First Anniversary

Yesterday I saw Alicia's comment on my Facebook wall "Happy First Anniversary". You might be wondering what anniversary it is and how important it is to me. I thought I was the only crazy one but am quite happy that there are some who share same thinking as me. 

The anniversary was nothing other than my marriage to Japan. haha... it sounds funny but I'm sure Alicia, Kane, Thor & Weili won't disagree with me. Here is the story....

Long long ago (actually just 1 exact year :p), a guy born and grown up in a tropical country arrived at the land of rising sun in a very early morning of a cold rainy day in late winter. The temperature was so low (around 15'C , half of that where he came from) and the wind was so strong that that typical tropical guy was almost frozen to death because he didn't expect that and put the winter jacket in his backpack. He was so unprepared that he spent almost 2 to 3 hours at the Kansai airport in Osaka before proceeding to the hotel. He had to wait for the transport company to open so that he could send his over 30kg luggage to his dorm in Tokyo and travelled with backpacks only in Kansai. The very first meal he had in the land of rising sun was the curry rice. The ordering process was very different from Singapore. He had to buy the coupon of the menu at the vending machine, passed it to the waitress to serve. As a result of no preparation before trip, he spent about 1 hour to figure out how to get to the hotel. The very pretty and ever smiling girl at the information counter explained in a poor English to him how he could change the train from the express rail from airport to the city train. But, he didn't know buying ticket and deciding which service to take was also a headache. The map was so complicated and the price to get to one place might vary depend on which train operator was chosen. For one train operator there are different train services to one place (express, rapid, semi-rapid, semi-express, local, etc) at the same price. Actually he still can't understand the difference between rapid and express haha.. Anyway, some stopped at more stations while some didn't stop at all until it reached the destination. 

Pic: Kansai railways map around Osaka without the detailed subway and city train maps

The worry-king was very worried on the express or rapid train which didn't stop at each station and announced the stop only in Japanese. Finally he managed to each the destination station around 10 am, but not sure how to go to the hotel from the station which has a lot of exits. When he reached the budget hotel, he couldn't check in cos it was cleaning time, so he had to leave the stuff at the counter and walked around though he hadn't planned where to go yet cos he thought he could take a rest first before going out in the evening. Only with one jacket over a T-shirt, he didn't have a chance or perhaps didn't realize there is a need to wear winter jacket before leaving the hotel. He walked around the place near "Dobutsuen Mae" and "Shin Inomiya" stations which he later found out has a lot of tourist spots. With the language barrier, he wasn't very adventurous for the first lunch and settled at Mos Burger. The cold winter wind and the rain, train sick and worry made the seafood rice burger more terrible. Everything looked very different from Singapore, the people, the shops, the trains, the weather. etc., not forgetting the eating etiquette at fast food restaurant - to clean the table after eating. At 12, he went back to the hotel to check in and found out it was just like a dormitory with a small bed just enough for a bed and a small TV. There was no wardrobe or anything. The shower and toilets are public. The worst thing was that there was no hot water at the sink inside the common toilet room each floor. There was only one small shower room plus one public bathroom (which had exact time period for male and female separately). So, if he missed the shower time for male, he had to wait his turn to go to the one and only private shower room. Anyway, the fee was very cheap 2100 yen per night (less than 17 or 18 SGD) compared to the normal rate of more than  10,000 yen per night at non-budget hotel. [There are a lot of such kind of cheap hotels in Japan where some old people (can be considered homeless???) stay. He was wondering where the money came from 'cos these old Japanese people (obviously not tourist from other parts of Japan) were at the hotel most of the time. Perhaps they worked part-time and stayed at the hotel for months/years at a special price. In fact there is a trend in Japan among youngsters who leave their home and family (even some uni graduate) , spending the time whatever they wanna do and work part-time to survive. Some sleep at the bookshops, some at internet cafe and some at budget hotel cos the rental is very expensive. Such people are known as "Furita" (lit. translation: job-hopping part time worker but nowadays they don't even look for new permanent job.]

After taking a nap, he went for camera-hunting in the country of electronic products. He spent few hours walking around Den Den Town (equivalent to Akihabara in Tokyo) or the electronics town. But super slow decision maker didn't buy the camera on that day 'cos he had to think over the models and the price and the discounts at different shop. He only managed to buy it on the next day after 4 hour long search hehe... But, don't laugh. He got the best deal ever. The relatively new model (IXY 10) was offered at $370 SGD at Bic-Camera which has special discount for this model on that day alone. Click here for the camera picture. 

He spent around 7 days in that hotel, visiting Nara, Himeji, Mt. Koya and Kobe, and 3 days in Kyoto. Every night he decided where to go and what to do on the following day and  when the morning came, he went to the Internet room to check out how to go there. So, it was very impromptu sometimes. 

What did he see, eat and experience on the rest of the trip? Find out more at the next episode.