The longest day of my life, literally

What’s the first thing you eat when you get back from a trip out of the country? I got Fatburger.

At about 7 a.m. we woke up. We were up until almost 1. I was packing while Diamond was catching up with the rest of the world. We walked down to the nearby noodle house for breakfast then checked out.

We boarded a shuttle bus that took us back to Narita Airport. I stayed up and saw everything I could see while Diamond took a quick nap. Since Diamond was flying to Taiwan after Tokyo, he had to get off at a different terminal. I thanked him for the invitation to travel with him.

I was now on my own. I was dropped off at my terminal and saw how long the line for Korean Air was and knew I wouldn’t be getting much rest before the flight. After waiting in line after line after line, I finally made it to my gate. I still had some yen left over so I went to the airport McDonald’s, yes I did, and spent it all.

… I boarded the plane at 3 p.m. on Friday in Tokyo. Within an hour of take off the sun was gone and I had to just sit there for the next nine hours. I had a window seat and couldn’t move around much. I did get to see “The Dark Knight” so that was nice.

Every now and then I would open the window shade to see anything. All I could see was the light at the end of the wing.

At about 5:30 a.m PST they began serving breakfast and I opened the shade to see some land. By now we were flying over California near Monterey. It was about this time I stared to see land and I knew I was close to home.

As the sun continued to rise I was able to see more and finally recognize the skyline of Los Angeles and home.

… After getting my bags and passing through customs I was outside at 7 a.m., midnight back in Tokyo. I may never go up to Alaska to see the sun at midnight, but in a way I got to live it. I was picked up by a friend at the airport and went home.

Now, I’ve never flown out of the country, but when you come back and are tired and should be asleep because it was night time where you were, do the colors look dull? I’m just asking.

I picked up my car from another friend and drove myself home, where I preceded to drop my stuff and go to sleep. It was a good plan too until someone called my house phone at 10 a.m. I quickly went back to sleep.

… At 2 p.m. I woke up to go to work. Yup, the sports news waits for no one. I got to work at about 3:15 p.m. and realized that was 15 minutes after I left Tokyo on the same day. Ah, the International Dateline.

Work was work. I was tired at first but by the time I got to the end, the stress of the job kicked in and kept me up.

… So for the past couple hours since I’ve been home, doing laundry and thinking back. I mean I had plenty to do on Friday being that it was 40 hours long.

I’m so glad I was able to experience this trip despite my fears.

Food was one fear. While I did lose three pounds to put me under 210 for the first time in years, I will say that I always had plenty to eat. I never truly starved, but the portions are smaller in Japan. And I ate so much ramen. Plus we walked everywhere so that helped burn calories.

Communication was another fear. I’ve always considered myself a patient person. However, witnessing how much people were trying to help me in Tokyo, people who may not have known English and being patient enough to understand so they could help, was humbling.

Am I ready to be a world traveler? Yes and no. I do have an idea of where I want to go next. But it’s not a trip to Europe, or an island nation. Where I want to go is to see where my parents grew up in Mexico. I think I’m ready; I just need someone to guide me there.

I think it’s about time.

Day Five, Tokyo: When in Rome. Or in our case Tokyo

Does anyone know the words to “Lovin you?” It is Midnight, Friday here.

… We’ve adjusted to the time, just in time for us to leave. Luckily for Diamond he’s on his way to Taiwan after Tokyo. I get to go to work, but I love a challenge.

We had a late start but there was less to do. We went to Shiodome to go to the World Trade Center Observatory. We spent more than an hour there mostly because we were just resting and looking out on the city.

We spent the time reflecting really. Thinking about where we were and what we did and seeing all those places from this vantage point. We took more pictures, of course.

… Our last destination was Odaiba, an area similar to Santa Monica. There was no subway to Odaiba, only a monorail and ferry. I decided on the ferry first since it runs only during the day and thought it would be nice to sail out there and we would sail under the Rainbow Bridge, a picturesque sight.

Once on Odaiba we noticed something unusual, The Statue of Liberty. It was much smaller than the actual in New York. But it does give a skyline since you have the statue, the Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge.

We walk around and went to Palette Town which was part Toyota museum and shopping mall. In the middle of the mall was a casino which surprised us. Gambling is illegal in Japan. However if you take your winnings to redeem prizes, then it is ok. At $20 a blackjack hand, Diamond and I passed.

We had dinner and took more pictures of the bridge at night then went home. We were tired, beat and already thinking about packing. We went to am/pm to see what it was like in there. I purchased a Kit-Kat, Oreos and a Coke.

… As we left, Diamond asked if I wanted to do karaoke. Up until that point I wasn’t interested, but now I wanted to try. I mean why not, I’m in the country that invented karaoke. I had the sushi, might as well do that.

We went back home and ate our snacks then went out looking for Big Echo, a karaoke house we’ve seen about 20 times throughout Tokyo. Yet when you were looking for one, you can’t find it.

We walked around, knowing it was blocks within our hotel but couldn’t find one. Diamond asked someone in the street and they pointed us in a direction but seemed unsure about it. We walked to the intersection but didn’t see it. As we waited at the intersection, I noticed it in the reflection off a building, soon enough we were there.

We got in and after trying to explain what we wanted, we were given a half hour to sing our hearts out. The problem was all of the instructions were in Japanese and we entered the wrong song in.

After a bit, we figured out what to do it was golden. We actually asked for an extension because we had so much fun.

Ok, pop quiz: What was the first song we sang? Don’t read on until you have an answer.

We thought about this, but Diamond nailed it and so the first song we sang was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” It was an excellent choice by him.

I actually have videos of us singing. I’m never going to release Diamond’s, and I’m not going to release mine either. I just wanted something to remember it.

After making it back to the hotel I noticed something and asked Diamond if he noticed it too. All the pain we had from the walking was suddenly gone.

Are we ready for American Idol? Hell no! We missed so many notes and screwed up so many lyrics. But was it the perfect way to end our last night on the trip? Yes it was.

Here are some pictures

Day Four, Tokyo: They don’t open until 11

I need to franchise a dessert waffle place. It is 10:13 p.m. local time.

… We got up at a decent time today. We didn’t head out to the fish market like usual and spent the first part of our morning catching up on what is going on at home and talking to friends online before looking for a place to eat. The problem is Japan isn’t known for eating out for breakfast. We walked around looking for a place to eat only to find plenty of closed restaurants at 9:30 a.m.

The only place open was a noodle house. The interesting thing about some noodle houses is that it’s part restaurant, part vending machine. There are no waiters really. You walk in and go to a vending machine, put money in and then push the button of what you want. A receipt comes out and you take it to the counter. The chef takes it and within a minute you have your meal.

We find the whole process interesting and efficient. Then again, making noodle soup isn’t a long process if everything is prepared.

We then walked around looking for shops and about 95 percent of them were closed. Again, they are closed until 11. It’s a good thing we didn’t need anything.

… We traveled to the Tokyo Dome to go to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Before we got there, we went into the store for the Yomiuri Giants. Yes I bought a Giants hat, learn to deal.

The first exhibit at the JHOF is a display for the trophy of the first World Baseball Classic. You learn the history of baseball in Japan; from the people who brought the game over to the country to the players. They are remembered with like their Major League counterparts, a bronze relief with a paragraph describing why they are in the HOF.

From there we went to the Tokyo Dome Town that included a roller coaster which I had to go on. Its opening drop was steep and I could have swore, more than a 90 degree drop. It was a fun ride.

… Our next stop took us to Ikebukuro. It was an interesting area. We walked by a Denny’s, but it was unlike any one in the States. I don’t recall seeing most of what was on that menu in the United States. We passed. I passed because it looked to strange and Diamond because you wouldn’t order sushi from Denny’s.

We walked into a mall and I ordered a Big Mac. For those that remembered, I wondered what a $12 Big Mac would taste like. Well it was more like $7 and it was really good. The Japanese are years ahead of us on almost everything.

After a trip to McDonald’s, we went up to the top of one of the mall’s towers where the aquarium and planetarium were. It made me wonder who in their right mind would but an aquarium on the top of a building, but who am I to judge.

… We headed back to the Tokyo Tower to take pictures. We were unable to get to the observation deck the day before so we tried again. The view of Tokyo was beautiful. You could see all sides of the town with a pretty good view. We could also see Mt. Fuji before it became too dark.

After taking pictures, we went back to the lobby and ate dinner and I again had chocolate waffles, delicious.

… Our day wasn’t as exciting as the other day. This day was just a thrown together day for the most part. It was needed too since we rested from walking. We came back to the hotel earlier than the last three nights and it feels really good to rest.

Plus we just saw Tommy Lee Jones star in a television commercial for a canned coffee. We’ve been seeing him on ads for that canned coffee on vending machines all over. Now it all comes together.

Here are some pictures

Day Three, Tokyo: Paging Dr. Scholls

My prediction for the trip should have been the same one Clubber Lang had for his second fight against Rocky Balboa in Rocky III: PAIN! It's 11:50 p.m. local time.

I may have spoken too soon about adjusting to time as the result of waking up at 4 a.m. So what do you do when that happens? You go back to the fish market.

So Diamond and I got up and out to see more. This time we went to the actual market that reminded me of the produce market in downtown Los Angeles where I spent three of my summers working for my brother-in-law. There were just rows and rows of seafood with buyers loading up carts. We had to watch out for moving gas carts as well as hand ones.

As we walked around, we found the fish auction. Big giant fish that I think was tuna being auctioned to bidders in hats with numbers on them.

After walking out we were looking for something to eat. Knowing Diamond, I knew he wanted fish, and sushi to be exact. So, to be fair I decided to have some. I bought this rice ball that had fish in it. I don’t know what kind, but I knew it did. We took our food back to the hotel room and after a while of thinking it over, I bit in to the fish center. I don’t care for the taste of fish and still don’t. So I ate as quickly as I could.

… We rested then got ready for the Imperial Palace. We took a taxi since we were sore from the walking we did the day before. It may have been one of the best investments we made that day.

Now we didn’t have reservations to get into the palace, but we were still able to walk on the outside and the East Gardens. It is a peaceful place and just wide open spaces. After spending the first day and a half in cramped areas, we saw nothing but just room and grass which was a nice change.

It was also at this point where pain was starting to set in. After walking pretty much nonstop, we were starting to feel pain in our feet. I was also getting it in my back while Diamond had it more on his legs. But we moved through with so much to do.

… After two days of seeing current culture we took a look back at somewhat current culture at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art nearby. Some of the art was beautiful and interesting. There was a painting of Australian and British POWs resting while doing work with Japanese solider nearby.

… Our next stop was the Akihabara/Ueno area and we had a late lunch. For those that think Tokyo is an expensive city, it’s not really that bad. Well it’s not bad if you ramen. So far we’ve been averaging about 1000 yen, about $10, a meal and the ramen bowl I had for lunch was only 210.

Our only expenses as been food and transportation. I was estimating 10,000 yen a day but so far that seems way too much.

While in Ueno, I found one of the things I was looking for, a Mister Donut. It was by accident too. We were walking when I looked up and saw it there. It was a nice surprise and a very good donut.

… We had one more stop and that was Roppongi. It was a long trip and it was much needed since we were getting physically tired. I had noticed Diamond limping before he did. Moving after taking a break is a real struggle since it takes effort to get started.

When we arrived at Roppongi and got moving again, we looked for a place to eat and were at Roppongi Hills. Trying to find something to eat was a bit of a struggle. The first place we looked at was not open yet. Diamond found a sushi place with food on a conveyor belt and I didn’t want to stand in his way.

We got there and sat in the corner. I’m still not easy with eating raw fish, even after what I had earlier in the day. We tried to get something that I thought I would like, like salmon and tuna. Those plates came around and I wanted Diamond to go first with salmon. It might not have been the smartest move since there was wasabi in it and he was not expecting it. So he had a reaction to it which didn’t put me at ease since I’ve never had wasabi either.

I decided to do it and tried to power through the whole thing, but couldn’t. Then the wasabi hit me. I made it more of a disaster than it should have been in hindsight. Yes, I’ll admit sushi isn’t bad, but at the same time, I’m not going out for it either.

The cool thing about that place was that when he had the plates stacked, he was able to put a handheld computer over the plates that immediately calculated the price. It impressed us at least.

After getting out, we walked very painfully to the Tokyo Tower. After walking, resting and repeating that cycle several times we got there. Once we got there we walked into the cafeteria and I saw one of the greatest fusions of food: chocolate and waffles. Unfortunately, it was called Pinkdot and Diamond asked if that was the gayest thing I’ve ever done? Well I couldn’t help the name of the place honestly and I do love waffles and chocolate.

… Right now we are tired and sore. We hope we can feel better, but we’ll see.

Here are some pictures

Day Two, Tokyo: Fool me once …

Why do the news programs here have a camera on the anchor not reporting the story and showing him on screen? It's 10:23 p.m. here.

… I’ve had little trouble with adjusting to local time. Mainly because I stayed up late and got up after eight hours of sleep. Diamond, however, got up at 2 a.m. and it was partly my fault. I saw him fall asleep and just let him go. He would end up telling me later that I should have kept him up.

… When I awoke at 6 a.m. local time, I was actually ready to go. Our first excursion was a trip down to the nearby fish market. It is sort of like Fisherman’s Warf in San Francisco. I was hoping to bid on a delicious bass, but would find out that it was too late and the bidding was probably not open to the public.

We had breakfast there; a bowl of ramen which I thought was great. Then again, it is hard to screw up noodles and hot water. Although I know some that could.

… We walked back to the hotel and figured out quickly what to do next. We went to Shinjuku and after walking around – mostly because I got us lost – we made it to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. It has two 45 floor towers. We went up one tower than the other and also took pictures of course. Until that time, we had just seen commercial buildings, but looking out on the city we could actually see residential areas.

We later walked into a Pachinko Slot machine parlor. Basically, it’s like going to Dave & Buster’s but it takes no skill what so ever and with no understanding of what is going on. I spent 1,000 yen, or about $11 to learn that lesson.

We walked around and ended up in another community called Kabukicho. There we saw a bit of everything. From bowling to … I guess what you would call companion bars. All within a four block area. It has something for everyone I guess.

… I entered the subway for the next trip when I had a run in someone that reminded me of a co-worker. I was picked off rather easily speaking English and this gentleman came up to me to help, without really asking if I needed it. Sound familiar to some of you. Like an idiot, I told him where we were going and sure enough he pointed out where to go, even though I knew where I was going. He took 200 from Diamond as a “service fee” for his help. I immediately gave Diamond back 200 since it was my fault. He never took my change since snagged it before he had a chance. HAWGH!

… We traveled down to Harajuku to go to the Meiji Shrine which called for a walk into a deep wooded area with a clear path. There we saw a huge 10 sided wall of prayers with people from all over the world on 3x5 inch blocks. The prayers were also stacked 10 deep to, so you can just imagine the number.

We walked down to Shibuya were we became a part of one of the biggest crosswalks I’ve ever been in; people from five different corners going.

After that, we went to go have dinner. We had another run with someone and me learning from what happened earlier, I spoke in Spanish to him, which confused him. After dinner then I had a taste of home by stopping off at a Cold Stone Creamery.

… We walked around the community when we saw a mall called Shibuya 109. Diamond saw a sign that said 109 restaurants and was surprised this building had so many places to eat. We went up to the top floor, the eighth, and found out that it was nothing like he had thought. It was stores for females, teenagers to be exact. Diamond has read in a tour book about a mall that was like that, but had forgotten the name until it was too late.

One of the stores was called titty&Co. If I could have gotten a picture of it without seeming creepier than I already am, I would have done it. I tried to sneak a photo but unfortunately I had left the flash on, so I’m sure that did it.

Not so far from that place was another Shibuya 109-2 and on the outside it said male clothes. I was skeptical but Diamond thought it had to be different and it made sense to have a separate mall for males.

The answer is, NOPE. I knew it was more of the same immediately when the two stores on the first floor were Hello Kitty and a Barbie clothing store, actual size. But we went to the top again and were faced with the facts.

… We got home and were tired. Tomorrow we are going to try and get to the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately we couldn’t get in since we didn’t know to make reservations until it was too late. But we are in for some more walking.

Pictures are here

Day One, Tokyo: 12 hours in a time warp

Even though it is Sunday Night in Tokyo, it does not give me super powers to tell you what NFL games to pick. It's 9:25 a.m. here.

… After getting three hours of sleep, I took off for Tokyo at 7 a.m. Saturday by getting a ride to Los Angeles International Airport. I met my friend Diamond and we boarded out plane at 10 a.m. From the time the door was sealed until it was opened again, 12 hours had passed and it was a new day.

The strange thing is that it hardly felt like 12 hours. I don’t want to say the time flew by, but what I will say is that the service on our Korean Air flight was so good, it help make time not drag as much. The other thing that helped was that the plane was dark and the blinds were closed.

We departed Los Angeles and went up the coast until we got to Monterey, then made our turn to Japan. During the flight there was a monitor that came up after movies and short specials letting us know everything about our flight. I can say at 5:13 p.m. PDT we crossed into tomorrow.

I wished I had received more sleep, but probably got maybe an hour. It wasn’t so much for a lack of trying, but it was about a matter of comfort. I figured foolishly that with a lack of sleep I would be able to on the plane. I was wrong. Diamond was able to sleep much better than me, but I think it is because he does it for a living covering the Dodgers.

One of Diamond’s favorite things to do on the flight was to listen to the music on the plane, especially to this one station about soundtracks. It’s not so much he liked listening to the songs, he just found the American DJ hysterical. What happens is that after a set of songs, a female DJ speaks then another in a different language then the American DJ and what he said sounds silly. Diamond said he could imagine a female saying that, but not a man.

… After we got to our hotel, we walked around the area and were immediately over taken by all the sights. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a town that was so bright before at night. Just looking down the main streets in the Ginza area of Tokyo was just a bit much for two people that just spent 12 hours on a plane and a 90 minute shuttle ride to the hotel.

We walked into the Sony Showroom and immediately saw things that we could never afford, but were so cool. We feel we have a pretty good idea of what is coming soon to showrooms to you in the United States.

We went out to dinner at what is could be compared to a bar and grill. The only thing is that we may or may not know the proper procedure to order. We felt we waited for a long time for a waiter to come by after our drink orders. We didn’t know whether to call one over or just wait. Finally we decided to wave one over.

While waiting for out food, I made an observation about my first time out of the United States. For the first time I felt isolated when it comes to conversations in restaurants. I was surrounded, as you would expect, by locals enjoying their food and I heard myself talk and it was standing out since the background noise wasn’t English but Japanese. It’s just a strange perspective I have.

… Currently we are watching Japanese television and the show has a female traveling around Asia eating random food. I have no idea what she is eating – whether be animal, mineral or vegetable – and I really don’t want to know. It’s just best that way.

Pictures are here.

On my way

What am I going to do on a plane for 12 hours?

… I got to work at the Press-Telegram again after the system went down where I work.

It was nice to have one day where we could relive what it was like to work in Long Beach again. I really didn’t get to work in the old sports area since a lot has changed.

When we did comeback, many of the reporters came around to talk to us. I guess we both were a distraction to each other.

The one person I did miss in all of this was James. I could just have imagined what he would say, but I’m sure it would be funny.

… I leave for Tokyo in a couple of hours. I can honestly say I’m nervous about not only the flight, but just being a stranger in a strange land. I don’t know how I’m going to take a lot that I see.

Take for example a Japanese commercial I saw. It was an ad for an automatic toilet, with a seat that lifts and flushes when you are done. It had two mascots that look like a knock off of Big Bird and Kermit the Frog. It was so strange. It that is out there, what does that town have in store for me.

… I did discover that on the day I get back, it will be a 40 hour day. I’m flying out at 3 p.m. on Friday. I arrive in Los Angeles at 7 a.m. that same day. So, I’ll spend 15 hours in Tokyo, 15 hours in Southern California and 10 hours on a plane. Then I got to go to work.

I love a challenge.

But I also get the opportunity to see the sunrise twice on the same day.

… I leave you with this piece of advice I got from my six-year old niece about going to Tokyo. “Don’t let a Japanese man kick you in the head and knock you down.”

Make what you want of that.

Lying to Congress

Daylight savings time, fall back: the one day of the year procrastinators get an extra

… It was like any ordinary Saturday. I was home getting ready for work when someone came a knocking on my door. I opened it to see that it was my local Congresswomen, the one I voted against on my absentee ballot.

(On a side note, the Congressional district I live in is right on the boarder of another district. If I lived a block closer to the beach, I wouldn’t be one of her constituents.)

So why did I vote against her? Well she’s had some personal turmoil with foreclosures. It seemed to me that there would be too much going on there to be also working in Congress.

Now you can imagine my shock to see her at my front door. Of course she asked if I voted for her and of course, I lied. Yes folks, there might be a subpoena waiting for me investigating why I lied to Congress.

But the story doesn’t end there. The ironic thing is that it was the day I decided to wear my old School House Rock t-shirt to work. I’ve had this shirt since I was a senior in high school and dug it out recently when I got my suitcase for my upcoming trip (more on that later). It was picture of the bill on Capitol Hill saying “I’m just a bill sitting here on Capitol Hill.”

I had forgotten I put that on until her volunteer with her pointed it out. We all had a laugh about it.

This story has one more twist. As she was leaving I went to pick up the newspaper. On the cover, top strip, was an interview she did with my newspaper, The Press-Telegram, about her problems. I saw her looking at me when I did that, and when I picked it up, I knew why without looking at the entire paper and got somewhat of an uneasy feeling.

So in a moment of truth, I cowered. At the same time, she is pretty much running unopposed and according to cqpolitics.com, it a safe bet she will be elected. If I had to do it again, I’d ask her something meaningful to put her on the spot, not Joe the Plumber like, but get an answer from her.

I have a feeling I’ll see her again in two years, maybe.

… For the first time in my life I’ve donated money to a presidential candidate. It’s should come as no surprise that it was for Barack Obama.

I found a candidate I believed in so much, I willingly gave money.

But why him and now you might ask?

I never saw his “Breakout speech” live at the 2004 DNC, but I read it and I felt inspired by it. At the time I thought, I’d like to vote for him, but he’s just running for his first term in the Senate.

Two years later, he decided to run. I was glad but wondered if he had enough experience to pull it out. If he failed in the primaries, how much would that set him back?

However, in those two years, I’ve seen him do one thing that I admire the most. Despite the politics as usual, he’s tried to become inclusive to everyone.

It’s becoming clear to me that the Republican Party has become what Colin Powell described as becoming narrow. I’ve never been a conservative type but what members have done in trying to portray Obama as something he’s not upsets me. When Powell endorsed Obama he pointed to how some GOP members tried to say that Obama was a Muslim. As Powell said, “What if he is? Is there a problem with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is No, that’s not America.”

Which makes me think, what does the GOP think of me?

With Obama, I get the sense of inclusiveness. And it was at that point, back in 2004 that I felt greatness for this person who was just running for his first term in the U.S. Senate.

You ever get the sense of saying things too much and in time it loses its meaning? It was during his keynote address at the 2004 that reminded me of a meaning again.

It’s when he said “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is just the United States of America.”

The word United I had taken for granted and at that moment I thought here is someone that can remind us what we can become if we work together towards a common goal as opposed to a common enemy which is what the current political landscape had become.

Here I am, two days away hoping everything works out on Tuesday.

… I’m less than two weeks away from my trip to Tokyo. I almost have everything. I need to buy a power converter, but that is it.

My friend and I went to the Japan Travel Bureau in downtown Los Angeles on Halloween to see what information they had, but they seemed to be closed for lunch, we’ll have to try again.

There are certain things I’m worrying about, besides the flight. Am I going to be able to adjust to the time difference? Am I going to like the food and if not, how much weight am I going to lose?

Communication will be another problem. The tour book I’ve bought came with phrases. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a Monty Python skit.