I went to Okazaki station, queued to talk to the Shinkansen ticket salesman, decided on what ticket to buy, handed over my credit card, he put it into the machine, and I was told immediately that it was no good. I walked down the street to the nearest bank, tried my AIB banklink card, and that was no good either. I remembered that post offices seemed to be a bit better so I kept walking until I got to the nearest post office, tried there and managed to get 50,000 yen out for the weekend and got my ticket. Everything in Japan is based around train stations, from english conversation schools to capsule hotels to restaurants to banks to post offices, they always do their best to be near the stations. I’m not sure what time I arrived in Tokyo because I haven’t been looking at my watch very much recently. It seems my daily life is just morning and afternoon and the resolution just doesn’t go below that.
The train journey was no problem. From Toyohashi to Tokyo I spoke with the lady beside me, telling her about Ireland and showing her pictures from my trips to Dingle, Killarney, Moher, and such. She helped me find the route from Tokyo station to Jimbocho (hotel’s nearest station).
I went straight for the hotel and met up with Seán. It was really nice and for about €25 per night each we had our own twin room with a TV, a comfy chair, our own air conditioner/heater and a desk. There were internet terminals and a small cafe downstairs but we didn’t use any of those facilities. When Seán needed to print his ticket the receptionist allowed us use the reception’s computer. Incidentally, all the machines in the hotel are Macs, ranging from a G3 PowerMac up to a MacBook, and everything in between.
When I arrived I was pretty hungry so we decided to get some Yakiniku. The lady working at the reception showed us a Yakiniku place around the corner and we ate there. The waiter was a first year university student studying marketing and taking an English class, so he was excited to have some foreigners in his restaurant and did his best to speak English with us. It wasn’t very good but myself and Seán humoured him with the odd “please” and “thank you”.
We walked around the streets for a while, looking at karaoke buildings and pachinko parlours, before buying a load of Japanese snacks in a 7-Eleven and heading back to the hotel for the night. I called a friend, Yasuko, while Seán played his PSP. Yasuko really surprised me with her proficiency in so many languages. Her French (both language and accent) is better than mine ever was, she could speak German to Seán, and her English is great too. She said her Danish, Korean and Chinese are better than her English, but I can’t verify that claim. 頭が下がる (Atama ga sagaru… a phrase we learned in class recently which means I’ve just been humbled by someone else’s ability/generosity/what-have-you).
We went to sleep about 1am.
