...and the journey continues...

Second verse, same as the first! ...almost. (Oh just in case, please click on the pictures here for the bigger versions!)

So that night, the Monday night, a group of us from Toronto gathered together to take a tour of Shinjuku! Shinjuku is split up into different sections, East and West being two of them, and where the hotel was located was in the rather quiet business-like West Shinjuku. East Shinjuku was a different story however, and it opens up after the West closes. The group of us went out with JAVA, an acronym the meaning of which I've forgotten, but in a nutshell its Japanese people who sort of act as ambassadors to other countries, or maybe just JET. Either way, awesome people, tonnes of fun. I took a bunch of pictures, but it was quite dark so none of them are steller. Still though, voila!!

I took this picture because I liked the duality of the rather traditional looking ramen shop against the very modern, big-city background. We were very close to the Tokyo subway here, and you can sort of see the sign for the Sakura-ya (a huge electronics chain) in the top right corner there, in orange.




This picture was taken in what our tour guide called "piss alley" - which was actually just a very narrow alley way filled with little restaurants and bars. And many bugs. You can see the back of Megan's head there. She almost gave me a heart attack at one point when she screeched as I almost stepped on a huge cockroach. I'm not afraid of bugs, but when a girl screams, you can't help but scream too. Sorry for the crappy quality of the pics, I couldn't really see what I was taking and so many of these images are less then steller.


Here is an example of the types of tiny little restaurants they had in the alley. It was almost like a bar, with little bar stools that you just sidled up to, ordered and ate at, and then left. We didn't go to one, but we certainly got interested looks from all the patrons and owners as our little group of gaijin walked past.




Here is a picture of downtown Tokyo, though not the 'Times Square' area that we so often see on television. This was still in Shinjuku, and I think that the times square is in Shibuya. I'm not sure though, but either way, this was a very cool area to be in! Not literally however, we were sweating our behinds off. I bought a small fan from a stand for 100 yen (about a buck) and man was it worth every penny.


Again, not a great picture, but it shows our group and a different angle of the downtown. Also you can see the sign for NOVA, another English-teaching program that I had considered going into. Two of my friends will actually be working there this fall I believe, so I wish them both luck!




Here is Meg, showing off her ladylike "glow" (not sweat, GLOW!) in the downtown area. Already she's doing the peace sign in pictures (though I think as a joke)! I have yet to do one, I'm trying to be all 'different'. Only a matter of time. *laughs*

So after we had walked around Shinjuku a little bit, our tour guide, who was a young guy named Toka (I think) took us to what's called a 'nomihodai' - or, an all you can drink bar. You pay a flat amount, and up until a certain time of night you can drink as much as you want.

It was a small, crowded little place that was on top of a 'gentleman's club', and since our group consisted of about 50 people, we had to wander around a bit more before we got to sit down.



Here you can see some of our group! Yup, all of those people were with us. The girl in the glasses looking up was actually one of my T.A.s at McMaster, funnily enough! She's near Kyoto now, just outside of the big city. I hope she's settling in allright!



While we were there, we shared the space with an office party who were out celebrating. I think they had been there a while because they were all really "happy" to see us. It was quite smokey in this bar, because in many places its still ok to smoke indoors, which you can kind of see in this picture. The man standing up there shouted out "WE LOVE AMERICAN!" at one point, until Toka corrected him, and then it was "WE LOVE CANADA!!" We all had to cheer, of course!


Here are a couple photos of the bar, showing just how many of us there were, and me quite sweaty and dissheveled. Hoohaa.



I'm not much of a beer person, so I didn't end up drinking too much, but we were all practicing refilling each others glasses that night, to get ourselves into the Japanese-mindset for manners!


Not sweat remember, 'glow'.



This is what they served us as 'bar food' at the nomihodai. Now I know why Japanese people are so trim. Instead of peanuts and chicken wings, they have SALAD and SOYBEANS when they go drinking! It was pretty tasty actually!




Meg and I decided to 'represent' our respective home-towns, Muncton, and the T-DOT!! Booyakasha!!






The rest of the weekend went by pretty unremarkably. At least unremarkably enough that I didn't take any pictures of it. *laughs* Tuesday included more meetings, and seminars, and by the end of the day I was so exhausted that again I was slightly out of my head. Between the jet lag and the non-stop meetings, I was about ready to stand up and scream by the end of Tuesday, but thankfully Megan talked me out of it.

The next morning we all headed out to our placement cities, and for those of us going to Nagasaki prefecture, that meant yet another plane ride. This time it was only about an hour long though, literally up and down. Once we landed in Kyushu, we were introduced to the infamous Kyushu heat and humidity. Suddenly Tokyo didn't seem so very hot!! I met up with my supervisor, a lady whom I call 'Ogawa-sensei', and she drove me to Sasebo!

This post is getting a little overly long though, so I'm going to safe the Sasebo info for next time. Thanks to everybody who is dropping by to read, or just look at the pictures. ^_^

Ttfn!

The start of the journey...

Hooraaaay I finally have a way to post pictures! Thanks to my loverly boyfriend and his loverly webspace, I can finally share all that I have! And ladies and gents, I have ALOT. I'm not even sure where to start!

Well I guess it makes sense to start with the beginning. Er...indeed.

Welps the goodbye in Toronto was definetly difficult, and I really ran the gauntlet of emotions over the span of maybe 2 hours. From the moment I woke up after 2 hours of sleep I was a ball of manic energy, racing around to make sure everything was okay, and it wasn't until I was in the airport, dissolving into tears that I took a breath. My boyfriend and parents were there to see me off, and they collectively calmed me down, but it was definetly hard. Once through the gate towards the U.S. customs security check point my journey had officially begun. My journey down the very long line TO the U.S. customs check point anyway.

Both of my bags were over-weight, as it had turned out, so payment was made. This would later come to bite me in the butt however, when our small air-bus plane had to delay take-off AFTER taxi-ing down the runway because the craft was too heavy. And wouldn't ya know, one of my bags was pulled off. Thankfully it was the suitcase I didn't really need, full of winter clothes and presents, and my Tokyo-intended bag reached me once I arrived in Tokyo.

Before Tokyo was Detroit however, which actually had quite a nice airport! I splurged and had McDonald's, as sort of a 'one last time' tribute, but the mayo wasn't as tasty as Canada's. :(

Getting on the plane to Tokyo was pretty uneventful, but let me say the plane was HUGE! It had two floors! We didn't get to see the first class seats, since they were upstairs, but the business class quite literally had pods to sleep in. The plane was comfortable enough, considering the duration of the flight and the sheer number of us there were on there, but still I did not sleep. For 14 hours I did not sleep. I read, I fidgeted, I watched movies, I drew, I fidgeted, etc. I think if I hadn' been on the aisle seat I might have gone mad! I need easy access to the bathroom! I did get to sit next to two really nice guys though, so that was a saving grace.



Meet Joe and Kevin! Kevin and I ended up walking around Detroit airport, along with another girl named Kristen, and he's a super guy. I can't remember where was placed, but its kinda far from me. He too had to leave behind a girlfriend, so we were able to at least empathize with each other. :)

So, some 12-14 hours later we arrived in Tokyo, and I was slightly out of my mind. I hadn't had more than 2 hours of sleep in about 2 days, and the carry-on luggage I had to tote around weighed about 35 lbs. - that is very, very heavy my friends. Immediately in Tokyo I noticed the humidity, even inside the airport there was a slight dampness I wasn't used to and already I began to sweat. Little did I know what was in store...but I get ahead of myself!

At the luggage claim in Narita airport (that's in Tokyo), myself and a small group of others ended up putzing around for an extra 2 hours, trying to find out what had happened to our other peices of luggage. Thankfully the airline offered to ship them to addresses we offered to them, so I actually ended up saving a bit of money! During that waiting period, I ran into an old friend of mine, a girl whom I had been best friends with in grade school! Her name is Hana, and she had moved to L.A. when we were younger and we'd lost contact. But she just SHOWS UP at the airport, having gotten into the JET programme this year too, and voila! Reunited!! Small, eerie world, eh?

Once we had our baggage, we all dragged ourselves through the airport, very handily guided by JET volunteers. Everything was so organized, nobody felt lost or worried, it was really fabulous. I took a picture of the outside of the airport, while anothe girl took my picture, apparently!

On the bus I was literally doing the head-jerk next to Hana, so I creeped into the back and flopped down on the row of seats for a very awkward nap. As much as I would have liked to see more of Tokyo, it was dark by then (sunset here is eeeeaaarly!) and I was just not up for it.

Though I got to nap a bit on the bus, when we arrived at the Keio Plaze Hotel in West Shinjuku, I was in a kind of daze. I was more tired then I could ever remember being before, and I STILL had to lug my incredibly heavy bag up to my room on a very crowded elevator. Again however, God was smiling down on me because my roommate was a girl who I had been talkin to on msn for the past few months! Her name is Megan and she's from New Brunswick, and I couldn't have asked for a better roomy!

That night, a small group of us had decided to get some food, and for some reason I had agreed to go. So after dumping my stuff in the room, I headed back out into the streets of Tokyo, but thankfully not too far. We ended up at an Udon restaurant, and I loooove Udon, so it was actually quite a treat to be there! I took a few pics while there, including the meal I ate...






Hana and another girl who wasn't paying attention (but that's ok)...





And me, looking completely wasted. Hoo haa!

That pretty much concluded my first day in Tokyo, as just about as soon as I got back to the hotel I passed out on my bed. The sleep I got did me good, but not THAT much good, as I was still completely exhausted the next day. So was everybody else though, so I don't think it was noticed. *laughs*

The next day meetings began, so Megan and I had to dress up all purddy. Once the daylight had hit the city, we realized how amazing our view was! Right across from us was this huuuge building, the name of which I can't recall but I think it was something along the lines of the Tokyo Government building, and so we both had to take a couple pics of that and the city-scape.



These really don't do the building justice, but I couldn't get the whole thing into my camera because the window cut it off! It was tall though, let me assure your. Really amazing architecture.






After the first batch of meetings and such, we had lunch on the 43rd floor (our hotel had 45!!! O.O), and the view there was absolutely amazing. It was mind-boggling just how many buildings were smushed into one space, and it seemed endless.




I have many more pictures to post and much more to tell, but unfortunately the only internet I have is at school and I have to get going! I'll update again tomorrow though, I have a lot to make up! TTFN!