Finally an update! JAPAN!

Greetings, everyone! I’m really sorry to have not updated, but rest assured that I am safe and well. I am now in Saigon (more officially known as Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, with my mama and my best bud, Brittany.

I’m going to adopt Britt’s update style and only tell you about my favorite memories of each place. Pictures may be uploaded in a full album later.

Before we landed in Vietnam, we took a three-day layover in Tokyo, Japan, to visit a friend whom we met while studying abroad in New Zealand. Arina was so kind and hospitable to us three and went out of her way to see that we were comfortable in a place where we could barely communicate with other people, sans the occasional arigato here and the konichiwa there.

[Arina taught us that folding your bills will brighten your lives. Try it!]

1. The people
I have never met any group of people as kind and courteous as the Japanese. People bow to each other whenever they greet each other and thank each other for every thing. We stayed in a tiny suburb of Yokohama, and wherever we went, we were sure that someone would be happy to help us out.

[Mom, Britt, and Arina enjoying some late breakfast.]

2. Ramen noodle
I love a good bowl of ramen, even out of the instant packages, but my taste buds were blown away in Japan. Every chance I got, I’d go for a nice heaping bowl of ramen with the pork, the seaweed, the veggies, and par-boiled egg…yum!

[This was my favorite bowl of ramen in Japan. I had it my first night there.]

3. Sweet sake
It was really cold out during a visit to the shrine, and the sweet sake warmed me to the core. My mom was obsessed with the stuff, too, and we thought she was getting really tipsy until we later realized that sweet sake is non-alcoholic. So, it was just my mom.

[100 yen got you a nice cup of deliciousness.]

4. This fantastic meal in Kamakura
We accidentally wandered into this amazing restaurant after our visit to the Hachimangu shrine. For 1300 yen, (roughly $15USD) we were treated like royalty. Keep in mind that things in Japan are not cheap. To top it off, the restaurant was uber small, there were four waitresses working in this very tiny kitchen, there was no noise in sight, and everyone patiently waited for their meals and savored every bite. Our lunch took two hours to complete.

[We had no idea that dessert was included. Red bead soup...yum!]

5. The public transportation system
I’ve pretty much driven myself wherever I’ve wanted to go, so I never really understood the beauty of a public transportation system. The Japanese public transportation system was like clockwork. The only problem for us was that if there weren’t English words, then we had a really horrible time matching the characters Arina wrote out for us with the ones on the timetable.

[Arina makes the best tour guide ever! "Right this way prease!"]

6. The cleanliness
I rarely saw a piece of trash around town, much less people just randomly disposing of their wastes in the non-appropriate containers. There were bins for compost, plastics, papers, glass, etc., and everyone obliged to the rules.

[This was the outdoor marketplace in front of the shrine. Even it was super clean.]

7. The plastic food window displays
At nearly every restaurant we went to, there were plastic foods displayed in the windows, so customers would know what the restaurants serve. Clever idea. Great for people like us to just point at what we wanted.

[Look at that huge bowl of ramen!]

8. Getting yelled at for taking jumping pictures
After the visit to the shrine, we wandered around the Asakusa market and decided that we were going to take jumping pictures of Osamu (Arina’s friend, also very cool), Arina, Brittany and me. Mom snapped the pictures until we were satisfied, but because she didn’t speak Japanese, she didn’t realized that there was an old man yelling at us for ruining business for jumping in front of his store. We were then told by Osamu to just keep quickly walking away and to not look back.

[Osamu, Brittany, and Arina rocking out.]

9. Going 140+ kph to tour Tokyo area at night
Arina’s parents took us out for a lovely dinner the second night we were there. We’d been touring Japan via the railway, so Arina’s dad decided that it’s best to see the Tokyo area at night, in his car. Who knew that the scenery could look so great at 140+ kph (86+ mph)?

[What an incredibly cute and wonderful family!]

I really enjoyed my brief stay in Japan, and I’m sure it won’t be my last time there!

[I learned that batzu maru means XO. Batzu maru batzu maru, Arina!]

I will write later about my experiences in Vietnam! I have about two weeks left here until I dash off to Thailand with Brittany (and hopefully Arina) to meet up with two other friends from New Zealand, Nok and Taw.