The Pagonas' Go to Japan
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2006
1
21
28
Trip End
Ongoing
Shizuoka, Tokyo, Kamakura, and Kyoto, Japan
Sunday, January 14, 2007
We spent ten days roaming around the country, seeing plenty of sights, and experiencing different aspects of Japanese culture. It was a great opportunity for me to see more of a Japan as well, seeing as most of my experience thus far has been limited to my small city of Shizuoka.
This being my first time spending an extended period away from Shizuoka, I was, once again, in new and unfamiliar territory. The only advantage I brought with me this time was a limited, slightly functional use of the Japanese language. Even with this limited ability to speak, my family and I found moments where communication failed us. For example, one evening, my family decided to try to go out and do some karaoke. We went into the karaoke place and I tried to reserve a room using my limited Japanese. (I've never had to do this before since I always hang out with friends here who know the language and take care of this sort of business) Anyhow, the man tells me something in Japanese, and all I understand is "1 hour, go up to room 323." I assume this means there is a one hour wait and that, in one hour, we should go up to room 323. So I tell my family this and we decide to walk around a bit to kill some time during our one hour wait. We do a little shopping and return 40 minutes later. We go up to room 323 and see the room is empty, so we decide we can start a bit earlier. 20 minutes later, the phone rings up to the room and we are told our time is up. My sister and I go downstairs to the front desk and easily have the most confusing conversation I have ever had in my life, before we realized our mistake. The man was originally telling us, "You have one hour from now, please go up to room 323." and I thought he meant "In one hour from now, please go up to room 323." And that is the story of how my family booked a room for karaoke and went off to do some shopping intead.
But besides these little flukes here and there, it was overall really great. There are plenty of stories to tell and pictures to show, but it would be far too much to include in one entry, so I will leave it with this preview for now.
Comments
:)
Carrie, I can't believe they didn't let you guys stay there for an extra hour. Its so strange to see a picture of your family in Japan! So great that they came there. Our families do crazy things for us.
You look great.
robots and food
how is the food??? is it amazing. your family is so fantastic for coming out to Japan to visit you. I want to visit you, i feel like i'm so close by. Chinese new year is around the corner but it seems that everything is so expensive and start up cost of living is a bit more than expected, i can only imagine what my parents dealt with in ny 14 years ago. your parents playing with the robots is my favorite. i need to start going to museums, but first i need to settle in. so you speak japanese? that's fantastic, i'm trying to learn chinese...rough stuff