June 19, 2010

Today totally rocked. The whole group woke up at like idk, super early. We all met at eight to go to Tokyo today. With delays within the group and taking the trains, we got to Tokyo at like ten or so I think. Which really isn’t bad timing for like a huge group of fourteen people, and the two we met when we got to Tokyo. When we got to the train station, we all bought pasmos. A Pasmo is this card thing you put money on, so instead of buying tickets for specific trips on the train, you swipe the pasmo when you get on and when you get off and the machine deducts that amount from your account. And then when you run out of money you just refill it. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever, I don’t know why we don’t have those things in America. And the pasmo card doesn’t even have to be out of a wallet or anything to be scanned. I left it in my huge thick wallet, and some people left it in their bags to be scanned. All you do is hold the thing that contains the card up to the scanner, and it lets you through. I can’t even tell you how enthralling I found those machines! When we actually got to Tokyo, we got lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I didn’t like this place as much as the one we went to on base. Probably because everything in there smelled like fish, and I’m not really a fishy kind of person. I got seaweed miso soup, which for me is a huge stretch because I don’t really eat things that have been in the sea, and especially not things that are green. But it actually wasn’t bad. I’ve had miso soup before, but not with like the seaweed chunks. The texture of the seaweed just kinda weirded me out. Basically everyone else I went with got sushi, which I had tried once before and definitely didn’t like. But I figured, hey. I’m in Japan, and I need to expand my horizons a little bit. Oh my gosh. The part of a roll I ate was so incredibly gross! I was like gagging on it. I couldn’t tell if it was the texture, taste, or smell, but my body definitely didn’t enjoy downing that sushi. I’m sure the face I was making wasn’t the prettiest sight in the world. After that we ended up running into the entire group that we had split from to eat lunch, we all went to the Tokyo Towers. It is bigger than the Eiffel tower or whatever, but it looks exactly like it. I was contemplating getting a key chain, but most of them looked like they could have been the Eiffel tower, and then resold in Japan, or they were extremely expensive. The tower went up so high! We went to the main observation deck, but we didn’t go all the way to the top cuz it was pretty cloudy, and it looked like everything would be hard to see unless it was a clear day. It was super freaky riding that elevator up and looking down. They had these glass floor things in some places too where you could stand on it and look down to the ground super far below! They even had like a Tokyo Tower anime mascot thing walking around and we got pictures of it. It was so weird. Tokyo Tower was right near Roppongi, which is a cool like shopping and bar district, but it is pretty much not a good place to be at night from what we’ve heard. There are horror stories about people getting drugged or followed in the night clubs and such. Definitely staying away from that area at night time. After the towers the group split again, and some of us went to Harajuku to shop and stuff. This Harajuku and Roppongi are both different districts of Tokyo. Harajuku is like known for people dressing in crazy things and very elaborate. We saw people there in like lingerie looking outfits, huge huge platform shoes, crazy curly hair, huge fake eyelashes and nails. It was very interesting. While I was there I got some Japanese clothes. I think their styles are super awesome, even though they do some weird things with them sometimes. If I was shopping by myself, I wouldn’t even know where to start when trying on clothes in those stores. Thank goodness I was with Julie. She would pick stuff off the racks for me, and I would try them on and they would work perfectly! Best thing ever. I got four shirts and a super cute skirt. I can’t wait to get back to the states and wear all these foreign things that no one else will have. Everything in the stores included hello kitty. It was slightly ridiculous. Finally after a long day we sat to eat dinner at this other restaurant. It was Chinese, but that’s close enough right? Still Asian food. I got the pork dumpling potsticker things. Oh my gosh best thing ever. The ones we had on base had better sauce with them, but these tasted way better. So good. Everyone’s food was amazing, but Randi got this like chicken stirfry with lemon that ended up being like nasty and slimy looking. Basically, it looked like the cooks dumped corn startch all over everything on her plate. Not very appetizing. After dinner of course was dessert. We all got these crepe ice cream cone things. What they do is take a crepe, roll ice cream, whipped cream, and fresh fruit into a cone shaped delicious goodness. I got kiwi and ice cream. So amazing. Fresh fruit just makes everything amazing! It was only like seven thirty by that point, but we peaced out and decided to go home because we had been out for so long, wanted to go out the next day, and knew the train ride back would take a while. The trains are so incredibly interesting. It is proper etiquette for no one to talk and for everyone to be quiet while on the train. They even have signs and stuff for turning off your cell phone on the train, and no one is supposed to talk on their cell phone ever on the train. It is very very different. Also, when going up and down escalators and stuff when transferring trains and such you have to stand on the left side if you are standing and the right side if you are going to walk up. It makes so much sense, I don’t know why no one in America has ever adopted this. We all just stand wherever and block people’s ways. But this way people who are in a hurry can get through, and everyone else can just chill. While we were on the long train rides, Julie and I were looking for Japanese “meanwhiles.” Frankie told us this system to talk about cute guys without being completely obvious. If a hot guy walks buy, you use “meanwhile” in the conversation. If he is alright, you say “sometimes” and if he isn’t good you say “anyways.” Genius right, cuz it works right into normal conversations. Julie and I though were the only ones really looking all the time, cuz we’re the only two who kinda have a thing for Asian men. There were defiantly some pretty good “meanwhiles” on the trains and out in Tokyo. It was such a long day! Yokahama tomorrow should be super awesome! Night!