Vitutuksen multihuipennus (3.10.2009)

Whoops, sorry I forgot to post this as my first post from Tokyo :). Well, now this thing seems less serious, but back then it was a really annoying thang. Anyway, I'm back now in Beijing. If you ever go to Tokyo, I will recommend you one good Izkaya pub where we ate on the last evening: everything was totally awesome! Shouchi, Osakan omelette and all. I also have to commend Japan Airlines for the outstanding service they seem to be offering (although Ice Age 3 sucked, watched it during the flight). In short, it's a good airline company. BUT without further ado, the text from the beginning of the October:


Joo-o. I think I started Tokyo off with the wrong foot. Sitting in the dorm after the trip from Narita Airport to here - the almost-central Tokyo - I'm pissed off, hungry and tired, respectively. The flight was actually quite pleasant, because it turned out to be as short as 2 hours 45 minutes and they (Japan Airlines) served also a meal, which was a bonus as we did not pay for one. Every seat had a small display attached to its rear-end, from which I watched Transformers 2 every now and then, while at the same time trying to learn some Chinese symbols.

Narita airport was very clinical and the embarkation to Japan was quite effortless. The first fuck-up came when exchanging currency. I lost way over one hundred euro just because we were in a hurry to catch a train, which would take us to Tokyo (60 something kilometers away). So, the first money exchange place, right, there! The exchange rate, when compared to the exchange office downstairs, was 25 % worse. So, when exchanging 4900 yuan I'd expect to get about 525 €, instead I got approximately 400 € (in Yens of course). Man I'm angry at that kind of fucking scam (and it was an official bank, for god's sake)!

All I can say at this point is that the public transportation (I can guess it extends to every other areas of commerce as well) is somewhat confusing at the first sight, because there is too much information hanging from there and there and some more posters telling with small print what is where and oh, there's a toilet and a handicap toilet and yes there exits, lots of them, I just don't know which one to take, and there's the metro station sign, after having passed it the information stops just to get people pissed off for not getting anywhere because they just could not make it clear until the end.

So, we went past our station, when coming from Narita Airport. Luckily, it was only a short trip to our hostel with one transfer when using the metro (which of course were different companies' lines, so had to pay double).

It seems that Tokyo is quite pricey, and with what I got I'm sure to have to go to the ATM pretty quickly (EDIT: I didn't have to :) ). Now I'd like to sleep, after all I slept nearly 4½ hours last night because of not just falling asleep. I'd like to sleep but I'm too damn hungry. I'd like to eat but I'm too damn tired. What a dilemma. OK, I'm being a martyr and a crybaby here, but hey I want to be now, because I got fucking ripped off!

STFU!

[Time passes..]

OK, now I've eaten in Tokyo for the first time in my life. It was a basic grub of some Miso-soup and a bowl of beef'n'rice in a local cheap fast food place called Yoshinoya. Now I'm only tired (and pissed, but maybe one tenth of the earlier amount), so maybe to catch some zed and see what tomorrow brings along with it.