An Exit plan is always Great!

Hostel Life is quite interesting in the sense that you are never quite sure who you will end up talking to or sleeping above or below, you have to remember that the dorm is for sleeping, not socialising and you treat the whole are like neutral ground…. its 5Am and i have to ship out to London for my next interim stop on my travels.

I made sure i packed out the night before so all I really have to accomplish in ninja silence is a shower and the ability to grab my bag without smashing anyone on the head as i walk out.

The logistics for today are really simple

HOSTEL> SHIBUYA

SHIBUYA > NEX Express to Narita

NARITA > ZURICH

ZURICH> HEATHROW

HEATHROW>HOSTEL

To Get to Shibuya is about a 3 minute Uber…. the one thing I didn’t account for is that any form of personal transport in Tokyo is an Arm and a leg, the 2KM Journey in light traffic cost me about 4500 YEN…. not proud of that travel decision but I wasn’t going to carry a 17.6KG of Life up the gradual incline walk back to the train station…..i would end up being the little Choo Choo train who think he could!

The NEX Express to Narita Leaves from platform 4 every Hour on the hour and takes around 56 minutes to complete, its stops only twice, once at tokyo Central and once at Terminal 2, it seems t be the best way to travel directly, the train has air conditioning and free WIFI which was a huge relief as i had some how amazingly gone through 500 MB of data in 2 days and i had my phone on Flight mode 99.7% of the time, its amazing how behind we are in NZ with Telco companies.

In Japan you can get a sim with Unlimited Data for about 5000 Yen (50NZD$) which makes sense if we abolished the likes of Collect calling and everyone used data the phone policies would be very simple to purchase and enjoy.

The Airport at Narita reminds me a lot of Stuttgart in its layout and design, Japan is very retail focused and there is almost a shopping mal within the Airport, i checked in and realised I hadn’t actually got any Souvenirs from my time in tokyo so i headed off to the shops, i managed to come across a smoking lounge…. yes that’s right i still haven’t given that up and Auckland customs decided to raid my pack and take my Vape….. should have put it in my carry on!

Anyhow i was in the smoking lounge having an American Spirit Cigarette and came across a product called “Plume Tech” this is not a standard vape. It actually uses Tabasco but vaporises at around 32 degrees centigrade and still gives the full smoking experience without the ash and heat and the great thing is that they have a new shop in the Terminal.

I went and checked out Plume tech and the product is cost effective and looks stylish so I decided to get one it came to about 6800 Yen which is about 58 NZD after that i went and purchased a set of exspensive chopsticks and a charm for good health.

CHOPSTICKS

Chopsticks i have come to love over the past 96 hours, western civilisation seems to be all about gluttony and speed when dining how quickly can we eat and how much can we fit on our Fork!

In japan it seems to be reverse i think it might have something to do with the speed of every day life is so intoxicating that everyone is in a hurry to get the train or make it to the next shop or get to work but when it comes to eating the chop sticks make sense

I always used to laugh at chop sticks my take on it was

“2000 years ago Asian cultures ate with sticks….. 2000 years on they haven’t progressed any further in society”

I have changed that view, food is meant to be enjoyed take your time with it….. take a break from life….. chill enjoy the flavours , share a conversation with the person next to you don’t hurry because once you get up from that meal you are back into full speed ahead mode running around at 88MPH trying to get a head and digress to a more fulfilling future.

On the flight to Zurich i ended up sitting next to a 25 year old Japanese woman who spoke a little bit of english she took some curiosity in Gerald and wanted to know where he came from, i told her New Zealand and she explained how she had always wanted to visit the country and was exceptionally jealous of my living situation, we chatted for a short period of time and I discovered that she was an opera singer and was relocation to sing for an entertainment company there.

She was nervous as she couldn’t speak a sing word of German but also had never moved away from japan

We had a laugh and agreed that if i could navigate to Shibuya without knowing a single piece of Japanese she could navigate Zurich without a problem!

————————15 Hours of travel Later ——————————

I have arrived in London the customs office looked me up and down a few time and was very curious in my travels asked me 20 questions a bout the nature of my visit i told her about my Trifecta of failure in life and she responded wth have you got enough money for your trip”

I assured her i did and that i promised i would leave the country as soon as i felt it was time she wished me well and told me to not cause any trouble

I must admit navigating an airport from an English speaking country is very easy! No flapping around with trying to translate or sheepishly ask is some one if they speak english!

Jumping on the tube was a breeze you just buy an “Oyster card” it costs around 5 pounds for the card and then you load it easily with your Credit card at the pay station

I had to travel 22 stops to my station and walk about 400 meter to the hostel, i got chatting to a gentleman on the train who had a pack on as well his name was Isaac and had just spent a month in India, I got chatting to him about his trip and took a bit of an interest in his story, he said it was just amazing to see how they live, he spent 1 month there and it cost him about 1200 pounds for the whole trip so I’m in a mind to try and swing past there n my trip at some part unfortunately i cant see the world in one trip, i will have to go back at some stage and replenish the financial capital one day….

The Generator London is clean hostel with 8 Sleeper dorms, the place must sleep close to a few hundred guests and there are people from all over the world, a trick with bookings is your first night is the cheapest and it goes up substantially day on day from there, so i am only here for 3 days and then ill travel out of the city and visit some friends then make my way to Eastern Europe for a few weeks.

Right its about 3 AM in tokyo at the moment so time to crash

“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed “- Joseph Stalin