Day 2 - 06/16/01

June 16. The next morning, my poor body wakes up, confused. What do you expect, after I've lost a day and more by flying west, past the international date line. 'course, when I come back, my body gets even more confused after traveling 18 hours but yet it looks like only 2 hours have elapsed on my watch. Normally I'm not a big breakfast eater but this time it was different. Since my body *thought* it was dinner time, I ended up eating like a sumo wrestler. Nothing like having eggplant in garlic sauce, French fries, miso soup, fruit, and Jello for breakfast. The breakfast of champions! Hehehe. It's all worth it though, since most of the trip I ended up skipping either lunch and/or dinner because I just didn't feel like eating. It was so hot and humid when I was there, a lot of the time I just wasn't hungry after eating so much for breakfast. This was a good idea because for a long while I couldn't even think of doing sushi, and I tell you, the Big Macs taste funny over here...

After a sufficient gorgefest, I touched base with our Japanese contact, Akiyoshi, the supreme ticket obtainer (*grin*), then me and my dad went sightseeing. My dad has been to Japan before, and I was grateful that I had gone with someone who had experience with the city. Via the nationally subsidized JR railway system, we headed over to Akihabara, the electronic boom-town part of Tokyo, and I was hoping to find some inexpensive electronics to take home. Instead I just gaped at the small size of the average Japanese cell phone, looked at all the pretty boomboxes (which ended up being twice as expensive as the ones here so I didn't buy any), and the prevalence of Sony Minidiscs was interesting. Especially because I only know 1 or 2 people here in the States that even has a Minidisc machine.

The railway is very simple to use and is much cheaper than going anywhere by taxi. It was basically only a little more than a dollar to go most anywhere from where we were staying. However, near all the stations, you will get accosted by people selling cell phones, or virtually anything else except the kitchen sink.

This was the first time I realized how many people are here! Egads, I almost got knocked over by a commuter when some guy's plume of cigarette smoke blinds me and I can't see for a second, right in front of the Shinagawa station. I am glad to be home for the fact that you can usually get away from smokers in the United States, but in the Far East, fuggedaboudit.

click here for episode 3

this page posted 06/27/01 with visitors so far.
questions? e-mail me at [email protected]
this is an original work - please do not reproduce the contents or the pictures. thanks very much.