Japan Day 1: Tokyo

It took us two hours to get from Narita airport to our hostel, namely because the Tokyo subway/rail system is a labyrinthine monstrosity. Negotiating even the most quotidian moments, like buying subway tickets, breaking a 10000 Yen note, or withdrawing cash from an ATM, became a harrowing ordeal.

Upon arriving, I managed to make contact with an extremely helpful and friendly sorority sister of my cousin's (now a teacher at an international school), who led on a walking tour of the area. Our hostel is situated near Sensoji Temple, an area that is known for tourists and elderly people. We ate some pretty tasty tempura, and wandered through the streets of the area. The streets are well laid out, well lit, and surprisingly quiet, and it was pleasant to stroll through breezy avenues lit by neon signs and fluorescent lights.

Jon wanted to hit the arcades in search of challengers at Street Fighter III, but we failed to find a machine. Instead, our guide introduced us to the pleasures of Japanese photo booths. There are very few things in the world that can challenge the Japanese photo booth for pure femininity - some places don't even allow males into the photo booths unless accompanied by a female. The machines are festooned with garishly pink banners of girls in various poses and outfits.

The six of us crammed inside one booth, performing the silliest poses we could conjure, while the machine babbled in Japanese at us, pumped J-pop into our ears, and unfurled colored backdrops behind us, and sometimes on top of us, causing a great deal of commotion inside the booth. Then, as soon as the booth had snapped nine photos, we rushed to the other side of the machine to edit the snaps. Jon and I struggled to paint hearts and flowers and rainbows over the photos under the time limit, and then selected our best work. The machine printed out a sheet of stickers, which we dutifully took to the cutting table to cut into stamps, presumably a teen Japanese schoolgirl rite of passage.