Dear Readers,
Day One – Reunions – Total Distance Walked : 6 Km, Feet-Pain-O-Meter : 1
Andrea and I had it all planned out, that we would meet at the Iris Mural at Narita Airport. Bleh, I wanted to meet her at the arrival gates instead, and so thats what I did.
It is such a surreal experience to not have seen/met someone for 6 years and everything to be exactly the same. We kept on hugging eachother in disbelief, couldn’t believe we were actually doing this trip together!
We bought our Airport Bus tickets (3,000 Yen *grumble grumble*) went to the internet kiosks to send quick emails to our families (100 Yen for 10 minutes, not too bad). Then we were off.
The bus ride wasn’t that long, but one thing we noticed was that the sun sets so early in Japan! 4:30pm!! I’d go crazy! (and I eventually did) with the weirdness in sunlight hours.
Andrea gave me a friendship ring as a present, its my first ring ever, and it fit nice and snug. I’ve never had a ring before so I felt extremely diva like wearing one. I love it! Thanks Andrea!
When we reached our hotel, I was FREEZING. But this was the first time in 6 years that I experience weather, and with Andrea right next to me, I felt like I was in Canada again! Ah, nostalgic feelings…
Our hotel was super glam, surprisingly. And we were laughing in the hallway in anticipation for how small the room would be like (because we heard stories.) When we opened the door, we found the room not small at all. It was like our room in Tatham Hall (our Dorm at York U) a quaint shoebox.
We lazed around a bit, then Andrea told me to contact Hiro. So I was calling Hiro, and practicing a practical joke like, “Konchiwa, Kumagai San deska?” (Hello may I speak to Mr. Kumagai),
Phone rings..
Hiro : “Yea.”
Me: “um..hello?”
Hiro: “Yea.”
wow. amazing, so much for my amusing phone manners. I have this visual memory of Hiro, in his winter wear, all geared up, grey, green and black winter jacket, with his rimmed glasses and with a shy posture. We met him downstairs at the lobby at 7, and our baby Hiro (he was our Junior) stood in front of us, still tall and handsome as always, and in a business suit, with a brief case, and sans his lunettes.
I didn’t know it, but our evening started off with a walking tour. Hiro walked everywhere, up and down streets, left right, straight, curved roads. We were just being led through crowds. Then some guy offered me a book, and Hiro told me it was a hostess book, some book that list where I could get a job as a hostess.
EW. Why would I want that book, plus it was quite chunky and weighed 1/4 of a pound, so I was contemplating keeping it or not, and decided to politely leave it in a bicycle basket. Hiro gave me heck for doing that! Why didn’t I want to keep it, it’d be an interesting story, if he was in a foreign country and someone gave him a rare book like that he’d keep it….and that rambled on for at least five minutes. And everywhere we went, Hiro was pointing ”do you see that person, that person is a hostess, that person is a host”
I don’t really get what a host means, does it mean that they ‘entertain’ by sleeping with you…or…
Hiro said that basically they keep you company for drinks, talk to you, play drinking games, basically keep you entertained. Um, isn’t that what friends are for? Do people not have friends to go drinking with, or to go..playing with?
It’s a truly foreign concept for me, because to me, a hostess = a hooker (not entertainer) and to this day I still don’t understand it.
Andrea and I standing in the middle of Shinjuku!
We took the UNDERGROUND transit for the first time, and the system is really mad. There is something called JR, and then something called Subway. Hiro was an awesome teacher, he taught by forcing us to buy the tickets ourselves. We had to go to Shibuya (which i like to pronounce as Shh Boo Yah!, shih bu yah jamaica la la la) but its actually pronounced Shibiya (then why not just spell it like that.)
So went there and round about, he was awesome to show us where the hot night spots were, the only problem was that he walked around without any structure, like up a lane, turn left, down another lane, turn left again…and only when we were in our hotel rooms, Andrea told me that he was trying to show us as much as Tokyo as possible – did I really appreciate what he did. I have to admit, I was a confused follower at the time.
Oh, I was really looking forward to a sit down dinner with Hiro to catch up, and so for dinner he walked us down some narrow stairs, and in front of us was a machine. He pressed a few buttons, paid 750 Yen, tada, moved aside and it was my turn.
He took us to eat ramen in booths. When he told me booths, I originally thought, yay like a comfy booths. He used the wrong word. He should had said, cubicles. It was the most bizarre dinner I’ve ever had.
After another hour of walking, we sat down to have Sake! (yay!) chilled is the only way to have it, and we chose the sake with more ‘kick’. Hmm, being the retired alcoholic, I really dislike drinking, so just sipped it.
One thing I don’t like about Tokyo is that people are allowed to smoke indoors, so its quite difficult to enjoy food, but we managed to. Hiro ordered us some sticky glutinous rice thingy on sticks, they were quite good, but here is where I found out that Andrea doesn’t like sticky texture things, good thing to note at the beginning of a trip.
The three of us after Sake + Supper
I hope it won’t be another 6 years until I see him again!
Stacy
