I am in the most disgusting, revolting smelling hostel ever. It smells of stale pee and mould and damp and... it:s just too awful to explain. There:s also a curfew. You have to be IN BED by 11pm and are not allowed up before 7.30am. More research needed next time. However, they do give out free sake at 8pm as presumably no-one would ever stay here otherwise.
I had some luck today. I had allowed an hour to get to the train station from my hostel as I had a train to Kyoto at 11.03am and I wasn't sure how long it would take me. However, I was late (such a surprise!) and left at 10.25 instead of 10am. I had a go to a new metro station and lost precious minutes trying to find it. However, once there I caught the train OK and changed trains easily too at the next stop thanks to some brilliant directions from an Australian girl called Hannah. I got to Tokyo station at 10.47am and managed to figure out the platform I needed from the information board of departures, which was in JAPANESE! I got to my train with 8 minutes to spare. The travel gods of Japan are smiling on me.
I also feel very proud of myself for asking for a cup of coffee on the train in Japanese. Granted, the old Japanese men next to me did laugh, but they also smiled and nodded at the same time - which I took to mean that I sounded ridiculous but they were pleased I was having a go. Plus I got my coffee, so it must have been comprehensible.
I went around a beautiful Buddhist temple today and got a very interesting talk about this particular type of Buddhism. It sounds so lovely that I may convert...
A word about Japanese toilets - I love them! I can`t go into too much detail without being vulgar but there`s all kinds of interesting buttons to press and they do brilliant things with water. I want one at home.
Tonight I am on my own having made no friends yet, and I may venture out for dinner alone. Haven`t managed to get any Japanese food yet - terrible I know, but it`s not easy to pick things up from the shops when you have no idea what they are! I made spaghetti carbonara last night after spending 20 minutes trying to find anything I could recognise...
P.S, I am trying to get photos up, but it:s very hard as all the instructions are in Japanese... but they are coming, I promise.
P.P.S, please feel free to leave comments so I don`t feel like I`m typing to myself (yes, mum and dad, you would be able to see them if you had successfully left any - try again!)
Hi Fi
ReplyDeleteBe assured we are all tuning in to see what adventures you get up to. If you can't live it yourself its good to be able to share someone elses experieinces.
The toilets sound interesting!
Take care and enjoy yourself.
Piers
Fi, what about the toilets? Tell us more!x
ReplyDeleteDear Fi.'
ReplyDeletethat last comment was not from me, it was in fact from Holly who was helping me to post comments on your Blog. I tried and tried and none of them worked. I'd send them and they'd vanish BUT NONE WERE APPEARING ON YOUR BLOG!!! Where were they going to? What a mystery! Well today I unusually went to my email account at google and there they were!! I'd only been writing to my bleeding self! Still, I decided it was best to agree with me that I wrote rather well and leave it at that. From now on I shall write strictly to you.
Dad xxxx
PS. You've heard of Silicon Valley and Silicon Glen etc., etc., well in England believe it or not, the new IT super region is called" The Old Street Roundabout" Yes!!!! next door to where you were living. We have kept cuttings about all this from the Evening Standard. Now I shall post this and see where it turns up. Will it be you or me, you or me??