Travel Journal – Sunday 2/5 – 2010

Soup, Tokyo Tower and a movie…

To begin with, today has been a much, much better day than yesterday I must say. My mood was a lot better today after spending some hours chatting yesterday evening. I think we can make the last few days here to count for it, even without Rail Pass which the day’s event have somewhat proven.

Today we did not get up early I’m afraid to say. Well, the main reason for this though is that we sat by our computers until about 3’o’clock before going to bed so even with that I didn’t wake up before 9 and then just spent the time thinking about how to turn events for the better with the day until Miiko rang…

It seems that she’s afraid that we’ll starve if she doesn’t call us every now and then and give us food. And since we have been sick she had made some soup for us and would bring it down after about 1½ hour so Drak got some more time waking up or whatever he does when he wakes up.

The soup was okay. It had a soupy¹ texture and there were some chunks of meat in it as well as some broccoli, carrots and potatoes. Drak, as earlier mentioned dislikes almost all kinds of vegetables so he didn’t eat much other than the meat. He also didn’t seem to like the soup in general. I though ate it all. It wasn’t super good, but it wasn’t bad at all. It was good in the sense that it didn’t taste much and so. You know what I mean.

After this we talked a while before we decided to go out and find the hidden Tokyo Tower. This is kind of a speculation we’ve had during our trip. It’s supposed to be higher and larger than the Eiffel Tower but even so, we haven’t seen it. We’ve seen a lot of smaller versions on rooftops here and there and we’ve seen the Kyoto Tower. But we haven’t even seen a glimpse of the Tokyo Tower which we’ve heard should be a big attraction of Tokyo, even though not as big a landmark as the Eiffel Tower.

But not even once have we passed it, or been anywhere close to seeing it. In Kyoto one could see the Kyoto Tower quite regularly since it was in the towns centre. But Tokyo Tower seems to have been hidden, or moved away. I mean, we’ve been in Japan for 24 days and we haven’t seen it. So today The Hunt, began. Which wasn’t that long and hard. I quickly found that the tower wasn’t even close to any of the JR-lines stations and the only conventional way to get even close to it was the Subway. Which we haven’t used since our passes only covers the JR-lines.

So we set off, this time with our bags too, since it feels like its time to start buying stuff if we’re buying stuff for anyone. I myself will not buy many things to others I can tell right now. I won’t send postcards and such. This time I will most likely only buy the orders I’ve gotten and to a very select few others. I just don’t feel like I need to buy presents to people. The few that will get presents from me will either be kids or someone very special to me. And then I mean, very, very special. So do not take offense if you expect a gift and doesn’t get one. You will only be disappointed. If you want something though, you can pay for it and if I have the space in my bags I’ll buy it.

When we finally found the humongous tower it seemed a little bit strange how one could miss it. But I guess that Tokyo is so big and with all the tall buildings that it’s not that easy to see every time. It was really big and we took pictures like any good tourist would do. Then we went into the building under it and went through the souvenir shop and ate and looked around and before we knew it, it was dark outside when we started to leave. Even though it was just a simple trip to find this thing and then looking at stuff it really felt much better than before. Unlike yesterday it felt like we at least did something worthwhile with our time.

Then I wanted to see a movie. I’d decided that this time I would se a movie in Japan and since we haven’t even done half of what we originally planned to du during our trip I at least want to do some of the small things. Yesterday when I was strolling around I had seen a movie in Shinjuku that had caught my eye. It was some Trigun Movie which I didn’t even know existed. If something that might be good to see. Most Anime is pretty easy to follow and understand and Trigun would be one of those I think. Now after some googling I find that the movie just recently had its premiere in Japan and that’s why I hadn’t heard of it earlier. Even so we ended up watching Clash of the Titans in 3D, which ironically instead was named Crash of the Titans on our tickets, hehe.

This was the first time I’ve watched a movie in 3D with these weird glasses things and I’m positively amazed buy it. Even so, I must say that it was almost as I expected it. Not too fancy but a little enhancing of the experience, but you quickly got used too it and thus much just seemed normal. Now I know how it is and can without wondering if I’m loosing something important continue to download HD-quality movies and watch them on my TV instead of needing to buy expensive movie tickets and watch movies in the theatre.

It was a nice end to our evening and the day is total I must say. Tomorrow we’ll probably go to picnic with CouchSurfing again and try to buy some more of the things ordered as well as things we’ll need. The time now though is almost 02:00 so we’ll see when we’ll come there. I want to have a bath before we go anywhere. That’s also something I miss somehow, to be able to cleanse myself when I need to and not pay for a bath all the time. Even so, it adds to the feeling of Japan and especially Kita-Urawa.

Best Regards,
Herid Fel

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