Installment 14: Welcome to the Japanese Storm

Installment 14: Welcome to the Japanese Storm...

Dear Avid Readers,

I fear that there will be yet another delay in the Philippines installments, much to my dismay. Firstly, b/c we were so busy in the Philippines (so there is much to write), I could not faithfully send the installments to you. Secondly, we are now in Japan and would rather much stay as close to the current events than speak of the past. Fear not, I have kept notes of all the happenings in the Philippines, so I will try my best to recount what happened. I will most likely send you adventures of Japan more than the Philippines for the time being, so don't worry if the Installment email numbers are out of whack....no, you aren't missing any.

Please expect to read Installment 15 very soon and possibly 9...yada yada yada

So without further ado (is that even right?!)....the next installment...

Installment 14: Welcome to the Japanese Storm

Bye Bye Philippines
In the morning we got ready to leave and finished off the last minute packing. I took some pictures of Franco hiding in my luggage ahahhahaa. We went downstairs for brekkie, which ended up being more like lunch. Our family feeds us well. We had rice, adobo, fish and lechon kawali. I decided to leave some of my clothes in the Philippines with Tita Bello. Why? Because I wanted more room in my luggage and my pants are too big now? Could I have lost weight while travelling? Well...if only it were in a more obvious place like my face...ah well. I still think I look the same...hopefully the PK staff will recognize me when I come back. Just kidding.

We said our goodbyes and took pictures with our family. Then Roly drove us to the airport. We were assisted by staff at the airport and lucky for us, there was no line. Score! Jos was talking with some staff too and one dude was particularly interested in us. He was asking me if I speak Tagalog and I just said no and then moved on. No, he is not a potential...he was actually creepy...kind of lurking around and staring at us. He even checked Jos' carry on and said it was heavy...sure enough 4kgs too heavy! She had to re-pack some of her stuff and also she had to take her boots of later on for screening and the lady thought her socks were her shoes...b/c of the design...

Mr. Creepy was on our side too once we had checked in...we had tea and coffee. We tried to make some phone calls, but we really couldn't understand the payphones. We were able to make one phone call and then we gave up. Flight went well. I was sandwiched by Jos and a tall dude who helped us with our luggage. Jos hasn't been feeling too great on the planes, but she's starting to feel better.

We got to Singapore airport and briefly checked our email. Everyone gets a free 15mins. So we rushed it. A few of you were concerned about what happened...don't worry..we're fine, just busy. Made some phone calls and shopped a bit. Jos bought ANOTHER Tokidoki bag..

Arrived in Tokyo to rain. The customs line was ridiculously long and tiring. They will start the fingerprinting/photo procedure starting in November. We got our luggage and took the Skyliner to Nippori. We were doing ok, a bit awkward with Jos' luggage, but ok nonetheless. That was until we switched to the Yamanote sen line...huuhuu...

When you're dragging two luggages each plus your carry-on and purse..it is really difficult to get everything in before the door closes. We were doing pretty well for the first two luggages and then the door started to close and my back was pushing between the closing doors with one leg on the platform and the other in the train...with Jos dragging me in and actually hitting someone in the face... T______T It was so funny, yet really embarassing at the same time. I apologized and Jos couldn't stop laughing her butt off.

Actually, a woman asked us if we were okay in Japanese. I assured her we were fine. We dreaded repeating this on our way out of Takadanobaba stn. Luckily a young woman offered to help us take our luggage out. She was really nice and actually left the train with her belongings inside...that's supernice in my books. Anyway, got to the station and it was raining really hard. No taxis would take us with all that luggage, so we walked in the cold, frigid rain. A 10min walk took 25mins. We were soaked when we got to Mellers. She felt bad for not being able to meet us, but it was ok. I took a shower and Jos took one too. We ordered Bulgogi Pizza from Pizza Hut delivery.

Made a quick trip to the convenience store and also saw the old, supermarket owner that I talked to in April. He remembered me too and was all ready to have another good conversation. We talked a bit and in my broken Japanese explained Jos was my sister and we visited other places too.

We went back and ate some food. We relaxed for a while and then got ready for clubbing. Yes, clubbing on the very first day we got to Tokyo. What a long day huh? Jos did a nice makeup job on me...b/c I really don't know anything about makeup and off we went. We waited at the pizza place near Gaspanic Cafe and surprised both Nare and Yu-chan. I was really happy to see them again! They both had different hairstyles too!

Gaspanic was crowded as ever. The music varied and Jos waited for her music to play. We danced to pretty much everything. Sadly I only saw a few hotties ahaha, but they didn't stick around long. :( The rest were yuck. And there was an extremely drunk dude who eventually got kicked out. Mellers did her long awaited Soulja Boy dance... We also took a break to the convenience store and saw the actor who played the rival high jumper in the Hana Kimi j-dorama. One of the guys there was wearing a netted shirt with a jockey with a faucet/tap stategically placed and money tucked in the jockey too.

Jos was pretty jetlagged and I even blinked a couple of times on the train ride home. We stayed till the club played the last song, I believe at 4 a.m. Went back to get our stuff and walked to the station. Can you believe we saw the drunk dude who got kicked out in a store corner embracing an asian woman (who seemed ok with it)?!!

Got home, took showers and went to sleep.

Ok...I need sleep. Update you again later.

Bye Bye

Sam
p.s. found out this morning that we actually walked through a typhoon...yup...just our luck!!