First Night!

Wow. In case anyone is wondering, the trip to Tokyo kind of sucks. This time I went by way of NYC. <1 hour -> NYC, then 14+ hours -> Tokyo. The flight to NY isn't too bad, so I'm sitting there thinking "ok, this is ok. Shouldn't be a problem." Around Alaska I was ready to go nuts. Bravo to the guy sitting next to me who didn't leave his seat ONCE, not even to go to the bathroom!

After that horrible 14+ hour flight to Narita you realize the airport is an hour's train ride outside of the city. (as an aside, there's some girl banging on the door a few doors down saying "Julia?" in heavily accented English. It's 6am. If she hasn't answered in the past 5 minutes, she's probably 1) not there, or 2) doesn't want to answer. But back to the story...) luckily the hotel has good directions on the site, and I actually did stay in Minami-senju last time I was here so I wasn't too too worried about getting around. However, after landing I was just fried from the trip thus far and really in no mood to take another hour's train ride. Sorry oldish lady getting on the train after me, I'm taking this spot. I'm the one with the suitcase and (not too large, but still) day pack. Plus, she looked liked she was obviously tougher than I am, so I'm sure standing for a bit didn't bother her. Probably better than wondering why that gringo just collapsed on the floor because he's exhausted and figures he's getting off at Ueno station, terminus of the train, anyway and was just resting until then.

Which brings us to my current lodging. As some of you know, I'm a simple man with simple needs. As some others may know (there may be some overlap in these two groups, but I'm not necessarily counting on it) lodging in Tokyo is insanely expensive. Which explains why I'm out here in Minami-senju, which I consider the Medford of Tokyo. I've mentioned this to some of you. It's fine, just a little out of the way and therefore cheaper. My room is, if anything, a bit smaller this time. It's squarish, with just enough room for the futton and my stuff pushed to the side. Eh, not really a problem for me. It *is* populated with a younger set (get off my lawn! I think I've used that one before, but I figured Aleena and Duncan would both likes an age joke), who evidently don't see the need to go to bed at 5:45pm on a Friday. Whatever! Several of them also don't see the need to not walk through the hallway yelling to each other. Around 12:30am there were two young (I'm assuming. I was in my room) Japanese ladies walking down the hall calling out "Roy?" (is there a similar Japanese name?) at each door. Bravo, Roy. You've set the bar high. Hope everything worked out for you.

So here I find myself sitting in my room at 6am on a rainy Saturday morning. Kind of wish I remembered my umbrella, but oh well. And THAT'S interesting. I forgot Google set your language based on the region your accessing it from. Huh. Now I get to figure out the button for setting it back to English. White people problems, indeed!