Ok, so throughout the day I have been typing my thoughts and feelings onto word processer so I can just upload this the moment I have the internet. Well... I've finally arrived at British Hills and have had a brief showing around. Apparently my proper orientation is tomorrow, so I'll wait
until then to talk about it!
Ok, here it is!
I’ve only been in Japan for 3 hours and I’ve already been called a “baka” by a very pretty lady… To be fair… I am stupid…
Ok, I’ve landed safely in Narita, despite major delays back in the UK (why couldn’t it have been delayed yesterday?!). I had about half an hours sleep on the whole plane journey… Although it passed surprisingly quickly. I swear one of the flight attendants was Nino’s older brother or something… Seriously, he looked just like him. I wanted to take a picture, but didn’t get the chance ‘cause he was working and as I was getting off the train he was saying goodbye to people on the other side of the plane… Darn!
Anyway, Narita is darned humid! Pleasantly warm… But humid… Phoar!
You know when you were a child and you first learned to read quite well, you read EVERYTHING on the bus, on buildings, on adverts and stuff…? Well yeah, this is what I’ve been like. I have read absolutely everything I can and tried to translate it! Quite a lot of the message boards say “okaeri nasai” (welcome)
So, once I’d got through all the important airport things I decided to go to the toilet and get changed so I could make myself feel lovely and comfortable. This is when I had my first encounter with a Japanese toilet! I mean, you hear stories about the infamous modernised Japanese toilets… But seriously! My experience of the toilet for the first time was both bewildering and amusing. In fact, I giggled for quite a while… Then did an “I’m in Japan” dance.
I'll upload a picture of the toilet later. I must say I felt rather silly taking a picture of a toilet! But I couldn’t not really!
Once I was ready I headed towards the train ticket area and, with much help from the lovely guy wearing a yellow band saying “information”, I got me a ticket to Tokyo station. So I go through all the gates and stuff, feeling exactly the same level of confusion I get when I go on trains in the UK…
So, I headed downstairs to the platform I kind of half guessed, half worked out that I had to be on (nearly falling down the escalator on my way)! I then found a nice place to sit and just sat down on my suitcase. It amused me greatly that two Japanese women approached me, caught my eye, then both gave me a sympathetic smile before trotting away. WHY?!
Anyway, a train arrived on the platform I was told to go to, at the time I was told, but it said it was going to Ikebukero… So I ignored it, not thinking to check where ELSE it was going!!! So, about 15 minutes after I was expecting my train to come (I’d wondered around and bought my first vending machine drink… Some sort of lemony thing), I suddenly thought “oh, that was probably my train…” So I walked back up the escalators of doom and talked to the pretty lady who was making announcements on the platform (yeah, they have someone making the announcements, instead of a recording!) and showed her my ticket whilst asking if I’d missed my train. This is how the conversation went:
“But, I saw you sat on the station when the train left, you were sitting down!”
“Yeah, I was confused…”
“Bakaaaaa!”
Thankfully she was very cheerful and very helpful and didn’t beat me to the ground with a rusty pipe. In fact, she took my ticket, got me a new one and circled the important information (despite the fact that I don’t recognise the kanji telling me what the numbers mean!) But yeah, try again!
Note I didn’t use any times whilst telling this story… This is because time has NO MEANING ANYMORE!!!!
AWWWWWWWW!!! Ok, I’m currently sitting in Narita train station, waiting for my train after my severe stupidity. While I’ve been typing this I’ve noticed a guy on the train about to leave staring at me. Just now he came over and we had this hear warming conversation.
“Hello, are you alright?”
“Hello, yes thank you.”
“I saw you here an hour ago. I just wondered if you were lost.”
Aww, Japanese people are so helpful and nice (so far, at least).
Ok, I just got on my train, sat down and relaxed when a guy came over and started talking to me very quickly in Japanese. I showed him my ticket, feeling like a right idiot for ever claiming, even slightly, that I’m anywhere near good at Japanese. He then said “stand up!” and showed me where to put my bag. He then pressed a button on his machine and all the chairs started DANCING!!!!! Ok, I exaggerate slightly. But seriously, they spin around to face the direction of wherever the train is going next. I stood there, watching with probably the most inane grin on my face… He has NO idea what UK trains are like. By the way, I’ve got this whole carriage to myself… It’s so odd… They even tell you which carriage to get in on your ticket. And there are people constantly walking up and down cleaning the train and the station. God, I’m far too amazed by all of this.
Ok, I’m nearly at Tokyo station now, so more later… Not that this is a live update or anything… Aw, damn, I think I’m sat in someone elses seat!!! ARGH!
So far, the most I’ve said in Japanese is “arigatou” and “sumimasen”, and even then it was an embarrassed mumble… I keep scolding myself! I have to speak it at some point. MUST LEARN JAPANESE!
Ok, when I said nearly at Tokyo station… I was in fact about 2 hours away! I spent those two hours admiring the Japanese scenery before I was suddenly overcome with a wave of “I’ve only had half an hours sleep in the last 22 hours!” and was fighting to keep my eyes open for the rest of the way… So I did very little admiring… I think I actually fought my eyelids so hard that I fell asleep with my eyes open at one point.
And now I’m in Tokyo station. I’ve been here for about 3 hours now… And I’m pretty sure I’m going to die here! SERIOUSLY!!!! TOKYO STATION IS EVIL!!!! I was told that there are a lot of Westerners in Tokyo. Now, you’d think that Tokyo station, being the main station, would also have a lot of Westerners. I was lied to. I am in fact the only Westerner walking around, being stared at, sticking out like a sore thumb. About 3 members of staff speak English, so I’m really struggling to get what I want to say across in Japanese.
I’m now waiting for the Nasuno Shinkansen, which will take me to my final destination where I will be picked up by someone from the hotel! I missed my last one… I don’t know how… A train pulled in, I couldn’t read the kanji written on the board so I went over to some guy and said “Kore wa nasuno desu ka?” (Is this the Nasuno?) To which he replied “20 minutes”… The next Shinkansen to come had Yamabiko written in hiragana… Then I looked on the board and Nasuno wasn’t there anymore!!!! GOOD GOD! This one wasn’t my fault!!! So I went and said “Nasuno wa doko desu ka?” (Where is the Nasuno?)… Although it was far more stuttered than that because I was so worried. I then spoke to some guy in an office in broken Japanese (I forget what I said) and he wrote down the time and platform for me… I was on the right damn platform at the right time!!!
So, here I am… Trapped in Tokyo Station… Which hates me! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the ticket barriers. I put my ticket through, the gates open, I walk forwards, the gates close on me and beep obscenely! I watch other people doing it and they do exactly the same as me… But they actually go through. So I try a different gate and it does exactly the same. I’m going to die here… I am!
I crept off to the toilet to have a little sob earlier because I haven’t slept in so long and I’m emotional and if I don’t cry now I’ll break down whilst talking about the weather or something… God, I want to sleep!!! But anyway, as I was washing my hands, there was a Japanese lady washing her hands next to me. I smiled at her and she smiled back. I turned around and couldn’t find a hand drier (I just put it down to the evil station wanting me to have wet hands forevermore!) and she turned around and offered me a tissue. This was so sweet. It made me really happy before the crushing realisation of the fact that I’m stuck in an evil station came crashing down.
If this is what happens when I’ve got St. Christopher protecting me, I dread to think what would’ve happened to me if I wasn’t wearing this necklace!
Oh well… At least I got to use some Japanese…
I missed the next Shinkansen… Well, actually, they moved the platform and never said so I had lots of fun practicing my Japanese as I ran from one guy to the other asking where the Nasuno was and where track 20 was and then, when I realised that this one was going the wrong way I asked some guy to tell me the fastest way of getting to… Wherever it is I’m going… I forget! And I had to wait ANOTHER hour!
I’M FREE!!!! I’M FREEEEEEEEEEE!!! I’m finally on the damn Shinkansen! Seriously! It’s now 7:20pm… I arrived at Tokyo Station at 1:30pm (ish)!!! This last hour has been so depressing. I’ve felt nauseous with worry that I won’t ever get there. I’ve only got 3000 yen left (about 15 pounds!) and it’s been getting darker and cold and quieter… I actually started making plans for what to do if I had to stay overnight… I’m done being in Japan…. I wanna go home now!
Yeah… I’m lying… Oh, and I got to try out some more Japanese, which is good! OH MY GOD! I’VE JUST SEEN SOME MORE WESTERNERS! They’re French… But… Whatever… They just stole my seat… Well… Technically, I stole their seat and they claimed it back. I had reserved seats for my train ride back at 3:20...
Currently going past Japan in the pitch black… It’s really pretty… All the neon lights and colourful things going on. I can imagine I’d be blown away by it if I wasn’t so tired. I don’t think I’m jet lagged… Which is good… I just think I’m tired… Have I already talked about this? I’m doing this blog in sections…. In case you can’t tell!
The desperate feeling of needing to cry has passed now I’m actually heading to where I’m supposed to be… I just feel on edge and nauseous… I’ll probably carry on reading the mindless magazine I was reading when I was waiting for this Shinkansen…. I can’t think of anything else to say right now…
Ohhh… I’ve suddenly realised why my stomach hurts so much… The last time I ate was at about 7/8am… Yeah… Not eating all day will do that to a stomach… ><
Also, today I have seen:
Japanese kindergarten children.
High school children
A sweet Lolita (I nearly chased her down for a photo, but I was on the edge of tears when I saw her… In fact, she’s the only reason I didn’t cry!)
A gothic Lolita
A VK guy
A few Gyaru (not Ganguro… Just unnatural hair and deep tan.)
