Friday September 12, 1997: 10:30pm
Oh my God, this is INSANE! I don't even know where to start. Right now I am sitting in my apartment, writing by candlelight. Candlelight. Ask me why I'm writing by candlelight. AKS ME WHY I'M WRITING BY CANDLELIGHT! Well, let me start from the beginning...
It was 5:50pm. I leave work amid the echoes of "Don't die climbing Fuji-san!"'s. I drop by Alps on my way to the station to pick up some pizza-making grub for tonight's dinner with Bianca - who I was to meet at the Hino station at 6:30. I got to the station early, so I thought I would buy tomorrow's train ticket to the Narita airport and back in the meantime. Usually this would be a simple task, but because I wanted ONE ticket TO the airport and TWO tickets BACK (one for Jon) the guy just couldn't get the math right. So that's where Bianca found me - playing charades with the ticket man.
Tickets and groceries in hand and bike in tow, we head over to the apartment, where we were going to sit in an air conditioned room, listen to music, make and cook our pizzas, and turn on lots of lights. We make our arrival about 20 mins later (about 3 minutes after Bianca said "Where IS your apartment?!?") and I open the door. Gee, it's kinda hot in here - I thought I had left the AC on... anyways. Since it's dark, I go to flick on the lights.
Flick.
Still dark.
Flick again.
Dark.
Fine, the halogen bulb has burnt out. I'll just try the bathroom light for now.
Flick.
Still dark.
Frantically I start to push evey light switch I can see... where are my lights? Then I realize that it's the whole power that's out.
Fine, the power's gone out before, when I've used my AC, washing machine, stereo, and vacuum cleaner all at once. All I have to do is play around with the breakers.
Flick flick flick flick flick flick flick.
Still dark.
WHAT?!?? Is the actual POWER out? Amid apologies of being such a lousy hostess, we go to the other 7 apartments in my building, to peek in the windows for signs of electricity. Of course, these guys never get home til 11pm anyways, so no one was home. But the rest of the neighbourhood seemed to have lights... how strange that it should just be my building. Oh well, so much for the evening of air conditioning, music, and turning on lights...
So now Bianca and I discuss *what* on earth to do... go out for dinner? Darn, what a bummer, I kinda wanted pizza.. but ya know, pizza's aren't hard to make in the dark... why don't we stay here anyways? Ok, that's a plan! BUt we'll need some candles first... So Bianca said she'd go to the Lawson's nearby while I stay and make the pizzas. We'll just wait for someone else in the building to get home and call the electricity people.
Yeah, so I needed to point her in the right direction for the Lawson's, so I walked part-way with her. When we were passing the neighbouring apartment building (same landlord as my building) she suggested we knock on one of the doors of a lit apartment, and see what's up - maybe they could help. I was a bit hesitant at first because (a) I didn't know what they could do, and (b) I can't speak Japanese well enough to say what's going on. But if Bianca was going to do the talking then it was fine with me!
So we pick an apartment on the first floor - ring the bell - and noone comes to the door. Fine, ignore us. But just when I thought noone was going to answer the door - it opens! A young girl, maybe low twenties, is there. Bianca just told her about how there's no electricity, etc, but no one else in the building - my phone line is out because of the electricity, we dont' know who to phone anyways, etc etc etc. Hey, she speaks _really_ well. So this girl is so nice! She asked if we tried the breakers - yeah - then she tried phoning the landlord and some other guy, but no one was home. So she said she'd come over to my apartment to take a look. The 3 of us go over there (I've been very mute this whole time - my Japanese being a little scratchy today) but I can understand what they're saying. She tried all the breakers at my place, in all combinations - with no luck. Bummer. So we thank her profusely (she was so nice!) and she said to drop by sometime (I think). Oh, and she introduced herself - Yoko. Must remember her name. So nice!
Ok, so back to our plan of getting candles, eating pizza, and waiting for someone else in thhe apartment building to get home and call the appropriate person. Bianca went and got the candles, I made the English muffin pizzas by the light of the moon, since I had my door open to get a cross-breeze thing going. I popped 'em in the oven (ah - thank God for gas ovens!) Bianca returned with the birthday candles and beer - and we chowed down in the romantic light. A hardee har har.
Now it's about 8:30 and there are still no lights. Oh! What's that I hear? Could it be steps coming up the stairs! Yes! Someone else is home! Surely they will call the landlord! The electrician! Whomever it is they're supposed to call! They're unlocking their door now... it'll just be a few moments.. I run to my door to watch them try and turn on their lights..
Flick.
Lights on!
WHAT!? WHAT?! Wha-ha-ha-haaaat. It's just MY place with no lights? Why? Why me? Why tonight, when I have Bianca over and Jon arriving tomorrow? Why on a long weekend? Whyyyyyyyy?!
Argh. So we think for awhile... why. Why. Hey, Bianca says, maybe you didn't pay your bills! No, I say, the office pays my bills, and I don't think they'd FORGET... no... of course, I *did* get something in the mail from the electric company today - I can't read it for all the kanjis.. I hand it to Bianca to see if she can read it - no luck. So she says "Is your boss still at the office?" - I look at my watch. 8:40. Well, it's worth a shot. I bike over to the office faster than Jimmeny cricket (is that fast?). I run in the building - bound up the stairs - run to the office door - just as I'm opening it, Hirabayashi-san opens it from the other side. OHMYGOD! I'm so glad you're still here! My lights - they're out - thought it was building - waited and waited - flicked all the breakers - still no lights - friend waiting at home - neighbours come home - lights - this letter...
So as I'm hyperventilating, I hand Hirabayashi-san the letter, and he reads it - sure enough the electric company has CUT MY POWER! THE BILLS HAVE NOT BEEN PAID. I start to laugh. I think I was in hysterics. Hirabayashi-san is laughing - this is insane!
Luckily Nakamura-san is still at the office - she's the one who pays the bills... as it turns out, she hadn't been receiving any electricity bills, and I had been getting all these notices in the mail but since I just thought they were junk I had chucked them all out.
So, it's about 5 to 9 now - she tries to phone the electric company to see what she can do. Thank goodness, someone is there! So she spent maybe 10 minutes on the phone, explaining why they hadn't paid the bills and stuff - she was trying to convince the guy to let her pay tonight, even though they were already closed. After a lot of convincing, they said they would turn the electricity back on if she went NOW to Hachioji to pay the bills.
Oh my goodness, none of us could stop laughing, this is insane. So I bike like, fast, back to my apartment, where Bianca is reading "Cosmo" by candlelight, to tell her the news that I would indeed have electricity in a few hours. *whew*.
So Bianca had to leave - I walked her to the station in the rain.. and now I'm home, writing by candlelight. I can't stop laughing.
Hmm, I've been writing for a long time now, it's almost midnight... I should really check to see if the lights are back on... one sec...
THEY'RE ON! Houston, I think we have electricity here! Hallelujah, hallelujah.. I'm singnin' outta here!
Saturday September 13, 1997: 12:20pm on the Narita Express
Oh my goodness, I think I am going to be very late picking up Jon. I am SUCH a twit! His flight arrives in 10 minutes - and I must be at LEAST half an hour away from Narita. Actually, it would even be worse if I hadn't exchanged my regular express ticket for the Narita Express.. oh, I feel so bad!
midnight
Ok, I don't feel so bad anymore cuz I got to the airport at 1 or so, and yeah Jon's flight had arrived at 12:45 but they weren't coming out of the baggage claim yet. *whew*. So luckily I found the gate right away and stood around with the other people waiting for someone to arrive. Now let me say that this is so... suspenseful! Like, they have a TV screen of each exit (there were 2 exits where I was) so that you can watch and see the person on the screen before you can actually see them in person. Ok so the outcome of having this screen is that everyone is completely engrossed with it, and everytime someone enters the view - we all start, thinking it's the person we're waiting for.
So of course I'm pretty impatient Anyways, instead of going straight to my apartment like normal people would, we headed over to Ichigaya. Well, we wanted to see this calligraphy and glass art show... and it was the last day... so we dump Jon's luggage (with convenient *wheels* - I gotta get me some o' them!) off at a locker in the Tokyo station and go to this show.
It was really neat! It was just in a gallery the size of my apartment... and Sensei Kitagawa had told the artist about me, so they knew who I was! They said I had to sign the guestbook in kanji cuz they'd heard I did it well. (!!) Cool. Anyways, the calligraphy at this show was like nothing I'd seen before - it was quite modern in style. No - actually, the CALLIGRAPHY was still the same (one of the 5 styles) but they had added in other designs on the background... and it was just really neat. These calligraphies never cease to amaze me.
Then there was the glass, which was really funky! You may wonder "how can glass be funky?".. it's quite hard to explain, but there were glasses, plates, bowls, vases, etc, all hand-made from glass, in the *neatest* ways. Wow. I never thought I could find glass so interesting!! Of course, they were all incredibly expensive - a pair of shot-sized glasses for maybe Y5,000 ($60) Yowsers!
So at 5 or so we had to backtrack to Tokyo station, then make our long way to the Hino station - and then we decided to WALK to my apartment since the amazing bag's got wheels.. man, I was quite impressed that Jon had made it so far... what a long day for him!
Jon unpacked a bit - wow, he brought me just tons of stuff! It was Christmas for the 2nd time in the last month! Oh - candy! Jujubes! And this really neat thing from Korea (stop-over flight in Seoul)... cool cool cool! We talked for hours, there's just so much to say!
Sunday September 14, 1997: midnight
8 o'clock rise 'n shine - 5 hours sleep no problem I've done it before. We're out the door by 9:30 or so - and on the train to Shibuya by 10. And that's where the day began. First up was Hachiko - the statue of the loyal dog... meeting place for all who come to Shibuya... and next we just started to wander the streets. At first we were planning to follow the walking tour suggested in my guide book, but after approximately 5 minutes, I declared that the walking tour SUCKED, and that we should really be going in another direction if we wanted to see the funky stuff (I've been to Shibuya before...) so we abandoned plan #1.
Anyways, it was a good idea because we found all the really neat 2nd hand shops, and shops with the strangest clothing, I think. Jon was looking for a toque to control the wild masses of pink/blonde hair (giving Jason a run for his money - naw, just kiddin', it's not THAT wild!). Oh, and he also needs a hat for the climbing Fuji-san thing. Ok, so we walked around... and then we figured out that I'd goten a wee bit confused about the original walking tour, and we had done it anyways. Well cool... how convenient.
So we walk over to Harajuku - what a neat place! There were tons of people.. woah. First thing we noticed was the huge advertisement "Nude of Laforet" - complete with the picture of 2 men in only their briefs walking down a street. Weird. And all along the street we kept on passing the oddest dressed people with the wierdest haircuts. Fascinating!
We headed over to the Oriental Bazaar - a 4-storied shope full of oriental (but mostly Japanese) items. Neat place - good for souvenirs, and they had postcards. Jon found a couple of things there, and I found this journal, so all was good.
From there we walked over to Meiji Jingu (Meiji Temple) - through all these wierd-lookin' people. The temple is located in a huge park with huge trees and lots of green - neat. When we got to the temple we actually had just missed the end of a Japanese wedding, so the bride was having pictures taken... oh enat, sh was in the Japanese wedding dress which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars - no joke! NO joke! Needless to say, it looked quie impressive (maybe not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, but...) and she had her face pained white and all her hair done up really traditional-like.
So we did the whole temple thing; the water drinking, coin throwing, yada yada, only to discover moments later, on reading the temple's brochure, that we'd gotten ALL the etiquette wrong. Oh well, today was one of those "I'm a tourist today" days, so I was allowed to make tourist mistakes.
From the Meiji Jingu we went and sat down beside this whole group of girls dressed in fishnet, leather, and various other strange things, and ate our lunch (pb & j sandwhiches). Then we walked over to Yoyogi Koen (Yoyogi Park) next door, and we saw the strangest thing. It was 6 or 7 guys, dressed like John Travolta in "Grease", dancing to this funky music blasting from a stereo they'd brought. It was crazy! They were break-dancing and doing other real wierd things too. We musta watched them for 10 minutes or so.. it was great!
We walked a bit in Yoyogi Koen, then went to the flea market that we happened to come upon. Cool.
Ah, so then we headed on to Takeshita dori (Takeshita Street) - which was so PACKED! Jon found these narrow streets really neat - especially how they're built UP so high. Anyways, this street was neat - closed to cars - funky shops and interesting people.
We kept on walking... and walking... until we got to Aoyama. Jon thought we were lost at one point, I think, but I had more faith in my navigation abilities (yeah, whatever). In Aoyama there's not much to see so we just walked down "Killer Dori" (named such because of the _really_ expensive shops along it) towards Rappongi, where we headed next. After a few minutes of going down Killer Dori, we found ouselves walking beside the Aoyama cemetary, so we decided to go in and check the place out. It's huge! It's -- old! We saw some pretty strange lookin' tombstones, that's for sure. Oh, so this is where we got minorly lost. In a cemetary. Perfect. Well why don't we just go ask that dead guy over there for directions? Hey, it's easy to get disoriented in a place that looks the same in all 4 directions. We looked at the map, but Jon and I didn't agree on which way we were facing, but we both agreed on which way to go next (!).. and when we emerged from the cemetary we discovered that neither of us had been right! How silly. So we're stangin at this intersection figuring out *where* we could possibly be, when this Australian woman comes over and asks if we need help. Cool. So she points us in the right direction, and I hand the map over to Jon so that he can be navigator for awhile.
We got to Rappongi, which is actually quite the UNlively place at 5pm. I barely recognized it.
It had started to rain.. well, I don't really call it rain, it was more like mist. Not enough to get an umbrella or go indoors, but enough to get you just a bit wet... it was kinda refreshing actually.
Now the reason we were going to Rappongi was not to see the nitelife - we were going to find the Tokyo Tower, which isn't hard to do from Rappongi since the darn thing is, well, kinda big.
We looked around it for a short while - we didn't want to go up because (a)it was really cloudy, and (b) it costs an arm and a leg (= Y900 = $11). We got the point that it's big though. It's modelled after the Eiffel tower - but it's just a bit taller. They painted it this bright orange colour, so I find it quite ugly actually. BUT, it must be seen...
And then from there we headed to Zojyo-ji (Zojyo Temple) which is right close to Tokyo Tower. There were the strangest group of miniature statues... strange because they were kinda dressed up. There were 2 or 3 rows of about 80 across of these statues, each one sporting a colourful crocheted hat and holding a pinwheel. It looked cool!
From Zojyo-ji we went to the closest train station.. and went home. *whew* that was a long day! We figured out that we'd only stopped once, at lunch time! Anyways, we have to rest up for Fuji-san tomorrow... we've been getting organized. I'm getting excited...
on to the rest of the week...
email me at: amsharp@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca