Tokyo love

I just back from my Tokyo trip. I'm writing this sitting at my favorite book cafe in Hongdae. Despite the fresh mango juice besides me, the trendy people passing by outside and the comfy chair I already miss Tokyo. It was a trip with so much happning and yet not enough. I experienced my first earthquake, went to the beach and most importantly met my gorgeous, fantastic friends.

I started the trip by being late for my flight. This, I must point out, was not my fault and the only reason I made it was that I always take Murphy in to account when I plan. Three airportexpress busses passed me by, full, until after 45 min waiting ended and I got a seat. I have never been late to check in so I was in full stress alert mode just daring the universe to through something else at me. So it promptly did. In form of the longest check-in line in history, complete with families with toddlers, babes with serious amount of baggage and a group of pissed of french Canadians. More or less jumping up and down (since bording was in 10 min) I prayed to whatever deity was in charge of travelers. And they they answered! Or I asked a high school age looking attendent what I was supposed to do. When in doubt, make sure the people in charge know that there is trouble. He immediently started to look almost as stressed as I was (very gratefying) and after some thinking, pointed me to the express check -in line and told me to wait. Voila, 10 min later I was checked in and sprinting towards customs, immigration and everybody else who wanted to see my passport. My karma was superb and I sailed through all potential hazards. Once I landed same thing. I even managed to get on the Narita express and meet Ida almost hassle free.

As for the earthquake... Ida and I were drinking champange and watching youtube when suddenly we realised that our glasses were trembling. We got a firm grip on them and peered around and then at each other. The conversation went something like this: 'Is it only me being drunk or is everything kind of shaking? Nope, congrats you just experienced your first earthquake.' Not very dramatic.

An other thing that happened was that I met a old classmate from elementery school. How freaky is that? It is small world. He was attendeing the same school as Ida

My camera/phone stopped working the week before my trip so there are not any photos really. Except the ones my friends took. Ida lived in a niiiice suburb with beautifull (but small) gardens. She rents a room in a big house. The biggest drawback was the lack of AC. Since the temperature was around 30-35 C and the humidity crippling it made sleeping pretty hard. The following day I followed her to school and stayed at Starbucks while she had class. Now, in Korea, the people working in Starbucks are super nice but oh so slow. In Japan it took them 30 sec to fix my coffee. On the otherhand it was way more crowded. In general there seem to be more chains and fewer small cafes in Tokyo.

Ida, Cho HyeIm and her friend SongI and I went to Kamakura. This is a beach close to Tokyo, were you can actually surf. It has a nice beach-rebell kind of vibe with almost only younger people. I saw alot of subcultures I've only read about.

Ida and I also went clubbing (of course), shopping and just eating eating eating. Most of the time walking around was a chore because of the heat. Nevertheless we did. And a couple of times I went by myself. Tokyo feels much more setteled then Seoul, more planed, more crowded. Just more most of the time. And even if it has a subway system that takes a Phd to understand, it is pretty friendly and acceseable. Needless to say, I love Tokyo.

Also, besides being a fab city, it has some fab people. I meet so many people that I really missed. Most, and longest, was Mitch whom I haven't seen in 1,5 year. Like all true friends, even if you haven't been keeping in touch that often, the moment you meet it is like no time has passed since last time.

Not now, but when I have a real job and some real money, I would love to live in Tokyo. Just not yet.