Stupid Gaijin - Part 1 (2/8/08)

Well, I've survived my first two flights! The flight from Perth to Singapore was uneventful, but annoying as the plane was a bit old and thus didn't have on demand entertainment. By the time I thought to start watching a movie or show, I'd missed the first 20 minutes of everything, plus the selection was miniscule, so I ended up watching Made of Honour as I figured it was the only option that could still make perfect sense even if you'd missed the first seven eighths. Boy and girl are best friends forever, boy realises he loves girl just as she has a whirlwind romance and engagement, boy convinces girl to abandom wedding at the altar. Sorry if I've ruined it for anyone but it's your own damn fault for wanting to watch such rubbish. Don't go there, girlfriend. I did manage to have a spare seat next to me though, and the dessert was a triple choc drumstick, which went a fair ways to making up for the shitty entertainment.

I had a couple of hours to kill at Changi airport before my connecting flight to Tokyo, so I did a lot of wandering around and burnt my tongue drinking a very hot tea. Also bought a Neil Gaiman book to prevent any further temptation to watch terrible terrible films. Not to worry though, because my flight to Tokyo was on a super fancy Airbus A380 (I think it is?) which had huge personal screens and an amazing choice of films and shows. They even included The Mighty Boosh, Summer Heights High, and Kath and Kim! My buttons stopped working after I selected my first show, so I was forced to watch it all, and then had to get the hostess to reset my system. It froze again so I just had a little nap and read my book instead. The food was good and of course I ate it all, so I think I've had about twice the number of meals in the past day than I normally have.

The man sitting next to me on this flight had such bad breath. It was just like the breath of my MATLAB tutor, I wish never to be reminded of his breath again.

So, I'm in Tokyo now and it seems to have turned me into a social retard. I am hoping it is just the fact that I am functioning on possibly two hours of sleep in the last two days. After checking in I got a map and went for a fairly hefty walk down to Ginza to check it out. After a while I figured I should have some lunch, but couldn't decide where to go. Some places had such nice looking food displays but looked a bit scary inside, with lots of old Japanese men. I finally went up to a place that had nice pictures, and sat down to wait for a table. After they brought me an English menu I realised I was in a restaurant that served pork or pork or pork. The pictures still looked nice but after waiting for a while I left, figuring there wasn't much point waiting around for ages for something that I actually am not that fond of eating. So I wander down the road a bit and find some more nice pictures, and point at one to a waitress as I can't possibly figure out what it is called. She promptly points me in the direction of the lift, as I am trying to order something from an upstairs restaurant. Stupid gaijin. So of course I go upstairs, it is very nice and friendly and I order what is in the nice picture and I get it and... it's pork! Clearly I can't tell thinly cut pork from thinly cut chicken in an attractive photo. Anyway it was very tasty and quite cheap so it doesn't matter.

At some stage in my wandering I also heard a bell a few times, and thought it was coming from a souvenir type shop I was walking past. Turns out it was a guy on a bike trying to get past me for ages. Stupid gaijin. I think I need to have a sleep.

I walked through Hibiya Park on the way back and although it looked lovely and peaceful it was actually deafening with the noise of.. something? I assume it is some sort of insect in plague proportions but I couldn't figure out what it was. So so loud, quite similar to a dentist's drill. I then started thinking that maybe they've just set up heaps of speakers playing that sound that only adolescents can hear but clearly I am past adolescenthood, and such a thing doesn't strike me as a very Japanese thing to do, so it must be a natural noise. Noone else seemed to mind it, but I guess I was hardly clutching my ears and crying so it is hard to tell if people were effected by it at all.

Am back in the hotel now having a little lie down and trying to stay awake so I don't wake up at 2am ready for a new day (it is only 4:50pm now). I should probably make a semi early start tomorrow though, as I'm taking Harajuku by storm! If the weather is anything like it is today I feel sorry for the kids, their makeup is going to run terribly. Fingers crossed I can navigate the metro system successfully, I'm hoping my stupidity of today will disappear after a good night's sleep.