The Adventure Begins

My semester program in Tokyo finally ended today. These past few months have been a blast, but while most of the other IES students were packing up and preparing for their trips back to America, I was preparing for a different trip. Today was the first day of my three-week journey to see all the major islands of Japan (except Hokkaidou; darn Japan Rail Pass rules). My first mission as a grammar ninja was to make my way from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Anzen Dai-ichi—Safety First!

No stem cells at this Shakey's.

Although I planned to leave early in the morning, it took me longer to get all my things together than I had anticipated, mostly because I had to get the giant abandoned safety first sign I found a few days earlier to fit in my backpack (My roommates decorate the aprtment with signs). Since I had already deviated from the plan, I decided to join some friends for a goodbye lunch at  Shakey's pizza in Hara Juku. Yes, that's the same chain that Cartman clones with stem cells in South Park. It has a pretty awesome all-you-can-eat buffet deal until 4pm. After a few months in Japan, with its smaller food portions and usually higher prices, I was surprised at rediscovering just how much food fit into the limited volume of my stomach. Sitting there with my friends reminded me of the apartment CC's runs I make back home, except there's no UTD discount and it's twice the price—though the pizza, like much of Japan, is more interesting.

Unfortunately, the time for goodbyes came all too soon; I still needed to get my bags and get to the Tokyo train station. I headed back to my dorm, got my bags, said a few more goodbyes, and headed to the train station for my first ride on a bullet train, or as the Japanese say shinkansen. Incidentally, I'm not sure where the name bullet train comes from since the Japanese term means "new trunk line". Anyway, it was not a moment too soon, because I arrived at the Tokyo station just in time to catch the last bullet train of the night to Kyoto.

I was extremely excited. I was also getting pretty tired, and it didn't help that the seats were nice and roomy and the ride was smooth and practically imperceptible. Nevertheless, I was nervous enough about sleeping all the way to Osaka to stay awake until I arrived in Kyoto around 1a.m. What greeted me when I got off the train was the decked out halls of the spectacularly fancy train station, Kyoto Tower, and even Astroboy. I found my hostel, did some exploring, got my Facebook self-photo on, and went to bed to get an early start sightseeing.