JordanPachal.ca ...Just Me, Myself and I...

Day 4 - July 24...

** Please note this posting will be separated into two parts, the first part will be for Jordan, Tanveer and June's portion, the second part will be for Jaime and Michael's portion **

Jordan, Tanveer and June:

Early to bed, early to rise.  So far it has held true for the trip to Japan and today was no exception.  It was either the going to bed at 10:00pm that allowed me to wake up at 6:00am, or it was the two cat's having a growling match with each other along with the dog barking to not be outdone.  Either way, I decided it was time to get up for good at that point.  As it seemed pretty quiet in the house still, I took my Nintendo DS downstairs into the lounge area to play a bit of video games before starting the day.  The owner of the Minshuku was there and he asked if I felt the earthquake last night, which although I woke up once or twice during the night, I cannot be certain either of them were due to the earthquake, so I told him that I did not.  He bid me good morning and departed to do his owner-specific duties.  After about half an hour, the couple from Holland that arrived late the night before were already taking off for the day to explore Nikko and they asked to leave their large backpacks at the Minshuku while they explored.  The owners had no problem with that and the couple were on their way.  After a few more minutes of playing my video games, Tanveer and June came downstairs.  We chatted for a bit and then we then took turns having our showers.

The shower in the Minshuku was Japanese style.  There were "two" rooms, one which had bath mats on the floor, a couple laundry baskets, and a mirror.  The "second" room was separated from the first by a glass shower door and it contained a large covered bathtub, and two waist level mirrors, detachable shower-heads beside the mirrors and small plastic stools in front of the mirrors.  In Japanese bathing, you wash yourself completely prior to entering the bathtub which is just used for soaking in hot water. 

At about 9am, after we had all showered we packed everything and the owner of the Minshuku drove us back to the train station.  The train back to Asakusa station didn't leave until 10:59 so we wandered around to find some breakfast.  We came across what almost felt like a North American diner, however the food was a bit more Asian, consisting more of noodles, soups, and tempura style meats.  I ended up having a breakfast combo which consisted of "hamegg", two eggs cooked sunny-side up with slices of ham cooked into the sides of the egg, salad, toast that was almost 2 inches thick and a cup of lemon tea.  After breakfast we made our way back to the train station as it was getting quite close to departure time.

The train ride back to Asakusa was quite nice.  It was about 2.5 hours and Tanveer, June and myself played cards for most of the journey back.  One thing we have noticed in our many train rides so far in this country is that the Japanese people seem to be able to sleep anywhere and this ride was no exception.  Three girls had made their way onto the train in seats across from ours partway through the journey, dressed up in kimonos and were chatting with each other quite expressively, showing each other their cell phones (most likely pictures), and then all of a sudden it was silent, and all three girls were hunched forward in their seats sleeping.

Once back in Asakusa, we had to make our way back to the Hotel that June and Tanveer had stayed at the previous night so we could claim their bag to take to their new hotel.  Prior to claiming their baggage Tanveer and June wanted to explore the temple which was near the old hotel, as they arrived late the night they arrived in Japan and the Temple was closed (this is the same temple which we discovered on the day trying to track down our friends) so we decided to wander around the neighbourhood for a bit first.  We explored the merchant bazaar outside the temple gate, bought ice cream cones (I had vanilla and green tea ice cream) and also made our way to the 100 Yen store (replace 100 Yen with $1.00 and you can figure out the items that are there).  After that we made our way to the Temple.

Upon entering the Temple grounds June decided she didn't really want to go into the temple, however Tanveer wanted to go in.  As mentioned in an earlier post, in and around the temple were multiple banks of fortune drawers so June decided to try it.  She started shaking the fortune selecting container and Tanveer and I warned her that she should not be doing this until she pays her 100 Yen to the gods, but she took a stick out of the container regardless.  When she took the corresponding fortune out of the drawer, she was blessed with a bad fortune.  Our warning was warranted.  Tanveer and myself figured we would actually pay the gods for our fortunes, however Tanveer recommended that we go into the Temple as the fortune drawers inside looked nicer and he figured we would have a better chance getting a good fortune from them.  We went into the temple and paid our 100 Yen, shook the fortune box, matched it up with the appropriate drawer, and voila!  I pulled out a bad fortune.  After blaming my misfortune on June and her angering of the gods, Tanveer was able to pull out a good fortune, so hopefully he can help alleviate the bad fortune that June has brought upon us.  I made my way over to the racks and tied my fortune so that the monks can pray for me later.  Poor monks.

We made our way back to Tanveer and June's previous hotel, picked up their bag and then made our way back to the Asakusa station so we could get them to their new hotel in the Shinjuku district.  In the station we decided to pick up a snack from the grocery store (almost all of the major train stations are complete with multiple kiosk, shops and grocery stores/delis).

The trek to the Hilton from Shinjuku Station was a bit longer, about 10-15 minutes, but once we arrived at the hotel, it was very nice...it is a Hilton hotel after all.  They were on the 25th floor and they had an amazing view.  We ate the sushi that we picked up at the Asakusa Station and then decided it was time to prepare for the evening's activities and I had to call Jaime and Michael to let them know that we were settled and we could plan out the evening.  We went downstairs and asked the front desk where the nearest payphone was and how to make a call.  Upon talking to Jaime and Michael, they decided to not come out further with us that evening, so Tanveer, June and Myself decided to wander around Shinjuku district to enjoy the sights.

We enjoyed a stroll through the park near their hotel, walked past the impressive Tokyo government building, and enjoyed the sights and sounds of some of the streets before finding an underground food court in which we settled upon a nice North American meal of Burger King for dinner.  Even the Japanese do American fast food better than the Americans.  After dinner we continued our stroll towards "Electric Street" which was filled with an uncountable number of lights and numerous vendors yelling into the streets.  It was very different from anything I have ever experienced in North America and it was amazing.  We also entered a Pachinko Parlour and tried our first ever game of it.  For those who do not know what it is, it is essentially Japanese slot machines, however you have to shoot ball bearings to the top of the machine (similar to a pinball) and adjust their shooting strength so that they work their way down the pegged face of the machine into specific holes (again like Pinball mixed with Plinko from The Price is Right).  I do not know all of the rules, mainly because even if there wasn't a language barrier here, it is so loud in the Pachinko Parlour you can't hear a word anyone is saying to you anyway, so the explanation provided to the three of us by the parlour attendant literally fell on deaf ears.  We continued our stroll into a couple game arcades, which were unfortunately a bit more bland than I expected.

Around 11:00pm-ish the day was starting to wear me out since I was up so early and we had done so much exploring so June and Tanveer escorted me to the Shinjuku train station and I went back to my hotel for the night and was asleep in record time.  Tokyo Disney Resort is the next day and I need to be well rested.

Jaime and Michael:

Will be edited in later

- Jordan