here I sit somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Saitama city. I'm very lost and very hot. How did I get here?! let's find out shall we?!
Well on the 13th of September I flew to Iceland nr 2 (Denmark) to spend some quality time with my family. It was nice and cold...mmm cold... after 4 days with the crew, I met up with Ólöf and her ever so trusty Husky, Eros. We had some good fun, almost died of cold at a dog show, ate McDonalds and tried to shop pink thinks.
The morning of the 20th of September, after a very strange night of packing Ólöf trying to study and Eros breaking the last light of the apartment, I took my stuff and began the 18.30 hours of traveling to Japan.
Flight one: Copenhagen-Moscow.
at the airport in Denmark I wondered around waiting for my flight. When I sat down at the gate a priest sat next to me and stared until I said hello. "Hello" he replied and asked me what I was going to do in Moscow. I told him the truth, it was only a stop between flights. Then, without me asking him, he told me he was going to Russia to preform an exorcism. Honestly I didn't have a clue what to say to him at that point, but he became a little (more) creepy. Then again without me asking, he told me that his grandmother was russian... then it started to sound a little too much like The Exorcist, and I wondered if he was telling me the truth, but being a priest I would have to say that he was.
The flight was pretty boring accept for the fact that the flight attendants had to act out the security plan and show the exits old fashioned way. One of them was a guy looking strangely much like a member from the Cullen family... pale, blond, quiet and with light honey eyes. Strange. The best part: Every announcement was in Russian, followed by "English" Lady and Gent, This *mumble mumble mumble mumble* and *mumble mumble* Thank you. Then they offered me drinks...in Russian. Good times.
The airport in Moscow was huge and modern, but in every corner was a smoking station, usually in front of the bathrooms or perfume shops where the cashiers sprayed you with perfume every 3 seconds. Bought a monkey Babuska doll... :)
Flight 2: Moscow-Beijing.
7 and a half hours of boredom. Sat next to a Chinese man who slept and snored a lot. The snoring woke me up the one time I could fall asleep! Then I decided I had to go to the bathroom (oh, how I hate airplane toilets!) It' took me 20 minutes and a whole lot of shaking to wake him up, I ended up giving him a elbow shot and he woke with a loud snore.
Flight 3: Beijing-Tokyo
Not much to say about this 3 hour flight... it was a bit boring since the in flight entertainment was the same as from Moscow to Beijing... Airport was no fun since my bag decided on staying in Beijing, not surprising though, The Beijing Airport was awesome. Some really overly helpful woman helped me fill out everything and bowed too many times before she let me out, promising to send the bag to my hostel day later.
So I got lost a few times on my way from Ueno to Nishi-Kawaguchi so I decided on taking a cab. That took over an hour since there was rush hour and a lot of small accidents. The cab driver didn't seem to understand my Japanese and didn't listen to me when I told him Kawaguchi, saitama... finally after some time he figured out that I was going to Saitama.... bravo to him! after roaming around he stopped in front of a house and said HEEEERE WEEEE AAAAAREE loud and clear and sent me off. We were most definitely not there but he pointed and didn't go until I started walking up some stairs belonging to a elderly and a wee bit confused lady. I turned around and tried looking at the map I had, but found none of the places marked. After a moment I found out that I was on the right street and stood for a while trying to find out house numbers. After a confusing while someone tapped my arm and made a gesture for me to follow. A very nice lady knew where the hostel was and showed me to the door. When I thanked her she complemented my Japanese and in I went.
That's when I saw my *room* it is in fact a closed off bunk bed so small that I hardly fit in there!! Only one tatami mat and I can't sit in there without my head being bent down. My capsule is on the second floor left hand side! below me is a very VERY weird Korean guy and next to me is a very lovely Japanese man who is my conversation partner, which is awesome. The people here are very nice but this is SO TINY and can't say that I am very tall... but my only view in the mirror here are my boobs.
