A.W. Gamble

Leaving Kyoto was sad and a little hectic but with the help of three other Americans who were also heading to Tokyo and who had just spent the last two years teaching english in Japan we were able to catch our bus.  The bus ride was something that I would never want to do again.  First of all four of us were sitting in the very back row which stretched the width of the bus but left barely enough room for us.  It was a long night of watching the traffic through heavy eyes while pretending that I could maybe fall asleep.  Plus the bus stopped every three hours so even if I could fall asleep it was going to be interrupted by these stops.  The bus stopped at some of the biggest truck stops that I’ve ever seen.  At one of these stops I got off to get a snack.  I ended up getting the spiciest mix I have ever had which made the next hour very uncomfortable for me. 

When we finally got to Tokyo it was around 5:30 am and I had maybe slept for 30 minutes but it was very hard to tell.  The six of us that had been travelling together then went about figuring out the Tokyo transit system.  Without difficulty, surprisingly we soon found ourselves at our hostel for that night.  It was now about 7 and we could not drop off our bags until 9 when the office opened.  We found an open room and some slept and others went for a McDonald’s breakfast.  Finally we were able to go downstairs to the bar area where we could hang out comfortably and with internet.  The first day was pretty much a waste because we were so tired and nobody wanted to leave all of our bags under anybody else’s eye before we could get a room.

The next day after a much  needed rest we headed off into Tokyo.  Our first destination was an amusement park.  We didn’t actually ride anything there but there was a pretty awesome looking rollercoaster.  We did eat lunch there at a gourmet burger place that was in a western theme, down to the american license plates and old coca-cola ads on the walls.  From there we went to the main shopping area called Shibuya.  This is where the famous shots are of the intersections with hundreds of people crossing.  It is essentially the Times Square of Tokyo.  There were a lot of people but it was never staggering.  Kaari and I were not able to stay there very long because we had to catch a plane that evening and still had to allow time to pick up our bags and try to figure out the route. 

This turned out to be more difficult than we had imagined.  We did alright getting to our hostel to get our bags but then we had trouble finding the station that would have our train at it.  We relied on some very nice people to help us on our way.  We finally got onto our correct train and made it successfully to the airport.  After spending as much of my last 1000 yen I boarded my plane and was ready for some warm weather without an agenda. 

The plane ride was uneventful and got me into Honolulu at 7:30 am.  This was the first time in my entire trip that I would actually feel jet lag.  My night of sleep was cut short and I didn’t actually sleep at all on the plane because I’m not very good at it.  From the airport I took a bus to downtown Honolulu after first changing out of my clothes into sandals, shorts and a t-shirt.  The buses weren’t as smooth as those in Japan, but at least I could ask the driver what bus I needed.  I was able to meet a couple of boys travelling from Denmark who were studying at Hawaii for a 3 month course.  We were all heading to the school so we tried boarding the same bus but because my backpack was too big I had to take another bus.  I was glad that I was able to talk to them during the wait though. 

My next bus took me to the campus and when a  nice lady told me when to get off I was at my destination.  The strange thing is that the woman happened to be on my same bus for the return trip to the airport, only a few seats away.  She remembered me, but then again they probably don’t get a lot of people with so much luggage.  I called Andrew Hoza, who I would be staying with, and he met me 5 minutes later.  We ate together and then while he was at class I caught up on some sleep in his room.  During my time in Oahu I spent a good deal of time in Waikiki down by the water.  The water was very warm and deadly-free. 

On the 2nd I said good-bye to Andrew and flew to Hilo, Hawaii, the big island.  Kaari and her cousin Cassidy met me and brought me back to Cassidy’s house for a very welcome mexican meal of tacos and large amounts of salsa, and margaritas.  The weather in Hilo is very rainy at this time of year but today we drove to the other side of the island to a beach and managed to get out of the weather.  It was nice to see the island outside of the clouds.  Most of the landscape consists of igneous rock and is overall not as beautiful as some of the other islands.  I’m yet to get a real image of Hilo because of the rain, but hopefully we will have a few days of sunshine.  After the beach we drove another little bit to Kona and visited the Kona Brewery for dinner.  The food and beer were very good.  Tomorrow we are going to a local farmer’s market.

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