So I was pretty much done with my entry on Japan and my kitten steps on the F5 key.

This is it though, the long-awaited, lengthy-as-all-hell entry on my first trip to Japan.

Vending machines are everywhere. On every Tokyo block, there is at least two vending machines. The great thing about vending machines in Japan is they serve everything. Hot drinks, cold drinks, hot food, smokes, you name it, you’ll eventually find a vending machine for it. You also don’t have to go searching for that one drink you really want, because each vending machine sells about 30-40 different brands of drinks.

Judy says I always had a drink in my hand throughout our time in Tokyo, and I believe it. I had at least 3 cans of hot chocolate a day. Mitsuya Cider, which does not exist here is really, really good. It’s pretty much Ramune without the marble. Also, don’t go to Japan looking for Ramune. It doesn’t exist there.

The subways and trains in Japan are amazing. There’s actually a very slight difference between the two. You ride trains most of the time. Pretty much when you’re going from one district of Tokyo to the next. The subways aren’t really used except for traveling to somewhere relatively close. Regardless of all that, they’re all clean. Really clean. These trains are wider and faster than NYC’s subways and trains. They have LCDs and PA systems that actually work.

The stations are interesting too. The whole thing is you get a ticket before entrance to enter the station, and you actually have to hold on to it, or else you’ll have to pay again when you want to leave the train. You put it through a machine and it doesn’t let you out if you don’t have your ticket.

On the JR line, which I believe is one of the most popular subway lines, there’s this whole thing going on called SUICA. You get a prepaid card and you just scan it over when you’re going in and leavng the train. You don’t even have to take it out of your wallet. You can also use your SUICA card to buy food and drinks from vending machines and even shops in stations where SUICA is used. Also, they’re promoting Mobile SUICA now, where your phone has a SUICA ID built in, and all your purchases with SUICA are just put on your phone bill. Oh, you crazy Japanese.

Once we managed to get past all the giant vending machines and the train-inspired superheroes, we went out and did stuff. First, we went to the temple in Asakusa, the traditional district of Tokyo. There’s this fortune telling system at all the temples and its pretty neat. At first, I got a normal luck. I wasn’t too happy with that, and Julie, one of our chaperones, said that your luck is always changing. So I got another fortune, and it was “The Best Fortune Ever,” or something to that extent. THen I heard Hasegawa-sensei say that your luck isn’t constantly changing. So my luck stopped changing when I had the best fortune ever and I was happy.

Asakusa also had a lot of shops with a lot of neat stuff, including a Nirvash figure that I wanted, but I figured I’d find it at our next stop, Akihabara.

Akihabara defined everything people think Japan as a whole is. Cosplayers, anime, alectronics. All of it, everywhere. It was also something somewhat like heaven. With my attitude bordering somewhere between nerd and hip, it was also distressing to be stuck there for so long. As one would expect, though, as soon as I walked into Animate, that all changed.

Let me tell you about Animate. Animate is a anime superstore kind of thing with several stores across Japan. The Akihabara Animate is 7 or 8 floors of complete otakudom. Hentai, figures, DVDs, yaoi, manga, CDs, art supplies, stationery. Everything. All there. Something from every anime series [b]ever made[/b]. Needless to say, I spent most of my money here. $500 USD, 50,000 JPY, gone in about 30 minutes. Wonderful, isn’t it? Simon wanted to shop around a bit more so Hasegawa left me in charge, kind of, while she took the others to Harajuku. This is where I got my “You’re alone in Japan, and you have to stay alive” experience. I’m actually not too bad at it, I found.

Harajuku, we weren’t there very long. About 10 minutes. Indeed this is where the stylish young people are. And here I am with Simon and Diane, holding bags and bags of stuff from Animate, cellphone-less, calling my teacher from a pay phone. I actually felt like I was doing something wrong. Got out of there real quick.

To Shibuya, where the center of a lot of things are. The big train station and the bus stations are all in Shibuya. Lots of big LCDs on TVs, tall buildings, sparkling lights, etc. Still young people, but a little older than those in Harajuku. It was an interesting place, though. We had to look for Hachiko, which I thought was maybe a big store or something since Hasegawa said everyone knew about it. Turns out it was just a park that got a neat abbreviation.

Thus is the end of our adventures in Tokyo. Onwards, to Kanoya City, where I met some of the most interesting and fun people in my life.

Lets go in order of appearance. Minoda-san was a cool, tall government official. He actually didn’t look that old, maybe a little older than my host father, who is twenty-nine. Another government official that I really liked was Sato-san, who is really talented. He could do a lot of different things and he gave me a massage. It felt good. Shut up. Sandy was pretty cool also. She came from Canadia and somehow ended up in the city government of a really small city in the very south of Japan. I don’t quite get it either.

My host family was the best. Atsuya and Taketo (Age 7 and 2, respectively) were the coolest little kids I’ve ever had to deal with. I’ve dealt with a lot of children, and I guess the ones here in the state are too bratty and annoying for me to like. They seem to like Toy Story, because my host mother and father had me call them Jessy and Blue, a la the characters in Toy Story. In exchange, they called me Jasu. It is common for family here to call me Just, but its also very difficult for Japanese people to pronounce Jasutin, because of the whole ‘tin’ part. Also, the Japanese are lazy fuckers that try to abbreviate as much as they can. So I just kind of came up with that on the spot.

The elementary school was cool. It was about 10 minutes walking from my house and there was a vending machine on the way. There weren’t many vending machines in Kanoya City but there were enough. I didn’t really use them that much here, sadly. The kids in the elementary school were all really nice and interested in Winnie, Kathleen, and I, since we were Americans and all. They were really hyper. And friendly. Yes, very friendly. I won’t discuss some of the inside jokes that were birthed at the elementary school, but you can go scour through Winnie’s blog and see if you can find them. Terrible, terrible jokes, they are.

When we left the elementary school, we were all showered with very thoughtful gifts, and it was a really nice experience. I was dreading it before I went, but now I dread what it would have been like if I hadn’t went. Hasegawa was right after all about elementary school.

On the last day of elementary school, we left early to spend the afternoon at the junior high school. This was probably one of the best afternoons I spent in Japan. Why? Because I met people my age, of course. I was assigned to the Sannensei (Third year) class in Junior high school, which is the equivalent of 9th or 10th graders here in the States. So these kids were my age, and that was relieving.

A group of girls took a liking to me immediately, with the third question out of their mouths being “Do you have a girlfriend?,” followed by “What kind of girl do you like?” However, guys were asking me these kinds of questions too. And the elementary schoolers did also. Good old Japanese policy of asking whatever the hell you want, as long as you’re polite about it.

Anyway, I went to recess with aforementioned group of girls and we played… volleyball. Winnie and Kathleen were laughing at me with their underclassmen friends from a distance. They were just jealous. The girls I Was with expected me to memorize all of their names in about 5 minutes, and I did a good job, I think. In this group of girls was Izumi, who was very cute and very nice and I, of course, got her email address and have been emailing her. Moving along. These chicks were all really nice, and I wish I could have spent another day or two there to get to know them better, but it was almost time to return back to hell, otherwise known as America.

On Saturday, my host family and I went to Kagoshima City, the big city in the Kagoshima Prefecture. Pretty much you drive onto a ferry and ride on over. You can also get a pretty nice shot of Sakurajima, the resident active volcano. Kagoshima City is nothing compared to Tokyo, but it was really nice. Izumi is actually going to high school in Kagoshima, I found out. In Japan, students move all across Japan to attend different schools. When you reach high school, it isn’t uncommon to dorm with a friend or live by yourself for high school.

My host father took me to a Book Off in Kagoshima City, which had Tsubakiya’s CDs (I had no more money at this point) as well as a bunch of 100yen CDs (I had enough for a few of these). We also went to one in Kanoya City which had a lot of stuff, more than the Kagoshima Book Off. LAstly, we went to a smaller used bookstore in Kagoshima where I bought a pretty penny worth of stuff. In total, while I was in Japan I bought 40 tankouban (volumes) of manga and 5 artbooks, as well as various other goods from stationary, plamo (plastic models), and figures. We also went bowling, and I lost terribly. It was fun though.

Sadly, this was pretty much the end of my trip in Japan. Saying good-bye was really painful, but I still do keep in touch. I told Izumi and my host family and our friend, Yuka, that I’d be returning to Japan next year and I’d definitely come to Kanoya and stay for a while, and I intend on it. They’re all like another family, another life in another world that was completely seperated from all the crap that was happening in this world.

It was like waking up to waking up to reality, only it wasn’t cruel at all.