This is when it gets fun
It's 12:51am, Tuesday morning and guess where I am? That's right, an internet cafe! Couldn't be happier. Actually if the keys stuck less I'd probably be happier. But for the most part I'm in a much better mood than I previously was.
I decided that if I'm going to be lost and confused I may as well be really lost and really confused. Wait, I'll get back to that. Let me explain why I'm at an inernet cafe at 1 in the morning.
Earth Embassy never emailed me back confirming my reservation so I called them up and no one answered. Twice. So it seemed like a wise decision not to rely on them for accomodation. But I didn't want to try to stay at another hostel either. They're usually in the suburbs which means 1) I have to take some lame private line and I can't use my JR Pass 2) I have to make sure if I go into the city that I can catch the train back. All of that for check in before 8pm, an uncomfortable $30 futon and check out before 9am? Nah, not interested. So I decided I would go for the internet cafe thing. I paid around $10 and now I have this little cubicle to myself for 6 hours. There's food, free coffee and of course, a reclining leather chair. They have all different types of rooms. There are ones with lounges, ones with benches for two people, ones with beanbags and even some with huge massaging chairs. All of the cool rooms were taken so I just have my recliner, but with the addition of huge headphones and pretty dim lighting I highly doubt I'll have trouble falling asleep in it. Then, at 6am, I'm getting on a bullet train. Ok, now back to the part about `if I'm going to be lost and confused then I may as well be really lost and really confused.`
Hell yeah! Finally. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner (oh wait, it was because I was waiting to hear back from Earth Embassy). But I have the JR Pass, I don't need to make reservations and I've printed out the timetable so I'm set to go. My first plan was to take it to the northern most stop but Lonely Planet didn't make that area sound too interesting, so I'm going to go north on that line with two stops on the way, then go east to Akita and then take a train straight back to Tokyo. So it'll be like a nice little day trip, but with 186 mph trains.
I'm making it a day trip because I think I want to go to the Mt. Fuji area on Wednesday. If I find a decent place to stay the night there I may do that or may come back to Tokyo and pick some other random city to visit for the day on Thursday. Then, either Thursday night or Friday I'll take the train to Niigata and eat some ramen and learn some Japanese!
As for accomodation in Tokyo tomorrow night, we'll see. I think if I make reservations I can get one of the massaging chairs next time. I wonder if I would get bored of it by the 6th hour. Or one of the couches. Or there's always a love hotel rooms. Woah. I went into a couple of them today to evaluate price to sketchiness ratio. No one spoke English and I didn't feel completely comfortable so I didn't stay, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it was kind of weird that you chose your room by pushing the button next to the lit up picture and that the front desk is a frosted window with a 3 inch opening so that the money can be exchanged without seeing each other's faces. Yeah, that's kind of weird. But they all seemed, I don't know, nice? Like if they wanted to they could turn themselves into good, decent hotels and have enough respect for themselves to only have one rate. But they're not 16 year old girls with low self-esteem, so I guess if they want to be creepy love hotels, they're allowed to be.
Lastly before I go to sleep, I rented a Japanese mobile phone. It's something ridiculous like $1 a minute for domestic calls and I over $2 a minute to call the US, but... free incoming calls from all over! Don't worry, I'm not expecting calls but here's the number just in case...
(REVISED 11/17, I accidentally wrote the int'l access code for Australia)
011 (int'l access code) + 81 (country code) + 80 (city code) + 3479 0545 (phone number)
or if you're drunk and using a cell phone just put in +818034790545 and it'll probably work.
Ok, I'm going to sleep for a bit now.
If I still have time when I wake up I'll try uploading more pictures. Lots of funny signs today.
I decided that if I'm going to be lost and confused I may as well be really lost and really confused. Wait, I'll get back to that. Let me explain why I'm at an inernet cafe at 1 in the morning.
Earth Embassy never emailed me back confirming my reservation so I called them up and no one answered. Twice. So it seemed like a wise decision not to rely on them for accomodation. But I didn't want to try to stay at another hostel either. They're usually in the suburbs which means 1) I have to take some lame private line and I can't use my JR Pass 2) I have to make sure if I go into the city that I can catch the train back. All of that for check in before 8pm, an uncomfortable $30 futon and check out before 9am? Nah, not interested. So I decided I would go for the internet cafe thing. I paid around $10 and now I have this little cubicle to myself for 6 hours. There's food, free coffee and of course, a reclining leather chair. They have all different types of rooms. There are ones with lounges, ones with benches for two people, ones with beanbags and even some with huge massaging chairs. All of the cool rooms were taken so I just have my recliner, but with the addition of huge headphones and pretty dim lighting I highly doubt I'll have trouble falling asleep in it. Then, at 6am, I'm getting on a bullet train. Ok, now back to the part about `if I'm going to be lost and confused then I may as well be really lost and really confused.`
Hell yeah! Finally. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner (oh wait, it was because I was waiting to hear back from Earth Embassy). But I have the JR Pass, I don't need to make reservations and I've printed out the timetable so I'm set to go. My first plan was to take it to the northern most stop but Lonely Planet didn't make that area sound too interesting, so I'm going to go north on that line with two stops on the way, then go east to Akita and then take a train straight back to Tokyo. So it'll be like a nice little day trip, but with 186 mph trains.
I'm making it a day trip because I think I want to go to the Mt. Fuji area on Wednesday. If I find a decent place to stay the night there I may do that or may come back to Tokyo and pick some other random city to visit for the day on Thursday. Then, either Thursday night or Friday I'll take the train to Niigata and eat some ramen and learn some Japanese!
As for accomodation in Tokyo tomorrow night, we'll see. I think if I make reservations I can get one of the massaging chairs next time. I wonder if I would get bored of it by the 6th hour. Or one of the couches. Or there's always a love hotel rooms. Woah. I went into a couple of them today to evaluate price to sketchiness ratio. No one spoke English and I didn't feel completely comfortable so I didn't stay, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, it was kind of weird that you chose your room by pushing the button next to the lit up picture and that the front desk is a frosted window with a 3 inch opening so that the money can be exchanged without seeing each other's faces. Yeah, that's kind of weird. But they all seemed, I don't know, nice? Like if they wanted to they could turn themselves into good, decent hotels and have enough respect for themselves to only have one rate. But they're not 16 year old girls with low self-esteem, so I guess if they want to be creepy love hotels, they're allowed to be.
Lastly before I go to sleep, I rented a Japanese mobile phone. It's something ridiculous like $1 a minute for domestic calls and I over $2 a minute to call the US, but... free incoming calls from all over! Don't worry, I'm not expecting calls but here's the number just in case...
(REVISED 11/17, I accidentally wrote the int'l access code for Australia)
011 (int'l access code) + 81 (country code) + 80 (city code) + 3479 0545 (phone number)
or if you're drunk and using a cell phone just put in +818034790545 and it'll probably work.
Ok, I'm going to sleep for a bit now.
If I still have time when I wake up I'll try uploading more pictures. Lots of funny signs today.
posted by beth at 12:51 AM
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