(^_-)

Welcome to my blog JP Trippin. It is a story about 2 weeks of my life spent in Japan. I travel to places such as Fukuoka, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Experiencing the culture, the people, and learning more about myself in this unforgettable journey I had. Enjoy and feel free to comment :)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

イタイ

You know what can suck about Japan? When your a westerner trying to find a western style toilet (>_<) 

We soon left the Matsuya. Coney had to go get his bike and made a plan to meet us at a Starbucks/magazine spot. Kotoba searched for the magazine "Woofin heads" cause I wanted to cop it since he was featured in it. This was also a chance to check if my bank card was working. It did! Yatta! My guess was I had to go to citibank for cash withdrawals.

Coney soon showed up and we headed to the train lines. I must say for a shitty place im staying in I lucked out on location because I was so close to these "what's happening areas". The sun began to rise and the streets were quiet. I could hear the jingling noise of this good luck charm Okaasan put on my keys and thought things could have been worse. Arigatou Okaasan (^O^)

We hit the station and even though I was gonna be in Osaka for another day I was not gonna see my brothers until my next trip to Japan. (T_T) I was on an extended spring break and they had real life jobs to handle tomorrow. We made plans to stay in contact over social networks and email. In English they called me brother and in Japanese I called them kyoudai. We dapped and hugged with our last words being "peace".

March 19
Osaka

I went down stairs and sat waiting for the first train. I continued to ice my forehead to be absolutely sure the lump would disappear. The ice was melting so I wrapped it in my Keffiyeh. As I sat there I could feel the stares of Japanese bystanders. I just looked away feeling ashamed because I was an example of another gaijin starting trouble in their country. Soon my train arrived. When I got on I decided to stand with my back facing the rest of the passengers. I just stared at my own reflection off the windows of the door avoiding eye contact. I had reached my station which by the way seems to have an ever blowing hurricane even when there's no wind outside :/ Dam I was cold. I made it to the hostel and shrouded myself in the darkness as the receptionist passed me my keys. I looked away to keep him from seeing my battle scars. I didnt want to give them the impression that I was bringing trouble to this place, a shitty place, but I still needed to get cleaned up. It was gonna be a busy morning.


I got to my room and began taking my sweaty clothes off. I was soaked in dried blood. I hadn't noticed because my shirt was black as well as my jacket. But when I removed my shirts, blood had dripped all the way down to my belly button. My white thermal clearly displayed huge blood stains. It was everywhere: all the layers of shirts I wore, my chest, my jeans, and even my sneakers had it. I was again reminded of DMX's flesh of my flesh. 

Stripping down was no walk in the park. My hostel was colder than outside and I needed to shower. If today wasn't my last day, I would have switched locations. I went down to the showers and was glad no one had decided to get up and clean themselves at 5:30 in the morning. When I looked in the mirror I realized my neck was full of dried blood that my jacket had concealed. Dam where else could it be. I hit the showers trying my hardest to not soak the bandage placed over my eyebrow. I had a feeling the blood was still flowing under it.

Note: when you go to a dorm style place to live in Japan you may run across a shower that requires you to press the lever down every 5 seconds to keep the water running. That's more annoying than sinks that require a push every 3 seconds.

After feeling refreshed I took a look at my gear and knew it was useless. I wasn't sure of how to dispose of blood soaked clothing in japan, which by the way is a nation where trash must be thrown away in categories, and I wasn't gonna ask the reception guys cause the last thing I need was to get kicked out if they feared I was gonna bring trouble. Which probably wouldn't have been a bad idea considering how crappy the place was. So I tossed my shit in the barrel that was on my floor and avoided showing signs of injury. Bringing my hat along for the trip turned out to be an image saver, as it perfectly hid my cut and bruises. Plus it had a cute chibi Spiderman on it. Love tokidoki.

I cleaned my glasses and checked the damage they sustained. The frame was a bit bent but I was able to fix it as best I can. As for the lenses they were both cracked in 2 different places. There were some minor scratches as well. I've decided never to go or do anything that will require my  awareness to it's fullest if shit goes down, unless I got contacts. I text Yukie about wanting to buy contacts but it turns out she only sells glasses (´Д` ) I need laser eye surgery!

Before I went to sleep I checked my email and had received a message from Delta flights telling me that all flights out of Haneda airport after March 24 have been suspended and moved to Narita airport. That changed two things. My expenses went up because narita is farther distance and more costly, and now I was arriving later than scheduled so I was gonna miss another week of class. The good news is I got more time in Tokyo (^_-)

Seconds later I receive an email from Ayaka, the travel agent from IACE (get your Japan flights there, 5 star service). Leading up to my trip she had accommodated me with all my request. From flight schedule to JR pass, Etc. She ask how my stay in Japan was and the only thing that I can thing of was my scuffle. I just gave her a general answer and she fired back with dialogue that sparked a conversation. Our talks always went farther than the "how was your flight?" talk. The good news is that she is another person that I know who's family and friends are safe and sound.

I felt a cold coming on and needed some sleep zzzZzzZz

Keep it 元気

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