tokyo, oh tokyo

ahh, tokyo. well, it certainly was an eye-opener and that's for sure. japan, while retaining all it's charm and uniqueness has fallen a notch in my list of places to absolutely return to. the main reason was the language barrier. i wouldn't have thought it would be such a problem, but it was. we tried to go shopping one day and got utterly depressed because we couldn't find any shops - the city just wasn't accessable like KL or singapore. and the people have this aloofness that shuns any attempt to communicate.

but apart from that, the place is cool and it was brilliant to see places that i've seen be decimated in animes (tokyo tower and the diet building for instance). tokyo tower was a little let-down; the diet building wasn't.
and the coolest thing about the whole place: tokyo disneyland! yes. it was so brilliant. we spent a whole day there - 13 hours going on rides and wandering around looking at all the mad disney stuff. i still have all the songs in my head - so good.

the hostel we stayed in was a nice place to stay for a few days. we had a room (more of a partition in a room) to ourselves, which worked out very well, we had enough space and privacy - compared to the people in the "dorm" (aka, outside of our partition). they all were just on bunks squashed in together into a space smaller than an irish bedroom. it had character, though + was quite japanese (that is to say small and cramped - all the towns were like that: as many houses squashed in together as possible; and no green to be seen anywhere - that was quite depressing after the amazing trees of south-east asia).
but we were close to the train lines and the trip into tokyo centre took only 20minutes. a note to any girl planning a trip to tokyo and wanting to buy cheap clothes: head to the subnade shopping centre under shinjuku station.

now it's on to winter. i've not had enough of summer. south-east asian weather is not like summer, it's just like hot. japanese summer was like summer and i feel i will dearly miss it - cool breezes, bright blue skys, warm sun, hanging out in a dark green canopy-ed park, watching the sun flicker through the trees. damn, i:m seriously going to miss that. at least it'll be past the shortest day; i have lenghtening evenings to count away 'til happy weather again. buhh. anyway - i'll have snow - i guess that's a consolation, right?

i must say: i'm really tired now. i feel like i could sleep for a month + my feet pain me all the time. i go to bed with them hurting and the moment i step down on them the next morning they hurt again. i need a holiday!!! heh he! no.

ever onwards

i'm in singapore now - the airport actually, just about to board a plane to tokyo. i am one happy bunny right now.

gotta go - time's up here.