- a Japanese man trying to take a picture of me while I eat breakfast with his camera phone
- 2 Americans coming uo to me in the street and asking me for directions (God they must have been desperate) and they were so pleased when they found out I spoke English and even shook my hand! (There aren`t many English speaking people around here)
- an albino Japanese guy
- a guy getting stopped in his car by the police and being searched
- a tramp with the dirtiest toes ever
- someone in the street with a petition, they asked me to sign it so I did and was the only English writing on the whole petition, the rest being in Japanese characters
Time- 18:10, Shinjuku
Shinjuku is mental. Seriously they should rename this place mental central. I have been here 4 hours and have seen a drumming band, a kung-fu demonstration, a 1 hour singing show and walked around in awe (more like a lost little girl gawping at everything I see). Ibekukuro is chilled compared to this.
Glad I came but feel like I need to lie down now, can`t though as have a while yet until the night bus. I stood out so much! Among the 1000`s and 1000`s of Japanese people there was me- white (v.white), freckles, ginger hair and a 55 litre rucksack strapped to my back.
Here are some pics-
Part of the one hour singing show in the street
Shinjuku
I don`t know what this is
Time- 23:10 On the night bus
Had another walk around. It`s still mental. Am on the night bus now, but since I last wrote and had a walk around I went back to the cafe for a drink (plus I had no where else to go and a huge bag that wasn`t much fun to carry around). God I was tired, and with so much time to go I started to fall asleep. You know the type of thing - sitting a table alone, head propped up by hand, kept dozing off and waking up suddenly when my elbow slid off the table, that sort of thing. What a sight!
A Japanese lady sitting on the table next to me noticed this (it must have been hard not to notice, I stand out quite a it at the best of times). She tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was alright. Wow, someone who speaks English! I explained I was fine but had a few hours to go until I got the night bus from Shinjuku to Osaka. She saus she was concerned also as I had mu luggage with me and thought I may have been homeless for the night!
Anyway we got chatting, her name is Kayono and she lives in Yokohama just south of Tokyo. She is learning English and had been in an English lesson that evening before coming to the cafe. We ended up chatting for ages! Her English was much better than she thought and it was fun having someone to talk to. Kayono had been to the UK before but had not visited Stoke on Trent (does anyone?). Her papers in front of her had noted from her English class with words like `thoroughly` and `fertile` with Japanese explanations next to them. I said I`d be back in Tokyo in a week or so so we swapped emails addresses and she said we could meet up then and maybe go out. How kind! It will be fab to actually go out with someone rather than being on my own (that sounds quite sad, but I`m having a fab time).
The night bus seems ok. Lights go off in a bit I`m guessing then off to Osaka... can`t wait!
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