Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Japan (Part 1)
Hey guys, I'm back....back again! For those of you who haven't missed me, well boo hoo I don't care about you either. For those of you who did, YAY! ily and ylm. As to those who have no clue then read on. This post is going to span pages (I took over 794 pictures!) so beware guys. This is the life of a sixteen year old Malaysian Homestay student in Tokyo and Fukushima, Japan.
On the 28th of May, 7.30 a.m. in the morning I Nicole arrived in Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan. I got to experience things I never have, I got to see things I would never like to see again, and I got to buy things and touch things I probably wouldn't have if I didn't fly all the way to Tokyo for 6 freaking hours (not as bad as London's 14 hours, but well...) To the jealous ones who stayed at home and bitched that Malaysia has as much Japanese things here as there, well suit yourself, I won't bother changing your mind. I'll have my fun, you have yours. Everyone's happy this way, especially me. :)
Our flight to Narita. MH88. It was 11.30 p.m. and everyone was so sleepy. But! There were so many hot guys walking around cause there were tons of flights to Australia within 5 minutes from us. WHOOOO. SO MUCH EMO HAIR.
Blah blah blah, board the plane, take off, sleep on the plane. I watched Grease, A Litre of Tears (Japanese movie) and listened to Rain's Coming album. Heh.Arriving in Narita Airport. ^_^ (7.30 a.m.)
Arrivals hall.
We sat on something called a "HATO BUS". Lawl, the bus attendent was so cute! Her uniform is awesome! As for the bus driver, I have to call him "talented". Roads in Tokyo are narrow and winding and sometimes, senget. There are double-storey highways and absolutely no litter on the roads. Buildings are not an eyesore, and the rivers are clear as anything. Everyone walks around in suits and do not dress sloppily in shorts and slippers. First stop, was to Hippo Family Club where we were going to meet our host families for the next 5 days.
Gorgeous view.
Yeah, so while we were on the bus on our way to Tokyo (first stop, we were all so damn tired) I was shrieking my head off when I found out the Hippo Club place was actually in SHIBUYA!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG SHIBUYA!!!!!!
SHIBUYAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hippo Club was so damn small! And my luggage was so damn huge!
After a few games and stuff and greeting our families (my host mum wasn't there, I was to follow someone else), we then took off down the road with all our luggage to....
SHIBUYA STATION!!
Look! Look! It's Shibuya! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Gawd, I've never seen so many people in one place in my life, and heck, I've been to most major countries. All these people and I had lug my luggage around myself along the busy, winding, crowded roads just to get to the station. And needless to say, the buildings weren't the only things I was looking at. ;D Japanese male are hot tamales people. Yum, yum. Very easy on the eyes in their suits and emo hair. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH.
There were so many people that I only took one shot of everything. Sorry.
Apparently the Japanese don't believe in handicapped people. Why are there stairs at every station?! Why doesn't every station have an escalator and elevator? Why are there stairs, stairs, stairs and more stairs? Why is my luggage so heavy? Did you know now I have muscles because of lugging these luggage up the stairs? (Rhetorical)
We (as in me, Vivian, some other people) took the Shinkansen or bullet train to Koriyama station, Fukushima Prefecture, where our host families were living. Sitting on that train is like nothing when in actual fact its covering 200km per hour. Impressive.
Inside the train. Everything is automatic. Even the doors. The snack lady actually bows for you. Gosh, I felt so cool.
Finally arrived in Koriyama. The station stopped at a mall where we then went to some room to meet our host parents. :D :D :D
There, this sweet little Japanese boy attracted my attention. OMIGOSH, his haircut is more trendier than the whole of Sungei Wang put together! And he's only like about...6!! He's so cute, his name is Kazuki, (sounds like Kazuya xD) and did I mention he has wonderful pink cheeks? All Japanese kids have chubby, pink cheeks. SO CUTE WEIII. SO KAWAII!!!
Then we left everyone and my host mum took me home. On the way to the car, she had to stop inside a supermarket so while I waited outside something bad happened. Why does bad luck always strike me at the most inconvenient time? I was sitting down minding my own business when I decided to stand up and put my jacket on when WHOOSH! goes my contact lens. The freaking wind blew my left contact straight out of my eye!!!! WHY OF ALL TIMES, WHY???!!! ON MY FIRST DAY IN JAPAN TOO! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!After a long time searching for it and cursing very loudly in English, I decided to forget about it and we made our merry way home. Apparently my family lives in the countryside wth paddy fields on the left and right with mountains surrounding everything else. The shopping mall/supermarket/convenience store is 20 minutes from where we live and I was very sad.
The mountains look like the example pics they give you in Microsoft computers right? xD
We arrived home and I met my two host sisters, Kana and Hitomi. The house was in Motomiya city and every signage has an English translation so for me, there was no problem reading everything. Then my okaasan took me supermarket shopping for dinner. While at the supermarket, guess who I saw:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH JIN AND KOKI'S OXY PRODUCTS!!!!! Sadly and stupidly, I didn't buy anything. :( :( :( People were staring cause I was taking pictures of this very lovely display.
MOW ice cream. Upon arriving and meeting my okaasan, I made it very clear that my only love is Kamenashi Kazuya and I know most JE bands and that I spend my day watching Japanese 'doramas' day and night. But of course, "Kamenashi ICHIBAN!" Anyway, when I saw MOW I was yakking about Yamapi and NEWS and how "Watashi daisuke Nishikido Ryo des!". My okaasan was so amused and bought me like, 5 boxes. X_X I am officially, MOW out.My room in Fukushima. The tatami I had to sleep on was the only thing I hated about Japan. The pillow was like a R-O-C-K, whereas the blanket and mattress were so soft and squishy. Oh and guess what, I HAD A TV IN MY ROOM!! YESSSSSSS!!!!!! LATE NIGHT DRAMA WATCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then I ate dinner, met the father (no he did not rape me), said "Oyasuminasai" and went to bed.
END OF FIRST DAY.
(BTW, I took more pictures than this, but for reasons that include laziness, I will not show them all here. If you want to see more, come over to my house.).
Labels: Japan
10:08 AM
