The End of an Era
Monday, 21 July 200810h55
My last week was brutal. After my presentation, I was ready to unwind. In less than a week, I was in Kobe, Nara, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Nikko. Nikko was a lot of walking in the drizzling rain, but it was worth it. The whole area is packed with temples all built in the middle of lakes and 40- and 50-meter tall trees, which makes for a very impressive landscape. Seems like this place is where that typical image of the three see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil monkeys was made famous. There’s also a lot of hiking trails that lead to more lakes and outstanding waterfalls, but this I didn’t do… first, because it was raining; second, because my crazy schedule and little sleep finally caught up with me and I started to get cramps in my calves just from walking; third, because when I got to the first waterfalls, the 100-m high Kegan falls, it was a bit late; and finally, because the map I had was all in Japanese and I really didn’t feel like getting lost.
In any case, I went back to Tokyo that evening and I got lost there for the first time. I first make a quick stop at Akihabara since I had heard so much about it and still hadn’t been. This place is also called “Electric Town,” so whose who know me can only imagine how much in heaven I felt. Every single electric and electronic gadget is found in one of those stores. Each building had storeys and storeys of anything from cell phones to electric screwdrivers to videocameras to kitchen appliances and video consoles. Inexplicably – maybe because I was so tired –, I felt overwhelmed after a couple hours, then headed back home.
I was too exhausted to cook anything at home, so I looked for a recommended place for dinner in my guidebook. I saw that this place, only about 3-4 metro stops before my destination sold
the best codfish dinner in town (and Robert de Niro’s favorite), so I got off the train and started walking there. To make a long story short, I never found the place and started to feel very anxious because I had no idea where to go. I was lost and I couldn’t make any sense of any of the maps that are scattered all around Tokyo. When I thought I had finally found my way, a couple blocks later I realized that there was some train station or embassy or some massive structure that prevented me from following my desired path. It is true that it’s hard to get lost in Tokyo – after all, I could always hop on any train and get back home – but I knew I was not far from my neighborhood, so I kept walking, my feet now throbbing with pain at this point. Then after over an hour of wandering around aimlessly, I saw the Wendy’s by my metro stop and felt relieved.
The next day I wanted to go to Tsukiji, the fish market. I went there once but it was closed and my friends told me it is truly an amazing experience… but to get the most out of it you need to get to the tuna auction by 5 a.m. – which meant I only had 4 hours left for sleeping… so in the end I decided that that would be yet another thing I’ll have to do on my next trip to Tokyo, and slept in.
In the afternoon, I went to Ueno, another area that I hadn’t visited. This is where a lot of the major museums are. There’s also a very nice park, and a huge – huge – shopping area, more like a humongous flea market. I came here because this was my last full day in Tokyo and I had a lot of last-minute shopping to do (souvenirs and the like). Unfortunately, this wasn’t the place for that… lots of clothes, jewelry, beauty products, watches, and electric appliances… but no souvenirs.
Amazingly, I randomly met a colleague from work there, and I was surprised that even though I know less than 30 people in a city of 30 million, I still manage to randomly meet people on the street. Anyway, he suggested I go to Asakusa (where the Senso-ji temple and la Flamme d’Or building are), and so I went. Bought a few things, then had my last sushi dinner, and headed back home, where I was supposed to meet my friends for a last farewell hangout.
It was fun. We talked over drinks for hours then around 2 a.m. headed to Roppongi for some club. We had some kebabs, managed to avoid all the African pimps on the street, went into some place, had a drink, went to some other place, had another drink, then ended up dancing to some Latin beats with some Japanese girls, who then agreed to come with us to some other salsa club. My new friend, Hiromi, turned out to be a very
good follower, so we danced the rest of the night. Around 6 a.m., I thought it would be wise to head back home, given that I hadn’t packed or cleaned my room, and the room inspector would come around 10 a.m. to check out my room and give me back my security deposit.
I had about 1 hour of sleep and, needless to say, things got crazier by the minute. Finally, at around 12.30 p.m., I left my house, got a taxi and went to my school. Even though I had no idea how long it’d take me to go to the airport and my flight left at 3.30 p.m., I still had to return a book to the library and pick up some books and my gym clothes from the school. I have always been a last-minute packer. Luckily, I’ve never missed a flight or faced any bad consequences from this indisputably bad habit. But this time, I was certain I was finally going to pay for my unpreparedness and lack of foresight. And as if I needed things to get worse, my taxi driver clearly wanted to “see me the face”, that is, cheat me and take advantage of my ignorance. After he took me to my school, I told him I had to take the Narita Express train to the airport, but I didn’t know what station I had to go to. And I clearly had a lot of trouble explaining myself because he look completely clueless. Then I think he understood but also realized I was a bit desperate. I asked him to take me to Tokyo station but he insisted that Shinagawa station was a better option. I said no because I knew Shinagawa was further, and I really didn’t feel like paying over 5,000 yen or 50 dollars for my cab ride (driving to the airport was not an option… this would’ve cost me about 20,000 yen)… and I also knew that from the Imperial Palace, Tokyo station is only a few blocks away; yet this asshole drove me for antoher 10 minutes until I finally yelled at him and he pretended he had no idea what I was barking about. Anyway, as soon as we got there, I ran with all and my 2 rolling suitcases and 2 backpacks… a true India María... and I just made it to the 1.33 p.m. train that took an hour to Narita… and, again, I just made it to the plane, about 5 minutes before they closed the gate.
And after this wild end to my stay in Tokyo, I still had to deal with incompetent Japanese Continental employees who told me that I couldn’t go back to the U.S. with my F-1 visa because “studying” wasn’t the purpose of my less-than-2-hour stay in Houston (I was only in transit to go to Mexico City)… I had to deal with Japanese kids playing videogames very excitedly during the whole flight, kicking the seat while I was trying to sleep… and when they finally stopped playing, they got sick and started throwing up all over the place… I had to deal with bad airplane food and a bad stomachache and a missing suitcase… but am now sitting at a cozy restaurant in Condesa in Mexico City, enjoying my huevitos with chile guajillo sauce and Mexican seasonal fruit juice. I am sad for having left Tokyo so soon, but it’s easy to erase this sadness with a sniff at the fresh tortillas on my table.
OK, I am transcribing this blog entry from my journal while having lunch at Primos, a restaurant in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City, and they are playing a very strange song on the radio.
Desde el cielo una hermosa mañana
Desde el cielo una hermosa mañana
La Guadalupana… La Guadalupana…
La Guadalupana bajó al Tepeyac.
Which is a religious song we sang in children’s mass when I was a kid… except this one is sung as a rap. My country is definitely a strange place.
My last week was brutal. After my presentation, I was ready to unwind. In less than a week, I was in Kobe, Nara, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Nikko. Nikko was a lot of walking in the drizzling rain, but it was worth it. The whole area is packed with temples all built in the middle of lakes and 40- and 50-meter tall trees, which makes for a very impressive landscape. Seems like this place is where that typical image of the three see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil monkeys was made famous. There’s also a lot of hiking trails that lead to more lakes and outstanding waterfalls, but this I didn’t do… first, because it was raining; second, because my crazy schedule and little sleep finally caught up with me and I started to get cramps in my calves just from walking; third, because when I got to the first waterfalls, the 100-m high Kegan falls, it was a bit late; and finally, because the map I had was all in Japanese and I really didn’t feel like getting lost.
In any case, I went back to Tokyo that evening and I got lost there for the first time. I first make a quick stop at Akihabara since I had heard so much about it and still hadn’t been. This place is also called “Electric Town,” so whose who know me can only imagine how much in heaven I felt. Every single electric and electronic gadget is found in one of those stores. Each building had storeys and storeys of anything from cell phones to electric screwdrivers to videocameras to kitchen appliances and video consoles. Inexplicably – maybe because I was so tired –, I felt overwhelmed after a couple hours, then headed back home.I was too exhausted to cook anything at home, so I looked for a recommended place for dinner in my guidebook. I saw that this place, only about 3-4 metro stops before my destination sold
the best codfish dinner in town (and Robert de Niro’s favorite), so I got off the train and started walking there. To make a long story short, I never found the place and started to feel very anxious because I had no idea where to go. I was lost and I couldn’t make any sense of any of the maps that are scattered all around Tokyo. When I thought I had finally found my way, a couple blocks later I realized that there was some train station or embassy or some massive structure that prevented me from following my desired path. It is true that it’s hard to get lost in Tokyo – after all, I could always hop on any train and get back home – but I knew I was not far from my neighborhood, so I kept walking, my feet now throbbing with pain at this point. Then after over an hour of wandering around aimlessly, I saw the Wendy’s by my metro stop and felt relieved.The next day I wanted to go to Tsukiji, the fish market. I went there once but it was closed and my friends told me it is truly an amazing experience… but to get the most out of it you need to get to the tuna auction by 5 a.m. – which meant I only had 4 hours left for sleeping… so in the end I decided that that would be yet another thing I’ll have to do on my next trip to Tokyo, and slept in.
In the afternoon, I went to Ueno, another area that I hadn’t visited. This is where a lot of the major museums are. There’s also a very nice park, and a huge – huge – shopping area, more like a humongous flea market. I came here because this was my last full day in Tokyo and I had a lot of last-minute shopping to do (souvenirs and the like). Unfortunately, this wasn’t the place for that… lots of clothes, jewelry, beauty products, watches, and electric appliances… but no souvenirs.
Amazingly, I randomly met a colleague from work there, and I was surprised that even though I know less than 30 people in a city of 30 million, I still manage to randomly meet people on the street. Anyway, he suggested I go to Asakusa (where the Senso-ji temple and la Flamme d’Or building are), and so I went. Bought a few things, then had my last sushi dinner, and headed back home, where I was supposed to meet my friends for a last farewell hangout.
It was fun. We talked over drinks for hours then around 2 a.m. headed to Roppongi for some club. We had some kebabs, managed to avoid all the African pimps on the street, went into some place, had a drink, went to some other place, had another drink, then ended up dancing to some Latin beats with some Japanese girls, who then agreed to come with us to some other salsa club. My new friend, Hiromi, turned out to be a very
good follower, so we danced the rest of the night. Around 6 a.m., I thought it would be wise to head back home, given that I hadn’t packed or cleaned my room, and the room inspector would come around 10 a.m. to check out my room and give me back my security deposit.I had about 1 hour of sleep and, needless to say, things got crazier by the minute. Finally, at around 12.30 p.m., I left my house, got a taxi and went to my school. Even though I had no idea how long it’d take me to go to the airport and my flight left at 3.30 p.m., I still had to return a book to the library and pick up some books and my gym clothes from the school. I have always been a last-minute packer. Luckily, I’ve never missed a flight or faced any bad consequences from this indisputably bad habit. But this time, I was certain I was finally going to pay for my unpreparedness and lack of foresight. And as if I needed things to get worse, my taxi driver clearly wanted to “see me the face”, that is, cheat me and take advantage of my ignorance. After he took me to my school, I told him I had to take the Narita Express train to the airport, but I didn’t know what station I had to go to. And I clearly had a lot of trouble explaining myself because he look completely clueless. Then I think he understood but also realized I was a bit desperate. I asked him to take me to Tokyo station but he insisted that Shinagawa station was a better option. I said no because I knew Shinagawa was further, and I really didn’t feel like paying over 5,000 yen or 50 dollars for my cab ride (driving to the airport was not an option… this would’ve cost me about 20,000 yen)… and I also knew that from the Imperial Palace, Tokyo station is only a few blocks away; yet this asshole drove me for antoher 10 minutes until I finally yelled at him and he pretended he had no idea what I was barking about. Anyway, as soon as we got there, I ran with all and my 2 rolling suitcases and 2 backpacks… a true India María... and I just made it to the 1.33 p.m. train that took an hour to Narita… and, again, I just made it to the plane, about 5 minutes before they closed the gate.
And after this wild end to my stay in Tokyo, I still had to deal with incompetent Japanese Continental employees who told me that I couldn’t go back to the U.S. with my F-1 visa because “studying” wasn’t the purpose of my less-than-2-hour stay in Houston (I was only in transit to go to Mexico City)… I had to deal with Japanese kids playing videogames very excitedly during the whole flight, kicking the seat while I was trying to sleep… and when they finally stopped playing, they got sick and started throwing up all over the place… I had to deal with bad airplane food and a bad stomachache and a missing suitcase… but am now sitting at a cozy restaurant in Condesa in Mexico City, enjoying my huevitos with chile guajillo sauce and Mexican seasonal fruit juice. I am sad for having left Tokyo so soon, but it’s easy to erase this sadness with a sniff at the fresh tortillas on my table.
OK, I am transcribing this blog entry from my journal while having lunch at Primos, a restaurant in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City, and they are playing a very strange song on the radio.
Desde el cielo una hermosa mañana
Desde el cielo una hermosa mañana
La Guadalupana… La Guadalupana…
La Guadalupana bajó al Tepeyac.
Which is a religious song we sang in children’s mass when I was a kid… except this one is sung as a rap. My country is definitely a strange place.
posted by adrián at 10:55
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