day 1 tokyo

im here on a short trip with my mum, who is uh, working.
its my 3rd time here but the previous trips were disneyland filled n lotsa touristy stuff. never even been to ginza! so this time, im gonna walk the streets, do what the japs do n survive being alone, which i dont really fancy, plus my horrendous navigating skills really makes things a bit scary sometimes.

touched down at Narita at 3ishpm, the ride was so bumpy it made me sick. was really on the verge of puking so i made sure the puke bag was near at hand. anyway, after that, got onto a shuttle bus to tokyo bay, where my hotels is.
there is lots to learn from these pple here.i was on the bus n got a call so i was yaking away for maybe 3mins. the next thing i know i hear one of those pre-recorded announcements which went 'passengers, pls note that the use of portable handphones are not allowed on the bus as it ANNOYS other passengers'. thankfully i was surrounded with disapproving japs who wld prob given me the dagger eyes.

so my mum had a dinner meeting so i was off on my own. decided to walk ard my area n get some dinner. my aim was to find this particular subway station which was barely 2blks down, but i simply cldnt find it. went here n there n everywhere n even asked this chap, who cld only tell me where my hotel is, where the highway is, but not exactly where the station is. hmmm. in the end, i gave up n decided to follow where everyone walked. i mean, if so many pple headed in the same direction, SOMETHING must be there right? eventually, i reached another station, huge one, which was great cos they had little eateries n supermkts. after reaching i wondered whether that station was the one i was told to go to instead of the invisible one. similar, n very long names really dont help u know.

at the station, after scouting ard for a bit, i settled for ramen. vending machine ramen to be exact. ive heard of these b4. so i HAD to try it. jsut for fun :) u buy a ticket (which seems simple enough till u realise u cant read ANYTHING ) give it to the counter fella n he'll dish u ur bowl of noodles. thankfully there were some pictures next to the machine. but matching the jap characters among 30 different names, totally wasnt gonna work for me. so i was smarter n matched the price instead. at 430yen, i found my bowl of ramen! so i got the ticket, gave it to the old man, n while waiting i realised im not only the youngest in that minuscule standing-only stall, i was the only female. the rest were 40ish jap men in balck suits slurping their ramen away. it sure as hell was weird. what happened to those supposedly gd looking jap chaps that we see on our gatsby ads? where in tokyo r u? oh well. soon i got my ramen, n man, it was good. ok i think i was more satisfied that i got a vending machine ramen than the ramen itself. but hey, at least i managed to get what i wanted.

after ramen, i walked to this little booth selling steamed chestnuts. i didnt know what they were selling till i actually bought them but i knew i was gonna get it anyway. packaging was pretty n chestnuts were HUGE. biggest ive ever seen or tasted. it smells like bacon but taste nothing like it.

sorry i dont have pics yet... didnt bring my hp cable. sigh. till i get back?