Ah crap! / Sendai

Actual date Oct 13

Hey Everybody!

So it's night 2 here in Sendai.  It's a bit late, but I thought I should send out an update.  I'm good, though I haven't actually done much sight seeing yet.  And I ended up with some trouble and things weren't so smooth getting here actually.  Basically, I'm still mad at myself because I missed my bus.

So my plan was to go and tour around Ueno (which went well), then head over to Shinjuku to wait for my bus, take the night bus and then drop off my luggage when I got to Sendai, then tour here too.  After Ueno, I ended up staying at my hostel so I could use the wifi and do research.  I remember thinking all day and afternoon and evening that I was basically looking around while killing time.  And then, for some very maddening, very very frustrating, and disappointing reason, I thought it was a good idea to leave my hotel for the bus station at 11:30pm and that I would have extra time once I got there, when my bus departed at 1200, from the other side of metropolitan Tokyo.

When I actually started heading for the nearby train station, I suddenly realized that I only had about 35 minutes before my bus was departing, so along with starting to swear at myself, I started running, with my luggage/duffle/big backpack on, all the way to the station and between trains to get to the bus depot 10 minutes late.  Since I missed the bus, I couldn't exchange or return the ticket, and the next bus with an open seat (actually only 1 remaining) wasn't until 2:30 the next afternoon.  There was a bus at 9 am, but it was full.  So I bought it on the spot, for a pretty good price actually.  By this point it was 12:20 am and the trains were about to shut down, so I knew I didn't have time to make it back to my hostel, since I figured out it takes at least 45 minutes to make the trip.  But thank goodness Shinjuku is such a lively place and the Japanese are them quirky selves, because I asked for some directions and ended up at a Manga-Kissa maybe half a block away.

I couldn't find a good web page to paste a link to, but if you google it you can get the idea.  They're basically like a comic book library, an internet cafe, and an office of tiny cubicles with doors, mixed together and have a bathroom, shower and free vending machine drinks.  Except for the fact that I couldn't really lay down with my legs straight, I think if I had taken advantage of all the available facilities, it would have been pretty comfortable.  I didn't really feel like having coffee or cola at 1am though, and I was too tired to try figuring out the protocol for the shower, and I was just plain too tired, frustrated, and disappointed to do much else.

So I ended up getting about 4 1/2 hours of poor sleep and got up, figured out you have to sign up ahead of time for the shower and that there was a wait, and at 8:30 checked out and had a convience store breakfast.  I decided I didn't feel up to doing much, so I went over to the Starbucks literally across the street from the bus station, got a latte, and sat down for the next 5 hours.  I started reading the book I brought, Nuromancer, and its pretty good.  Very vibrant imagery and very gritty and quick paced.  It reminds me of Blade Runner and a technopunk manga/ anime called Ghost in the Shell.  Between reading it in starbucks and later on the bus, I've already read half of it.

I got a convience store lunch and then at 2:30 I finally caught the bus to Sendai and maybe slept an hour on the bus.  And actually, along the 5 1/2 hour trip, the bus stopped 3 times at rest stop-cafeteria-omiyage places, which I thought was interesting, since also there was a bathroom on the bus.  Finally got to Sendai and walked 15-20 minutes to my hostel, went back out and had a convenience store dinner, went back and took a shower, and went to bed.

I ended up sleeping in and had some trouble getting going.  So that was this morning.  I ended up walking around downtown and having the local specialty Gyutan (beef tongue cooked over charcoal) for lunch at a place called Rikkyu.  I was actually looking for a different place, along the way that I was going, that was recommended in my book and when I asked if it was near by, the woman I was asking actually walked me down the street to one that happened to be closed.   It did however, have a sign directing people to another location nearby, which she also walked me to, which was also closed.  She asked me if I was looking for some oishii gyudon (I gave an emphatic yes!) and then she finally walked me over to Rikkyu!  It was actually very good too!  A couple of chewy bites, but overall very flavorful and tender and very juicy.  They had an open kitchen and there was a guy, right there, with foot and a half long chopsticks, grilling cuts of prepared tongue meat over wooden charcoal.  I had the lunch set with rice with barley, some tsukemono and a bit of the brown tsukemono that tastes like sake, and some oxtail soup.  It was great.  Best meal I've had in days!  And especially in the last couple, with all the fast food beef bowl chain restaurants and convenience stores I've been eating at, which actually haven't been that bad.

Since I missed a day or so, I booked an additional night here in Sendai.  I'm moving on on Frinday the 15th to Sapporo.  I've already made reservations at a friendly looking hostel near downtown for 6 nights.  Ha, this evening I did laundry and man, Dad, those towels you bought are falling apart, and now they're all over my clothes.  So thats silly.  My left foot is still having problems with blisters.  My right one is great so far though.  My stuff hasn't been too heavy, and I don't think I've brought too much or too little.  I haven't needed either of my coats though and my pants have felt a little warm, even though it is the middle of October.  Ha, despite not knowing where I'll be or even if I'll do anything, I feel good about my birthday coming up.

Well, It's getting late and I'm planning on getting out and touring tomorrow so I gotta get to sleep.  I'm good and feel good and hope everyone is doing well.  I wish everyone could come and see all the stuff I see!  love you guys, Talk to you later!