1st day in Japan

The time is 1.24 am in Yokohama. I am seated on my bed, with my laptop and the TV on. Right now I am staying at Shin Yokohama Prince Hotel. A garantuan 42 storey modern themed hotel situated in the heart of Shin Yokohama.
Today was not a very good day to tour the place although I did go to Tokyo for lunch. IT is pretty amazing stuff considering that last friday I was still worrying my ass off whether I can handle the EOPT. Right now I am enjoying superb Japanese hotel services or rather courtesy because they are great at offering you services.
I arrived at NArita airport at 7.15am an hour later than Singapore's time. It is indeed a wonderful place, Japan. Everyone is unbelievably pleasant and helpful. Except I really cannot make head or tail what they are trying to say. It all sounds like a gigantic porn movie without the porn. Not that I have watched many but perhaps it might be a good way to improve my Japanese.
So there is this Limosine bus which took me straight to my hotel from the airport. A journey that lasted the whole of 2 hours. The wind was cold and the rain started falling in bits and pieces. Much like raining water crumbs. As the clock continue the its circular motion of its limbs, the temperature fell further and by the time I got to the hotel, it was really too cold to be going anywhere. The raindrops conspired to take away more heat from us.
I was told at the checkin at the hotel that the room is only available at 2pm. Something which I encountered during my trip to Ansaca Hotel in KL. So at 9.20am local time, I was left with the option of paying 1500 yen for each hour earlier I decided to check in or just hanging around and explore the place abit.
Despite the icy breath of nature abound outside, I decided to chance my thick layer of cold resistance fat against the peri-zero conditions. I started out by making a short run over to the mall just besides the hotel. With Yoshinoya and KFC in sight, there was a chance to settle in with some familiar food before I experience with something more adventurous. The whole menu was different for both restaurants but at least the cashier speaks good english at KEnturket Fried Chicken. She looked Fillipino but with a Japanese name I felt inappropriate to bring my curiosity further. The food over here is expensive. With a simple burger and drink costing almost 450 yen. That is around 8 bucks in Sing dollars.
By dinner time I had gotten over the huge price tags and decided that a $20-$30 dollar meal is acceptable for a few days. But back to morning, the kind lady took about 20 minutes or so and involved almost every staff just to answer my question of how to get to Tokyo cheaply and fast from Shin Yokohama. I was really touched by her heart of servitude and she even GAVE me an umbrella because she saw that I was not carrying any. She was phillipino looking and had dark skin and big nose, not to mention the Ronald Macdonald smile. Quite ironic considering that she is working in KFC. BUt i am truly grateful to her assistance because even with her advice, I got stumped a few times by the massive number of lines and train services at their interchange. She is definitely in possession of a gorgeous personality. By the way, another lady waitress who seemed to be in her 40s looks quite delicate and attractive for a 40-year-old. That was a trend I noticed, even the old girls here look quite decent. I began to wonder why so many of them look like Taitais with their big and expensive fur coat,classy boots and elegant gloves. Then I realized maybe they are really Taitais. The devilish part of me wonder if they worked part time to earn more income for the family.
Getting to Tokyo was a rather arduous affair. Taking the subway from Shin Yokohama to Yokohama was relatively fast and straight forward. But at Yokohama there are so many interconnected lines that it gave me a headache trying to figure just where is the correct line. I even spent 10 minutes studying a map of the route of one of the lines before the policeman told me I am at the wrong place. Finding the correct Tokaido line proved to be much more difficult than I orginally envisage. YEt getting back from Shin Yokohama was a much more direct and easy matter . Mainly because I have such a good memory for places.
I had wanted to go to the Imperial palace near Tokyo station but the heavens were not helping me. With the rain showing no signs of abatement, the cold wind proving too much for my lipo covering and jacket, I had no choice but to stay within the shopping malls. There was a food street which looks more like a food town. There were just so many interconnected streets and shops which made it definitely easy for me to lose my way. I was still getting to get used to the price, because everytime I convert the quoted price back to SIng, I was left gasping. SO i headed down to Daimaru and bought a ten piece sushi for 780 yen and a ebi for 280 yen. Green tea was 240. So that became my lunch, something detrimental to my wallet but still healthier than dining at those ramen or sushi shops. Finding a place to sit was the more tiring and monumentous task of my day. There were simply no seats to be had in that 100 acre of shopping and commerical district. Not that I am sure of how big exactly is 100 acre. I meant it figuratively. But there were really no seats. Except for a row of REST station where there were about 10 seats but they were all occupied. I suspect that those who sat on it gave people an impression of being downtrodden and jobless. Either it is the seats or they are really wandering souls.
So after half an hour or meaningless walk through the whole area and not really paying attention to the shops and surroundings we found some benches marginally beneath the external edge of the compound/ It was sort of a waiting place for people looking to embark on long distance journey to other parts of Japan. ok I mean it is a bus stop.
At first the bus was blocking the rain so I put up with the poisoneous fumes emitted passionately whenever the bus arrives or takes off. Even so, it was still cold. And towards the end, the buses started to run out and I was left with little cover and had to finish my cold sushi meal with my muscles in overdrive shivering.
That was when I decided I had enough and shall not scrap and save for any more meals here. After all it is only 4 more days and with so many top notched chefs and famous eateries around I am not doing myself a favour.
I made my way back after lunch and checked into my room on the 23rd floor. It overlooks the city and now the traffic has ceased to random moving spotlight once in a while. There is a pay TV for porn for 1000 yen in my room. You have to get this TV card from the vending machine outside. I slept straight away because I did not do so on the plane. With the inflight entertainment screening of Batman plus the attractive stewardesses proving too great an impetus not to sleep.
I had wanted to wake at 6 to explore the city but only managed to pry my eyes open at 9.30pm. So it was just a short trip around the area to get my dinner and I settled for Pizza. I should really be eating more Japanese food rather than Italian food. But more shops are closing and it was really hard to decide which was worth a punt. So I ordered a cheesy pizza and a cake. The cake was definitely worth every penny and must be one of the best I had ever tasted this year. It is a layered fruit cake with dough and egg layers interpersed by delicious cream and sliced picecs of fruits. Describing it hardly do any justice. I shall let my waistline bear testimony to the satisfaction I felt eating the cake.
So at 11pm I realized the time was right. So I took a 1000 yen and made my way out. The selection was immense and I was really impressed with the Japanese for being able to make everything vendingmachined. OF course I am not talking about the pay card that was required for me to watch porn. It is the vending machines on level one where I can get hotdogs and chicken pieces and ice cream and soft drinks and beer.
Too bad it was not a day I got to know more about Japanese culture and the places but hey at least I got a few shots with the staff at the Italian restuarants to show!