Having Fun

As I waited for my tour guild to call us back for our next stop, I decided to look around and enjoy the beautiful scenery around me, enjoying the soft green grass and the slight wind of Japan.

I never thought I'd actually be here, but I decided to take some time off to visit here. Some of my friends heard from someone that Japan was beautiful so they begged me to come to visit here with them. They told me to take a break from work, but before coming here, I had done some research on Japan, so I made sure to bring light clothes for the warm summer. I had also found out that Japan was an island in Asia (Tokyo, Japan's capital's coordinates are 35° N, 139°E ), and is surrounded by many seas. No wonder it has one of the largest fishing industries! Though what I do wonder is what they will think of us.

I guess you can treat today as a special trip. Today, we are going to Tokyo, where we will spend the night and tomorrow, we will have a dinner with the Japanese to learn more about their culture through their food! We were told that tomorrow, we will be divided into groups. Each group will receive their own translator to help them communicate with the Japanese since we, the tourists in the groups, don't speak the native language here, which is Japanese.

A sudden call from the tour guide brought me back from my thoughts, and all of the other tourists eagerly gathering around him to listen to what he had to say. I wove around the crowd to meet up with my friends who were jumping up and down with excitement.

"Aren't you excited???" Zoey said, "I heard that there are cute little kids who would show us around the place!"

"Quiet down, I want to hear what he says!" Vicky grumbles, but I know she's also excited about the trip because who isn't? We were reaching the end of our tour but only the beginning of the main part.

"Aww, come on! You can show some emotion too, you know?" Zoey complained.

"Well, no one else is as overly excited about this as you," Vicky pointed out, "And don't get excited so quickly, we've still got an over three-hour-long bus ride to get through."

I stopped listening to them as they continued to bicker and turned my attention back to the tour guide.

"I have a special announcement to make," he said, "We get to take the bullet train this year!"

I guess you could describe what happened next as "the crowd went wild". Everyone was cheering and I joined in too. I've heard so many things about Japan's bullet train, and all of them were amazing. In all this excitement, I turned around and saw that even Vicky cracked a smile at this news. Normally traveling from Niigata, where we are now, to Tokyo would take a whole 3 and a half hours. However, since we are taking the bullet train, the ride would only take one hour. Which also meant more time to hang out in Tokyo, Japan's capital!

After, when the tour guide finally won back the tourists' attention, he carried on with his speech and went back to what Zoey had called, "his Basic is Boring Zone", where he told us the rules and safety instructions.

Over at my side, I heard Vicky mutter, "Quit the boring talk that no one wants to hear and get us on the train!"

"For once, I totally agree with you" Zoey whispered back.

I felt a small laugh escape my mouth and thought back to how they first met. They were complete opposites, Zoey was all bright and friendly while Vicky wasn't as open and kind.

"I don't know how you stand such a loud and noisy person like her," Vicky had told me after their first meeting together. But, after a while, they started hanging out more, mostly because of Zoey constantly pestering Vicky to meet up again, but they ended up getting along fine. Although they hung out more now, they still didn't always see eye to eye on things.

I was startled back to the present when a hand slammed down on my back and ended up falling face first onto the ground. When I looked up, I was greeted by a grinning face that belonged to Zoey.

"You scared me to death there!" I tell her as I get up and rubbed my bruised nose.

"Sorry! You were doing your weird faze out thing again, and we also have to board the train now!" She told me. Though, with the grin on her face, I couldn't really tell if she's actually sorry or not.

That had reminded me: "Oh yeah, where's Vicky?" I asked her while walking towards the fading group of the other tourists with Zoey.

"Oh, her? She went ahead first. I've honestly never seen her so happy in my whole lifetime!" Laughing now, Zoey ran ahead and called back to me over her shoulder, "Quicken up!"

I laughed along with Zoey and ran to catch up with the rest of the group. I could understand why Vicky was so excited though because she normally gets sick on the bus rides, especially long ones. But from what we've heard about the bullet train, you can barely register the fact that it's even moving!

When I finally caught up with Vicky, she smirked at me and said, "I heard you face-planted onto the ground."

"I heard you're super excited because you won't be embarrassing yourself by throwing up again," I teased back at her.

We both ended up laughing good-naturedly. Once we went into the train, Zoey picked out seats for us in what she named the "mysterious tri-corner". We sat down together and started talking about what we think is going to happen in Tokyo.

Soon, we all started getting bored and did our own things. Vicky drifted off to sleep and Zoey started playing her phone. I went back to my "faze out zone", as Zoey called it, and thought about all the things I've seen so far on my trip to Japan. I had also vaguely thought of the fact that we were drawing close to the end of the trip, but quickly pushed it aside, countering it with the fact that the main part had still yet to come. I wonder what I'll get to see in Tokyo…. And then I drifted off to sleep.

I'm woken up by Zoey, who is vigorously shaking me awake. My whole body is sore from the nap I had and as I stretched, I looked around and saw almost everyone else still asleep. That made me wonder…. What exactly was the time right now? I looked on my phone and what I saw made me want to yell at Zoey, even more than before.

"Zoey! We have a whole twenty minutes left! Why did you wake me up?" I complained to her, who was now trying to wake up Vicky but was making no progress. She was still sleeping like a rock.

Finally, Zoey gave up and answers, "I want us to be the first to see Tokyo!"

"Sheesh, you were really quick to fall asleep. But of course, no one can beat the queen of sleeping," Zoey said pointing at the still sleeping figure of Vicky.

I laughed a little and then said, "Well, good thing you didn't wake her. She would have been grouchier than the Grinch on Christmas."

Zoey burst into laughter which earned us some glares from behind us. We ended up talking for the last twenty minutes in hushed tones so we don't anger those behind us, but still not quite enough since we accidentally woke up Vicky, which rewarded us both with even more glares when we laughed at the expression she was making.

At last, the tour guide stood up and told us it was time to get off. Of course, Zoey was the first bolt off the minute the doors opened and I had to admit, it was beautiful out there.

It slightly reminded me of New York, with many buildings and roads covering every square yard of land around you. Every building right now was lit with beautiful arrangements of colors. I found myself, along with others, just standing there marveling the beauty around me.

I unconsciously took out my phone and started snapping pictures and many others started doing the same.

This scene is ruined when a very angry tour guide came out of the train yelling, "We're late! We're late! Why are you just standing here?!" And then he started rounding the group up and over to the next bus stop.

When I caught up with Zoey and Vicky, I heard Zoey mutter, "You know, it's his fault for not getting us up and moving quick enough."

When Vicky nodded in agreement, I laughed and said, "So it's the second time you agree with her!", which scared them both since they had yet to realize I was standing behind them.

"You scared me! Where were you before? We couldn't find you." Zoey exclaimed.

"Oh, me? I was in the back taking more pictures. I already have 54 likes on one of them!" I answered.

Vicky rolled her eyes "Only 54?"

"Hey, I only posted it a few minutes ago!" I said indignantly.

Zoey suddenly stopped, causing me to bump into her.

"Be more careful!" She told me.

I quickly apologized and Zoey continued talking, "I heard from someone that we're going into some kind of suuuuuuper tall building and that we'll get to see a lot of Tokyo from there!"

Someone near us instantly turned pale.

"Do we have to go there?" She whispered.

"It's not like you'll fall! There's this bigggg glass screen that separates us from the open sky," Zoey answered laughing.

"Come on!" Vicky told us as she led us to the bus everyone was boarding. "The bus is here!"

When we got on the city bus, we chose seats across from each other, including the new girl. She had introduced herself as Sophia, and then we all received our lunches.

"Eat your lunches quickly because the building owner doesn't want us eating in there!" The tour guide announced, confirming what Zoey had heard earlier.

Sophia once again turned a pale shade of white, and taking pity on her, Zoey asked if Sophia wanted help asking the tour guide to sit out the next spot we are visiting.

A while later, we all got off the bus and stopped in front of the building we were about to enter. We are going to spend thirty minutes there, then meet our translators. Vicky had agreed to stay with Sophia since she didn't find the sound of this part of the trip very exciting, but Zoey had an idea that Vicky might also be scared of heights too, though she could hide her emotions much better than Sophia. I wonder what Vicky and Sophia are going to do during the thirty minutes….

When we got in, we took the elevator, because walking up 10 flights of stairs would take way to long. Also, it would be very tiring.

When we reached the top, I could clearly see Tokyo. There were so many buildings! I inhaled in a small breath of pure wonder. No wonder Tokyo has over 9 million people living here. Thirty minutes passed quickly as the group looked out and beyond the glass, imagining themselves in each and every place they see.

At one point, Zoey joined me and started pointing at different parts of the glass saying, "That must be Vicky and Sophia! No, they must be there! You see that black dot?"

Laughing, I joined in and said, "Those two dots near the 4 square buildings must be them!"

When we finally got out of the building, we found Vicky and Sophia already waiting for us. They each held two ice-cream popsicles in their hands, and when Zoey and I approached them, they held two of them out for us.

"It's sooo hot here in Tokyo!" Vicky complained. "We were soaked in our own sweat after wandering around the place so we bought some ice-cream."

"Thanks!" I told them and accepted mine.

Zoey accepted her's too, but looked at it suspiciously. Probably because of the time Vicky put hot pepper sauce on one and then called it strawberry cream on the ice-cream. Zoey hadn't been paying attention before and ended up in tears from the spiciness.

Rolling her eyes at Zoey, she said, "I didn't do anything to it."

Sophia just gave me a very confused look. I shrugged as an answer and suppressed a smile. I continued eating my ice-cream while ignoring my two friends' banter.

The group was on the move again, and this time we weren't headed to a bus stop. We were going to meet our translators now and also get our hotel rooms.

When we reached our hotel, there was a group of people standing outside the entrance. The tour guide told us to separate into groups of 4-6 people since we had 8 translators and about 32 people in the tour group. He then went over to the group of, what I think was, our translators.

Zoey came over and asked, "Why don't we just make a group of us four?"

"I don't see the problem" I answered.

"Me neither," Vicky said.

"Really?" Sophia asked, "You'd let me join?"

"Of course!" Zoey exclaimed, "We are all friends now, right?"

We all nodded and then our translator came up to us.

"Hello, my name is Ian and I am your translator." Then he broke out a grin. "So I heard I got the hard to get along with group this year."

Vicky was obviously not impressed and gave him her infamous ice cold glare.

"Ok, ok. Not funny. I get it." Ian quickly said.

Zoey, on the other hand, was interested rather than insulted. "Who'd you hear that from? They were actually correct though. Well, except for me. This is Vicky, and she's the bad-tempered one. Sometimes she can be pretty rude, but if you can get over that fact, she's pretty nice on the inside."

Now pointing at me, she said "Her though, is pretty level-headed. Sometimes she fazes out and enters her own land of daydreams, but she's mostly quiet. It's pretty hard to start a lasting conversation with her if you don't know her well. Sophia, though, is a very kind girl and very sweet. She's scared of heights though."

And out of nowhere, Vicky interjected with a fact that absolutely no one needed to know. "And she hates the ice-cream flavor coffee and mint."

This very long and elaborate speech of Zoey's earned her glares from everyone in our small group, causing her to laugh.

On the side, Sophia had pulled Vicky over and was furiously whispering, "Vicky, no one needs to know what ice-cream flavors I don't like!"

"Ok…. so moving on. Are you guys excited to meet them tomorrow?" Ian said to change the subject.

"Very!" We answered back.

"Well good, because tomorrow's going to be a very long day, so best go and get some sleep now. Go get your room keys from him." He pointed to the tour guide and dismissed us.

After he left, we went to get our room keys. We got exactly four of them, so each of us could keep one on them.

When we received our keys, the four of us found out that we were split into two rooms. We decided to split so that Zoey and I slept in one room and Sophia and Vicky slept in the other.

When Zoey and I went to our room, it was surprisingly larger than I had thought it would be. There were 2 single beds, 1 makeup table, 1 large TV, and a small table with chairs. I went to wash up while Zoey told me she would be exploring the room. But I knew that she was probably going in and out of the rooms we were given. Honestly, I half expected Zoey to come back to me yelling that the other room was better (in some way or the other) and drag me into the other room while throwing Vicky and Sophia out.

Later, the whole group, including the translators, met in a large dining hall. We gossiped with each other, told jokes, and ate our fill.

After dinner, I plopped onto my bed and started snoring away, thoroughly wasted away from what an exciting day I had today.

Tomorrow morning, I found myself being the last to wake up. Everyone had woken up early, excited about meeting the Japanese, even though a certain someone won't admit it.

The room was full of movement, packed with four people trying to do their hair, brush their teeth, and wash their faces. Yes, I don't know exactly why Vicky and Sophia were in my room, but they were.

When we were all finished, we started off to the hall to breakfast. Halfway through eating, Ian joined us at our table and filled us in on what was to happen today.

After breakfast, we were to go with Ian and meet our "new Japanese tour guide", who was to show us around Tokyo. The parent will follow in the back, to make sure the child is safe and doing the right thing. We would have lunch together in any agreed upon place and then visit one last place, and then go back to the hotel and, as a big group, travel to where we would have dinner with some other Japanese people.

"That sounds like a very complicated schedule," Sophia commented.

After we finished our breakfast, we followed Ian outside to a little girl standing next to her mother. The little girl was dressed in a kimono, traditional Japanese clothing. Ian introduced this girl as "クリステン", but the closest we could get to saying that was Kurisuten.

The little girl led us down the street to a restaurant and started talking. Ian translated for us: "This is the restaurant we will be eating at. It serves mainly noodle and meat, but you can get other foods from here too, like sushi."

"Sushi…. yum." Zoey said hungrily, even though we just had breakfast.

The little girl led us to different places and allowed us to take photos, occasionally stopping to talk to us. Finally, when it was lunchtime, we backtracked to where we originally agreed upon to eat.

Predictably, Zoey was the first to order as many types of sushi as she could. I ordered some curry, Vicky ordered Yakitori, Ian ordered Sukiyaki, and Sophia ended up ordering even more sushi with Zoey. Kurisuten and her parent ordered some other noodles I don't know of. In fact, I don't know much of these foods at all. They were all new to me, and most of the others in this group too. I really did wish I knew of these foods sooner, because the food was marvelous.

After, we decided to visit some random shops instead of a park. We bought random souvenirs and snacks. Actually, Zoey and Vicky found this snack called a "Tokyo banana". It tasted very good, and Zoey and Vicky ended up cleaning out the whole store's stock of Tokyo bananas.

After wandering around a bit more, time ran out and the little girl led us back to the hotel and said "sayonara", which meant bye in Japanese, to us.

We tried our best to say bye back to her but ended up failing. I think she still understood though because she smiled for the first time on the whole trip and then left.

"Well, that was fun," Zoey said through a mouthful of another snack she had bought.

"Mhmm" I answered as we followed Ian back inside the hotel.

Inside, we were the fifth group to arrive, so we were waiting on three other groups. When they got here, the tour guide told us we had two hours to relax and take a break before we were to head out to wherever we were having dinner. Vicky and I headed up to our rooms because Sophia and Zoey were going to the hall to get more food, saying the sushi tasted good but wasn't filling their stomach that much.

Vicky and I went up to my room. I decided to get more sleep while Vicky read her book and occasionally playing her phone. I woke up with half an hour to wash, put on makeup, and eat Tokyo bananas.

We all went down to the hall, and the tour guide was there waiting for us.

"Great. They made it, now we can get a move on things," he said.

We walked for a long time before stopping in front of a large, grand looking building. He told us to find a table for our group and our translators and make ourselves comfortable. We chose our table based on which Zoey liked the best because in the rest of our opinions, they were all the same.

Later, a group of Japanese kids ran up to our table and said to us (Ian's translation), Hello! Nice to meet you! We hope you like Tokyo and is having a great time here! We told Ian to tell them thank you and that we loved it here. Then they smiled and ran off to the next table. This happened a few times but with adults which we had conversations with, and then got paired up with two other very friendly Japanese people. We had dinner with them and were told to ask them any questions if we had any.

After a while, we were served platters of traditional Japanese foods, including (more sushi which Zoey and Sophia devoured), sashimi, tempura, more yakitori, and miso soup. Everything was delicious, and I didn't even have to ask questions because Zoey asked them all. Japanese people turned out to be pretty amazing, and when we finally left the place, I was kind of sad knowing I would probably never meet these kind people again.

We returned to the hotel, for our final night here in Tokyo. I recounted how many things happened, how much I learned, and how much I'll miss when I leave tomorrow.

I didn't realize how much…. I'll miss Japan.