10 Cities on Standby Japan Cont.

I wake up around 7am in my capsule, get up and walk around a little bit. Considering I was extremely jet lagged I figured I would take these few minutes I am wide awake to take a few pictures outside of the Inn. The ability of Japanese civil engineers to construct the maximum amount of buildings into such small spaces is amazing. The only space to build here is up because every possible inch of the city that can be developed already has been. I sense the dreariness catching up with me so I return to my capsule for a few more hours of sleep.

I wake up again around 10:30 and decide this would be an appropriate time to begin my day. I pack my things, drop my keys off at the front counter and chat a bit with one of the employees. His name is Akari Shoue and said he would show me around Tokyo when I returned after my trip to Taiwan at the end of August.

I pay my 2800yen ~$30USD and I'm off. Akari told me a good ramen place to eat called Soumen; however to my dismay the local shopkeeper told me it is "off season" for ramen. Whether this means there is no good ramen right now, ramen might not be a preferable choice, or perhaps you're too white to eat ramen I will never know. Everyone here is extremely friendly, but it seems there is never a general consensus on anything! If I ask 10 people how to get to a noodle shop I'll get 10 different answers in return. The same thing happened during my hectic train journey earlier that morning. As the Chinese would say, 太麻煩了！So I find a "Sobo" shop where my waitress and perhaps the owner or mother of the owner of the shop is an elderly Japanese woman with a hunchback and friendly smile who couldn't be taller than 4feet 9inches. I swear old Asian people shrink overtime.

A group of elderly Japanese men gather for lunch and I listen in as they speak incomprehensibly, but I enjoy their banter back and forth. I hope when I am old I can gather in the local restaurant with a few of my old friends and chat away. I tried snapping a sneaky picture.

 I try to order some food, but I can't understand a word the elderly waitress was saying so I simply smile and nod. She brings over a simple meal of noodles with soy sauce on the side and some type of vegetables. I happily devour the meal and clean my palette with some hot water mixed into the soy sauce cup.

After the meal I make my way towards the dreaded railway system, but not before I walk into a Pachinko arcade. A Pachinko game is basically a game where the player places a ball into a system and is similar to a pinball machine, but without bumpers and paddles. The small metal balls cascade down a maze of pins and fall into specific areas that may trigger an anime sequence on the screen directly in front of the user. The building has a giant screen on the front that is constantly flashing different types of anime and also displays a large plastic lion with multi-colored Japanese characters. Seems friendly enough, so I walk in to see what all the fuss is about and as soon as I open the door I am bombarded with blaring music and flashing, possible seizure inducing lights. As I walk around the arcade I see people of every single age participating in the game. Kids as young as 10 and seniors as old as 70 were all plastered to their machines, methodically playing this game of luck. After I had enough of the arcade I left and walked into the railway system and made my way to Narita Airport which was, luckily, much easier to travel to than the Capsule Inn.

The train ride ending up taking a couple hours to get to the airport which made me glad I had left earlier than expected. As the train sped towards the airport we began to move further out of the city which gave me an opportunity to see some of the Japanese countryside. Much of what I saw was rice paddies tended to by rice farmers with rice farming hats. A bit stereotypical, but it's all true. I begin grooving in my seat as I listen to Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" and I catch the eyes of a few Japanese girls who are sitting a few seats away from me on this empty train, no doubt mesmerized by my amazing white boy dance moves.

I finally arrive at Narita airport and make my way to the appropriate gate. Since I am a few hours early I walk around the airport which is full of delicious food courts and souvenir shops where I buy a few products. After filling my stomach and emptying my wallet I make my way back to the terminal where I finally have internet and so I check up on how my relatives and friends are doing via skype. When it comes time to board the plane I manage to get on without a hitch and get upgraded to business class. Finally the benefits of standby is paying off; although, it didn't really matter because I spent the entire 3 hour flight passed out in my reclined chair. I woke up 20 minutes before landing. I was finally in Taipei. I go to the bag pick-up area and ask whether my other suitcase had made it to Taiwan safely. After a few minutes and a few trips to the storage room chances looked slim, until finally he walked out with a large grey plastic suitcase and a weight had been lifted off of my shoulder. Everything made it to Taiwan safe and sound.

I took out my notebook where I had written directions to the World Scholar House Hostel. I took the bus into the city and got off at the Evergreen hotel across from the 7-11 at the 10th bus stop. An amiable Taiwanese woman realized I wasn't quite sure what to do she told the bus driver where I was headed wished me luck and waved me goodbye. I got off at my stop and began to walk in the wrong direction to the hotel. After realizing I went the wrong way, I make a u-turn and begin backtracking the few blocks I traveled when it begins to heavily rain. This is Taiwan's rainy season of course (along with every other season other than the two week long Fall). I try to walk as quickly as possible to the hostel and make it there soaked in the warm rain. I finally made it. I was finally in Taiwan and could rest freely. Although, I must say the constant travel was exhilarating and exciting I would definitely be willing to repeat my adventure. August 23rd I will be leaving Taiwan on more Standby flights that are harder to book during that time because of the amount of air traffic. I'll see what kind of adventure I get into then.

This picture perfectly captures the essence of my travel to Taiwan. An  organized chaos that I wouldn't have traded for anything else.