This Edition: The Tokyo Trip (May 14-18, 2003). We began on our mystical journey on the Shinkansen, or more commonly known as the Bullet Train. That's Daniel the Coworker. We were both pretty excited at this point, well, at least I was. I was sporting the very rare ELI shirt.
After we got off at Tokyo Station, we couldn't help but to do something touristy right away. This was also when a mysterious spray of liquid (hopefully water) suddenly hit our face. It didn't bother us too much. The Shinkansen look like space shuttles.
First we visited the Imperial Garden, Ginza, and then Shinjuku. We didn't really have plans for the first day since my friends wouldn't be meeting us until the next day. Out of the blue in Shinjuku, while waiting at an intersection, I feel a tap on my shoulder followed by, "Jerry?" I turn only to see Tatsuya and Akiko, two former ELI students whom I met in the summer of 2000. They graciously took us everywhere and even let us stay at their place for the night. They went beyond the call of being good hosts. They rock! And they're a really cute couple. Tat's aunt bought us dinner that night. I bought them ice cream. Fun times had by all.
The next night I didn't want to be a bother at Tatsuya's so me and Daniel decided to try the legendary Capsule Hotels for a night. They costed 3000 yen and wasn't as small as I had imagined. It featured a small tv with free porn and earphones (total privacy). The front desk clerk was a dick as he didn't really want us gaijin using the onsen - he made Tatsuya ask us a bunch of questions like "Do you know the rules of the onsen? You have to know if you want to use them." Then he made Tatsuya show us the damn place around... I mean, it's not like we came from Ethiopia. We know what a hotel is supposed to be like. I wanted to punch that dick in the nose and then rub the floors with the fleshy remains of his nose. Anyway, the hotel was cool. (An onsen is like a public sauna/bath deal).
The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed to the Fish Market. We arrived at quarter to seven. Even then, we were late - we missed the busy peak period where people would come and bid for fish. This Fish Market was fucking huge. It's like a massive warehouse complex. We started on one end and just started walking in one direction and we didn't hit the other end for a very very long time. I had never seen so much fish before in one sitting. Believe me, as son of a pet store owner, I've seen my fair share of fish. Those big lumps on the floor are tuna. Imagine my punching bag in Vancouver frozen over with some blood visible. That's what these tuna were like: huge ass.
On our way to some museums we saw this cool area with a whole bunch of wooden gate things. I forgot what they call them in Japanese - Daniel told me the word but it was too long ago.
At the museum (which was huge and sort of boring), we saw a very interesting sign on the women's washroom door. Look closely - the woman is not being very nice to that baby. It was probably the most interesting thing in the whole museum.
I didn't take pictures of this huge drinking party on our last night but we ended up not really sleeping and spending the night in a park at my friends' university. It was cool but fucking tiring since neither Dan or I had slept much these past days. In the morning, we headed out early and pretty much slept the whole way back. In this picture, Daniel is actually asleep. It was a good trip.
