JapanNewbie

Drive.

Posted on 21. Jul, 2002 @ 6:06 am by harvey in Culture Views: 71

Ah, don’t worry. I wasn’t driving. Last time I tried that in Japan all my passengers feared for their lives…

This weekend I went out with a friend, and a bunch his friends, friends, friends, and stuff, and drove around all night. Good times.

We rented a ‘one-box’ car, which is a huge (for Japan) van that has a back that is about three tatami mats in area. We needed the big car because we had to help a friend move that day. Actually, that was the main purpose of this little adventure; the driving was because we had the car…

Finding our friends house proved to be quite the task. I think we were lost for more than an hour and a half. My friend Hiro tried to read the map, and drive, and ask people for directions, while I slept in the passenger seat.

We didn’t get going until about 2 o’clock in the morning. Because we are slackers.

The first place we arrived at was Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo. We arrive in time for the sunset, which was surprisingly early since it is summer. It was rising already at about 4am. We got a great view of it through this beautiful natural scenery… I mean… buildings.

Rainbow Bridge is a really nice piece of work, we eventually drove across it and also head over to ‘odaiba’, a nice area of town that also has the Fuji television building. Which I failed to get a picture of… I’m sure I’ll have other chances though.

One of our friends felt that he had to jump in the ocean. Psycho.

We finally went into Hibiya Park, which you can see pictures of in the gallery coming up in the next few days.

My cell phone died on me during that Sat-Sunday all-nighter. In Japan, not having a working cell phone be crippling. Normally the battery should last more than a couple of days without being charged, but I tend to do a lot of e-mail which drains the battery quickly.

Luckily, I stopped by an AU shop in the city and just asked if they would charge my phone. I heard that you could go to a convience store and they will zap your phone for you for just 300 yen, but, I don’t have 300 yen to spare at the moment. Actually, the AU shop has a ‘charge service’ that they provide. You just leave your phone with them for an hour or so, and come back to pick it up all healthy again. Remember that if you ever get stranded without power.

Cool.

Well. That’s that in a nutshell. I only got two hours of sleep from Sat-Sun… I’m freakin tired.

-Harvey