Saturday & Sunday February 9 & 10, 2003 ...
The train left Kanazawa and I headed towards Niigata. The train left at around 3 PM and
it was a 3 1/2 hour trip along the coast . It was a somewhat uneventful trip with gray
skies. I remember at times looking out the left hand window and seeing the ocean and
then looking out the right hand window and seeing the snow covered mountains that
were maybe 5000 feet. It is kind of like here in Santa Barbara except the mountains
were taller and it is usually sunny here. At one point we went past a small town having
a winter carnival that had colored snow sculptures that were 30 feet high. I recall seeing
Winnie the Pooh as one of the15 or so characters as we sped past it. I saw the kids
doing winter sports here like sledding though. I was getting into the deep snow country of
Japan. Otherwise it got dark by 5 PM and the train ride was dull.
I arrived at Niigata at 6:30 - 7 PM and I found my Toyoko Inn which was attached to the
Train station. I chose to stop at this city because It was my Japanese teachers home
town and it connected with the Shinkassen (bullet train ) to Tokyo. I made my
reservation for the next days train at 11;15 AM. I looked around the shops at the station. I
bought a couple of crafts. I found a French bakery for dinner that had nice items and they
even had minestrone soup too. After settling into my room and seeing the city lit up in
neon below me I figured I would check it out.
Niigata turned out to be the 1 city in Japan that I really did not care for. As I walked the
streets close to the train station I really got an uneasy feeling. there seemed to be a lot of
seedy looking guys hanging out together on the street corners smoking their cigarettes
Gangsters / Mob ? I walked down another street and a Prostitute wearing a fur coat tried
to proposition me. Sorry that just isn’t my style. Another prostitute on the other side of
the street was striking up a conversation with the guy walking ahead of me as I returned
towards the station. I saw a Tintin - French comic book specialty store that I was interested
in but was already closed. I also saw 3 low rider American cars parked together outside of
the train station with their owners next to them that was a little interesting. But even by
looking at the ordinary people in this city I got the impression that it was very blue collar
here. For the most part I thought Niigata was a scummy rust belt type industrial city that
needs to clean up their image although they recently held some of the world cup soccer
games there. I was the only place in Japan that I did not feel safe and over all I just wasn’t
into being there, so I returned to my room. It did not really look any better there the next
morning as it got light out the city was greay and depressing and looked like an
upscale Gary Indiana. I was supposed to catch my train back to Tokyo at 11:15 AM the
next morning any how. So I just went through my bags lightened the load and packed the
items I did not need to get to any more way on the bottom.
The train never arrived or even existed at the track I was supposed to be at. When 11:30
AM I went down and asked what is going on here? where is no train? They issued a new
ticket for the next bullet train to Tokyo. It was a Double Decker train car that had the
Green car emblem on it. I thought oh cool They upgraded me since they screwed up. But
it turned out that the Green car (first class) is the top car. My guide book had previously
indicated that though we would be going through some very scenic country side ( the
Japanese Alps). The view from the train was not good as we went through many tunnels in
the hilly terrain. Actually there seemed to be a concrete wall most of the trip that you
could not see over, unless you were above in the green car section. So what else was there
to do but have some Oreos drink some water and take a snooze.
I arrived at Tokyo station and transferred trains until I got back to Mejiro station again. I
took a taxi back to the Four Seasons and some of the staff remembered me from 2 1/2
weeks earlier and said welcome back . -- Very impressive I checked in at about 3 PM.
This time they assigned me a room on the same 10 Th. floor but on the other side of the
building with a view of the garden below. The female bellman rung the doorbell
unexpectedly and presented me with a nice fancy pen (better than the ones we normally
have at our hotel) compliments of the general manager for my return visit to the hotel. It
was Sunday afternoon and I waited for my friend Tomomi to arrive at 4 30 PM in the
hotel Lobby. Weddings are a big business and as I waited I observed 3 - 4 wedding
parties with the brides and attendants in their beautiful Kimonos and the men dressed in
suits.
Tomomi is a casual friend who is my age. I have been writing with for about 6 months
now and then. Tomomi arrived and wanted to take me to Asakusa (older part of Tokyo)
but I mentioned that I had been there once before ( the Restaurant supply street) and that I
would be visiting there the next day with Bob and his girlfriend. She then said how
about Yokohama? I said that would be great I had wanted to visit there but didn’t think
I would make it there. We took a cab back to Mejiro station and took some trains down
to Yokohama about a 45 minute - 1 hour ride. We had a nice conversation during the
trip so the time flew by. Tomomi lived in LA previously before and her English is
excellent we talked about both being single at our age an the type of people we are
meeting. She mentioned a guy she had met before in San Francisco who turned out to
be kind of creepy.. I knew of this same guy from a Japanese girl I had a Internet
friendship with a couple of years ago. Koko the girl I knew said he was her friend but
Tomomi mentioned her was creepy and was nothing like he represented himself as on th e
Internet. He did not really even look like his picture. We laughed that we knew of this
same person.
We arrived in Yokohama which was interesting and lit up at night I tried to take some
pictures but they came out under exposed. I saw some of the famous landmark
Skyscrapers and their large Ferris wheel all lit up. (Japan loves Ferris wheels). I had
seen pictures of Yokohama before and I would like to go back and see it again in the
daytime. We made it over to Chinatown the largest in Japan and we had a great dinner. The
only Chinatown I missed was Kobe. We talked quite a bit during our nice dinner. She
told me that she is just as content living in Japan as in America. Tomomi mentioned that
she has been very fortunate to have survived all of the downsizing that her industry has
done so far. She mentioned that the financial industry is very stressful and she actually
prefers to associate with people such as myself outside of her industry. She told me that
she owns a 3 bed room apartment penthouse that she was lucky to get for a good price.
She related the interesting quip that she had an unemployed friend who was able to wait
in line for 7 days to help her get the apartment. She likes to entertain and have parties
sometimes. Tomomi has a lot of friends in different industries and she gave me some
insights about job possibilities for working in Japan.
We walked a little through China town and made it back to the train station. Tomomi got
off at her nearest station and I continued on to Mejiro Station and I walked the 20 minutes
back to the hotel. after traveling around and sleeping on hard beds at the hotels I really
appreciated the luxury again of being in this expansive room and having a nice soft
plush bed.
