Japan

I am so tired it is not even funny. You don't even want to know what my last few days have been like. I just slept in my bed from 9am till 3pm. First time back in a bed since Tuesday night. It is Friday here. We took a night bus last night from Tokyo to Kobe. 9 hours. Couldn't sleep for nothing. Slept in an internet cafe the night before. We could only get the room for 6 hours. It was only 13 bucks. The other girls didn't want to pay 20 for a regular damn hotel room. I seriously could kill them. The internet cafe rooms were cubicles with a padded floor and a bean bag chair. The doors slid open and closed. No locks. Just cubicle after cubicle. The tops were open and you could peek into each box. There was a desk with a computer and a tv in each box. I was going to use my computer and call people, but someone had the bright idea to keep our backpacks in a locker at the train station while we walked around. Then they locked the train station. No bags, clothes to change into. Nothing. Couldn't even brush my teeth. I just had to sleep on the floor with a bean bag in a 5' by 5' room with one other girl. Who know how many people have had sex on those bean bags, or how many guys have used the room for "alone time". There was library of comics and computer games and porn to check out. All that was free with your room. My goodness, I can't believe we slept there. LOL! Definitely an experience.

On the up side, we had great sushi, got a private karaoke room, went to a cool bar, and met some really cool people. We walked into a bar that was too crowded and was told we had to go find somewhere else, then these Japanese business men in their 30's and 40's started cheering and invited us to cram around their table. Why not? They worked for a whiskey stiller and were the happiest people you have ever met. They made all of us try their whiskey soda, which may have been watered down ginger ale. They don't put much liquor at all in their drinks. I didn't have much of an appetite for a lot of liquor so I tried my drink and passed it on to the other girls. Then the girls talked the men into buying us a shot. The shot was in a shot glass, but not even half full. Weird, having been a bar tender. They serve very small portions of alcohol in their bars. One of the business men that was with us could barely stand and went out to puke a few times while we were with them. I can only imagine how many drinks he had to drink to get that way! They sent him home early in a taxi. Then another had to go home to his wife and kids. Then one tried to hang with us, and wanted to take us to a club. That seemed a little weird, so we convinced him that he did not have to do that, so he finally took a cab home. Then we walked across the street to a karaoke place, got our private room and jammed out! After this, we tried to get our backpacks and checked into the internet cafe.

We did not have our stuff with us, so we were not able to shower when we woke up. We got our bags from the locker in the train station, then went to a coffee shop and took over the bathrooms and changed and freshened up. Upon leaving the coffee shop, we started walking. We ended up in the middle of nowhere in an industrial district. Then couldn't find a subway when we wanted to get back to civilization. LOL! I asked a gas station and got the best directions I could for not speaking Japanese. We found the station and the best bakery ever next to it. We stalked up on goodies knowing we had a long bus ride ahead later that night. We took the subway to the market area in Tokyo. I think the name of the area was Asakura, or something like that. It was amazing! We shopped and got lunch there. Then we headed to the HUGE technology emporium. Don't ask me the name of it, but it was 6 stories of all the technology you have ever dreamed existed. Computers, TVs, speakers, home appliances, toys, and so much more. This place was amazing!

Then we decided to head towards the bus stop. The bus stop was across from Cinderella's carriage at Tokyo Disney Land. Disney Land! It looked awesome, but we had no time to go in a explore by this point. Once we finally made it to where we were supposed to be picked up, we almost panicked. There we 50+ buses in this lot. Which one were we supposed to get on?!?!?! We tried asking so many people. None of them spoke English. People working at Disney, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Japan, did not speak English. Good thinking. We kept telling people Kobe bus. None of them knew which bus. Finally a lady went and asked around some of the bus drivers and the driver found us and checked us off his list and we got on the bus. Thank the Lord, cause I forgot to mention, that is is pouring rain and REALLY cold. My boots were soaked and giving me blisters. I was getting shin splints and was completely exhausted. My friends slept just fine. I couldn't sleep at all on the 9 hour bus ride to save my life. The bus dropped us a a train station that was two stops from our port where the ship would meet us. We beat the ship and waited for it to arrive. We watched it tie up, and had to wait on it to let us on. I took a long hot shower and climbed into bed at 9am. I just woke a few minutes ago at 3pm. I still have all day today and tomorrow to tour this town of Kobe. My calf muscles are swollen and sore. It hurt to just walk into the bathroom and back to bed. Who knew tourism was so hard?! I'm beat! I feel much better now that I have slept, except my muscles are sore after getting rest. I need to stretch before I make it out again.

Speaking of which, I better get going. I need to freshen up and get going before I waste an entire day. I will write more about Japan later when I have more free time! I hope everyone is enjoying snow back home!