Adventure, adventure, adventure!

Back from our weekend in Japan, and boy was it a good one! If you know me at all, you know that I am a planner, I like things to be planned out and to be well prepared for anything that might come up. As I am still pretty new to this whole "travelling" thing, I haven't really had anything terrible or stressful happen to me on any of my trips. This weekend had a few bumps in the road but it turned out to be one of the best weekends I've had!

It started out on Friday, I woke up that morning not feeling so great, my stomach was bothering me, but since that has always been normal for me I figured it would subside and I'd be fine. I headed off to the airport to meet my friend, Bi, still not feeling great. After a few hours and several trips to the airport bathrooms, I figured out that I had food poisoning! Hooray! What a way to start my trip! Reluctant to get on the plane, another friend of ours, Cranky, switched seats with me so I could have the aisle seat! I made it through the plane and we landed in Japan. Once we got through the incredibly long line at immigration, we met another friend of ours, VVD, out in the airport and were reading to find our way to our respective hotels! As we were making our way to the platform, another foreigner who lived in Japan helped us out. He and his girlfriend were going the same way as us for two of our trains so we travelled together with them!

We finally arrived at our station, and went to wander around to choose which exit to take, somehow we choose correctly and were spit out literally 500m from our hotel. We walked into the hotel and as we stepped out of the elevator, there was Ben waiting for us. We dropped our stuff off and went out to explore. We grabbed some noodles at this noodle joint. A lot of their restaurants were similar, they had this vending machine in the entrance with pictures of the food, you just put in your money and it spit out a ticket which you then handed to the cooks and they made it for you! They were some DELICIOUS noodles!

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Our main reason for coming to Japan was the 1800th Red Dress Run with the Hash House Harriers. It was awesome to see so many people turn up! There were somewhere around 100 runners! We ran great trail through the streets. It was cool to see the neighborhoods in Japan, the houses were much different than Korea, no huge apartment complexes, but smaller more European style houses. It felt like being back home. Really cool! This was also my first time hashing outside of Korea so it was pretty neat to see how other hashes function, what they do similar and what they do differently! 

My two travel companions dress up nice! 

I was being too Canadian for him!

After a great circle and an even great On-after, I stumbled home and passed out in the hotel. The next morning on our way to the airport, we stopped in the popular Shinjuku area. It was still early in the morning so it wasn't too busy but it was fun to explore! 

Just your average store selling your everyday sexual needs!

Crazy crosswalks in Japan! We didn't have time to go to the most famous one but this one was pretty cool too!

After we got some more delicious food, (all of which was only 700yen, close to $7!) we jumped back on the trains to navigate our way back to the airport hopefully just in time! But, as luck would have it, we got on the wrong train and went to far, so we had to back track and transfer which made us ultimately miss our flight. Now, as I said I am still new at this whole traveling thing so this was the first time I had ever missed a flight. I knew what it meant though, we would need to book other flights and likely pay ALOT to do so. So I immediately started to freak out, how was I going to pay for my flight? I had no back up money, I couldn't even really afford the flight I had booked in the first place. Luckily for me I was travelling with two seasoned adventurers. Bi was really great and understanding and tried to help me calm down. But, it was Ben who really blew me away. I have known this man for just under a year and I have never seen him switch on like this before. He immediately took charge and started trying to figure things out for us. When I was crying and worried about everything, he calmly took my hand and said, "Honey, I got this." I admired his ability to be so calm and try to find a solution. He could have easily become angry with me for stressing out but instead he did what he needed to do because, as they both reassured me, this was part of the adventure. 

So Bi and I took to a corner in the airport and hung out while Ben ran around working his magic charm. We hung out, chatted, made airport employees angry and had a good time. He managed to get both Bi and I on a flight out that same night for not a lot of money. Unfortunately he couldn't get one for himself. He selflessly ensured that both of us had a way to get home because he knew we had to work today. I actually still don't know if he has been able to get a flight out or not, but I know he is happy adventuring over there on his own. 

This weekend was a great one and it taught me a lot. I have a greater respect for Ben now, after watching him deal with the situation the way that he did! He came through for me in so many ways. I may never be able to be as care free and "laissez faire" as they both were, but I am now anxious to go on another adventure and learn more about myself and my friends!