I hope to figure out how to get photos in my post but my Internet skills are not as high as you may assume.
so here are some photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24833720@N03/
Saturday, March 22, 2008
So I’m in Japan.
I feel like I’m in an alternative universe. Similar to urban states side except its all different; slightly different, and maybe a bit more advanced.
Everything seems to make noise, and not just buzzing and sirens. They are like small jingles and songs signaling everything from your change from a vending machine to the train departing. These jingles are not what I’m use too. The metro north with its loud and screaming demands, here politeness is the key. Encounters on the street to the inanimate tea maker in the room.
I’ve never felt the way I do walking around Shinjuku as I did this morning. The wind was howling and the rain coming sideways under my 711 umbrella I found drenched in search of toothpaste. Everything was closed, it seems nothing opens till late in the afternoon. Things are small the people are small but the sprawl is huge. I felt like a huge empty vessel, trying to make due of existing in something that feels strangely familiar. Yet at the same point it is completely different. Everyone says that is what travel feels like, I guess they are right.
The language gap is bigger then the guide books make it out to be. For Yesterday and the last few days I have had a piercing head ache and terrible indigestion. I’ve been wondering each neighborhood we go to looking for a drug store. Wondering into an AMPM looking for aspirin, on a small street in Harajuku.
Wondering in and walked up to the check out counter, I said aspirin with a blank response. I could have guessed, so I began to try and find any way to describe my symptoms thinking that much like any convenience store there is some sort of isle of pain killers and toms like medicine. I was wrong. Wondering through the isles with pointing and nodding my head he finally made out sorry in English and wrote down what I was saying in Japanese. The search continued, until two hours later when we stumbled upon the infamous Japanese department stores. There five stories of wonder and products, it had to be the shining light for what I was searching for.
Wondering up stairs I find the pharmacy, its broken English on the sign ‘drugs’. I walked up and took out the piece of paper so kindly translating my distress. He had screwed up and written something different then what a pharmacy technician was use to. Tyler (Noahs brother) from across the room finds a small box that says ASPRIN. It was a miracle to take some aspirin and my headache was over. Miracles happen here they really do.
I though I traveled always with some type of Asprin but I guess it was left in Oakland.
Have I mentioned that there are no street signs in Tokyo. Yes there is none. It is another big problem, is the utter and complete chaos of this place at times. The Japanese do I very nice job covering up the fact of un organization for not showing any discomfort to the fact that it is very hard to figure out where your going. For there may get directions to a place but it does not mean you can get there.
For instance our cab driver who got lost in a city I though he would know. Getting into the cab spouting a rough idea of where are base is. I was nominated to sit in the front seat, the cab driver expecting my ability to communicate, sorry bro. Him and I pointing and arguing in two different languages of how to get to the hotel. I mean obviously im right? None the less we got there, both the cabbie and I exhausted from our dispute.
I have endless things to write and say about ill write some more. I’ve just slept finally for the first time of being here, it seems my stomach is less upset, the sun is rising I can see it peak its head through the endless grey skyscrapers all around, it is the first nice day I’ve been here. The clouds lifting up and a strangely less grey sky. It sure as hell is a blue that I’m not use to.
I feel like I’m in an alternative universe. Similar to urban states side except its all different; slightly different, and maybe a bit more advanced.
Everything seems to make noise, and not just buzzing and sirens. They are like small jingles and songs signaling everything from your change from a vending machine to the train departing. These jingles are not what I’m use too. The metro north with its loud and screaming demands, here politeness is the key. Encounters on the street to the inanimate tea maker in the room.
I’ve never felt the way I do walking around Shinjuku as I did this morning. The wind was howling and the rain coming sideways under my 711 umbrella I found drenched in search of toothpaste. Everything was closed, it seems nothing opens till late in the afternoon. Things are small the people are small but the sprawl is huge. I felt like a huge empty vessel, trying to make due of existing in something that feels strangely familiar. Yet at the same point it is completely different. Everyone says that is what travel feels like, I guess they are right.
The language gap is bigger then the guide books make it out to be. For Yesterday and the last few days I have had a piercing head ache and terrible indigestion. I’ve been wondering each neighborhood we go to looking for a drug store. Wondering into an AMPM looking for aspirin, on a small street in Harajuku.
Wondering in and walked up to the check out counter, I said aspirin with a blank response. I could have guessed, so I began to try and find any way to describe my symptoms thinking that much like any convenience store there is some sort of isle of pain killers and toms like medicine. I was wrong. Wondering through the isles with pointing and nodding my head he finally made out sorry in English and wrote down what I was saying in Japanese. The search continued, until two hours later when we stumbled upon the infamous Japanese department stores. There five stories of wonder and products, it had to be the shining light for what I was searching for.
Wondering up stairs I find the pharmacy, its broken English on the sign ‘drugs’. I walked up and took out the piece of paper so kindly translating my distress. He had screwed up and written something different then what a pharmacy technician was use to. Tyler (Noahs brother) from across the room finds a small box that says ASPRIN. It was a miracle to take some aspirin and my headache was over. Miracles happen here they really do.
I though I traveled always with some type of Asprin but I guess it was left in Oakland.
Have I mentioned that there are no street signs in Tokyo. Yes there is none. It is another big problem, is the utter and complete chaos of this place at times. The Japanese do I very nice job covering up the fact of un organization for not showing any discomfort to the fact that it is very hard to figure out where your going. For there may get directions to a place but it does not mean you can get there.
For instance our cab driver who got lost in a city I though he would know. Getting into the cab spouting a rough idea of where are base is. I was nominated to sit in the front seat, the cab driver expecting my ability to communicate, sorry bro. Him and I pointing and arguing in two different languages of how to get to the hotel. I mean obviously im right? None the less we got there, both the cabbie and I exhausted from our dispute.
I have endless things to write and say about ill write some more. I’ve just slept finally for the first time of being here, it seems my stomach is less upset, the sun is rising I can see it peak its head through the endless grey skyscrapers all around, it is the first nice day I’ve been here. The clouds lifting up and a strangely less grey sky. It sure as hell is a blue that I’m not use to.
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