5:22PM. Only 8 more hours until the end of the year. We left the hotel very late this morning. We figured we would be up late anyway, so sleeping late wouldn't be a problem. We would just do the Tsukiji Fish market on the 2nd. Pat called his friend Scott who lives in Tokyo to visit and to, heh heh, use his Internet connection since there was no answer at any of the Internet cafes we called. He invited us to meet him at his apartment near Shinagawa. We did the usual subway-Ueno trek to the Yamanote-sen and took it down to Shinagawa station, which is on the lower right of the Yumanote loop. While on our way, I was informed Casey smacked his head on the exit sign hard enough to flip it up and hit the ceiling. I think we're up to 15 at this point. :)
We arrived at Shinagawa station, which has quite nice architecture and I wish I had gotten it on tape on film. Following Pat's directions, we walked to the left out of the statlon and down three lights. I stopped for a can of Kirin Fire, a warm coffee with cream and sugar. It was actually very tasty and I really wanted another. After walking for a while, Pat realized he didn't recognize the area anymore so we turned around and headed back to a phone. He called Scott again, and we had just passed it on accident. We walked to the building and Scott was waiting downstairs. He led us to his apartment on the 4th floor. Scott works for Tivoli, and has been in Japan for over two years. In this respect, his apartment is paid for by IBM and he gets a per diem as well, plus a salary. Cool. His apartment was fan-tas-tic! As he led us in, he told us he still observed the no-shoes thing. I pointed out that he didn't have a genkan, a small area in the entrance where you leave your shoes and then step up into the house, so it was confusing. He has a full living room and bedroom, both very large for a japanese apartment, plus a kitchen and bathroom. He happily hooked Cyndy up with a net connection, and gave me a phone line to connect to the Mobilon. However, I spent the next 30 minutes trying to get the dang thing to dial. He was basically on a PBX, so I had to dial 0 to get out. I could NOT get the thing to dial without the dialtone, and the passthrough on his FAX kept hanging up too soon. He also only had one extension for each line so I couldn't hook up a phone on the other extension. Grr.
We left his apartment and I sent email from a grey phone. He led us quite a ways down the street trying to find an open restaurant. Almost everything was closed around there. We made it all the way to the temple he was taking us to before we found one open restaurant. So we ran back and to the nearest convenience store and nabbed some food. We wolfed it down hungrily, then went back to the temple. I don't remember the name of the temple off hand, but it's one mentioned in the tale of the 47 samurai. There's a lot more to it than that, but I'll have to fill in the details later. The other four went into a museum containing displays of armor and about all 47 samurai, but I stayed behind and read email.
As we were leaving, we realized we screwed up; we were planning on visiting the Tsukiji fish market on the 2nd since the 9th was a Sunday and it's closed. That's why we didn't go this morning. The problem with this is that the 2nd is *also* a Sunday. Doh. In all likelihood, it was closed today too, so it really didn't matter. We were also informed that all banks would be closed until the 4th (they're also closed today) and so would all ATMs. And I was running out of cash. We tried ATM after ATM looking for one with the Plus or Cirrus system on them. We found one so easily in Oosaka that we didn't think it would be a problem. I thought I would just use the one in Kanda I knew worked, but Scott was very skeptical. We thought maybe we would use a big hotel at that point. We found a small hotel and I didn't think they would, but Scott insisted we ask. Sure enough they did, but with a crappy exchange rate. Not that we were complaining, since we could actually get cash after all.
We kept walking towards the station. Scott got a call from Korea on his cell phone; he's on Y2K duty for Tivoli. We finally found an open restaurant, where we had Katsudon, unagi juu(eel box with rice), sukiyuki, and tenpura udon. After lunch, Cyndy really wanted to get back on the net, so she and I went back to a Kinkos we saw with internet access. When we were done, Scott had to get to work, and we had to get on to my host parents' place at 7.
We caught the Yamanote back to Tokyo station. We had a few minutes before the express train there, so Cyndy and I ran to find restrooms. I also looked for an omiyage (gift given when visiting someone's house), and came across something that looked like dried pineapple or papaya or something. I raced back upstairs to the train. Cyndy didn't get to use the restroom; the line was too long.
We were on tne train for about an hour, during which I wrote email. We arrived in Hachioji on the Chuo line, and since we had about 20 minutes to kill, we wandered into Hachioji. After a very brief trip, we got on the Yokohama-sen for the three stops to Aihara. Aihara hasn't changed much; sure there are some buildings under construction near the station, but it's basically identlcal. We walked quickly to my host parents' house down the street. As I walked in, there was surprise on both sides: they we're amazed at Casey's height, and I was surprised to see Mutsuo with a 4 month old son! Everyone seems to be having children lately. Mutsuo's son, Koota, is very pudgy, and is very inquisitive. Okaasan fed us dinner that consisted of various fish cakes in broth. We also had various pickles and sweet egg loafs. Afterdinner, Otoosan and I showed tnem aound the house.
All the rooms had changed slightly, but we re pretty much the same. Otoosan told us that the smallest Japanese room you'd see would be a 6 mat room (by contrast, the New Koyo's rooms couldn't have been more than four); the room I stayed in was 8 mats. A really big room would be 10 mats. We went back downstairs and I hooked in my camcorder and showed them a video of Texas. They kept saying how expansive everything was. I'll have to finish the tape I was making for them last year so they can really see. They again noted my Dad looks Japanese! How very funny. They were also amazed at the size of my parents' house, but that's expected. I'll have to get a good vieo of it when I get back to send to them. I also showed them pictures of my parents and Molly and they thought Molly was really tall and cute. :)
Otoosan also asked if Kelly was doing OK, and i told him she was fine and that we worked together now. We all talked for a long time about ourselves and life and the trip in general. They said Hakone wo\uld be completely packed right now, so it was probably better to move it to the end of the trip. It's also very expensive. I was planning on leaving at 10 so that we could get to somewhere in Tokyo in time for the New Year. Time slipped by because we were having so much fun an we actually didn't leave until 10:20. They gave Cyndy a tablecloth and told us all to come back anytime. They also told Cyndy she could stay with them if she came. It's funny how nice they are since we had such a rough time back in 1994. Oh well, time goes on I guess.
We headed back to the station, and as we got to the track crossing, our train arrived. Crrap. The trains are on a holiday schedule and they'll take forever. We arrived at the station, and I calculated the time it would take to get to Shinjuku, since the trains were running so late. We would JUST make it, assuming there was a Chou-sen train waiting for us in Hachioji. I thought maybe our little trick of taking the Yokohamasen to Machida and then the Odakyu sen to Shinjuku from there might be a better idea, but I asked the man at the gate and he told me it would be faster to take the lines we were already planning on. However, a train wouldn't be ready in Hachioji until 11:07. Express travel time is 51 minutes, meaning we would get there with only minutes to spare.
We arrived in Hachioji and raced to the Chuo sen which wasn't there yet anyway. Sure enough, the time was 11:07 whn it would arrive. and worse, it was a LOCAL train, meaning it would stop at every stop. No express trains were available until after midnight. YUCK. Which meant we would probably spend the actually rollover on the train, damnit. The train arrived and we got on, taking our seats. I worked on this email some more on the Nino, but checked th average stop time every so often. By my calculations, we wouldn't get there until 12:15. Shit.
after about 35 minutes, I checked again. Whaaat? No WAY! We only had 4 more stops, and 12 minutes to spare. and each stop was taking less than three minutes! It was *possible*. Casey and I shifted nervously in our seats. It could happen...
Sure enough, we pulled in to Shinjuku station with 4 minutes to spare! We have no idea on this earth why this happened, since that meant that travel time was 48 minutes for a local train (normally 51 minutes for an express)! At that point, we didn't care. We sprinted out of the gate and out the south exit where a huge crowd had gathered in front of the Yoshinomura building and another huge wall television. The screen showed two minutes to go.. people were hugging and kissing, and a few foreigners were there doing the same. The laser sign began to count down... 50... 49....
Everyone was yelling and dancing and happy. at 18 seconds to go, the entire crowd begane to count down... jyuuhachi... jyuunana... Our hearts were racing. jyuuichi... jyuu... kyuu... hachi... The crowed was louder now... roku... go... yon... at this point I somehow managed to skip 3 and go straight to 2, but I corrected myself.. san... ni... ichi... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Everyone was screaming and happy and dancing and hanging from lampposts. The laser was writing out happy new year and other things on the huge wall. Everyone was shaking hands. Several happy young people shook our hands heartily and said "happi new yeah" over and over. They took our picture and we took theirs. I used up a whole roll of film in less tan 10 minutes. It was incredible. I can't think of a cooler place to be. Cyndy said that she knew she was in the ultimate coolest place when they started counting *in Japanese*. :)
We left there and headed to the phones, but couldn't find any international ones. Pat called Scott who told us of some places in Ebisu to go to hang out. we also told him that my host parents said that the imperial palace is open TOMORROW, not today so he won't try and go there. One guide book said the 2nd, the other "new years", but apparently, new year's is three days long.
We hopped the train to Ebisu, and at first didn't see any people on the side we went out. Tehre were TONS of foreigners in the station, including some teenage western models as far as we could tell. We walked up the street and found large groups of people hanging out and setting off fireworks. Several bars were around. We walked into an area where people were dismantling a stage; apparently a huge concert had gone on here. We walked past and into the Westin hotel where we found international phones and called home.
We decided to try and find a bar or two, and after walking around, really didn't find any worthwhile. At one bar, people shook our hands and told us "happi new yeah" again, and took our picture. We decided it was time to go home. Our feet hurt, we were sleepy, and our legs were tired. Trains ran very infrequently, but they were still running even at 3AM. The longest wait was for the subway, which only ran every 30 minutes. So, exhausted, we sat on the floor of the subway waiting for it to arrive. We packed our way on when it did and headed to Iriya. Tokyo is very different on the first. Small children are walking around at 2AM going to temples with their parents. People are loud and obnoxious on the trains. It's really weird to see normally reserved Japan out and about at such a late hour; the streets are usually deserted at that time except for a few (usually drunk) people returning home. We stopped by a convenience store to by some snacks and drinks, then walked around the corner to the hotel. The doors were fully open and the desk was staffed because of the first, so we got in, picked up our key and went upstairs. I wrote email and snacked on some tuna rice balls, then passed out myself.
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1/1/2000 10:18 AM. Got up late, but it doesn't really matter today. pat and I are dressed, but Casey and Cyndy jst woke up. The weather is beautiful today, not a cloud in the sky and it's relatively warm, too. Okaasan said last night that Japan was unusually warm for this time of year. It's usually very cold, she said. It's probably no lower that 65 degrees outside right now - we have the window open. They called us this morning and told us we were spposed to heck out by 10AM, but I told her we're not checking out until tomorrow, since we did pay for three days. She apologized.
Today,we're not sure what we're going to do. We're again going to Shinjuku to go up Toochoo, although Pat says he's very tired of Shinjuku and wants to go other places. He really resisted going there last night, but we didn't have time to go anywhere else anyway, so he was ok with it. He thought it was cool anyway. I'm still in shock that we made it on time. i didn't think there was any way we would get there on time due to Japanese efficiency and rigorous train schedules. But nope, we did. :) The Imperial Palace isn't open until tomorrow, so we're just going to get up early tomorrow and try. We're also almost out of laundry, so we *have* to stay in a place that has it tomorrow. Or maybe we can find a coin laundry around here today. I also need to make reservations today. I'm drinking this funky milky melon drink called "Melon Oore".
Well, this should be the last email before you guys hit the new year, so Happy New Year, and be safe, ne?
Hikaru