Now's as good a time to start, four

Youtube is being mean to me, and although a certain nagging boy at the back of my mind is telling me to go to sleep, I can't rest. There are too many words inside me, and I need to get them out. Thus, the journey begins.

Recap: the format of my recollections will occurr in this fashion-
a) Word by word transcription from hand-written journal
b) Five-ish pictures from that date
c) My own personal memory of the events on that day.

I cancelled the documents because I found out my maid threw away some of my receipts. (But don't worry, I salvaged the 'legendary' one.) Ten pictures became five-ish because, well, I'm special like that.

Day One, hajimarimasu! (Ogura-san style introduction, hee.)

Part A.

Must take pictures. 50 per day. Start now!

Excitement is heavy, anticipation clings;

feeling kinda nervous.

Day 1, Monday!

Pretty sunrise.

Uncomfortable and a little cold but

HI NINO'S COUNTRY

7.15 a.m.

flight JL724

7:40-ish

Waiting for train- first class!

Lady w/ 4 languages

Saw Chiba train!! <3 Aiba <3

10.10

OMG PHOTO WITH NINO!! <3

1 hour train ride from Narita --> Tokyo.

Dificulties w/cab. Made convo with a local!

Feeling proud. My hands are freezing.

Able to write properly now. Kinda.

In the taxi on the way to Im Hotel.

thnk GOD taxi driver understood my Japanese.

^.^

Passed by Horikita Maki poster!

- lunch @ sushi bar -

Ginza ----> Sony thing 7 floors!!

Theatre watched random music vids

including Ken Erai

* Rolly for Abg Zaki / Sara

Cafe --> Ryusei (maybe) & Yama Tarou was filmed

checked in for our room

[fugly writing] AKIHABARA [/fugly writing]

Yakioshi Akiba ---- 7 floors

* bought ATB, 1:59, My Girl, Mayonaka

* ayah's CDs

lots of eye candy

legs died.

slept

Sumitomo Dinner @ Dai-ichi Hotel, Tokyo

* It was a nine-course meal

* Awesome company

* chef --> 20 years of experience

who cooked all 9 courses in front of us

* First time tasting abalone + liver

* Nana's 1st time --> raw fish

* Everything was a piece of art

* Alia tasted crab --> 6 yrs

* Most exp. + yummy fruit: Japanese melon

* Best ice-cream in the world.

1. Pudding

2. Fish

3. Abalone + liver

4. Fish/crab

5. Capsicum+Brocoli

6. Taufu

7. Miso soup + rice

8. Japanese melon

9. Vanilla ice-cream

Part B.

 

 

 

 

Part C.

I can't even tell you how nervous I was to be on that plane. It felt nerve-wrecking, like I was going to be on a stage to sing a song I didn't know the lyrics to, like I was going to discover a magician's secret, like I was going to meet a celebrity I was sure would judge me ; and it was just so important that these 5 days had to be worth every single second. I was giggling, and coughing, and inside my head there were little Alias running around with packing checklists, random trivia about Japanese culture, and of course the ever-growing To Do List. So in this state of mind, I went aboard the flight and a(n all too long) six hours later, there I was.

The first thing I said: "Arashi was on this runway."

Then, "Kishimoto Masashi saw this scenery."

And before we landed, "Nino saw that sunrise."

And my cough cleared, my throat felt perfect, my nose stopped running. Miracle.

After clearing immigration, baggage, yada yada ya- yay train time! I could only rest my eyes for 5 minutes before opening them again, to just soak in the scenery. Have you ever seen a Japanese drama in autumn? Reds, yellows, golds and golden greenery, leaves that are so perfectly shaped you're sure they're man-made but they're not. Old people walking holding hands on narrow roads, little girls on bicycles with little satchels in their front baskets.

And you think, this can't be real. But it is.

So we arrive at Tokyo Station, and it hits me that Tokyo (our "base") itself is a far cry from the scenery we'd just passed. Nothing but the click clack of high heels, businessmen on cellphones, and people running to catch the next train. Because in Japan, if a train says it will arrive and leave in 58 seconds- it will do exactly just that. If it says it will reach the station at 6:43, you can damn well bet your last dollar it will be there at 6:43.

Nobody spares this family of foreigners a second glance- it's time to go to work, time to bring the bread back, feed the kids, uphold the ancestors' name; in a few minutes the obviously ingrained work ethic of the Japanese is made apparent.

So naturally, we get lost.

[insert confusion with baggage and taxi cabs, which I don't particularly want to recall here]

Aah. Hotel. It's good, and warm, and you're already feeling woozy from the efficiency of it all.

Taxis there mean automatic doors, automatic voices telling you to belt up in 3 different languages, GPS maps that tell you where you're going and (in some) little televisions for the backseat passengers to keep themselves entertained. Taxis there mean drivers wearing smart white gloves, shirts and ties, with little formal cordialities as you get in and out even if they know you can't understand a single word they're saying.

There, courtesy is not a practice to be lectured into the brains of the young, day by day. It is a way of life carried forward from generations back. It's not even considered a virtue- because to them, it's not really an option.

Hotel is big. Tall pillars and the Christmas lights are already up- you're sleepily dragging your luggage through, and some kind (and efficient! Never forget efficient!) boy, also in smart white gloves and wearing an earpiece just like Neo in Matrix, is apologizing (you're not quite sure for what) and taking the bag from your hands. You're shown to a seat- why are there chairs everywhere? Now you know, Mama's bound to love this place.

Some sleepy minutes later, the luggage goes into Mama and Ayah's room while we wait for ours. Everyone around you is apologizing profusely, and you're still not sure for what. (Later you realize it's the Courtesy Or Death thing the Japanese people have.)

Back out, we find lunch at a sushi bar. Where is this sushi bar? Squeezed underneath a bridge. Tokyo feels squeezed- not like sardine squeezed, but like... comfortably squashed together. Where there is space to build a shop (even if its' seating capacity is like ten pax), a shop there will be built. Walking in, you are IMMEDIATELY (with no hesitation) greeted by all (not one, or few, but ALL) staff. "Irrasshaimase!" Life feels awesome.

Here's the kicker- we were seated on our cute little authentic Japanese stools eating our cute little Japanese sushi (trying not to cry due to the not-so-cute authentic Japanese wasabi which is like fire to your brain), and

" Donna, kotoba wo tsukaeba motto . . . "

No WAY.

It is an Arashi song. Playing on the radio.

And it's just... your life just makes sense, even for that one second only.

Back out to the cold, but you feel warm on the inside. Walk, walk, and walk all the way to Ginza. You could have noticed how your lips are chapped, your feet don't feel quite right or the wind is causing your eyes to water- but somehow, all you're focused on is that Damn, so many suits.

Apparently, Japanese men don't wear normal shirts to work. They wear suits. No matter what rung of the ladder they're on, it's a suit that is acceptable to wear to work.

Apparently, Japanese men ride bicycles all the time. Do they even lock these bicycles as they leave them properly arranged on the side-walk? No, of course not, because APPARENTLY, Tokyo society does not suffer from petty thefts like those of bicycles.

Apparently, Japanese men can't frown while out and about. Their default expression is a bloody, brilliant, hello-let-me-make-your-day-better smile.

So you have all these apparently Japanese men, wearing suits, riding bicycles, smiling at you as if you've treated them to lunch- it's... asdfasdfasdf;kjll. It's like, "Look at me! I'm the average Joe of this nation but I wear a suit to work, I have wind-blown hair, I smile all the time AND I'm environmentally friendly!"

But anyway. We arrived at Ginza, and stopped by at the Sony building.. thing. The one that was on The Amazing Race a few seasons back. Lots of lights and sound things, lots of robot things, lots of biiiiiig toys, and etc etc etc. We all fell asleep at one point or another (seperately) because damn Japan has comfortable chairs everywhere.

Mama couldn't take it anymore, so we walked back to the hotel- NOT, however, before stopping at the most darling little cafe ever.

Experience With the 'Average Japanese Guy' #2:

I'm a klutz. Right? I'm your normal, 16y/o klutz.

So of course, when I'm all excited about planning my Akihabara walk (hey it's Nino's lepak place okay, I wanted to enjoy it thoroughly :p), my hands start making their.. gestures. You know what I mean.

And, of course, I choose to make my "semangat" pose at exactly the same moment a waiter behind me is trying to serve my hot chocolate.

Does it spill on my coat? No.

Did it even spill onto the saucer? No.

All the hot chocolate did was slosh down the side of the cup.

and the waiter.. made.. a new one. For me.

THIS IS THE "AVERAGE" SERVICE YOU GET IN JAPAN?

You've got to be kidding me.

(Bonus fact- the cafe totally looked like the one they used for the filming of Ryusei no Kizuna & Yamada Tarou Monogatari.)

Mama travelled back to the hotel, but the remaining three of us cabbed our way to Akihabara. My walking plan got scrapped, by the way, because a) the hot chocolate made me all heavy and warm and fuzzy-feeling-ish, i.e. sleepy and b) we were now scheduled to have dinner with the Sumitomo people, so we couldn't take too long.

Akihabara was everything I expected (and remembered) it to be. Neon lights screaming in your face from all directions, with big loud gamer music playing in the background- tiny porn shops crammed in between large department stores, the odd ramen shop here and there. Colorful, fabulous, bright. That was Akihabara.

In the end, all we had time for was a walk up the street, a quick journey up the seven floors of Akiba, and a walk back down. Akiba was where Nana and I purchased our Arashi albums, 2PM posters, and Hey Say stuff. (What a clever ploy, putting Tokyo Records on the top floor so we'd be tempted to buy everything in between on our way up!)

Baka moment- as a default, we were looking for the Arashi albums section. Considering there was a big-ass poster of 5x10 on the wall, we thought there'd be at least a row or two, just for the boys. And we found, like.. three DVDs. Naturally, both of us felt "That can't be right", so after some squabbling over who had better Japanese, someone asked the shop assistant where the other Arashi albums were.

He didn't give us vague instructions. He didn't even give us CLEAR instructions.

He dropped everything that he was doing, and led us to the section without any hesitation.

As it turns out, Johnny's has its' own freaking wall.

It's like, " ROCK'N'ROLL " " BLUES " " REGGAE " " JOHNNY'S "

How we missed that entirely, I'll never know. :/

On the walk back down the street, all I wanted was to find at least ONE Naruto merch or something of the like for Kak Aimi no I was not looking for a certain hamburger-hands, hunchback idol actor who just happens to have a penchant for hanging out in Akihabara.

 But still. We left pretty damn well satisfied. Slept off the woozyness for an hour or so before receiving a call from my dad that it was time for dinner. For some strange reason I'd been under the assumption that we were going to eat at a cramped sushi bar like the one we had lunch at.

This was SO not the case.

First, there was a cab to Dai-ichi Hotel, Tokyo. I thought Imperial (the hotel we were staying at) was fancy, but my GOD. This one took the cake. Then, we travelled up the elevator. And up. And up.

Before we finally reached this dark restaurant which was like hidden away in the corner. There were a few lights, but even me being the gaijin that I am could tell that this was no ordinary restaurant. This was no god-damn sushi bar that you could just walk into. And so, carefully I kept my camera inside my bag. God knows I didn't want to be sued by any celebrities who claimed I was taking pictures of them. And in any case, I really didn't want to show my "jakun Malaysian tourist" mode to the Sumitomo people.

As I stated in Part A, it was a bloody nine-course meal. Thank the Lord we're Muslims and thus our menu was only limited to seafood and vegetables, so it wasn't SO bad. I have to admit that by the time the tofu came around I was already at my limit. But, as the circumstances were, I was sitting in quite possibly the best hotel in Tokyo, eating a dish made right before my eyes by a Master chef with 20 years of experience- I wasn't going to let a little weak stomach get in the way of me savouring every moment.

And with the return of us to the hotel (and the collapse of Nana and myself on the very, very comfortable beds), we'd assumed our first day of Japan was over.

Hnhaskdf;asfd.

This was when Sho-kun started reading the news.

Okay, so here's a little fun fact- before I left, I'd stalked a few website and managed to scribble (okay, "list down" is more like it) all the television programs that any Arashi members would be appearing on during the duration of our trip. So it wasn't even a surprise when Sho came on. And it's not like I'd never seen him do it before- I'm pretty sure Nana's forced me to watch a Youtube clip or two where he's in his "newscaster" mode.

But it was at that moment, when he came on and did his little stiff bow, that I found out the real freaking difference between a Youtube screen and a 27-inch HD plasma television screen. Suffice to say, there had been much flailing and high-pitched laugher. Never before had I been so excited, just to watch the damn news.

(Personally, I would have liked to disclose the number of photos we took of Sho on television. But it's somewhat disgraceful to mankind, so it'll remain a himitsu between Nana and myself.)

After the flails finally ended (roughly forty-five minutes later), we collapsed like two dead logs.

Two extremely satisfied dead logs.
And little did we know, the best was yet to come.....

*

Day 2 coming up soon!