Tokyo - Day -1

I am in way over my head, and it's all my fault.

Those of you who know me well will surely know that I plan everything. My trip to Japan has of course been meticulously scruitinsed over the past 9 months and nothing was left to change or last-minute guessing. So, as planned today, I headed out from Sapporo on a 9am train, bound for Sendai. Sendai would take two transfers and approximately 8 hours total travel time. This all went off smoothly and I had a very relaxing time in the beginng. For the first few hours I just read a book and gazed lazily out the window at the beautiful country side rolling past me.

It was at one of these points looking out into the country side where my mind started to wonder. And that's easily the point where everything went sideways... I kept thinking about work! It's not such a huge problem for me. I love what I do, and it involves a large amount of planning (so of course I love it), but the problem was that I couldn't stop thinking about it. It dawned on my that I'd had far too much of a relaxing time so far, and I really started to miss my job.

When I arrived in Sendai finally, I was about to walk off to my hotel when I made the rash (and almost regrettable) decision to give myself some much needed excitment. I figured that my inablity to think about anything but work was my brain trying to tell me that it was bored. A plan formed easily inside my head.

I walked back into the station and picked up a new ticket on the next bullet train to Tokyo. I asked a friend to get the number for my hotel for tomorrow night, with the intention of calling them when I arrived to bring my booking forward and extra day. After another 90 minutes on the train, I arrived, and realised one thing that probably occurs to everyone when they step foot inside Tokyo; it is completely unlike the rest of Japan. Especially the cosy little country towns that I'd been getting used to. I was overwhelmed quickly, and thought it best to stop dicking around and call my hotel.

They were full....

I really hadn't expected that. Don't ask me why, I really don't know. I walked aimlessly around central Tokyo looking for the big buildings saying 'Hotel' in Japanese.... there weren't any. It occured to me, again far too late, that I was in the central part of Tokyo and even if I did find a hotel, my Lonely Planet (which is fucking useless, by the way) blessed me with the knowledge that they were going to be $250/night or more. I decided to try Shinjuku, the main night-life area of Tokyo, instead.

Getting to Shinjuku was pretty insane. I didn't have any idea where to go, but after asking a couple of cops and an irritated looking middle-aged man I managed to board the right train. I found a seat, to my chargin, since within two stops the train was full and I was getting an eye full of crotch without any ability to move in order to shield myself. I squeezed my way out when we got to Shinjuku and kinda just took a walk, looking for a Lonely Planet recommended hotel in the process. Major construction works were going on outside the station which hampered my efforts.

I decided to just settle on the first hotel I could find, which was an expensive looking place about 200m from the station. I boarded the lift, which was also packed, and didn't bring my bag straps through the door properly. Soon after the door closed, I heard this loud clunk noise and realised what was going on. It seems that everyone in Japan knows that the word 'shit' means, because after I said it they all kinda chuckled in a nervous laugh, since we were all collectively certain that this little trespass of mine was going to send us all plummeting to our doom. Fortunately, it didn't, but the whole ordeal bought me no closer to refuge since this hotel was full. But they were kind enough to point me in the direction of another hotel across the street. I managed to get in to that hotel, which is actually really nice, for $160 for the night.

After calming my nerves slightly, I went for a walk to see if I could find somewhere welcoming to have a beer, and instead stumbled on this 24-hour internet place. It's not a cafe, or like anything else I've seen before. I've been hearded into a little tiny room, about 1 metre wide and 2 metres long, where I have a computer, TV, PS3, DVD and VCR player, headphones, and a big leather chair. Turns out you can actually spend about $50 and sleep here if you want, or just spend all night watching movies, which you can pick out for free from their library. At first I regretted shelling out so much for a hotel, but since there's bugger all aircon, I'll be glad to be going back to my nice, cool hotel room very soon.

Tokyo really isn't like anything I could have imagined, and even though I knew full well that it has about 35 million residents in the greater metro area, it still strikes me as unbelivably huge. Even this one little area, Shinjuku, has enough skyscrapers and people to rival Melbourne or Sydney, and there's at least 4 other major sections similar to Shinjuku. I'm here for the next two weeks now, but I know I won't even get close to seeing it.

Tomorrow I'll transfer hotels and do some preparatory steps, falling back to my trusted routine of following to goddamn plan. Exchanging travellers cheques and picking up some decent maps (I really hate my Lonely Planet guide). After that, I'll probably just walk until later tomorrow night when I will catch up with a friend and go clubbing. That is certain to be an experience!