Ueno Tokyo

I was scared. I had no idea whether or not my pen-pal (Yoko) would even come back the next day to pick me up. At the time I had NO!!! Useable currency. I had a Wal-Mart bought wallet with my passport and a lot of Travelers checks (as i said before they are useless). The hotel that i was using was bought by Yoko and she said later when i find a bank i could pay her back. I was desperate to find a bank that day, hopefully Yoko would take me to one before she goes to school. Yoko was a film student at a university in Tokyo at the time. So she could only meet me for sometimes 3 hours in a day and the rest of the day was up to me and my Baka gaijin instincts. (Stupid Foreigner) I heard a knock on the door. “That could be her" I thought I opened the door and it was Yoko she looked at me with surprise and said” Oh wow umm are you ready?" I just realized i had no shirt on and said "yes I all be out in a few minutes" I packed up as soon as I could and we were off to the next city for my new hotel. Again i had to carry my massive amounts of baggage up and down stairs over a lot of bumps on the sidewalk, and every time i saw an escalator I thought " oh Hell yes” We took the Yama note line train to "Ueno" A beautiful city that is quiet and has everything you need, such as, shrines, zoo, anime shops, games, fashion, and a few good bars. We got off the train and looked for a hotel called "tsukuba hotel) a popular hotel for business men it was at least 60 dollars a night or so. Of course Yoko paid at the time and I took my things upstairs and came back down with only my essentials. >>>SEE THE HOTEL<<< >>>SEE A FUNNY MONKEY<<< We went to a local coffee shop, I ordered a simple tea drink when i really wanted a Soda and she went American on me and ordered a coffee with milk and a salad. We sat down and discussed when we will meet the next day because she had class all day and needed to abandon me. She left and I was alone in Ueno all by myself. When i was alone i thought to myself, “will i get lost, robbed or stabbed or taken advantage of?" I thought that way only for a second because in Tokyo having the largest population in the world and considering the fact that i knew nobody I felt quite nauseated.. I had on my back pack with speakers playing hip-hop and some techno so all could hear. Some people would stare thinking “look at that loud Gaijin" Then some would be like” ah sugoi ne" (wow how cool). I raided a few vending machines and took a liking to (pocari sweat) a sports drink that has a somewhat lemon taste to it. I though " hmm it says sweat so that’s what i am doing now so why not" Then some drink would have actual leafs in them. (No thank you)

. I dont know the history behind Ueno, but I know much about it when i was there. Like many other cities in Japan it is well known for having a lot of homeless people. The homless people in japan are somtimes shocking. Either from just laying on the side walk masturbating or listiening to their I POD LOL WTF?
While i was walking in Ueno. i noticed a lot of Pachinko Parlor;s. I have to say the Japanese have outdone themselves when loop holing themselves around the law of no gambling. Its illegal so instead of money they gamble with balls small metal balls that u can redeem for cash or prizes. ^_^ Good times.

1ST Night in Tokyo

I was excited to get out on the town with my pen pal. We were waiting in the hotel room for I dont know what. Givin the time frame we had we were both tired, she went all the way to tokyo narita to pick me up and back to tokyo and she needed to get back home for the night, and I just got off a 12 hour flight and I was dying for a shower. Despite all that we decided to take a taxi to the nearest hot spot which was of course Shinjuku. It was a monday and to be honest I didnt think we were going to have that much fun, but to my suprise we found ourselves taking (purikura) Small sticker pictures with imense detail that cost around 400 to 500 yen. You can put these pictures on really any surface, really popular amung the japanese school girl's.

            ONLY 400 YEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!         

  It was weird with my pen pal. She would stop every other second for a cigattete and we would have that akward silence and all I can hear is her smoking and asking random questins.  " what music do you like " I dont know if she noticed but she asked me this more than once. I think she was just trying to make conversation. After her Cancer break we ended up walking alot and I would stop every other second just to get her attention. " Hey whats that" Of course she could not really explian due to her "poor enrish". So it was amusing to me to watch her even try. I heard alot of " ah ehhh eto sore wa.. ehhh nani kore" ( oh umm well this is... umm what is this). Her terminology was short and sweet so that I may understand her. ^_^ After a long period of walking we decided to stop for a bite to eat ( EAT TO BITE) -- Tom hanks We went down into a ramen noodle shop. I gatta say I really like ramen. Its not like your typical ramen noodles at home. Ramen Noodles in Japan are the best. I actually got addicted to Ramen when I lived there. ( future post ). The thing about Ramen Noodles is that the shops are EVERYWHERE. There is always compitition when it comes to Ramen shops. One price is cheaper than the other. Also when you are walking around in japan the window with WAX Ramen show how it looks like and how much it is. Its hard because if you dont speek Japanese and you see the wax model outside you cant really know where it is on the menu. What I would do ( BAKA GAIJIN STYLE ) is actually take the waiter outside and point to what I want. The 1st time u order food you will wing it but once you are tired of winging it you dont really care if you act like a ( BAKA GAIJIN ).

SHINJUKU NIGHT LIFE

We entered the ramen shop and we ordered our food. The Ramen shop had music but you cant really hear the music on account of EVERYONE IS SLURPING THEIR RAMEN. If you dont know this already that Japanese people slurp their food. This means that they are really enjoying their meal. I was excited to try this so what I did was, slurp as loud as I could. In Japan you will get a lot of stares and a lot of weird looks. I intentionally wanted some attention so that was one of my tricks. Yoko looked at me and said “ you really like it”  LOL After our meal we went back to the hotel. We said our good byes and she said that she would return in the morning to pick me up and move to another hotel.  After she left I was excited to walk around alone in Japan, But I was tired and passed out thinking of what will happen tomorrow.  

Meeting the Pen Pal

Despite the crazy time I had in the plane I was still excited to get off that plane and kiss the ground as soon as we landed and let out a big " I MADE IT HERE", Of course that is what i always dreamed of doing while I was in high school. I got off the plane and me and the "white guy" parted ways. I contacted my pen pal prior to the flight and told her  (Yoko Takei)

that i would be wearing a white shirt  and holding a red flag. I was scared that she would not find me and i would be lost in this great nation. But within the mist i heard a small' AH HAI KONICHIWA" Emmidietly she knew who I was. (maybe cause I was the only Mexican in Japan) I looked at her and said "hi". In my brain I thought to myself that I am actually meeting one of my many pen-pals. Yoko was in my top 5 pen-pals out of 22. because she would always reply sooner than the others and she would send me boxes instead of the usual letter. We shook hand and realized she had very little engrish capabilities. We straight headed to the JR line headed straight to Shinjuku a rural town next in Tokyo famous for its beer, pachinko and prostitution. We enjoyed a long train ride to the city and as I looked out the window of the train I saw nothing but country side (INAKA). I slowly began to see train stations, houses, buildings then finally for the first time in my life I saw a (Japanese School Girl) I felt like I was seeing a celebrity I quickly took my video camera and started recording. The School Girl gazed me for a split second and looked back at her phone as if she never saw me. "hentai" she probably thought.

As soon as we got off the train I found myself following Yoko to a place where she "knew a good hotel". In Shinjuku we walked and walked and walked some more. I always fell behind and Yoko would look back with a smile with repetitions of " u ok "? I would say again and again " yea iam good"  ( I really wasent on account of I was carrying 3 bags up and down stairs.) We finally after 1 hour of walking we got to the hotel. Yoko talked to the hostess and paid for my room. " I feel like a king I thought" all the rumors of Japanese girls were true. They take care of their men. That is of course until we settled down in the room Yoko stated "when u go to bank u can pay back to me" I was like. ummmmmm ok .





Asking my pen-Pal why this is so popular

Before we got to our hotel room I raped my 1st vending machine in Japan. I had no Japanese Currency at the time, except a 500,100,50 and 10 yen coins I had gotten from my Science teacher in Jr, high. She gave it to me as a gift cause she knew I liked Japan and she wanted to show me what Japanese currency looked like. I kept it all these years to put it in my 1st vending machine to buy me and my Pen Pal a Asahi Beer the size of a two Liter. (good times) To the Left is a picture of me and my Pen-Pal (so you know what she looks like) We are waiting to for a quick night on the town.

05 On the plane

I was 20 years old and embarking on a great new adventure, while entering the plane I was hoping to sit next to a Japanese person to help me prepare on what lies ahead. I sat down in my seat next to a nice elderly couple who didn't speak any English to my left was an empty seat. I could not help noticing every peroson who passed by me, and the sound of my heart beating fast whenever somone looked at the number of the empty seat. Finaly a skinny american guy in his early 20's sits next to me and we exchange a breif. " whats up". Belive it or not it was total silence untill the plance departed this great nation of the united states." a country where the pizza gets there faster then the police does." I always dreamed of sitting next to a window seat so i can see when i land. Instead i sat right in the middle of the plane. As the plane desended I mutterd to the american guy, "here we go".


As we were in the air and the it got a little boring,
then after a while i was approached by beautiful korean hostess. In the best way she could she said " would you like a drink"? At the top of my head i was ready to get my crazy Japanese trip underway. I was eager to get wasted and let loose. BUT ON A PLANE? i thought, why not. I asked for a cup of wine, it was cheap wine of course and i felt it was just enough to get me buzzed and relaxed. Me and the "white guy" began to talk and told me about his reasons for coming to japan. Perhaps its been his dream and hes worked very hard to get here just as i did. " my friend lives on the military base so iam coming to visit him." he said while taking a quick toke of his wine. "oh thats cool" i said. "yea man i saved up for a while and ive always wanted to come to japan so i did it despite all the odds. While on the plane I befriended a 13 year old companion across the row from me. Funny little boy who would ask me alot of questions. "where you from" Why you want to go to japan" How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.".........LOL.......... a funny and awkward thing happed. He asked me " what you listening to"? As drunk as i already was I just handed him my cd-player he put the headphones on and laughed and his mom was like "who's is that where did you get that. After she said that // He dropped my cd player and the disc came flying out.... yeaaaaa awkward. Despite that weird situation i continued drinking my free wine,passed-out,woke up,ate my food,and passed out again, 12 hour flight it was great. One hour before landing i took 20 minutes to do my hair. I had a weird hair style. dont judge.

1st Journey of 2005

"Thats it, I am done", I thought to myself while clocking out. My last day working at the hospital was actually the next day, but I could not bring myself to even coming back and waking up at 5am to this godforsaken place. I hated the thought of dealing with old dying people's food and what they can eat or cannot eat, but on every break I would remind myself why I was working so hard. It was only 2 more days Until I take my 1st trip to japan.

Don't remember the date but I am sure it was in June. I bought my ticket for exactly 600 dollars round trip. That was a good deal but it was a good deal cause the economy was not crap and gas was 130 a gallon. (FYI at this point in writing this post I have officially moved to the toilet. apparently wring crap ,gas and gallon in the same sentence triggers your brain to release it waste. "thank you") A day before I am off to my wondrous journey I hit the bank and get all my money in my account converted into "TRAVELERS CHECKS."  Travelers checks are useless in japan. Nobody takes them. I was confidant and excited on embarking in the land of the purchasable used pantie machines. (this was not my reason for going to japan but still excited to see it). I felt invincible with my pocket travelers book, travelers checks, bags packed all ready and a mind filled with thoughts. Its the night before the flight and I could not sleep. I was too excited and I had thoughts of what I was gonna do while I got there. Was I gonna kiss the ground? Was I gonna cry and stand in the the crossing like I have always dreamed of? Time would tell. Since I could not sleep I got off of bead and turned off my Tv. ( watching TOM GREENS subway monkey hour every Gaijin should watch it.) I got my car keys and went to Wal-Mart.since I money in the bank I love going to Wal-mart and just walking around knowing I can buy anything. So I made my way into Wal-mart looking for things I forgot to buy. Don't buy a outlet converter if you live in the US you dont need it. I found out the hard way. I felt like i had everything by the time I got home my parent'a were already up and we were on our way to LA.
I got my flight info,my cd's,my ticket,my pocket of useless checks and I said my goodbyes to my mother and father. My father said I was crazy and I was brave for doing what I was doing. He said he was proud of me for chasing my dreams. "this is all I have" My mother said while taking one last search through her pocket for some extra change to give me. She handed me 13 dollars while sobbing. " be careful ok" she mumbled. In her mind  I am sure she remembered her little boy who would always wonder off while saying " I'am gonna go explore mom"  at parties and who cried when he realized he could not get into the foreign exchange program.  I was off.. they called the gate and I spent my 13 dollars on a salad. I was starving but for 15 dollars for a salad it better come with a steak, Bring snacks to flight. I got on the plane and I was off.

Rising Gaijin's 1st Blog

I am not much of a typer. But when I actually get the chance to sit on my toilet and type about stuff then I get things done. I worry enough about if people even look at my videos(youtube.com/risinggaijin) or listen to my podcast. (risingxgaijin.podomatic.com) In this blog i hope to improve not only my typing skills but to also  jump start a few functions of my brain, but to just to give you an insight of what i think about countries around the world.

If I really think about it I have always been an explorer. When I was I was a child, whenever our family would travel to a different persons home or a  family members house I would wonder off wondering into different room to see what I could find. At parties I would wonder off into the park to see what was beyond it. I found if i climb the hill behind the park there were  train tracks and after climbing the mountain found a river. I remember looking down from the top of the mountain standing  and looking down at the people who knew nothing of what is beyond the park. It felt good to be one of the people who go further than others. I then told myself i never want to be left behind or never wanted to stay in the same spot ever in my life, but to keep on moving and traveling. To me if there is something or some place i have never seen. It doesn't exist until i see it with my own eyes.