Takumi's Blog

Today’s been pretty boring, not much to do, cousins are shy and thus won’t talk to me… StarCraft is getting boring (after playing it for 2 days straight). Was checking out some of the blogs that I read to find anything interesting, and I dunno, I think it was in the Archives of The Shape of Days that I found a link to Orisinal, which is I assume a site/person who is creating Flash games, and they’re pretty fun to play.

Japan’s pretty hot lately, and it has two, count that, TWO typhoons at the same time! Whenever I’m here there’s usually one on the weather forcast, but there’s two this time… I guess it’s not so suprising to everyone here, they’re just living their normal lives, not worrying about it at all. (Link to NHK weather site)

One thing that has ’shocked’ people, is the recent earthquakes. One about a month ago, and another about a week and a half ago, both were unusually strong (considering there was only like a three week gap in between).

I noticed right now, (just noticed it, even though I’ve been here for a month already), that the time and date of my posts are a bit off… I’m writing them in Japan time, and yet it’s being recorded as US West coast time… So, right now its 6:05 PM, August 23rd 2005.

I must admit, Az does write some pretty funny stuff, but I think he’s a little too USA central. He’s in the country side, people rarely see forieners there, and he writes like he’s been to all of Japan.
Sure, they have umbrellas to guard against the sun, but it’s not because they think white is better then black skin, it’s because they don’t want to get skin cancer. (or maybe some other reason)

Its 2 am here, so my writing may not make sense… I love Az’s editorials, make me crack up every time i read them… it’s just sometimes he writes things that piss me off, but hey, we can all write what we want right?

The other day I got to go Karaoke with my cousin and some of his friends… fun! We tried a little of nannpa (???) which is basically hitting on girls in public… got turned down the one time we tried it, lol, we wanted to get some girls that night!
24th is when I’m supposed to go to the movies with my other cousin Misaki, she’s been … icy towards me these past few years, so I decided to break the ice. Lol, but she’s bringing her young sisters and her mom with her XD
I really need to get out of the house and start making friends in Japan, i just… don’t have the courage to do so…

Here goes my story which happened about a month ago, when I first came to Japan this summer… Was pretty hyped up, I mean, I’m leaving America! (I’ll be back, don miss me).
I had everything, I thought I would need for my trip, money, passport, clothes, and my computer stuff. Departure; fine, arrival; fine, customs; fine, pickup;… Trouble.
I arrived at Narita International Airport not knowing where my grandmother lives, having the wrong telephone number for her house, and having no idea what to do! I thought I’d be more prepared than this! (no joke)…. Well, what I really thought was “come on Kazuhiro, u should be here to pick me up… That’s what my dad said…… Don’t leave me alone in this airport!”. But that’s it, that’s exactly what happened. I was left alone in the airport. Abandoned, in a not so foreign area… lol. I was puzzled… I decided to send a few emails of help, and stay the night at Narita, not knowing the airport closes at 10pm! (shock!) What type of International airport, especially one to Japan’s largest city, Tokyo, would close at 10pm! They could make a whole lot more money by staying open 24/7!
The night was probably the most interesting part of this story, after all, I’m spending the night with a guard outside a room where all of us travelers who are staying the night are kept. It’s not sleeping room, no beds, just.. Floor, vending machine, Â¥100/10min internet kiosks…During the day it’s known as the “Meeting Point”, during the night it’s known as “Sleeping Point”. I, the naive me as I usually am, thought it was open all night, and didn’t eat dinner thinking I could get something anytime…Obviously I was wrong, and went all night without food.
I met three traveling peoples there too, all from Europe. Two guys (Rich &Rich) just graduated I think, so like 18-19) and they were traveling around the world… The other was a girl (can’t place her name), and she was about… 22 I think… Anyways, we played cards, chatted, etc. ’till about 4 in the morning, which was when we thought it was about time to get some sleep.
Next morning woke up at exactly 6 am, you know, that’s when the Airport opens, so they turn on the lights, etc. We all get up, with our luggage and everything walked towards, guess where… Mc Donalds! Only surprised to find it didn’t open until like 9:30 or something, so we were soooo hungry.
Long story short, they left for their next destination, my cousin came to pick me up, and I got to my grandmother’s house safely.

I woke up early today so I can prepare my stuff to go to Singapore, today as I had planned. Got the packing finished, ate breakfast, last check of email, ate lunch and off we went to the airport. A 3 hour train + bus ride that costs about �1,400 one-way for an adult (My grandmother and I together was about �2,800).

Get there on time, around 3:00 pm, and there is NO LINE at all to go check-in. So far no problems, or so I thought. I had a little trouble getting through security first, my grandmother had no printer, so there was no way for me to print out the e-ticket at home to show them that I actually did have a flight� I had written my NW confirmation number and everything down on a sheet of paper instead.

So the security person gave my passport to I guess the woman in charge, and she said I�ll meet you at the other side of the checkpoint. The lady came back with my passport and said �Sorry sir, there is no record of a ticket for you today.� I was shocked; today�s the 24th right? I told all my friends I was leaving today, there should be a ticket for me on that flight!

She brought me to the ticketing counter and after about 30 seconds we confirmed that my ticket was actually for the 26th!!!!! I felt sooooo stupid. I had never done this before, I even wrote down all that information from the net and I STILL MISSED THE DATE.

She said there was a seat available for me today, but it would cost an extra $50. I needed to check with my grandmother and friend in Singapore to make sure leaving today was okay (otherwise going home and coming back would cost more then $50). Grandmother said it would be best to leave today and ask Suzuki-san if I can come two days early. Unfortunately the only way to get in contact with him was by email, since I did not know his cell phone or home phone number.

An hour later I received an email from him and he was like �call me immediately!� I thought he was going to be pissed, and he probably is, but it didn�t sound like he was very pissed on the phone. He said since it�s only two days early it doesn�t make much of a difference, and to come on the flight for today.

I walk back to the NW counter� wait no I don�t even get there for another 30 minutes, the line goes on! Out of no where there was a huge line for NWA. I managed to get the attention of the woman who helped me before, and I got to the ticketing counter 10 minutes earlier then if I waited through the rest of the line� guess what, they were sold out of tickets� I had a feeling this would happen. She told me to go back in line and check back at 5:10 pm.

Walked back to the end of the line, another 30-20 minute wait� wait, right when I get there, an announcement for me asks me to go to the ticketing counter! Hurray! They have a ticket for me! The problems aren�t over yet, after I got my ticket, I had to check in and get my boarding pass� they thought I was too young at (15) to travel to Singapore alone, although I�ve already been to Singapore by myself once when I was 13 with escrort, and I cam to japan by myself with no escort.