November 29, 2006

When I announced to my Japanese tutor Yumi that the Centre gang would leave for five days in Tokyo the next morning, she summed up the situation immediately. “This is how you say, ‘Excuse me, I’m lost,”’ she began. We inspire such confidence!

However, we’ve apparently improved a lot since we arrived in Narita Airport almost two months ago, because throughout the trip we didn’t have any major mishaps. Of course, it helped that there were an overwhelming number of friendly strangers ready to give directions to a bewildered gaijin (foreigner). All we had to do was stand around looking confused and somebody would inevitably swoop to our rescue, often in flawless English that put my Japanese to shame. We probably could have been a little smarter about picking a hostel, but our thriftiness provided for some laughs. To give you an idea of what 900 yen a night will get you, imagine a house marked with a cardboard sign and crammed with tiny bunk beds separated by a maze of shoddy plywood walls, complete with a kitchen that may have supported its own foul-smelling ecosystem. Throw in neighbors that would use pick-up lines on non-English speakers like “I’m jockin’ your feminine essence” and it makes for a pretty entertaining weekend.

Tokyo is an amazing city to visit. It’s difficult to describe just how big it is. The city stretches out for miles and miles in an ocean of buildings and lights, a truly amazing view perhaps best appreciated from the top of the Tokyo Tower. In one day you can join the swarms of people searching for the best possible deal on anything from digital cameras to heated toilet seats in Akihabara’s Electric Town, then visit the Meiji Shrine with hundreds of kimono-clad kids, or maybe go see the