27 dec 2004 tokyo

my first entry for this trip! i had such a wonderful day yesterday, despite still being rather ill. the flight was very pleasant, except for the fact that the children were taking turns to cry. that was pretty frustrating because this was the first flight i managed to fall asleep in! the lady sitting beside me seemed rather grouchy, and strange. she took off her stockings and put them in the magazine slot in front of her! nonetheless, she turned out ok to talk to, but this was already the end of the flight.

the airport was fairly navigable, as english signs were everywhere. i followed aki's directions when taking the train, and it turned out really helpful... must thank him. anyway, on the train the guy sitting opposite me saw me getting rather nervous about the trip, so he offered help. he was able to check the train timings on his handphone. very cool indeed! he and his wife were such dears, really nice people. and incidentally they were back from a holiday in singapore. anyway i thanked them and took a photo of them, which i offered to email them. for some strange reason the bluetooth transfer didn't work.

so to cut the story short, i went to the hotel at itabashi, and it turned out to be a double room! very nice. plus it's so near to shinjuku. so i relaxed in the tub for a while, and then i checked my email, and voila, yp had sent me an email saying he had spoken to rh san. i called rh, and he offered to come to the hotel area to meet me. but it as he lived very far i told him to meet me at shinjuku instead. what a wonderful person he is. just as yp had said, he was the most genuine person i've ever met. (just before i forgot, yp did a lot of things to help me on this trip, including driving me to the airport at wee hours in the morning. really sweet guy) anyway for dinner we had tonkatsu, and we went off to 2 bars in shinjuku ni-chome, the latter being the nicer one. the boss was definitely interested in me. but i wished he wouldn't see me as 'young meat, just because i am 23. but the truth is i had only eyes for rh. even if he is not sexually interested in me (which is probably the case, since he said he prefers guys around his age) , he is a friend i would want to keep for life.

ok, getting sleepy. woke up at 5 for no reason! will snooze and have breakfast later.