The first time I saw Japan was around 9 o clock in the morning on 14th of August 2005, from the window of the airplane around 800m above the ground. That's high or low the huge clouds were. So what did Japan look like? I remember I saw some road, parking lot, cars on both of them and huge airport terminals. After the plane landed and started moving slowly on the airfield I saw long rows of airplanes. After exiting the airplane I was hit with the warm humidity of Japan, I thought to myself: "interesting"
I showed my passport to the passport official, I had to use the gate that was labeled foreigners, this was the last time I saw the man who sat next to me in the plane at Helsinki airport. I asked him if he is also going to Japan trough Copenhagen like me. He said yes and told me he visited his friend, a Finnish clothes designer in Finland and helped her arrenge her exhibition. He himself was a japanese clothes desinger, he had a cowboy hat, a tshirt with two revolvers printed on the back and many necklaces and earrings. He was around 35-40 years of age I guess and he really looked what I imagined a Japanese clothes designer to look like. I told him I was going to Japan to meet some friends and sightseeing. He asked me if I wanted to go to clubs in Japan and then told me he visited a Finnish club and he liked the athmosphere there. He said Japanese clubs are smaller. I told him my friend said that there are some huge clubs in Tokyo.
From Copenhagen we both took the plane to Narita airport, in this plane he didnt sit next to me, but came to talk to me always on his way to toilet. He said he'll give me his phone number and that we can meet in Tokyo. I said Alright cool! We can go to beach he said, "I have some nice lady friends"
Anyways after landing at Narita there is the intersection with different way for JAPANESE NATIONALS and FOREIGNERS, I had forgot about the clothe designers phone number since I was damn tired not getting an hour of sleep at the plane. I just took the gate for foreigners. While queing I saw the guy, I thought damn, but didnt bother yelling out. I was stuck with the formalities and he passed trough the check, so that was the last time I saw him.
After the formalities I passed trought the arrivals gate, I looked around for 1.5 half seconds and saw two of my friends talking to each other. Hiroshi and Kousaku, I walked there and they welcomed me friendly. We joked around there and had a good conversation, although I forgot about what topic it was about.
We went to the train platform, nippori station our target, Kousaku asked advice from a girl, "is this the right way?" She said yes or something. We started a conversation with her, it turns out she just came from Germany, and has been to Sweden and Finland (she used to have a swedish boyfriend). Now she is a student of Columbia university in New York.
While talking to her in the train with my friends, I saw my first views of Japan, trough my eyes fogged by jetlag. So I had to leave the talking to Hiroshi and Kousaku at times so I could gaze at the Japanese landscape. The building looked so different from Finland and the layout seems really disorganized, Interesting! (although later I got bored of these faceless buildings that are everywhere in Japanese cities). The trees and forests look different too.
So anyways the girl who were talking to started to seem really interesting, I thought wow, New York...I wanna go there someday, I might want to be her friend. I got immersed in conversation with her and after awhile........the train doors open, she get's off and says bye! I don't bother to yell after her, "what's your phone number or email!?" What a disappointment, I could've had a friend from New York. This is one of my biggest regrets during my trip, not asking her number fast enough.
Well I tell it to Hiroshi and Kousaku and Kousaku says something like "oh yeah you could've been straightforward to ask her phone number so soon, pity" And anyone who knows Hiroshi can imagine how he is acting.
So we finish the trip and arrive to Nippori station in more or less central Tokyo. I buy a ticket from the station attendant by saying 新宿に (shinjuku ni) I'm not sure if that is the right way to say where I want to go. I tell Kousaku that I'm suprised how dirty the station is, I could even see cobwebs, I said I imagined Japanese train stations to be very organized and clean, I forgot his reply.
So I took my first ride on the Yamanote line which is a loop line around some major train stations in Tokyo. We arrive at Shinjuku, Kousaku guides my jetlagged self and Hiroshi around the labyrinth shinjuku station (at least it seemed like that at the time). We come out somewhere on the east side of the station and go have lunch at a ramen-ya close by. It's my first cup of authentic ramen and my first visit to an authentic Japanese restaurant. It had the smell typical to a ramen place, which I got used to but which seemed strange at first. I went to the toilet there, but it was not the same as a western toilet, I had to take while to figure out how to use it.
After getting out of the restaurant I take my first real look of one of the most central places of Tokyo, what else could I say other than that it was something totally new to me who grew up in the small northern corner of Europe.
Me, Kousaku and Hiroshi went to yodobashi camera to buy a camera for me, in there I read my email from a computer at display. I saw Hiroshi's reply to my email, which I sent the morning of my departure. It was something stupid like:
Oh! Kasi-kun!!
Show me your ass!!!
Thank you!!
Hiroshi
We buy a camera for me, a small and nice casio, and go have coffee at the starbucks in Takashimaya times square
My jetlag really started to get to me at this point, I dont almost ever remember being this hopelessly tired, anyways we were all the time having some conversation, it was really a good feeling to be in Japan and see my friends, especially Hiroshi who I didnt see for awhile. This was also my first visit to a starbucks I ordered Today's coffee: 本日のコーヒーと水をください. The waitress replied with something but I couldnt understand, then Hiroshi helped me.
In the cafe I could see some students doing their homework and cute young girls chatting, also a few salarymen.
Eventually Hiroshi had to leave us.
So Kousaku decided to take me to sleep in a manga kissa (place for reading manga and surfing the net) in Shinjuku 'cause he lives far and we still have something to do. I couldnt sleep there even though I was helluva tired. After all I was in the middle of Tokyo, everything is so new and exciting, how could I sleep?
Yeah I couldnt sleep at the manga kissa. I was tired, we got out on the street and it was twilight. Shinjuku was starting to get lively. I don't have any clear image though. Except it was around this time that I noticed how Japanese women seem to have really nice shoes. I was sleepy so it was confusing when kousaku guided me trough the crowds and underground tunnels with many shops and many Japanese women shopping.
We went to shibuya with train. Not the hachiko side with the huge screens, but the place where the buses leave. I took a piss at the public toilet located outside. Tokyo looked really damn cool, I like Japan. We took a bus, kousaku wanted to introduce me to a family who he used to work for. We arrived there, I met the mother and the son first, they had a really stylish apartment, with all kinds of cool art. I WAS REALLY TIRED though. But I liked that family. The son was 17? or 18? Quite handsome young man, his mother encouraged him to speak english to me, but he was a bit shy to talk :)
I met the daughter and her young boy, daughter spoke good english and the poor cute little boy was scared of me. He said kowai! (scary). On second thought the boy wasnt so nice, he spat everywhere, i guess spitting was a new thing to him.
I gave the family some finnish chocolates, the little boy liked those and eventually he accepted me i guess...
I might also say the daughter had quite a pretty face.
Later on father also joined, we had coffee.
Then we left the house (YEAH I'M STILL TIRED!)
It's my first time out in downtown Tokyo at night, but it was in a residential area. I liked that feeling. It was warm at night (due to the humidity) And Japan looked so very different and interesting (also at night).
We took the bus back to Shibuya, kousaku suggested we take a look at the hachiko side of shibuya.
WHOA that was something! Actually the later times I came to shibuya i was not as impressed as the first time. I don't know if that day just happened to be especially interesting or if I got used to the athmosphere there, but it was so cool. Everywhere cool people, with attitude, here and there really strange looking people, also few school girls with really heavy make up and school girl uniforms. I was so tired that I didnt feel i had the energy to cross the famous crosswalk that night. So kousaku and me just sat at a statue near the crosswalk. Looking at the crazy people going around.
After awhile two pretty girls sit close to us and start talking. I might say the other one was one of the prettiest girls I saw in my whole one month stay in Japan.
Well anyways we were still just looking around when two really strange looking guys came, strange clothes, strange hair. They stop in front of us...but are looking at those two pretty girls :P
They nod and charge! We were witnessing nanpa, the Japanese way of picking up women.
They go talk to them and everything seems to go smoothly, the girls seem to enjoy. That's nice, but I'm ****ing tired. So we go back home, finally, although it takes good while on yamanote line and bus before we reach our destination. I meet Kousaku's lovely sister and then sleep soundly.
