map the soul, map the seoul

Japan pt. 1 - Map the Kyoto & Tokyo

Hi everyone!

Sorry took me a while to write again, but I think my anemia is acting up again. I look more pale than usual and feel tired even easier than before so I mainly rested. Luckily I didn't have a lot of classes after coming back from Japan. But yes, Japan! I've been to Japan after dreaming about it for at least 7 years. Can you believe it? One of my greatest dreams came true (I've wanted to go to Japan even more than going to Korea to be honest..) and I only knew about it around 2 weeks beforehand! That's no time to get mentally prepared, especially when you've been busy with one midterm (yes, only one, lucky me~) and a presentation and some papers. Uwaaaah.

But let me tell you about my trip to Japan for real now! It started on Friday, November 2nd. I went to Incheon Airport with Sophia, Linda and Marion where we catch a plane of Peach Aviations (or Airlines, whatever) and then fly to Kansai International Airport. At this airport, Martin, a friend of Marion who is studying abroad in Hong Kong, waited for us and joined us for the trip. At first, we decided to get something from the 7/11 but we needed money for that. It was such a hassle to get money but fortunately, we could get money from the 7/11 ATM which would only give bills of Y10.000 but alright.. (Y10.000 is around €100) I got some onigiri, tuna sandwich and water. It was pretty good.

Afterwards, we had to take a shuttle bus to get to the train station where we bought a ticket to go to Kansai. Now this is were my Japanese skills had to come in already, seeing as a lot of Japanese people actually don't know how to speak English. But they really do want to help you, so with efforts from both side we really ended up in Kansai. It took us hours though and the other four wanted to drop off their luggage at their hostel first. Finding this hostel was also a drag, haha. But luckily, we could ask directions from some people at a gas station. That is... after I asked them in Japanese. Aha, so proud of myself. :')

It was already quite late (maybe 5 or 6pm?) and we decided to find some food. We found a small but nice little restaurant which served really nice udon! The owners were very nice to us and even a customer wanted to get up so we could use the table. And the best thing was; it wasn't expensive at all! Ah, it was a nice first dinner in Japan.

Sophia wanted to get some dessert and since I really had to stay close to Kyoto Station as I would have to catch my bus to Tokyo, we decided to stroll around that area. We ended up buying some donuts and coffee or what not. I just had a donut, the others had some other cookies but Martin bought latte. Green Latte. It was actually green. His face, it was very funny.

After looking around in a big mall (I found some games, but meh so expensive..), we decided to split up at Kyoto Station. The four of them would go back to their hostel and I would wait for my bus so I could go to Tokyo.

The bus ride was.. okay. I booked a Beaute4 Ladies seat, which is a seat especially for ladies. Heck, it even had a mirror attached to it. There were curtains on both my left and right side, making me only see the back of the seat in front of me. So yeah, there was a lot of privacy. I had a fancy leg rest and a comfortable neck pillow and all. So the bus ride was pretty okay. I woke up a couple of times, panicking I would miss my stop. But around 7am, I was in Tokyo. Finally.

Instead of going to look for food, I decided to directly go to my hostel. The owner told me to come after 8am, but I thought I could probably get some food in the area of the hostel. I had to transfer once and I actually went the wrong way first. But around 10 past 8 I was finally at the area of my hostel. It would only be a three minute walk, but I am so bad at directions I thought I walked the wrong way first, but it was actually really easy to find.

I waited for Maria and Yvi (Yvonne? I am so sorry but I didn't dare to ask your name again and I could swear it was Yvonne but you wrote Yvi once) to pick me up around 10 but they took forever. So I tried to contact them, but my phone was absolutely dead (NO SERVICE WTF?!?!) so I tried several ways. Trying a payphone, asking help from hostel owner, he said I should try payphone, went to a 'familymart' (something like a 7/11) and there I bought a telephone card with which I could call international numbers with... not. But just after I bought the card.. the two girls were standing in front of the hostel. Buh. They couldn't find it. I don't blame them, I just gave them the address and not the directions. Hm. Oh well, at least we got to meet and introduce each other and we went for lunch at first.

After lunch, we went to Nakamise Dori, which is a famous shopping street for souvenirs! Of course, I got some lovely souvenirs for some friends but unfortunately, I had difficulties looking for things for my family. Now that I look back on it, I think a mask for on the wall would be good for my brother but well.. hindsight. Ah, too bad. I'm sorry brother.

Nakamise Dori leads up to one of the shrines/temples in Tokyo. This one is the Sensoji Temple. In front of this lovely shrine (because I think it's more a shrine than a temple but there's not a lot of differences anyways..) you can get your fortune and also 'wash' yourself with incense. I didn't do the latter, but I did do the former. There are several boxes with sticks with numbers on them and you have to shake these boxes (be careful though) while making a wish. Afterwards, a stick will get out of the box (it can take some excessive shaking) and you look at the number and search for the number on one of the many drawers. After finding your drawer, you open it and get a piece of paper out of it. This piece of paper has your fortune on it. Fortunately, I had "GOOD FORTUNE"! Maria and Yvi however, both had the same fortune "REGULAR FORTUNE" as they drew the same number. :')

After going through Nakamise Dori again, we went to the bridge as the boat would leave there. But we stumbled upon a problem; Maria and Yvi didn't want to go on the boat as it would cost them a lot of money (they were in Japan for studies or internships, I forgot so they had to save on some costs) and they didn't know where the boat would stop in the garden we wanted to go to. So it would be quite difficult to meet up again. After some hard thinking (I am really bad at making decisions), I decided to just leave the boat trip and go with them to the garden with the subway.

But while we were walking to the garden, they asked if I liked Pokémon. Liked? I LOVE POKÉMON. They mentioned that the Pokémon Center wasn't that far away and we could go there if I wanted to. Of course, of course I want to go there, why wouldn't I?! When we found it, a lot of people were sitting outside of the building with their Nintendo DS. Curious as to why, I asked Yvi about it. She said a lot of people sat here, just to be able to download some rare Pokémon. Hm, sounds reasonable.

Everything in and around the Pokémon Center.. I just found it very relaxing to see. It was one of those few moments, I could just really be myself and act like the little kid I actually still am (mentally?). There were so many people with such an interest in a Japanese cartoon I, myself, grew up with and never could take a distance from. It made me really happy. I am already quite difficult with making choices, but I would've loved to buy everything. In the end, I just bought a little Mew toy, a folder (which I actually needed for my papers for counseling class) and a Squirtle plush! Don't tell my mom I bought another plush, please. I can already see her shaking her head..

After finally leaving the Pokémon Center (didn't want to), we walked to the garden I wanted to go to: Hama Rikyu Garden. I can't really say a lot about this, because well... it's a garden. It's what you expect it to be. But it was a beautiful sight nevertheless. When you think of Tokyo, you might think of a very crowded, loud and busy city, but at that time, at that garden, it was very peaceful. Seeing the beautiful scenery, even with the high buildings behind it, was very relaxing. There were some ponds and a few bridges. Even some tea houses. It was nice just to walk around it. Unfortunately, when we found the pier for the boat, the last boat already left. So I couldn't take the boat back. :(

We went to the subway again and decided to part, seeing as it was quite a tiring day (and I found out the next day, Maria was a bit sick). I went back to the area of my hostel and decided to get some dinner. I thought I had found something great, but something was definitely wrong with my dish. Everything was too salty. From the noodles, to the chicken to even the bit of rice. I was all alone and I found it incredibly rude to not eat it all, so I really tried to eat most of it, but I just couldn't even with drinking water in between almost every bite. So, when the owner didn't really watch, I left my plate on the counter, said thank you and left. (I paid in the beginning.) I'm so sorry, owner, but I just didn't dare to say anything. :(

To get rid of the salty taste, I bought donuts and went to Nakamise Dori again to look for some more souvenirs. I actually found a gem for Caroline and I really hope she likes it. (Caro, if you're reading this, just a little bit more and you will have it! Just be patient, haha :'D) Unfortunately, still nothing for family. :(

I went back to my hostel, met one of my roommates, a nice French girl and just repacked my stuff and looked at the things I bought. Later, a Japanese business man joined us in our room (it was a room for four people) with whom I was talking to for a while until he stopped out of nowhere and just practically passed out on his futon. I blame the alcohol. He snored quite loudly, too.

I texted with Marion and Martin (whatsapp and kakaotalk), telling them about my day and of course, the snoring businessman and it was difficult for me to contact them seeing as the telephone card was being weird, I had no service and I would only have wifi at the hostel. After that, I just fell asleep and it was pretty comfortable.

Everything I experienced those two days, I just knew it made me love Japan even more.

I will write about day 3 and 4 in another post, when I have time again. I hope it is soon. :)