Sangorrin

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Japan - Day 2 - Tokyo

In my second day in Tokyo I tried to visit the most famous areas or districts of Tokyo. There is a very useful train line that goes around Tokyo in a loop called the Yamanote line, so you can get off at the main areas of Tokyo. Basically, I stopped in some of the most famous ones, I walked there for an hour and then I went to the next one. These are the areas I visited:

Akihabara: well known because of its electronic shops, this place was really interesting. I bought there a conversor of sockets so I could fill my camera's battery and I had a chocolat with some Donuts in a very popular coffee called Mister Donuts. It was right in front of the main buildings so I enjoyed watching the crowd from there. In Akihabara I entered into a lot of Manga&Anime related shops. There were two shops with several floors full of comics, anime, toys.. It was like the paradise for a Manga fan.

Ueno: this park is famous because of its cherry trees and the celebrations ("hanami"=see flowers) that japanese people make there when they blossom, typically in April. They go there in groups, drink sake and have a lot of fun. In the end, I found the park a bit disappointing.

Shibuya: this district had a lot of shops and restaurants and I saw the famous sculpture of the dog "Hachiko". You can find Hachiko story on the Internet for more details. In front of the station there was also one of those big pedestrian crosses. I had some Udon for lunch here in Shibuya. They were very tasty and cheap! One thing I liked very much in Japan is that you are not necesarily expected to ask for something to drink when you go to eat. Instead, you can have as much water or tea as you want for free! That reduces the price definitely.

Harajuku: this area is very popular among young people. There were lots of people and I saw several girls dressed up as maids and similar things. Here, I took a delicious CocaCola, after having tried and hated some japanese drinks (they make them of tea!).

Yoyogi: this is another park but it was also disappointing. I bought here an international phone card, which is the only way for doing international calls from (some) public phones. I used this card to give I-am-alive calls to my family without having to spend money on it. Basicaly, they work by writing some numbers, listening a presentation message, then writing the ID from the card and finally dialing the destination number including the international code (34 for spain).

When I went back to the hostel I was really tired, and after having a shower I talked with other guests that were in the hall of the hostel. John, from the UK (I think from Chester but had lived in London for a long time), who had quit his job and started to travel around the world trying to work as volunteer for food and bed, at the places hi visited. Chris, from Liverpool, who just got out alive from a tragic car accident (he show us a terrible picture of the car and I couldn't imagine how he survived that). An australian girl, an australian guy, some girls from Holland that were about to leave (they were studying business in Taiwan) and three Japanese girls I had the oportunity to chat with in Japanese. They were from several places in Japan, Hokkaido, Yamagata and Kyoto. They all were job hunting. Interesting. In the picture you can see the girl from Hokkaido (Hiromi Sakuragi) and John.

For dinner, I went with John to a nearby supermarket where we bought some rice and "yakitori". Very tasty!

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Japan - Day 1 - Tokyo

I left Santander the 6th April 2007 at 00:30 and I arrived in Narita (Tokyo) the 7th April 2007 at 11:00 in the morning, local time. It was quite a long trip but when I finally got there I didn't notice the tiredness because of the excitement.
In Narita airport, everything went ok. I spoke my first Japanese words with the people from immigration who asked me where I have learned Japanese and where I was going to spend my first night in Japan (I told them the exact GPS coordenates and they laughed so I gave them the name of the hostel). In fact, my GPS turned up to be unbelievably useful in Japan. Thanks to it, I was able to get lost in the streets of the Japanese citys without worrying about how to get back home.

After immigration, I had my JapanRail Pass stamped starting the following day. This is a special ticket for tourists that must be bought at your own country before coming to Japan and allows you to take as many trains of JR (including Kodama and Shikari Shinkansens) as you want during its validity (mine was 14 days long). I don't know if it was worth paying for it (I think it was), but I took lots and lots of trains without having to think about prices, distances, handle with automatic machines... Even so, I had to take some metro lines and buses that were not included in the pass. From the airport I took a non JR train, Keisei, for 1000 yens, to Nippori. I took with me one of those huge guides (Rough Guide, Lonely planet...) of Japan and it was very useful for things like that.

In the train, I met a Spanish guy from Sevilla, José Oranto, and a Japanese girl called Achiko. He was coming alone but was supposed to share the trip with a guy from Venezuela with which he had been chatting through the Internet. Achiko was going back home to Saitama from London where she had finished her studies on English philology. Nonetheless I had to talk to her in Japanese because she didn't speak English very well.

In Nippori, I had to change to another train line, but as this place was not too far from my hostel, I decided to get off there and go on foot. I switched on my GPS and it said I was about 6 Km from the hostel, so I started walking through the streets, electric wires, japanese people, shops... for the first time in my life. I was amazed of everything and I remember myself with my mouth completely open.

When I got to the hostel it was locked until 16:00 so I had to wait for a while. Nearby, there was a lot of tramps and homeless people and I was a bit afraid but gradually I realized that they were harmless. Finally, the hostel's manager showed up and I could have a shower and access the Internet. The hostel was really cheap, 2100 yens only, and It was quite clean, had showers, microwave and free internet: http://www.tokyo-backpackers.jp/ After having a short sleep I tried to talk a little bit with another guest, a French girl, but she couldn't speak too much English (I have to learn French..) and then I went to see Shinjuku at night, one of the most famous places in Japan.

The scene in Shinjuku was absolutely amazing. Lots and lots of people, neons, sounds from everywhere, huge crossroads. I was like in Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell. I was walking Shinjuku for a while getting soaked with the environment (and also with a light rain that showed up for a bit).

Unfortunately, I was able to see also the darkside of this area where you can find lots of striptease and other bad reputation locals. There were black guys in the streets speaking to you in English and trying to convince you to enter to their locals. And even a very pretty Japanese girl asked to me if I wanted a "massage" ("ikaga desu ka"), which I suppose is a polite way of calling prostitution.

Friday, March 23, 2007

San Sebastián (Back to the past...)

I went to San Sebastian to remember where I come from. My first memories are from Portuene, where I used to play with my neighbour friends, I learned to ride a bike, I saw snow for the first time...

Second is my school (Santa Rita) which is now being replaced by a new building, and the seminary, in front of it.

I remember my class partners: Josué, Asier, Gorka, Maite Martínez, Maite Elizazu, Fernando Intxausti, the other Fernando, Leire, Arantxa, Mikel, Iñigo ... and of course, my wonderful teacher Amparo.

I remember the day I saw a post about a Mountain Club and how excited I was when I enroled in it.

I also remember me representing my school in the Tamborrada (one of the main festivities in San Sebastian) where lots of schools go out, march and play the drum.