Tired in Tokyo
Hello again!
Here's the rundown since the last post. Last night Katie and I took a short walk with her roomate. We saw a bit of the Shinjuku area, but we were so tired that we had to head home fairly early to crash. Today my roomates and I woke up at 6:30 am Tokyo time and hit the gym and then breakfast. I've met quite a few people from all over the world and discovered something very startling...my sense of humour is not universal. I know that you're probably all very shocked...I know, so am I. Nonetheless, I find it funny when people fail to appreciate the humour in what I'm saying. This happened two or three times during breakfast!
While heading to the morning session Katie and I were standing around grabbing a drink of water with my roomate before heading into the opening ceremony. Katie gave me an odd look and said, "there's some school girls over there who keep talking to each other and then pointing at me....they just did it again." My roomate and I turn around and the girls start waving, so we look at each other and laugh...they were pointing at us. It was really flattering at first...but it soon got embarassing. I walked by a few minutes later and the same girls made this odd, "oooooohhhhhh" noise as I walked by and then giggled and waved. Most of the people around me turned around to see what was going on and I didn't really know how to react, so I smiled and waved and then quickly headed for the washroom. Just one of those situations where you're not sure what to do. The conference was nothing special, it was basically a mass distribution of information to a group of people who are far too jet-lagged and naive to realize the importance of what is being said. After we came out of the morning session the school girls struck again. This time my roomate, Yuri, and I were standing around talking and we noticed that the girls were just staring at us. Not very subtle...and somewhat akward. I don't think either of us really knew how to react. Then the girls (who don't speak English) came up and started waving their cameras at us. We shrug and hop in for a picture. It's nice to already feel like a celebrity in Japan...hahaha.
During the afternoon Katie and I took a walk to the electronics store and I bought an electronic dictionary. It took us about half an hour to find the floor where they sold electronic dictionaries and about an hour to pick one out. I imagine it will take ALOT longer to figure out how to USE IT! It was a pretty challenging experience, but it makes you appreciate how vital communication skills are. Even if you don't have linguistic grace you can still communicate quite a bit with sufficient patience.
All in all I'm loving Tokyo. It's a great city and the people are absolutely fascinating. I'm heading out again with Katie to see what kind of trouble we can get into tonight! I'll report back later.
Here's another picture installment. It's the view from my hotel room!
Here's the rundown since the last post. Last night Katie and I took a short walk with her roomate. We saw a bit of the Shinjuku area, but we were so tired that we had to head home fairly early to crash. Today my roomates and I woke up at 6:30 am Tokyo time and hit the gym and then breakfast. I've met quite a few people from all over the world and discovered something very startling...my sense of humour is not universal. I know that you're probably all very shocked...I know, so am I. Nonetheless, I find it funny when people fail to appreciate the humour in what I'm saying. This happened two or three times during breakfast!
While heading to the morning session Katie and I were standing around grabbing a drink of water with my roomate before heading into the opening ceremony. Katie gave me an odd look and said, "there's some school girls over there who keep talking to each other and then pointing at me....they just did it again." My roomate and I turn around and the girls start waving, so we look at each other and laugh...they were pointing at us. It was really flattering at first...but it soon got embarassing. I walked by a few minutes later and the same girls made this odd, "oooooohhhhhh" noise as I walked by and then giggled and waved. Most of the people around me turned around to see what was going on and I didn't really know how to react, so I smiled and waved and then quickly headed for the washroom. Just one of those situations where you're not sure what to do. The conference was nothing special, it was basically a mass distribution of information to a group of people who are far too jet-lagged and naive to realize the importance of what is being said. After we came out of the morning session the school girls struck again. This time my roomate, Yuri, and I were standing around talking and we noticed that the girls were just staring at us. Not very subtle...and somewhat akward. I don't think either of us really knew how to react. Then the girls (who don't speak English) came up and started waving their cameras at us. We shrug and hop in for a picture. It's nice to already feel like a celebrity in Japan...hahaha.
During the afternoon Katie and I took a walk to the electronics store and I bought an electronic dictionary. It took us about half an hour to find the floor where they sold electronic dictionaries and about an hour to pick one out. I imagine it will take ALOT longer to figure out how to USE IT! It was a pretty challenging experience, but it makes you appreciate how vital communication skills are. Even if you don't have linguistic grace you can still communicate quite a bit with sufficient patience.
All in all I'm loving Tokyo. It's a great city and the people are absolutely fascinating. I'm heading out again with Katie to see what kind of trouble we can get into tonight! I'll report back later.
Here's another picture installment. It's the view from my hotel room!
posted by Christopher Janca at 6:26 a.m.
2 Comments:
Wow that's quite the view! Already with the fans, that's the way to do it. Glad to hear you are doing okay.
I *told* you that the japanese schoolgirls would think you were hot!!! lol!
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