time to breath

"so you want to go to the beach, eh? well you take the orange line, then switch over to the red line, then to the gray line. get off and take the lime green line, at which point, you take the mustard yellow line to the ocean green line. after that walk about a mile and then you'll hit the damn beach! oh, and it's $10."

so it's about 11:37am, monday here in japan. i woke up at around 8 this morning after getting in late from karaoke the night before and chatting a little bit with shawn. so about 10 hours of sleep the last two nights. i'm not sleepy, but i'm a bit exhausted. the last couple of days/nights have been extremely surreal. let's talk about them.

friday. this was my last full day in hk. weeks ago, i was really looking forward to this day because i just couldn't get my ass outta hk fast enough. but then the last week went by so quickly i didn't really get a chance to adjust myself with the thought that i was leaving hk, my parents, sister, relatives, etc., etc. i think i gotten so used to the routine of waking up, going to breakfast with my mum and grandma, taking the bus to the library, the mtr back to the ifc, then taxi ride with my parents back to their flat for dinner. some people would probably call it boring and bland, and maybe it is, but i enjoyed the hell out of it.

it was raining when i woke up at 6:30am. of course, i wore my sandles and shorts in the rain, but the streets were pretty wet so my feet and sandles were pretty much soaked when i got to the restaurant. i had three types of breakfasts when i was in hk, at home, at dim sum, and at a western cafe-style restaurant. on this particular day, we opted for the restaurant because we'd been dim summing all week long.

after breakfast, and hastedly going back home to pick up my camera so i can take pictures of the districk market, i went to the library to jolt down some info for my upcoming trip to japan. i blogged a bit i think, i'm not too sure, and i'm too lazy to go check. anyway, i left the libary at around 1:30pm and called my mother cuz we were going to go shopping. i was hoping to be able to get a cd of this 80's canto-pop singer and maybe an mp3 player for my marathon training. i got neither. apparently one of my father's friend wanted to have afternoon tea (dim sum) and so i went there instead. normally, i would bitch and moan about having to go eat with my parents' friend, but i've known this guy, uncle francis (and yeah, i think i was named after him), every since i was a kid and since i hadn't seen him at all on this trip, i went.

my parents planned a dinner later that night at 7pm, after getting some noodles for my aunt and candy for friends back home, my mum and i went to the ifc to meet my dad. they stayed there and i went back to the flat to drop some stuff off and get my stuff together so i can pack after dinner that night. of course, i was late getting to the dinner because i had to go to the ifc to get my father (mum already went) and walk back to the restaurant where dinner was. anyway, dinner was great. the food was excellent, and my uncles were funny as usual. people gave me lucky money in red pouches, wishing me good luck with school and such.

after dinner, i walked my aunt to the bus station and waited for her to get on her bus before i left. on the way home, i caught up with my mum and uncle, who were walking to get something for my aunt in yokohama at my grandfather's company's office (which is right below where my grandparents and uncle live). while i was there, my mother and i looked through some photo albums, several of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary (yeah, i know carlin, it's not really an anniversary) and one of my mother's uncle's funeral. it was terribly sad. there were pictures where my mother's cousins (three boys, or rather men) were sobbing uncontrollably at the coffin. it brought tears to my eyes.

so after getting some stuff from my uncle (who, btw, bought me a cd that night when he was walking back with my mum), we went home and i packed. there certainly was a lot of stuff so i ended up packing some stuff in a cardboard box. went to bed around 1:30am.

saturday. woke up by my father getting ready to do his morning exercises at the park at around 6:30am. good stuff. hahaha. my mum and grandma went with me to the airport check-in in central an hour later. that's the great thing about hk. you can check your bags in at several locations within hk and not worry about lugging stuff to the airport. on the hk side, the check-in is below the ifc mall, which is incredibly convenient for us since my parents live fairly close. after checking in the luggage, we went to the canteen at the ifc for breakfast. i had macaroni in broth with a fried egg and ham. i love that stuff. my mum and grandma had sandwiches.

my dad came by shortly. so we sat by the window overlooking hk harbour and had breakfast together. at around 9am, we took the escalators down to the airport express, and we said our goodbyes. i miss my parents immensely. they are great parents, they really are. sure my father is stubborn and strict, but he means well. it was hard sitting on the train staring at them through the glass not knowing when i'll see them again. it's a horrible feeling. i guess as you get older you think about how you don't have very many chances to see you parents. they're not going to live forever. but that picture will alway be on my mind, them standing behind the partition and waving goodbye to me. (my eyes are tearing up right now. thought i should share.)

so anyway, i got on a plane and flew to japan. the flight was good, i read and slept a little bit. didn't bother with watching tv, there wasn't much to watch. had eel with rice for lunch. after passing immigration and getting my luggage through customs, i went to look for the limousine bus counter. after getting my 3000 yen ticket (roughly US$30), i went to search for a phone to call shawn and my aunt. after letting shawn know my bus was schedule to leave the aiport at 6:05pm (my plane landed at 4:08pm), i called my aunt to let her know that i'd arrived safely and to let my parents know as well.

at around 5:35pm, i went outside the terminal to wait for the limo bus at gate 17. what i didn't know was that the limobuses run every five minutes. so when i handed the ticket to the lugagge guy, he told me (in somewhat broken english) that there are five more buses ahead of me. so i sat and waited. at 6:05pm, my bus came and i climbed on. shibuya. the ride was longer than what i had expected, but the bus finally pulled in to the cerulean tower hotel in shibuya at around 7:30pm.

as i was getting off the bus, i heard my named being called. i turned and there was shawn and taeko. SHAWN and TAEKO, friendly faces of people i know. perfect timing shawn said, as they had just gotten there. and taeko was smiling saying how happy she was to see me. it's good to have friends i always say. so after getting my luggage from the bus compartment, shawn took me to his apt. taeko was headed to a dinner, which shawn an i later attended. at shawn's place, i quickly changed into a pair of jeans and socks and shoes and we headed to dinner.

dinner was at this brazillian churrascaria restaurant. MEAT! finally i have meat from a cow. the dinner was for this girl named crystal who was leaving japan this week (thursday i think) and her friends all gathered to have this dinner for her. the food was good, meat was delicious. we got the all you can drink special as well so i had about three gin and tonics and two beers. well over making up for the cost of the dinner, which was a whopping 6000 yen. but shawn paid for my dinner, which was really nice of him. i told him he didn't have to, but he kept saying it's tradition and stuff. thanks very much.

after dinner, they decided to go meet up with some more people at some bar. we didn't actually go to the bar because when we got there, they started coming out. it's really strange to see these chinese, white people in japan. i'm really ignorant of the fact that there are foreigners working in other countries. *sigh* durrr! the group ended up splitting cuz some people wanted to go karoake and others wanted to go to this lounge place. at the lounge, we kept drinking and after awhile, shawn, taeko and myself left to go back to shawn's apt. apparently, we were going to wake up early because shawn wants to go to the beach the next day.

before we headed home though, shawn suggested we should get some ramen in us to absorb the alcohol. sure, we said. so we had some ramen, and after a 15-minute walk, we were back at shawn's. his apt is really nice. one bedroom. very nice. so i was the first to shower, and then taeko and shawn was last. we stayed up a little longer to talk. finally went to bed at around 3:30am-4:00am. i was really tired and i think i fell straight to sleep when my head hit the tatami.

i should also mention that at the dinner, i met some hk-nese people from canada. most of the them went to waterloo and i think one of them went to university of toronto. oh, yeah, most of them are from toronto, the hk of canada. i thought it was vancouver that was the hk of canada. oh well, we're everywhere.

sunday. we woke up at around 8am. we were suppose to meet up with more of shawn's coworkers at 9am. so we hurriedly got dressed and left shawn's apt. taeko wasn't going to the beach with us because she was going to see her friend dance the flamingo. but since that wasn't until 1pm, she waited with us at the train station. we waited for over an hour. apparently, they changed some plans and someone called everyone (except for shawn) to say they'll meet at 9:45am. hahaha, good times. at the station, i saw mendel, who i met the night before and met eric, sydney, jacquelin, carol and two japanese girls whose names i can't remember.

so we set off for the beach a little after 10am. it was rather expensive going to the beach. like about 1000 yen (roughly US$10) to get there and about 1300 yen (US$13) to come back. at the beach, we met up with jonathan, who i met the night before, and colleen. we got to the beach i think a little big after 12 or 1, i don't wear a watch, so i never know the time. we had lunch a macdonald's and at around 6pm we left the beach. the sand is really disgusting and sticky and since i was really windy, sand was blowing everywhere.

after the beach, they were deciding what to do. i think i would have liked to go back to shawns and stay there to rest. there were talks of hot springs and going to yokohama for dinner. finally, after walking to the train station from the beach, it was decided that we're going to karaoke at shibuya. i was definitely fine with that since it was where shawn's apt was. so we took the train back to shibuya, which took about an hour. we were all really hungery by then.

at karoake, we met up with audrey and her friend lawrence, who's this chinese guy from paris, france. i met them last night as well. and another friend of theirs', charlene (i think that's her name, i can't be too sure). so we all went to karoake, which was in this big building specifically for karoake. i mean it was like 14 floors of karoake rooms. incredible. the karoake place had dinner and drinks so we ordered a lot of stuff and basically had the all you can drink plan.

i was really fucking tired on the way there, but after some food and alcohol, it was great. charlene and sydney were drinking sake. and they were all playing is chinese drinking game where you basically use your hands to make numbers. basically you have four hands. if you have them all balled up, that's 'closed' or 'turtle' (i'm not sure about the latter), zero. if someone opens up their hand, that counts as '5', two hands that's '10', so on and so forth, until you have everything opened, which is 'all opened.' in this game, you yell out the numbers to see if the hands matches. you win when you get two in a roll and you lose your turn if you get it wrong.

after several vodka tonics and beers and sake, i was in a great place. charlene was in the restroom for the last 45 minutes puking her brains out. some people left early to catch the train. we left at around 1:30 in the morning. the bill came out to be 65100 yen. US$65o for karoake, dinner and alcohol. crazy night. came out to be US$70 per person. that's a lot for karoake, but it was fun.

monday. shawn's at work now. i'm in his apt. i'm planning to leave for my aunt's tonight because shawn wants me to come back on friday and do a tokyo all nighter. which basically is you party until 4 or 5 in the morning and then take the trains back to wherever you live when they start running again in the morning. shawn also wanted to go for sushi saturday morning at the fish market. i'm totally up for that since it's suppose to be really fucking fresh. so that's the plan. i'm now going to shower and get some lunch. it's about 1:39pm now and all i've had was half a bag of chips, a nectarine and two popicles. breakfast of champions.

so until i get another chance to blog, see you soon. i'll be back on saturday.

i love you, sweetheart. and i miss you dearly.