nihon turipu apr 5: brrrrrrrrrrr...

arrived at nihon at around 8 am. when i got out of the airport, i asked myself "nasan na ang lamig?" it wasn't cold at all! so i took off my jacket.

japan has earned a lot of tourists since the last time i went there in 2004. i queued at the immigration counters for tourists. it had longer queues than the counters for japanese nationals, which, after about five minutes were already empty while our queues took 48 years.

i took the narita express train going to yokohama. i paid 1500 yen only for the ticket instead of the usual 4000 plus. what is guapa gud! :p really, there was a promo for tourists whereby i could purchase a narita express train ticket for only 1500 if i also got the suica card, which is the contactless card for the trains (similar to ezlink in singapore), at 2000 yen. i arrived at okurayama station at around 11 am. good thing i didn't get lost in translation and in the directions considering i made 2 transfers along the way.

the beautifully preggy ms lily and her exquisitely gorgeous sisteroo, tess, picked me up at okurayama station. at their abode, after hauling my supposedly light luggage 3 stairways up their building, i fell asleep with all my clothes on. thanks to ms lily for allowing me to sleep for about 3 hours. gidaman pa ko siguro ato! hehehe.

we went out at night to meet jay at yokohama. manlibre man daw sya nako. he treated me to yoshinoya at yokohama! hehehe. that night it was soooooooo cold compared to the temperature in the morning.


and since i didn't have any place to stay at that night yet, i booked a very expensive hotel. the picture below is the lobby of the hotel.


not!!! hehehe. ako pa! ang mahal kaya sa japan. if i stayed in a hotel kahit one night lang, ubos kaagad pera ko. that pic was taken at the top floor of a mall in yokohama. later when i bid adieu jay, ms lily, tess, and lloyd, i was debating with myself if i'd stay in a youth hostel in yokohama or in a business inn sauna in ueno. both places i didn't know where to find actually and it was nearing 10 pm. hehehe. i finally decided to try the one in ueno. i was drawn by the promise of ichiran ramen the next day there! waaaahhhh...

and the highlight of the day? well, walking and getting lost in ueno between 1130 pm till 1 am trying to find where the sauna was in a freezing temperature of 8 degrees! that was probably the coldest i experienced in my life. i had to put on all clothing i could put on including leg warmers, mittens, and the green starhub pashmina which sue gave me. i was a walking fashion victim in ueno at midnight! :p

when i couldn't find the place, i walked inside a hotel and asked for directions. good thing i did that because i was walking at the opposite direction. if i didn't ask, i would have reached hokkaido by 5 am. :p

anyways, reaching the place was bliss since i was able to take a bath, sleep, and dream wet dreams. kay tugnaw man with imagined snow and rain! :p