Introduction Pre-Trip Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28 Jan 29 Jan 30 Jan 31 Feb 1 Feb 2 Feb 3 Feb 4 Feb 5 Feb 6 Feb 7 Feb 8 Post-Trip
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It had to start sometime...Personally, I felt the main question about my vacation does not start with a "Where?" or a "Why?"... It was more of a "When?" I had always wanted to go visit Japan for such a long time. I was very fascinated with this country ever since I was quite young. I would have assumed that when I reached the University levels, I will pull through and go to Japan. Therefore, time after time for countless years, I would say constantly to friends here and there, "I will go to Japan soon!", and a few weeks later, I would pull up lame and say, "I have to delay my trip yet again" with excuses - most of the blame would fall on my stupidity to not save enough money for a trip this big, and instead, I would rather spend on some other items instead. Now, realizing that I was a single 26 year old UVic graduate with no NHL hockey to watch (fuck you Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow), and with the potential chance of finding a career job and a girlfriend (I bet you're laughing, but I will remain positive and find one!), I figured that now was the time to get my ass in gear and go visit Japan on my own. Finally, I can re-acquiant myself with 3 good friends over there: Yoshiko (who I will meet first in Nagoya), Ly (who I will meet next in Kyoto), and Mie (who I will meet last in Kobe)! FINALLY, I fulfilled the promise! Ahh.. Japan... the home of the many great things related to the country, such as:
So I decided to make a 2-week trip to Japan in late January. There's not as much tourists travelling at the time, and the weather might be cool, but I tend to like cooler weather. Unfortunately, travelling to Japan for 2 weeks did meant that I would end up missing a few things in Victoria:
Then again, I was very positive the experience I will face will more than make up for the negatives about the trip. Anyways, I guess I should start in the month of October of 2004. At that time, I purchased my tickets (which was on hold in September), my Japan Rail Pass, and my health insurance. Exciting. Fast forward to January 2005... Like any other vacation, it was essential to prepare for this trip of this magnitude. I'll start with the phone card experience. On January 15, I wanted to call Ly, Mie, and Yoshiko because of 2 reasons: 1) I wanted to talk to them again, and 2) I wanted to make sure that the phone numbers they gave me were correct. I got a couple of phone cards from my parents' shop. Since I didn't know who I wanted to call first, I would just randomly select someone and dial that number; if that person was busy or unavailable, I would try the next person and try the previous person later. I figured that I should be able to get a hold of all of them pretty easy. Damn, was I ever wrong...
After the last pic, my little sis was getting tired of me wasting her time taking pictures of my sad attempts of trying to call my friends overseas, so the pics end there. However, I did manage to get a hold of Mie and Yoshiko, but it took a number of tries. How many tries did I do altogether?
I managed to reach Mie on the 29th try and Yoshiko on attempt #31. Once I tried the 32nd call attempt to Ly, I suffered 4 hours of attempts and frustrations. I decided to stop trying (because I had to work the next morning) and I did leave a message for Ly, but at least she did assured me that I do have her right number. But the moral of the story is this: PHONE CARDS SUCK! But then again, dialing long-distance on a regular phone or a cell phone is ridiculously expensive. Therefore, I have to ask - anybody know of a really good phone card company out there?!? Anyways, with these next few pics, I figured that I could better prepare myself for Japan by doing a couple of things that are associated with Japan - karaoke and sushi. Also, the last pic is just a pic of some of the stuff I took with me in my luggage.
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