All roads lead to Yokohama.

Okay, so... Trip to Japan, telling people stuff, and so on! Left on the last day of January, Arrived the first of February. I haven't ever really travelled much, but a friend of mine, who suggested the trip, has been to Nepal and northern China, so we're all good, yes?

That's him, in plane. Nobody told me, you weren't allowed to take pictures in a plane. In any case, Finnair has direct flights to Japan from Helsinki-Vantaa international Airport. Next Stop: Chubu airport.
Ahh, the joys of learning to use local Public Transportation - on the train from Chubu to Nagoya, in First class....

Which we didn't have tickets for, as we eventually figured out thanks to the friendly Mr. Conductor. Oh well, off to the sardins-in-a-can class cars. It wasn't crowded, really. Afterwards, we were in Nagoya, waiting for a bus, by the Yuri fountain.
We waited for two hours, listening to the "Pikku pikku Kaamera" chime from across the street. What's that there, though?


Oh, look! Real live japanese schoolkids, on a class trip, even! How curious--- Wait, what's that?

I has been spotted! Oh noes!

Heh, there was mutual laughing afterwards.

Anyway, we got on a bus, which was kind of small. Buses in Japan are... not so good. Not much worse than here, really, but a bit smaller perhaps?

In any case - I guess this comes as no surprise to most city people, but I never realized Finland only really has one city, and that one's not very large, either. There are some city-elements in most Finnish cities, but they just lack the population. Where are all the forests?
I also didn't realize it was okay to build roads on top of concrete pillars which go over other concrete pillars which just may go over a shopping street down below...

Oh, and these people don't really bother hiding wires from the view. In Finland most wiring is hidden from sight. In Japan, it's like a spider web between buildings.

A funny story: As Heikki's an experienced traveller, we - that is, my mother was being comforted by the fact he was with me, so we'd be safe and get where we're supposed to be, in time.


Surely you can trust that face, 'tis a honest face. Even if he found Zoolander to be a very funny film. I haven't seen it myself, though.

That reminds me, there were instances where we were going "Dude!" "Sweet!" a whole lot, but that's a different movie and a different story. In any case, we were on our way to Tokyo, and he told me we were going to the Shinjuku station or something.... We had arranged a meeting with the person whose place we were crashing in for our stay in Tokyo. ( I'll need to get her permission to use the photos, btw. )

Nooo problem... If he's looking like death warmed over, it's just because he'd only slept for like four hours in the last thirty-six or so. I tried explaining my theory of "While your eyes are closed, your optic nerves are resting", but that didn't take --- yet.

We weren't supposed to drop off at "Tokyo station", right? I mean, there was no proper bus stop or anything, right?
The driver -- the bus is circling around. We could ask, but that wouldn't be Proper. Surely, there's a proper station here in Tokyo, right?

"Next Stop, Yokohama." SVOBU? Wot? But, but... Aand we're on some sort of a freeway. no hope of stopping now....

Oh well, cannot do much now. Let me see those directions, will you?
...
What's this, a map? "Bus stops here," "Tokyo Station"... What? Dude, you had a map! What do you mean you assumed it was for Nagoya? It says "Tokyo station" right there!

Oh , great. Yokohama's a different city, right? Great, so now we're going to Yokohama. Just great.


We had a Learning Experience. Level Ups, don'chaknow?

Well, fortunately in Yokohama, we were helped by a friendly local who'd been an exchange student, and spoke better English than we did. We got some more experience in using local public transportation, and we took a taxi cab from Shibuya, to see if the person waiting for us, still was. She wasn't so now we had to figure out a way to get to her apartment on our own...
But that's for later, okyes?