Here is the story of my trip to Tokyo. As I write this, I think that I may fall asleep. I can barely keep my eyes open. This will probably be full of type-os. I left for Tokyo on Friday morning because it was a holiday. I had stayed up too late the night before so getting up at 8am was difficult. I left enough time (or so I thought) to find the bus station but I still screwed it up. I had to leave my bike at Hirooka station and get a cab to where I was actually supposed to be. The bus stop was out in the country surrounded by rice paddies. I would never have found it with the cabbie. So I got to the bus just as it was about to leave. A close call, for sure. I slept part of the way because it takes about three hours to get there by bus. One of the times I woke up, the lady sitting beside me gave me a small embroidered thing from a shrine. It is a little cloth envelop type of thing that you put you wish inside of. It is also a wish from the giver that you will have good health and good fortune when you carry it with you. I gave her an Oktoberfest button in return.
I arrived with very little traffic delay into Tokyo’s main shopping and tourist district. The area is called Shinjuku. It was close to where I stayed when I first arrived but I had been to jet lagged and out of it to really explore too much. I called the girl I was meeting up with and then I helped her by a digital camera. After she bought it we went to a restaurant for lunch. I realized slightly after this that my wallet was gone. This was a very sickening realization. I was now in Tokyo for the next three days with no money, identification, credit cards or bus ticket home. I wasn’t sure what to do, especially considering the fact that the girl I was with wasn’t planning on giving me money or letting me use her cell phone. I could have strangled her. She was more interested in getting a coffee than going to a bank machine before it closed. Don’t even get me started on that girl, I could have my own blog about her and the rage I feel toward her. I eventually took her cell phone from her and called my friend Gisela who would come later in the day. I then went to the police station and filed a report.
Long story short, by complete chance I ran into people I knew who kindly gave be some money and let me use their phone. It all got sorted out and I went on to have great weekend. I went to a Sumo Tournament and a huge fish market called Tsukiji that takes up about four city blocks. I went to tons of clubs were many people bought me drinks because I was foreign and I had a great time. Complete strangers bought me meals and gave them to me in elaborately wrapped packages for no reason at all. They would just approach me and say “I will give you gift”. It is such a kind society! We didn’t bother getting a hotel or hostel. They were pretty full anyway. We just stayed awake for three days until we were completely insensible and then we cam home by bus. I slept for an hour in a karaoke bar one night and sat down for a while in an internet café the next night. It poured rain pretty much the whole time which is good because I needed a shower in the worst way. Also I had lost one of my shoes at that point as well. I met a load of people who I traveled with for a few hours before moving on. They were Nepal, Australia, New Zealand, all over Africa and Europe and of course Japanese people. There’s nothing like watching the salary men puking in the shrubs at 5 am after a night of “business drinking”. There are so many other things that happened while I was there but this is already a very long post. Just let me say that I could write 3 times this much just describing the experiences I have had this weekend. To cap it all off, my wallet has been returned by some man in Tokyo with everything still in it. I can’t believe it! Only in Japan! The computer doesn't seem to want to let me add pictures for some reason so I will do it in a separate post.