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Japan Trip

FIRST STEP IN JAPAN

One lifetime experience can root itself into a person’s memory forever and be a regular source of happiness, not only for the experience itself, but for always remembering winning the long fight to achieving this goal. Take me, for example. I am Jiraporn who since time of a very small girl always wished to have a ride in some airplane and visit exciting places learned about and seen from television, books and movies. I’m the one in my family who would stand outside my small house in Khon Kaen and watch the airplanes flying overhead followed by a white tail going to some beautiful place. I wanted every time to be on that airplane – there was nothing  better to do in those days than dream that one day I would be up there to going to some far away magic place .

Well, it took a long time, but finally three years ago, I decided to save every month and use our small amount of salaries to take a trip to Japan, which turned out to be the country that I most wanted to visit.  I have always heard from many people that Japan was an expensive place. But I was determined to go and be careful with my money and enjoy both taking photos, seeing things with my eyes and eating a lot of sushi, remembering that I heard from many that they had the very best overseas holiday experience in Japan of all countries. I was very excited.  I was even more excited when we decided to go in December, which would be my first time in cold weather and maybe I could even see some snow. I saved my money, got my first passport, bought a heavy goose-feather coat, made bookings at reasonable price hotel recommended by friends and bought my ticket.  I was off to chase my dream!

The city that I wanted to visit was Tokyo!  Tokyo was the city I always dreamt about because it is very convenient to go everywhere. I wanted to stay in Ginza area where there was high fashion to watch but no plan to shop  because I just like to sightsee, take photos and eat.  Yeah!!  I rewarded myself for reaching this goal with a business class ticket and flew with Thai Aways Air Line, wow....!   Actually I’m a kind of an economy person but for this Japan trip I wanted to reward myself with a gift for a hard working life. Thanks to the Japanese government, citizens of Thailand no longer required visa to enter Japan and I was so happy that such difficulty including possible rejection of visa application would not need to be encountered for this trip.

Look at this, I got the passport and the ticket! Yes! Yes! Yes!

For many people visiting Japan visit, it may be a very ordinary trip but for non-rich me, it was going to be very remarkable!

About a month before departure, the waiting time drove me crazy. I was dying to go quickly as possible.

Finally, the life dream was coming true. On 4 December I woke up before dawn to make sure that I would be ready for the flight (which did not leave until 4pm). The trip was going to be 6 days, from 4th to 10th December, 2013. I had six days to spend in Japan! That was beyond what my mind could believe.

My flight was perfect.  It was going to Haneda Airport which my friends told me was next to the city and much easier and cheaper to get into the hotel than from Narita Airport.  They were right.  It took me only one hour from stepping off the airplane to stepping into the hotel. Taxi cab was only 6,500 yen and took 20 minutes.  During the flight, the angel (air attendant) from Thai  Airways served me food and drink with some wine. I could order selection of food and have as much wine as I wanted.  Now that I have made other flights (all economy class) since the Tokyo trip, I have a cheerful memory of that time and always will feel that buying the expensive ticket was without any question the right thing to do when chasing my dream. 

When the airplane was landing, I was getting exited, noticing that my legs were shaking a little. I was dying to get out of the airplane.  When I stepped into the terminal and on the walkway to customs inspection I will always remember the big happy smile that I had when I stepped out of the airplane.  Upon leaving the airport, I was hit by a big blast of cold air.  I was so cold I thought I had been dropped at the North Pole! Oh my god!  This was real cold and not like aircon in Paragon mall or on BTS.  I recognized it well, it was 13 degrees that night according to the pilot before landing and as it got later, the colder it got, making me realize all the more I was happy since part of the long lasting dream was to touch the cold weather abroad.  I had achieved my purpose!

After I arrived the Annex hotel in Ginza, I immediately checked in and took all suitcases in the room. Unfortunately, I got the floor, which was for smoking guests. Turned out that Japanese are very heavy smokers; while the room smell made me so upset, I held back my usually high temper and went to the lobby and asked for changing of the room to non-smoking. The receptionist arranged for the new room very politely and efficiently for me and provided the new room key when I came back from walking.  Walking and sightseeing around, I didn’t return until it was almost 1 a.m. and almost no one left walking except some drunk men who may have been coming back from one of the many, as I found out later, hostess bars around there.  The temperature decreased from 13 to 9 degrees. It was so cold but so fresh which was so different from Thailand. Thailand in winter is cold and dry but in Japan the cold weather makes the air so fresh.  After I got so cold to the point of being an ‘ice girl’, I had to go back to hotel.  No sense in making myself sick.

CÖLD BÜT SÖ HÄPPŸ

After back in the hotel, I got the new room, which was so clean, so warm, and so comfortable with a nice soft bed and pillow and fresh smell from outside.  The first night in Japan was marvelous for me, a Thai girl on her first overseas adventure, the trip seen in all her dreams.

 The next morning I woke up early (how could I sleep?) to have breakfast at Starbucks before going on to further adventures in Shibya and Harajuku for sightseeing and, yes, looking at the mix of young fashion in Shibuya and the high fashion of Harajuku.

I discovered that Japanese people actually didn’t drive to these places. Rather they took transportation like train and subway as a normal daily practice. I couldn’t help thinking about how such transportation could reduce car and motorcycle traffic in Bangkok. That’s the reason why Japan even in the big cities has fresh air and clean but I felt badly about many of the men in this country being smoke addicted. I could see everywhere the smokers gathering in front of the train stations to smoke cigarettes. Anyway, my goal was Shibuya and Harajuku, so I tried to ignore such groups and walked quickly past them.

At the train station I could not find English Language at all, so asked the people around me how to go here and how to go there. They were always helpful and pointed out for me how to choose the fare for the station that I wanted to go to.  They even showed me how to put money in the machine and how to get change in coins. 30 minutes to Shibuya! 

Getting out from the train I saw Shibuya was so crowded. People like couples, students, and friends. I never saw so many people in one place at the same time.  I walked from Shibuya to Harujuka since I would like to see how the fashion changed during this 30 minutes walk.  Wow!  From ‘Hello Kitty’ in Shibya to Chanel and Gucci in Harajuku.  Like two different worlds. Fashion cartoon dressing by young people was everywhere. Maybe Chanel was for evening fashion? It looked like a Thai TV show Unbelievable, I was now here!

Harujuku was like a town in one’s dream world. There are both expensive and cheap things, as well as trendy little restaurants with long line-ups of people, serving everything from Hawaiian-style pancakes to Chinese dim sum to sweet crepes (Bangkok girls would really love these).  Even a Thai restaurant with waitress and cook from Thailand serving Pad Thai! 

I spent time all afternoon long in Harajuku, happy and joyful and jolly and never got tired at all. I did not want to go back to Thailand anymore. I was really impressed with Tokyo now and knew it could only get better.

 On other days, I went sightseeing to TokyoTower, Imperial Palace, and Shinjuku.

Tokyo Tower is so high. I could look through the telescope located halfway up the tower all the way to Mt. Fuji, the traditional mountain in Japan that has snow at the top.

Imperial Palace made a great impression on me.  During the 5km walk around the palace there was so much beauty of trees and architecture. It reminded me that Japan like Thailand also has a King and Royal Family. Many younger people were running, jogging and walking around the Palace for exercising. One of them was a girl who ran for three rounds because I saw her pass me three times as I was taking photos. Older people were just enjoying the walk, sunshine and fresh, cool air. The outside of the Palace is the one of the most gorgeous places to visit in Asia, especially when the leaves on the trees are changing colour and the white swans are swimming in the surrounding lake. It is like a town in a fairytale. My first sad moment on this dream trip was 

that I could not have my family along with me to see this beautiful scenery together.

I went to Shinjuku for some shopping and had a bowl of ramen, which had to be ordered from a coin machine. This information was then passed to the cook, and then served by a waiter. It was so hot and very suitable for the cold weather. No doubt why Japanese are so strong and have long lives (except maybe the smokers) because they have good food and have several vegetables in all the dishes.

Last day in Japan was spent around Ginza nearby the hotel and on the main street where all the big stores are. The food highlight of this day was going to the most famous sushi restaurant in Tokyo where there are always long lines of people waiting to get in.  I was very lucky to arrive and find out that late afternoon is the best time and I was able to get a table immediately. Their sushi was so fresh compared with sushi in Thailand. It was a big set that I ordered, which had a lot of variety. It tasted as if I was in paradise; being so sweet and fresh, not a fishy taste or smell at all. 

Six days in Japan were really happy times for me, more than even my dreams expected. I was absolutely impressed with this country. The people keep everything so clean. Even the garbage baskets on the street had no bad smell at all. 

I would like to visit Japan again if I have a chance.  No need for a lot of pocket money. Just to be there and see is enough for me. Next trip I would love to go to Sapporo where there is heavy snow and so much colder than Tokyo. The dream of playing in the snow and walking in a heavy storm is now very much in my mind.

I am trying everything I can in order to reach more dreams that I have, through study and hard work, and never giving up, fighting for the reward in the end that I now know is always there.  When I have good experiences in my life like this trip, it will always be the motivation to remain happy and, at least, drive me to work hard for Jiraporn’s ‘next step’ to meet the next dream.