I got back from Tokyo yesterday morning. It was a tiring trip, but the stay in Tokyo was relaxing. My friend and I left the Seoul area late Sunday night and took a train to the Busan/Pusan area. When we arrived, we ate some traditional food (I had 소고기국밥, beef rice soup) and took one of the first morning buses to the airport, where we hung around napping until our 11:30am flight. Upon arriving in the Tokyo Narita airport, we went through customs and immigration and took the airport limousine (just a bus) to our hotel. Public transportation in Japan is much more expensive than in Korea~ -_-. When we got to our hotel room we collapsed and fell asleep for most of the afternoon, then went to a convenience store to buy some food because we're cheap. We got instant ramen, some cheap, delicious breads, and some cold tea. People don't drink tap water in Korea and Japan. I'm not sure if it's because it's not safe or because they think it's not safe, but I don't drink it either, just in case. From our hotel window there was an amazingly close view of Tokyo Tower, so we watched some Japanese TV, some CNN, and gazed at the brightly illuminated Tower out the window while eating our ramen and tea.
On Tuesday, we wandered around Tokyo aimlessly, much like I do in Korea, discovering things and people watching. We took some ridiculous pictures, discovering that both of us are so NOT photogenic. We ate some ざるそば(zaru soba) and きつねうどん(kitsune udon) in a small restaurant. We had to order by choosing via vending machine, then taking our vending machine receipt to the waitress. It was a new and confusing way to eat for me, but the food was delicious and cheap. :)
Wednesday was the return trip. It was basically the same as the trip there: killing time in the airport, killing time waiting for buses, etc.. When I got back into Korea and turned on my phone, I had 7 new text messages even though most of my friends knew I was gone. It was a really great feeling to know I was missed although I was only gone for three days.
Tokyo is a lot like Seoul, but there's something intrinsically different about it. It's older, cleaner, quieter, and somewhat eerie.
More later, but I have to go out now.
On March 26, 2009, I left my life in America and moved to South Korea. I put my worldly possessions into two suitcases and a backpack and got on a plane. On December 8, 2012, I returned not to my hometown of Detroit, but to Silicon Valley, California, where I married an Indian engineer. In 2020, I divorced and moved to southern California. In this blog are my successes, failures, and observations of life in different cultures.
