Japan Trip Blog**long**

It all started a couple of months ago when Kaita, Baca and I hung out
 and started to talk about japan.  We got ourselves all excited and
decided to give it one last try to make it.  We let Linda know and began to plan
 the future of our dream.  It eventually ended up having Kaita bail b/c
 he  couldn’t find a replacement for his job that week.  Baca still didn’t
 have his Birth cert to get his passport.  It was a good thing it
 happened that it was just Linda and I.  Standby is hella hard to get out on, and somehow
 we got out just fine.  We had to fly to Newark, NJ (thankfully I had a straight flight from SLC to NJ).
It was about a 14 hour flight that I don’t really want to do again.  I got to sit next to a cute little 4 yr old George (who I thought was 
Japanese).  I started speaking to him in Japanese such as what is your
 name? When he gave me the blank stare of death, I could only think "is
 my Japanese that bad?"  Thankfully the mother barged in and mentioned she was Chinese.  Ahhh,
 a much better feeling knowing i wasn’t totally retarded.   The journey
 began.  I learned that George was a shy Chinese boy until you shared some candy with him and
 called his feet stinky.  That definitely broke the ice.  The whole
 flight, it I tried to sleep I would get tapped every 20 min to get shown that out tv screens were
 playing the same show.  Or that his feet were indeed-stinky.  I didn’t
 sleep much.  I ended up  watching the plane on the screen move very little (showing us where we
 were).  Linda on the other hand was in first class dining with the big
 boys.  She had her wine, her selection of fine dining such as cheesecake *jealous*.  It wasn’t
 bad, she visited us "common people" a couple of times.  lol

Touchdown:
             After a long landing in Narita Airport our nerves were back to being
 unstable and excited.  We didn’t know what to expect other than a ton of
 Japanese people running around.  It was that and much, much more.  A lot of business men
 wearing black and white, a lot of travelers of course.  I was pretty much the
 slowest person there.  I never realized how fast people could move just walking.  I mean SUPER
 fast.  Oh, and since my coordination was not so hot, I tended to block
 a lot of people trying to get through.  It was crazy.  All I could do was bump into people and
 say "summimasen" (excuse me) over and over.  Customs was fun, we had
 to fill out a form saying we were good visitors and such and take a picture (which I know
 was really bad after a long flight like that).  We went to exchange our
 money and found that the dollar sucks in value.  Now, since we didn’t know if we were going
 to get out we had booked our hostel for 2 days later.  Off to the
 Information center!   We made those kids work for their money that day.  We needed a place to
 stay, cheap, close to to a Asakusa area and someone who hopefully
 spoke English.  After a 45 min. information conversation we ended up at a Ryokan (traditional
 Japanese place to stay).  The owner did not know English, and the
 Ryokan was located in Nippori which is a little farther than we wanted. But, it was cheap.  Now off
 to the train station.  It was about 10 dollars and an hour and 20 min
 ride to Nippori.  We had met a very tall American who had been a teacher at the university there for
 about 9 years.  He was nice and told us some good advice.  Later, two
 Peruvian men were talking Spanish and Linda had to jump in and say hello.  I bet it felt good to
 understand somebody, b/c I had no idea what they were saying.  They
 kept asking for my name but I was oblivious to what they were saying.  I just remember Linda
 saying my name and shaking her head.  She informed me later on they kept
 asking for my name and she said I was married and she has a boyfriend.   They still kept
 asking something.  I am not sure what lol.  

Nippori:
                 Ahhh Nippori, we finally arrive and get totally lost.  The directions
 to the Ryokan looked easy but alas, we still did not have a clue.  The
 tall buildings and shining lights were too pretty.  After walking around for only 5 min. and
 standing there looking around, an old man walks by saying "You foreigners?"
 in his Asian accent.  I replied "Hai, Gaijin desu" (yeah, I am a foreigner).  He comes back
 and we point to the paper asking "Suzuki Ryokan wa doko desu ka?" (where
 is Suzuki Ryokan).  He had the look of hmmm I am not sure.  We walked around looking for a
 bit and then he asked a construction worker.  Yatta! (we did it)!  He
 was nice enough to walk us up all these stairs and we saw it.  We bowed and thanked him.  He
 smelled like major booze, but hey- he spoka ta engrish!  We were
 thankful.  We open the sliding door to the Ryokan and don’t see anyone.  I said a gentle Konniiiiichiwaaaaa
 and this old lady appeared before a curtain.  She waddles out and says
 "hai hai bla bla bla,  American? American? 2 day? 2 day?"  We said yes (thankfully the
 information called ahead for us and told her we were American and spoke little
 Japanese).  It was a fun game of charades....I started filling out the paper form and she
 gets excited and starts to touch my hand and then the paper.  She was
 praising my WHITENESS...YES...I got praised for my whiteness..and then she started fluffing my
 hair (at the time I didn’t understand what she was doing, i was trying
 to focus on filling out the form)  Linda was holding in the laughter of me being praised like a
 monkey. I remember it now lol.  There was a lot more of her broken
 English which just made our day.  You take off your shoes when you enter and put on slippers.  We had a
 locker at the front and this was her explanation- She points to the
 locker, and says "you take shoe, key box" and points to the shoes.  We had to leave our shoes in the box
 and wear the slippers.  When we left we had to put the slippers and
 the key in the locker.  She made sure we understood with a lot of pointing.  

Our Room:
              We climbed up the small set of stairs (carrying our bags, your can’t
 roll them) and come to a door.  You open the door and then find sliding
 doors.  Inside are tatami mats and our futons made up on the floor.  Our favorite part was
 the toilet.  yea. Not a cool buttons everywhere toilet but, the stand
 above toilet that takes a lot of balance.  I tried to avoid this toilet as much as possible.
  The first time I used it I didn’t know which way to face.  (you are
 SUPPOSE to face the little hump for some reason, i still don’t understand why).  I faced
 AWAY from the hump.  I didn’t want to look at the pipe and stuff.  I
 pulled down my pants, grabbed onto the walls and crouched down.  I concentrated on aiming and
 not moving.  Ahhhh, I did it.  I then realized why you face the hump
 part.  The toilet paper was on that side...  Here i am pants down, crouched down, dripping from
 you know where, and I can’t reach the toilet paper behind me.  Oh
 trust me, I tried.  I then had to waddle around and get the paper.  I had to let go with both
 hands b/c it wasn’t the kind that just ripped.  BALANCE POWAAA!!  Linda
 then had to use the toilet.  I joked about I didn’t know how to use it or which way to face.  She
 replied with I didn’t know either, I just sat on it....HAHAHA...she
 actually SAT on the rim that I guarantee people have peed on!!  KAYAHAHAHA.  That was my
 fav.  I thought Linda knew that one.  

Walking around Nippori:
               We were pretty cracked out.  Walking down the streets we were trying to
 find some food.  I really wanted Ramen.  We found a cool place with
 pictures on the outside, it looked like ramen to me.  Linda tried to walk in but the door didn’t
 open.  She looks to the side with the take out window and signaled to
 the lady the confused look.  She had to walk around her little desk and walk up to the door to OPEN
 the AUTOMATIC door.  Wow, she just didn’t get close enough for it to
 open.  Already off to a retarded start with that restaurant  I ask for ranem and she says, "udon"  and
 I’m like hey, they look the same.  They are not.  Udon is a thicker
 noodle that is slimey and doesn’t taste like anything.  I ate some noodles and drank the soup.  We both
 go back to the Ryokan and pass out around 8pm.  

Ueno Park and my butt tap in Akihabara:
               Sunday we head out to Ueno Park.  Free and a lot to see!  We got plenty
 of pictures at that park so check em out.  The only one of me and
 Linda in the same pic is when we had a guy (maybe a bum) take it for us.  I was just watching him to get
 ready to run after the camera if he darts lol.  He was nice and gave
 it back.  We started to walk away but he made us go see the birds.  Another game of charades  He
 really wanted us to see the birds.  He kept showing us that we could feed
 them.  it was funny.  We started to walk the way he wanted but ended up not seeing the birds.  There was
 temples and statues everywhere.  There was a zoo but we didn’t make it
 up there.  There was actually dogs walking around there, I pet a lot of dogs and that made me happy.
  After the park we walked around the city and went to Akihabara.  It
 has electric city and some cool stuff.  We went to Club Sega which was like 6 floors up.  All video
 gamed out.  We went up all the stairs just to see.  As we were walking out
 I feel a hand tap my butt.  I ignored it thinking maybe it was Linda or just a perv.  i kept
 walking when a weird looking Japanese guy comes up next to me saying "Genki,
 Genki?" while tapping my butt two more times.  The only thing that came to mind was "Itai" which
 means "ow" lol.  I dunno why that came to my mind or why I said it.  But, I
 did put on my mean look and thankfully Linda see’s this guy and says "hey hey hey, iie, iie" (hey,
 no no) while shaking her hand at him to go away.  He got the hint and
 left.  Yet again, we look like lesbian lovers and Linda saved her lover hahaha.  We suddenly realized that the once car driven road outside was blocked off and filled with THOUSANDS of people.  I
 mean just packed.  I guess on Sundays they have performers come out and show their stuff.  We watched one guy throw rings up in the air and have a cool routine.
  Another one was a couple who rode tricycles and stuff.  It was pretty cool.

Seeing Friends:

We ended up meeting with Kenji and Vicki in Tokyo Station. We walked around Tokyo and saw the Royal Family’s digs and saw the bland Tokyo. We then went to Shinjuku to find cheap souviners. Also, one thing we saw was Host’s. Hosts are guys who take women out for a lot of money. I mean these guys make THOUSANDS a month. You can tell who they are by just how primped they are. They usually spike up their hair, wear really nice suits, and carry around prada bags and such. It is crazy! After walking around Shinjuku with Vicki and Kenji, we found a place to eat. We remembered the good ol’ high school days. Vicki had to leave b/c going back to Osaka took about a 3 hour train ride. We then departed ways with Kenji and went back to the hostel for a good nights sleep. Too bad the hostel was really loud and I couldn’t sleep that well. We woke up the next morning to get ready to leave and visit some shops one last time. We got to see a cool ceremony (the pic with geisha on the flutes and the golden dragon). We then went to the airport and had to switch trains like 3 times. It was funny b/c on one of the trains there were these elementary school girls and we could tell that we stood out (the farther we went out of Tokyo area, the more gaijin we were). It was kind of crazy how these young kids rode the trains all by themselves for a while to get home. They were cute though :). We made it out on the first flight thankfully, and Linda even gave up first class to sit next to me on the plane ride home! I was grateful to have someone to talk to. And the flight was much shorter (we went to TX instead of NJ).

Houston:

By the time we landed most of our flights had been canceled. Linda and I sat for a while to try to wait out one last flight to SLC. She didn’t want to leave me so she waited till my flight at 8. My flight then got delayed till 11. I made Linda get a ride home so she could at least enjoy a night in a bed. I didn’t get out on that 11pm flight unfortionently. I had to dish it out at the airport for the night (all hotels were booked b/c of the weather). Lets just say- not a fun night. I had made it out the next morning and gotten home around noon. I am still working on the time difference. :D