After not much sleep, we woke up early and some people
wanted to book a hotel closer to the heart of Tokyo. I went with the flow, but
it was really frustrating how unorganized this trip was. This port was definitely
a learning process for a lot of us… I’m use to my parents planning what we do
for the day when traveling, but I had to learn how to do that myself and I also
had to learn what kind of people I wanted to travel with.
Once we got going, trying to find our way through the metro
was extremely difficult. Majority of the signs are written in both Japanese and
English, but not knowing exactly where we were going, having 6 different
opinions of which way to go, and not having access to a GPS made it a lot harder
than anyone expect it to be.
It was such a relief once we found our way to the hotel.
When people say that Tokyo is sister cities with New York City, they are not
kidding. I seriously did not feel like I was in Japan when I walked out of the
metro station. Calling Tokyo and NYC sister cities is an understatement… they
are twin cities. The biggest difference between the two cities would be the
amount of people. As we walked to the hotel, we crossed the World’s busiest
crosswalk. It was seriously insane. I have never seen so many people crossing
the stress at one time! We checked into the hotel and dropped our bags off in the
room. Next stop: Harajuku, Tokyo, where all the shopping is!
During the fall semester I took Principles of Marketing and
we talked about the Nike store in Tokyo. So I really wanted to see the store
and what made it so successful. Of course, no one really wanted to go there and
“learn” something. But I dragged everyone into the store and it was so worth
it. It was three stories and on the 2nd floor they had the Nike logo
made out of neon running sneakers. I can’t explain what was so great about the
marketing of this particular Nike store, but I absolutely love neon and running
shoes, so their marketing worked on me! Even though I was the only one who
wanted to see the Nike store, I’m really glad I went. Especially since the rest
of the shopping wasn’t really my style. While shopping, we stopped at a crape
place and it was amazing. I don’t know if it was the whipped cream or the big
scoop of ice cream, but it was really good.
After the amount of walking we did today, some people were
ready to go back to the hotel and rest before going out tonight. I wanted to go
back to the hotel, but as my mom says “you can sleep when you’re dead!” And she’s
right… I’m in Japan; there is no need to rest. Juan, Brooke, Andrea, and I
headed to a temple. By the time we got there, I was the only one who was still
interested in actually seeing the temple. While everyone was going to the
bathroom, I walked down to the temple and I’m so glad I took the time to do
that. The buildings were built in a square with an open space in the middle and
the temple at the back. So I walked in, facing the temple and it was so quiet
and peaceful. There were Japanese characters written on the walls and the
architecture was beautiful.
After hanging out in the hotel room and getting ready, we
headed out to see what the nightlife was like in Tokyo. We headed to the Ritz
where some people were staying so we could all go out as one big group. Let me
just say WOW. The two girls who were staying there had a suite on the 53rd
floor. The view was spectacular.
Side note: Japan
is known for having great water. To me, water is water… there isn’t really
anything special about it. While out, I
had a bottle of water and I was completely amazed by how great it was. I can’t
even describe what made it so great, but it was the best water I’ve ever had
and it was like that all throughout Japan. I seriously will never look at water
the same way.
We finally decided to leave the hotel and head to one of the
worlds best bars, The Womb. We all jumped in taxis and headed over there. It
was extremely sketchy since it was in this small back alley that the Taxi
couldn’t fit down. Once we got inside it wasn’t weird at all, but in my opinion
it was not the worlds best bar. It was basically a giant SAS frat party with
bad music. Which was not what a lot of us were looking to do. A bunch of us
ended up leaving and though it was 1:30 am, we still were looking for something
to do.
The big thing in Tokyo is Karaoke. With the people who were
left in our group, we decided to head to a karaoke bar and it was a blast. I’m
an awful singer and tend to get embarrassed since I know I’m not great. But I
stopped caring what people thought of me and just sang and had a good time. It
was a great feeling to let go of that pointless embarrassment and just have
fun.
Around 3 am we found this underground restaurant where
another SAS student was hanging out with 5 University of Tokyo students. Though
it may not have been the safest decision to wonder into this bar/restaurant at
3 am and hang out with locals, it was the best experience. It was another one
of those once in a lifetime experiences that no one else on the trip was going
to have. It was really cool to hang out with five Japanese college students. I
would have assumed that college would be very different in Japan, but I learned
there are very small differences. As we sat there for almost 3 hours talking,
we taught each other different games and socialized just like I would have had
I met a new group of people at a party. It really proves that even though we
may speak different languages and come from different cultures, we are all
exactly the same, which I think is awesome.
“It is only possible
to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis”
-Margaret Bonnano
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