Japan The Journey

In the beginning of this month I finally went to Japan. Hoorrray! 😎
I grew up with lots of kinds of Japanese animations and Japanese brands are very familiar in my country, Indonesia. We are pretty much familiar with some Japanese culture as well. We know what sayonara means. All the kids know Doraemon. Your father’s car might be Japanese (well, my father is keen on Japanese brands). We know that Japanese bow a lot. And who doesn’t know sushi?

But still, all those knowledges didn’t keep me from being amazed when I got the chance to visit the country myself. I arrived at Haneda airport in south of Tokyo. Because of the little bit unpredictable itinerary, I decided to cancel my hotel booking and decided to stay overnight at the airport. I was just sitting and watching people around me.

At around 2 am a man coming doing his job, cleaning the floor. I thought, that early! Of course he was not the only working hard at those wee hours. A group of ladies looking still very nicely walking together probably heading home, not looking knackered at all. During the time I was there I noticed twice the staff checking the trash bins so they looked clean and tidy and once the cleaning man took out the trash. Japanese are well-known for their cleanliness.

At around 4am I started to walk around in arrival area and found out that the tourist information was open! So I gathered some information from the lady in charge there. Amazing. All this put me into shame whenever I complain about work that I do (I have to admit I am not a complainer, though. Ehem 😎).

Yes, yes, I know you have been waiting for pics. I once sent my father a pic of me with Nobita and Doraemon on a dinosaur as the background when I visited Fujiko F. Fujio museum (or simply Doraemon museum), and his response was: You should take better and more beautiful pics. Haha… Yes, sure. 😉

Tokyo Skytree. Very nice view from just outside Solamachi shopping centre.

I booked a tour on http://japanican.com to experience Japan. It was a visit to some shopping centre, Ramen museum in Shin-Yokohama and Fujiko F. Fujio museum in Kawasaki. Surprisingly I was the only participant on that tour at that time. So it was like a private tour 😄 I talked a lot with the guide and it was very helpful to be with someone who speaks the language (yes, she is Japanese). The highlight of this tour was that I could find the encyclopedia of Doraemon gadgets haha believe me, I was surprised as well to find out the first time that this even existed.

All in Japanese. I know in the future my Japanese will be adequate to understand this (ganbatte ne!!!).

Tokyo tower from a distance.

Tokyo tower closer.

More stories to come. For now, arigatou gozaimasu. And mata ne!