Hello everyone,
Just a quick note on Nepalese productivity. First, I nearly didn't leave Kathmandu as my travel agent had failed to confirm my flight (despite leaving him my passport on Tuesday). It was only through a lot of shouting and pleading with the manager that they got me on - I was lucky that they had a spare seat. I had a four-hour flight to Guangzhou (China) and when I arrived it became clear that my baggage hadn't left Kathmandu. They gave me a number to call them from Japan and bundled me off on my second flight. It was only when I got to the gate that I realised the flight was for Tokyo. My travel agent had booked the wrong bloody destination.
I was tired - what the hell, let's go to Tokyo!
I arrived, baggageless, in the early afternoon and (following the advice of the infallible Lonely Planet) went to a capsule hotel in an area called Ueno. I booked in and went to sleep, having not done so for a long time. The capsule is basically a space saving idea - little beds inside pods that are stacked on top of one another and mainly used by businessmen. No other tourists here.
Yesterday I woke up in my undersized capsule and went for a hot power-shower. It was amazing. As I was drying myself I noticed a cryptic sign on the hairdryer which read "Not to be used for the other purpose". I also went to the centre of Tokyo and looked around. The first thing that struck me was how clean and quiet everything was. Even the cars don't seem to make any noise. I heard one car horn the whole day (in the taxi from Thamel to Kathmandu airport, at 8.30pm, I heard at least two hundred). Also I saw my first skyscrapers - everything looks huge here; even the McDonalds is across seven floors. I wandered around the Royal Palace Gardens and went to the Sony Centre, which has previews of their super-hi-tech upcoming products (there's a Sony Vaio hard drive which wirelessly links to your TV so it also becomes your computer!) I went for lunch at a little noodle place and noticed something called 'Cora' on the drinks menu. I asked what it was and the woman looked at me, utterly perplexed, and said: "You know, Coca-cora". Ah, stereotypes! I went to the toilet and was unzipping my trousers when I noticed I was standing over the sink - everything is so low here!
For dinner I had an 'unagi bento', fried eel on a bed of rice. It was very nice. I wandered the streets looking for another tourist but there aren't any. All of the locals were sitting in the amusement centres pumping endless coins into the machines. The lights are so bright here it felt like you were walking around during the day. I didn't find a pub (only restaurants) so went back to my little capsule to sleep.
Today I woke up and finally got through to China South baggage people. I had tried from every phonebox I found yesterday, but nobody ever picked up. My stuff is being delivered to my hostel tonight - which means I have to stay in Ueno again. I was hoping to go somewhere else with people I can actually converse with. Never mind - one night then I'll try to make some friends. Later on I'll go to visit Shinjuku; the ultra-modern Tokyo that you see on posters.
That's it for now.
Joe x
