(Day 1) Happi Coats and Happy Erin

How can one possibly capture the trip of a year, or possibly a lifetime, within a series of pictures and words? I don’t think it is possible, but I’m going to try to at least communicate parts of it…please be patient while I recall the month I spent in Japan while feeling very natsukashii.

After eagerly anticipating September 27th for the last year, it arrived with a 8:10 AM phone call from Jean who called to say ‘farewell’. I groggily mustered some sort of response and hung up, then realizing that the appointed day had arrived. Hooray! I actually went back to sleep again though, only to be awakened by another phone call from a well-wisher. With that, I prepped and we left Abbotsford for Vancouver Airport.





My Mother was brave enough to try a Japanese adventure with me so she had flown in earlier from Manitoba and we met up at the airport for lunch. I had a delicious set of maki in preparation for the insane barrage of sushi that people assume Japan is (it’s not.)




Psyched!

After bidding our adieus, we headed through security and boarded the plane. We were lucky enough to be seated in the exit row – score!



After a long-but-short-feeling flight, we filled-out our paperwork and whisked our way into Japan. TADAIMA! (I’M BACK!)




Thank you.

So we ended up getting finger-printed (which is now standard and debatable if necessary) and managed to leave the airport with all baggage intact. Since I have previously flown into Narita, I was like an old pro, bolting from one station to another as my Mother followed along, somewhat confused by the entire ordeal. I almost lost her as I turned my head for a second to check a paper and turned back to see she was hurrying down a staircase that was not where we wanted to go. Rouge, I say!

We boarded the Narita Express without anymore incident and towards downtown Tokyo, we zipped.







After an hour and 45 minutes, our train pulled into our home for the next week, Ikebukuro. I had never been to Ikebukuro on my last trip to Japan, so I wasn’t 100 percent sure of what to expect, but I certainly did not expect the matsuri (festival) that was apparent upon our exit from the stations. Voila! Men in little coats and things that looked like diaper shorts.





Struggling through the rain and crowds of people, we found our hotel and checked in. We were more than happy to dump our belongings and cranked open the window for some fresh, downtown Tokyo air.




The blurry things are people.

Cries of “Yasshoi!” and various chants could be heard from every direction . This got me even more excited since it was ever-more apparent I was finally here. Jazzed, I was eager to head out and explore my new haunt. Mother, on the other hand, was less eager, feeling the effects of nausea and apprehension. Finally, she obliged and off we wandered. Our journey included Bic Camera, various convenience stores, and peeping into pachinko parlours. At Bic Camera, the guy ran to the counter when he saw I was ready to pay. When I said thank you, he bowed incredibly low to us. I was so honoured. Sniff sniff. Seriously, the service at Linens and Things could learn a few things.

Some lady shoo’ed us out of a purse store because they had closed since the two seconds we were welcomed in. Mother was still feeling crappy at this point, so we decided to call it a day and wandered down the back alleys home.





Relaxing back at the hotel again, I was still reeling from being in Japan - I got to watch Yoshiki from X-Japan on a variety show! He looks a lot like a woman.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to Harajuku and Shibuya, meeting Maya around dinner time. We will see what happens!