Arigato gozimus Japan

Last day & night in Japan :(

This will be our last blog about Japan- so it will be pretty long. Let me begin by saying that it was a wonderful experience. The hospitality can not be beat. Everyone was so polite and helpful. The cities were clean, including the subways! Most of the time it was easy to navigate and words were written in English. You would find sliding doors everywhere- which I think is for sanitary reasons. A few things that I didn't understand were the "squat" toilets. Where you literally sit on your own legs and pee into a hole. Then there wouldn't be any soap to wash your hands. Thank god for my convenient hand sanitizer on my bag. :) The other thing that was strange to see but we got used to almost right away, was the surgical mask that only a few people were wearing. We didn't want to insult anyone by asking what they were for so we just assumed it had something to do with a Japanese sickness. We finally find out on our second to last night that it is a custom here to wear a mask if you have a cold or the flu so that you cannot spread it on a train or any other close quarter environment. It makes sense though. It would probably be a good thing to introduce in the states, at least in the school system.

So let me tell you a little about our last couple of days.

Our day started out in Osaka, where once again we were fooled by the "Shin-". We were at Osaka station waiting for our bullet train, but something just didn't seem right. The bulletin was always precise as to what time the next few trains arrived. But as we stood on the platform, our 11:19am train wasn't appearing on the screen. When I asked a few people, they didn't speak English too well, so I didn't get to far. Our ticket read "Shin-Osaka to Tokyo"- there it is! That "Shin-" again! Now we knew that we had to go to Shin-Osaka to catch our bullet train, of course making us miss our train. No problem because we have.... rail passes.. highly recommended to any visitor to Japan. We got another ticket and were able to hop on the next train.

Upon our arrival- 2.5 hours later- we navigated our way to the cheapest hostel in town, Khaosan Tokyo Smile, which I shortened to just the Smile. As we carried our bags to the reception on the 3rd floor, we were instructed to remove our shoes by signs posted in the stairwell. We carried our bags two more flights with no shoes on. oh boy- here we go, I thought. I had to knock on the locked door so someone would let us in. As we entered, we could feel the eyes from other travelers. We had just walked into the common room where there was a tv, computer and some books, as well as the kitchen. The person signing us in, whose name we later found out was Masa, acted nervously as took care of the paperwork. He showed us our room at the end of the hall. Bunk Beds! Shawn called bottom- of course. The walls were institutional white and the room was so small that you could barely turn around. Simple, clean, a bed to sleep in... that's all we cared about. I understood how they kept the costs so low when I had to make my own bed, take out my own trash, and put my linens in the hall at checkout. The showers were on the 2nd floor and they turned out to be push button, kind of like the sinks at some public restrooms. You press the button, water flows for 30 seconds, then shuts off. Um, yeah, these showers were just like that. All the sinks had cold water, I feel bad for those with sensitive teeth. It wasn't too much different than staying at the campground, I guess. Less bugs. Before Masa left us on our own, he said excitedly "We have a bar!". Shawn asked for directions. We rested a bit then headed a few blocks over to Bar 23.

Bar 23 had drinks and food for 333yen each. Awesome. Our number appears once again. Oh, if we haven't told you yet, for years the number 333 had followed Shawn and I. It started by randomly seeing on the clock maybe once a week. The it escalated to seeing it almost everyday... and it's always three 3's. On the side of a bridge, in a movie, on a sign at a bar (photo), you name it. It is so special to us- that my engagement ring has three stones, and when we got married we added three on the top and three on the bottom: 333. :)

Anyway, this was a good sign. At first there were just a few people in there. We were given one complimentary drink per night we stayed in the hostel. The menu was awesome, it was broken down to Rum drinks, Vodka, drinks, etc. Then it said what was in each drink. A menu that I would love to own. I picked Apple Pie and Shawn had the Cubre Libre. mmm! We like them so much that we continued to have them for the rest of the night. The older woman sitting next to us, had enough to drink and eat and was ready to leave. She seemed sweet but lonely. The male bartender put on his coat and helped her out the door. Like I said they are just so nice here! A few moments later, a couple came in and sat next to Shawn. Shawn started a converstaion with them and we didn't stop talking all night. It was getting late or so it felt, but we were the only ones left and the bartender started cleaning up. So our new friends, Anthony and Lisa walked back with us. We were all staying in the same hostel. Along the way, Shawn had mentioned that we were going to the Kabuki Theater the following day if they were interested in joining us. They said they were, only Lisa's friend had gone before and commented that it was really boring. Regardless, we all wanted to find out for ourselves. At the hostel, Anthony asked if we wanted to meet for breakfast. We agreed on a time and said goodnight.

In the morning, Shawn and I got ready and headed out to the common room. There wasn't anyone out there this time. So I grabbed a book and Shawn scoped the bulletins on the walls, as we waited for Anthony and Lisa. We met a guy named Justin from Australia. He had been traveling quite a bit, so we were asking a lot of questions as he prepared his breakfast. He gave us some good pointers for Australia. When Anthony and Lisa were ready, we decided to try the restaurant next door. We were given menus in Japanese and neither of us could read them. But as we walked in, I noticed a cork board with English items on it. So I grabbed it, so we could show the older woman who was serving us. The place was small, nicely decorated and it looked like a husband and wife team ran it. But they were in their senior years and moved pretty slow. Anthony and Lisa had picked up quite a bit of Japanese in the month that they have been travelling. They are from Vancouver and worked really hard to save up for this trip. Anthony has a friend from Japan and they were able to stay with his family in the beginning of their travels. A wonderful way to be integrated into the customs and language of Japan. When we were ready to order, Anthony ordered in Japanese saying we wanted 3 egg sandwiches and 1 ham sandwich. We got some water, tea and some strange pudding. After about an hour, we still haven't recieved our sandwiches. A table of 10 came in and were served. We weren't sure what was going on... I mean they were pretty old. Finally, a ham sandwich came out and an egg sandwich came out- which Shawn gave to me. I was going to wait until everyone had gotten there food, but it was taking sooo long, so I took my time. The table of 10 left. Lisa finally asked about the other sandwiches and there turned out to be a miscommunication- she thought we ordered one of each. I had a few pieces left and offered them to Shawn and Lisa, but it certainly wasn't enough for breakfast. We walked outside defeated. We decided to part ways- Anthony and Lisa were looking for an apartment to stay in for the next month. Shawn and I wanted to do some souvenier shopping, it being our last day and all. We agreed to meet back at the hostel at 2:00pm and then make our way to the Kabuki Theater.

To get to the subway and shopping area, you have to cross over the red bridge. On the bridge a strangely curved building comes into view, but the most noticeable thing about the building is the gold, um, wavy, oblong shape that adorns the top. It's off-center so that the tail end is sticking off the building. We found out that it was the Asahi Beer Hall- so we were trying to decipher what it could be. The only thing that I could think of was that it was a drop, because of it's somewhat downward angle. Ashahi Super Dry appeared on the opposite side of the river, so I dubbed this Asahi Super Wet- y'know because of the drop. Oh! Nevermind! The builidng also had portholes for windows and there was no apparent door or front of building. Quite an interesting architectural... experiment. :p

We walked to the souvenier/shops area. We found some great pieces for relatively inexpensive. Our meeting time was approaching, so our shopping was cut short, but we were satisfied with our purchases (photo of vendors packing our purchases). We met up with Anthony and Lisa and proceeded to the subway. Once we found the Kabuki-Za Theater, we found out that we could only buy tickets starting at 4:00pm. So to kill some time, we went to look for a Japanese restaurant where Shawn and I could *finally* try the cuisine. Not to mention, we had some experienced Japanese food eaters with us. So we felt more comfortable. We didn't find anything, so we settled for the Japanese fast food restaurant, Yoshinoyoa. Which was more than perfect since we didn't want to spend a lot of money, there were photos of the food, and it was fast. Oh and it was good by the way. I picked something based on the photo (photo), but I knew I would be getting rice and salad. So, if I didn't like it, at least I was safe. Shawn ordered only rice and salad- he's funny. We proceed to the Theater and waited in the one-act line for tickets. You can buy tickets for the whole show or for just one act. The act was about an hour and 10 mins- so we opted for the one act. Good thing we did.

We anxiously waited for the show to begin. We had nose bleed seats in this massive theater. The show opened with four asian men sitting around talking in Japanese (obviously). A woman appeared, everyone clapped. Talking and singing continued through the whole act like a howling dog. It was not pleasant. There was hardly any action on the stage. Two men on the side, sang the narrative and played an instrument. The stage setting was probably the coolest thing about the show. the first set was an asian house, with a deck and foliage on the sides. The second turned into a bedroom with a water view and a path to a deck on the water. The house and bedroom were usable, you could walk on and in them, same with the deck on the water. Unfortunately, weren't allowed to take photos, so I have nothing to show. But I can attest that the show was indeed boring. I saw people falling asleep in front of us, both Anthony and Shawn fell asleep too. :)

We returned to Bar 23 later that night. Where we were met by Anthony and Lisa. Shawn met a guy from Denmark and a girl from Finland. Check him out- socializing. Anyway, we had to make it a short night, since we had to get up early. But we had a great time and definitely would go back to Bar 23. We wished Anthony and Lisa good luck with there residential endeavors and called it a night.

We were left wanting more and it was really hard to leave. We'll be back Japan!