Alien in Japan - Part I

OK rewind back to the beginning of September.

I have been meaning to write about this but I've been lazy again. Yes, beginning of September went to Japan for two weeks. I can easily say it was the trip of my life.

Met with Aysun first time in 2 years at the airport. She was staying at Yamaguchi. She kept on saying how I'm going to feel jetlagged the next day and contrary to her expectations I woke up at a respectable time and we headed to Shimonoseki, where we rode bicycle all day, ate lovely sushi at night and I met her friend Eri. Second day she took me to her kendo training - at 6 o'clock in the morning. Completely amazed by the whole training session. It was held in a traditional Japanese training house with wooden floors. At the end of the training, a 'sword' master demonstrated to us the basic moves of Japanese sword technique. The man was easily in his 70s but in excellent physical condition. Difficult not to be impressed. The rest of the day spent in Yamaguchi and ended with a dinner in a lovely Indonesian restaurant with a couple of Aysun's friends – Gerry, Tomoko, Heki and Makiko. The next day left for Hiroshima and continued the journey, visiting popular touristic destinations such as Miyajima, Osaka, Nara (Todaiji) and Kyoto. Arrived at Tokyo on Friday night. Aysun was tired so left her at the hostel and went out to go to ‘famous’ Roppongi in order to make the most of the time I have. Took some time to find out how to go there but managed in the end. Didn't like what I found. Roppongi is full of Westerners. Not what I am looking for. I wanted to see how Japanese people enjoy themselves. After an hour walking through the streets of Roppongi headed back to the hostel and called it a day. I didn't enjoy my first hostel experience too much; trying to sleep in a dormitory brings one major problem. People come in and go out of the room almost any time of the day and night, making it very difficult to sleep. The next day visited some of the touristic spots of Tokyo and took the river tour, which was not very impressive as there isn't anything to see along the riverbank – contrary to London. At night, on the insistence of Aysun went to a bar called Castillo in Roppongi. To my dismay it was a bar with mainly Westerner clientele; English, Australians and Germans. Almost all middle aged. Took quite a bit of time to start enjoying myself but managed to dance a little bit thanks mainly to 4 bottles of beer. All in all not too bad. Next day Shibuya, Ueno park and Harajuku. All of them are amazing places – the amount of people n Shibuya, the crazy rock bands at the Ueno park. But especially Harajuku; with its dressed up girls and boys and crazy little shops. Had my strangest experience of my life that night by doing karaoke for 7 HOURS. It was unreal. Holed up in a room with 3 of Aysun's friends (Vicky, Gunner, Franz) and sang songs from 10 in the night till 5 in the morning. There is nothing like it. The last day went rather idly by, walking the streets of Tokyo, having dinner in a lovely izakaya, chatting to the Japanese couple next to us. Charming people Japanese. Ended the day, rather ironically, in the Starbucks looking over to the Shibuya Square, watching the masses cross the road and huge screens on the buildings blink at us, changing colours all the while. I felt that I am going to miss Tokyo. Early next morning went to the airport for our plane to Okinawa.