Tokyo Touchdown

I made it! I am in Tokyo -- at last! Yay!!!

After 7 days I was ready and happy to leave Shanghai yesterday morning. Don't get this wrong: I loved visiting China, but will admit that i was also ready for a break from 'chinese hospitality', by which i mean: dealing with hordes of people pushing you around, stepping on you on the street/in the subway/everywhere; pulling your sleeve/your bag/your hair in order to get you into their shop; spitting on your shoes (spitting is considered a healthy habit), and grumbling at you that you have to pay 3 times the price because you are foreign, with a look of "and i really hope you leave my establishment soon"... I don't think most of this is meant in a bad way, just that chinese manners are very different from anything western, so it was hard to figure out "what was going on" most of the time without a translator/more time to learn the rules -- making it a bit taxing after a while, but a great experience and certainly very interesting. I was also quite looking forward to regaining access to free press, something i guess we really take for granted most of the time and not something i would have expected to miss so soon, but after a week of watching the CCTV (Chinese Television) English News you start to appreciate having two sides to a story and not having to listen to propaganda-fied versions of daily events that stress how China's handling of any given situation is far better than any western/other approach. Finally there's the whole internet access thing: I couldn't load my own blog at any time while in CN, update it yes, read it no... all very interesting, but also nice to be away from again :)

My trip here was quite eventful in the sense that after a week of very limited contact/conversations with other travellers [-- let me elaborate a bit on this: China is not exactly a backpacker mecca yet, so there aren't really that many people around to meet as most people travel in big organized groups. The other impediment is the fact that a lot, not all but A LOT, of (male) western travellers are not there to befriend western women, if you know what i mean -- it's a bit sad really imho.) so, I felt almost overwhelmed by the amount of people I have met within the last 24h: The belgian dude on the flight, the korean dude on the next flight, Denise the Canadian girl in last night's hotel shuttle (-- who teaches english in Kyoto and who has promised to give my Mom and I a guided tour during Mom's Golden Week visit), Reiko the language school event coordinator who picked us up from the airport and provided 3 hours of transfer bus entertainment, and finally Carrie and Theron ("Tag"), my fellow language school newbies from the State Department/Foreign Service in DC (- it's certainly good to know that my chosen school finds official US approval... ;)).

We arrived at our Residence/Dorm early this afternoon. I've never lived in a dorm before (-- I was a spoiled Uni student with my own Studio thanks to east german/berlin rental rates...), but this is everyhting i imagine a japanese dorm to be. I have a 2 by 4 meter room, with a bed, desk (futon!), bookcase, open-closet-type-thing and micro fridge. Bathrooms down the hall, showers & shared kitchen on the first floor. Oh and of course everyone takes their shoes of right at the main door/lobby and slips in to the mandatory slippers, of which I must of course purchase a Hello-Kitty pair. The Residence is located in a suburb called Matsudo, northwest (I think!) of central Tokyo and is apparently a bit of an attraction here as it is the only place in the area to host (crazy) foreigners... Around 100 people live here, so it is a bit larger than expected, but certainly provides ample possibility for socializing (= I have already forgotten the names of all the people I met today.)

After check-in, lunch and general unpacking, Carrie, Tag and I ventured to Ueno Park where Cherry Blossom Season/viewing has just started. We were a bit concerned about arriving there after dark (will we be able to see anything?!), but our dorm manager assured us that going at night was almost better, because they have "lighto-uppo" and a great deal of partying going on, and maybe we should get drunk before we go... We skipped the latter, hopped on the subway and arrived to discover that "lighto-uppo" means that red lanterns are stringed under the trees, making it really quite pretty in the dark as well. We also discovered that he wasn't joking about the partying, people were having very wet picnics under the trees and there were heavy Sake fumes in the air.

We're quite lucky: Cherry Blossom Season has indeed just started, with the trees currently being 50% in bloom according to official reports from the national meteorological institute. I'm hoping that this means we still a few weeks of blossoms to go.

Well it's time for me to turn in - my new US friends have planned a great day trip tomorrow morning, to a place where the first Shogun to unite JP set up his capital (-- the city name currently escapes me) promising no less than 65 temples, so I have a busy day ahead!