Thursday April 30 Day 2
It is a funny thing to land in a place 24 hours (their time) after you first took off, mind boggling actually. Take it from a girl who has had her mind boggled, this “lose a day of your life” shit will mess with even the strongest of Samurai. Ladies and gentlemen and everything in between, welcome to Japan.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned yet, but this Asia trip is with school. Yep, I am getting a credit for it. Five cities in 8 days, the time is money factor alone pays for itself. If I consider that to get a credit I would have to sit through 3 hours of lecture for 14 weeks, plus reading, review, assignments, workshops, and studying that on average will take at least double the amount of lecture time, that equals more than 125 hours. Multiply that by my current pay rate and the trip literally has paid for itself. The fact that this is a school thing also means that the mischief level needs to stay within reason, which will be tested when my equally wild best friend joins us.
SIDE NOTE: She is an environmental scientist working in Kuwait and has just finished a grueling Masters and basically couriered her dissertation then got on a plane to meet me in Tokyo. We’ve been friends for over 25 years.
Thankfully we have been graced with a roommate that seems as though she’ll be able to keep up, which is good since Bestie arrives with drinks in hand and I’m pretty sure she landed this way. Not sure if it is technically breakfast or dinner for us, but the three of us hit the town in search of food and a little trouble. I have travelled quite a bit and am use to the language barrier thing, it’s part of what I enjoy on a trip. However, when you are in Asia (and this is my second time this year) it’s not just the language thing, you are also dealing with an entirely different character system, which makes finding a late night food place that much more challenging.
After what felt like hours of circling like vultures’ over the tiny caves of raw meat, we descended on a place that seemed to have the most recognizable food, or at least it looked that way in the plastic sushi displays in their front window. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the words “raw” and “pounded” I’m definitely not thinking edible, this is the first of many times I will be wrong on this trip. Everything on the menu was “Raw Pounded” and the words to follow weren’t any more reassuring. “Horse Mackerel”, “Manta ray Fin”, “Tuna”; “Raw Pounded Tuna” sounded more like what was on the cover of the Manga porn we purchased at 7/11 later that night, not something that I was going to even attempt putting in my mouth.
We ejected ourselves from that spot immediately and landed at a cozy sushi joint close to our hotel. It was some of the best sushi I have ever had. More notable was that for the first time ever in my life I ordered an alcohol free beer. Tasting the beer of a country has been a big part of my travels to date and I didn’t want that to stop. I had a brain hemorrhage 18 months ago, and quitting drinking was one of many life changes I decided to make after surviving it. Back at the sushi bar, I enjoyed the local flavors including a beer.
Though we were close to the hotel, it was easy to get lost so after our meal the 3 of us roamed the streets for hours. I don’t remember getting back to our room, or falling asleep, but the alarm was set for 5am sharp.
Talk Nerdy To Me: 