tokyo, day one

Rather than writing one long post about my trip to Japan, I will recap my trip, one post and one day at a time.

On 4/25/07, Leo Chiu wrote:

It’s 5 o’clock in the morning and I just woke up. It was a very long day.

At 1pm in the afternoon, we took off from YVR. We had a relaxing flight. We ate lunch, we watched Dreamgirls (a good musical), we ate some more, we slept, we watched The Prestige (which was good until the ending), and we ate again.

We landed, we picked up our luggage, and we were told not to take pictures while at the airport. We walked through the airport looking for maps and train tickets, and some of us waited while others bought local attractions tickets. Once we bought our train tickets, we rushed onto the train. As we sat down, we realized that we had boarded the wrong car. As the train was moving, we tried to pull our luggage to the right car. We didn’t make it in time, so we ended up in a private compartment. We sat there for 15 minutes, and then the conductors told us we needed to move to another car.

From Ueno Station, we dragged our luggage 6 blocks toward our hotel. It was dark and tiring, not to mention intimidating because the map was not helpful to us. What if it took hours to find the hotel?

Eventually, I saw the sign for Oakhotel. After we threw our luggage into our rooms, we ate noodles from a restaurant where you order your meal ticket from a vending machine, hand your meal ticket to the cook, and he cooks it for you.

We walked to Akihibara, the district known for its electronics. Most stores were closed at 8pm, except for a big department store. We rode a virtual saddle, used a shoulder massager, and stood on the body shaker. We walked until 9pm, and went home to sleep. I fell asleep so quickly.

The hotel is small. The room is small. The toilet seat is cracked on one side. The washroom is small. When I towel off, I have to pull off moves from The Matrix. This will take getting used to. I don’t have cabin fever yet, but if I don’t get enough rest, who knows?

At times like this, it’s good to remember my blessings, and to count them one by one.

And now, maybe I can go to sleep.