Glamorous: Tokyo Day one

So as not to forget...



After staying the night at a classy love motel in Busan (condoms and calling cards included), T and I made our way to the Busan Gimhae airport via taxi at 6am to check in for our 8am flight. While sleepy and very much not excited to be awake, I was thrilled to pieces when we were bumped to business class in order to "sit together". I still contend that it was my highly fashionable and sexy pleather jacket that got us the glamour, but no matter why, it was awesome! Two other girls we are acquainted with were also bumped and sat across the aisle. Sporatic garbled attempts at Fergie were made throughout the flight.

T had Sake, our friends had wine, and I tried some non alcoholic Japan airline specialty Yuzu, or Yuku, or something like that. It was delish. They served us actually really good food, and I had all the legroom I could shake a knee at. It was fabulous.

We arrived in Tokyo at around 10, made it through the swine flu infared detectors without a hitch, and thru customs etc by 11. Then it was a battle with Tokyo's mass transit system(s), which may be one of the most confusing in the world. I swear, I thought Seoul had it bad, but Tokyo is considerably worse. There are at least 3 if not 4 different systems working on different fare schedules throughout the city. Some share transfer stations, some do not. Sometimes, if you need to transfer from one line to another on the same system, you need to pay another fare, sometimes not. I took pictures, it was that confusing. Once, I almost cried. Really--New york, San Francisco, Busan, Seoul, Shanghai: cupcakes, not even regular size cake, in comparison. Tokyo: I would like to compare it to cake, but it is more like a snack that looks like it will be sweet and delicious, but a rude awakening when you bite into it and find out that it's dried squid flavored.
So, in any case, after figuring out where and how we were getting to Tokyo from Narita airport, we took a train trip into the city and checked into our hostel in Asakusa. We then took about an hour's walk to the pickup station for Tokyo's river bus "cruise", which we took to Hama-rikyu Gardens, sort of by accident. We were just trying to take the river bus, see some of Tokyo by water and get to another part of town, but a ticket to the Garden was included in the price so we strolled around there for a while. It was probably, aside from the garden for the blind in San Francisco, the coolest garden I've ever seen. Immaculately manicured and immense, it included a salt water pond, a red and white peony garden (herbs used in Chinese Medicine), a duck hunting field (kind of weird, but I guess royalty has to do something with themselves), a tea house and what seemed like miles and miles of paths.
From there, we headed to Shibuya Station, the busiest intersection in the world. We walked through the intersection twice, and had coffee on the 2nd floor of the Starbucks and watched the mobile people museum walk by. I have loads of pictures, but that will have to wait until I get home. I have to say that I have never seen that many people in one place before. It was absolutely stunning to imagine how many people must cross through every day.
We did some window shopping and watched people play Pachinko in awe, ate some dinner and headed back to the hostel around 9. While being part of the huge mass of people in that neighborhood was exciting, it was also one of the most draining things I have ever done, and I was more than ready to go back to the hostel after a couple of hours. I'm determined to play Pachinko before I leave however, and while I didn't buy anything this shopping trip, I'm sure I will soon. It was really hard not to blow all my cash on some of the coolest fashion I have ever seen, but I'm sure sooner or later I'll give in and buy some really spendy socks, at least.

Some party: Lotus Lantern Festival, Seoul, 2009.

The Lotus Lantern festival is held every year to celebrate Buddha's birthday, 2553 years ago. There are events all over Seoul, the main being in the Insadong neighborhood. There is a huge street festival with hundreds of booths offering everything from make your own mask, lantern and clay pot to face painting to acupuncture and tea ceremonies. We got free books, t shirts, wood prints and tons of photos. It was definitely the best birthday party I've ever been to. At night there was a 2 hour parade of a ba-jillion lanterns, most made of paper. There were the most amazing floats I've ever seen, also mostly made of paper and some anamatronic and breathing smoke and fire. There was incredible dancing and music. A sincerely incredible parade.
Photos can be seen here. (please click).
Videos can be seen here. (please click).

I can't say much that the pictures won't express. Really, take a look.

Oh, right, medicine.

I forgot to add in my list of awesome things I did last week: acupuncture! I went to see this Dr. by my house who I've been to a few times before. He's extra nice and has excellent English. He's been treating Timber, and I decided to go and get some treatment too. I asked him some questions during the treatment process and he was more than happy to talk all about his points. He mainly does Dr. Tung's points (from Taiwan), and some hand acupuncture. I learned cool stuff about where to bleed for muscle and bone recovery for the entire body on the hand, and the basic map of the body. My plan is to go back for one more treatment, ask some more questions and then ask if he would be willing to let me hang out in the office with him sometimes. This is exactly what I've been wanting, and I might be ready to finally make it happen. See? Best week ever.