybe by 11.

東京

Went to Tokyo for New Years! Yuka and I arrived in Tokyo on the 30th, spent three days in the city, went to Kamakura on the 2nd, and got home by 10:15pm on the same day.