JAPAN 2016 | DAY 2 | SHIBUYA
I got 3 hours of sleep.
Brian and I began the day by checking out of our Airbnb at 10AM. The struggle began as we had to travel around Japan with our luggage (actually, Brian’s bag is twice the size of mine so I felt bad). Carrying our bags while going up and down the stairs of train stations while trying to function with 3 hours of sleep can really wear you out. But it was fun – in a delirious kind of way. We had to travel to Kajigaya station later in the afternoon to drop our bags off at Tenpachi’s house because he was going to house us for the next couple of days. Before we went, we had time to kill so we went to Shibuya city to grab lunch with two of our friends from UCLA that were also visiting Japan.
After having lunch, Brian and I started to head to Tenpachi’s house. We finally met up with him at the train station and we walked what seemed like 10 miles (it was actually less than .10 miles) to his apartment. At this point, I was sweating bullets. Not like small hand-held pistol bullets. But I’m talking about sniper rifle big-ol’ bullets.
Tenpachi welcomed us into his apartment by showing us our room that we would use for the next couple of days. We ended up talking for some time before we all headed back out into Shibuya city.
We were meeting up with two of our friends that live here at 2PM. Kiku and Oka lived with us during our UCLA days. I haven’t seen them since 2011 so I was super excited to be reunited with them again. As we were waiting for them, I was able to experience the famous cross street of Shibuya.
We finally met with Kiku and Oka and it was so good to see them. They told us we were going to go practice at a small studio because they were having a farewell session/battle for one of their good friends. As we were walking to practice, we caught up on the 5 years we missed with each other.
Once we ended practice, the guys were hosting a surprise goodbye party at an Airbnb in Roppongi. While we were heading to the house, Kiku said that they prepared pizza and drinks for us for dinner. I mentioned to Kiku that I wanted to treat him out to a nice meal before I leave Japan. In his broken English, he answered back saying “No way. You guys took care of us when we were in LA. We will buy you guys everything here. I know pizza and beer does not compare to everything you guys bought for us. But please let us treat you out during your trip.” Back in 2010-2011 when Kiku and Oka (and couple other Japanese international students) were in LA, we (UCLA) did our best to take care of our guests by treating them out to meals, giving them rides to places, etc. But 5 years later, they were waiting for us to come to Japan so that they could return the favor. Obviously, we didn’t expect anything from them when we came to visit. But it really showed that they were grateful for us and that they didn’t take us for granted. I was so speechless when he said those words.
We went to the house and started to prepare for the goodbye party for their friend. It was a very Japanese traditional-styled house. Imagine over 10 people packed in a small living room having a house party together. I thought it would be suffocating and tiring (I have a light case of claustrophobia) but it was honestly a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people and everyone was so hospital and sweet. Some of the friends were chefs so they prepared a lot of finger food for us to eat as well. I thought it would have been awkward eating dinner and drinking with a bunch of locals that I didn’t know but they were so welcoming. They started to call me “Hoyoyoung”.
After we hung out at the house, some of us decided to bar hop back in Shibuya. I wanted to see a friend I haven’t seen in 10 years. Elysa and I went to high school together and we haven’t seen each other since 2006 math class so we decided to meet up. It would be the first time in 10 years. So crazy how time flies, but it honestly just felt like yesterday since I’ve last seen her. Brian and I were functioning off of 3 hours of sleep so it wasn’t long until we called it a night. We called a cab and knocked out on the way back to Tenpachi’s house.
As I was getting ready for bed, I realized that something important was missing. My Iphone. I started to panic because I would have been completely screwed if I lost my phone for the rest of the trip because I wouldn’t really have ways to communicate with people. After much searching, I realized that I may have dropped my phone in the taxi while I knocked out. Instantly, we checked the “Find my Iphone” function and saw that it was moving pretty quickly through Tokyo – it was indeed in the taxi. At that moment, Tenpachi, Brian and I started to feel like detectives because we had to figure out a way to contact that specific taxi driver and notify him that we left our phone in his car. We first tried to remember what color the cab was. Was it black, orange, yellow? Let’s be honest – If only I wasn’t too drunk I would have remembered. Then I remembered that I used my credit card to pay for the cab fare so I checked my statement and bam! I was able to see the taxi company that dropped us off. Tenpachi started to search the contact information for that company and was able to speak to multiple representatives. The only thing they could do for us was to have us wait until the morning and see if someone turns in a lost iPhone.
At that moment, I realized that there was absolutely nothing I can do but hope that it turns out somewhere where we can find it. All we can do was watch the little beeping icon moving around Tokyo on the “Find my Iphone” map.
I was filling very nervous and anxious, but I fell asleep right after our semi-investigation hoping that it will somehow turn out in the morning.
