By BUS foir Narita leaves in 35 mins and I wanna grab breakfast before it does so this will be quick but it's time to leave Japan - it's the air that I'll miss most - heavy, humid and often putrid with the smell of sewage... wanna be back in Asia I think
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Credit Cards
So last night I managed to catch up with my ever more gorgeous friend, Yuko and we headed off for really good food and pretty good drinks in some of Tokyo’s smallest bars and restaurants. All very cool. However come bar two and time to pay my credit card was declined. No biggie, huh?
This morning I get up to find a FRAUD ALERT e-mail in my inbox. MY card has been frozen pending my contacting the company. They give me a web link, I follow it, enter my details and am told that this issue can’t be resolved online and to call the number below. Frustrating but hey, it happens right.
The number below of course is a 1-800 number – which can be dialed only from within the US. Irritating.
Still there’s a number on the back of my card that says “If you’re outside of the US call this number COLLECT and it will cost you nothing”
I dial the operator, she puts me through to AT&T and I’m told “I’m sorry Sir but that number can’t be dialed collect from anywhere in the world” Frustrating again.
So I bite the bullet. My cell doesn’t work in Japan. My Blackberry doesn’t work in Japan. My credit card company is giving out duff numbers like they were ‘home base’ cards at a Prom and I am going to need to pay and get the hell out of here at some point. Hotel phone. $8 a minute but hey I’ll get through.
I do, I’m put on hold. Then drawled at by a woman who doesn’t seem to realize that her every elongated, mangled, tortured vowel is costing me $5. She puts me through to another number with ‘excessively long wait times” – I’m told how valuable my call is, move up through the virtual line and am then dropped. Frustrating, huh.
I call back. This time I’m on hold. I get through. My account, social security number and address no longer exist. Apparently. Frustrating. I bite my lip and try again – oh yes there I am. I’m put through, put on hold and get through to another vowel mangler.
This women then chastises me for traveling overseas without first calling to tell them and rather pointedly asks me why the hell I was trying to spend $18,000 at 2am on a Piano. As though this is the problem. The temptation to scream “Because I can!” is swallowed as I realize that I do need my card working and I point out that I was trying to spend 18,000 YEN (US$150) in a bar CALLED Piano at 2am. She puts my card right – I thank her, dash over to Starbucks to buy a $4 latte just to check that I’m now okay and resolve to find some kind of Japanese bathhouse so that I can let off steam in the steam room.
Gnnnrrrrr.
This morning I get up to find a FRAUD ALERT e-mail in my inbox. MY card has been frozen pending my contacting the company. They give me a web link, I follow it, enter my details and am told that this issue can’t be resolved online and to call the number below. Frustrating but hey, it happens right.
The number below of course is a 1-800 number – which can be dialed only from within the US. Irritating.
Still there’s a number on the back of my card that says “If you’re outside of the US call this number COLLECT and it will cost you nothing”
I dial the operator, she puts me through to AT&T and I’m told “I’m sorry Sir but that number can’t be dialed collect from anywhere in the world” Frustrating again.
So I bite the bullet. My cell doesn’t work in Japan. My Blackberry doesn’t work in Japan. My credit card company is giving out duff numbers like they were ‘home base’ cards at a Prom and I am going to need to pay and get the hell out of here at some point. Hotel phone. $8 a minute but hey I’ll get through.
I do, I’m put on hold. Then drawled at by a woman who doesn’t seem to realize that her every elongated, mangled, tortured vowel is costing me $5. She puts me through to another number with ‘excessively long wait times” – I’m told how valuable my call is, move up through the virtual line and am then dropped. Frustrating, huh.
I call back. This time I’m on hold. I get through. My account, social security number and address no longer exist. Apparently. Frustrating. I bite my lip and try again – oh yes there I am. I’m put through, put on hold and get through to another vowel mangler.
This women then chastises me for traveling overseas without first calling to tell them and rather pointedly asks me why the hell I was trying to spend $18,000 at 2am on a Piano. As though this is the problem. The temptation to scream “Because I can!” is swallowed as I realize that I do need my card working and I point out that I was trying to spend 18,000 YEN (US$150) in a bar CALLED Piano at 2am. She puts my card right – I thank her, dash over to Starbucks to buy a $4 latte just to check that I’m now okay and resolve to find some kind of Japanese bathhouse so that I can let off steam in the steam room.
Gnnnrrrrr.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I'll have the tuna
the Tokyo fish market at (5.30) this morning was much fun. Think Singapore wet market with lots of people with knives, wayward trucks, killer buggies and lack of concern for life thrown in.
Of course I still smell like I've been to the fish market even two showers later and so it's down to Hiltopia (I kid you not) on the hunt for more shoes - these are ruined.
This afternoon - a search for more angels with dirty faces in young people's hotspots and then a soak in a bath before heading out tonight with my old friend Yuko
Of course I still smell like I've been to the fish market even two showers later and so it's down to Hiltopia (I kid you not) on the hunt for more shoes - these are ruined.
This afternoon - a search for more angels with dirty faces in young people's hotspots and then a soak in a bath before heading out tonight with my old friend Yuko
Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan
Heading here tomorrow... spent all day somewhere really cool and now my brain is fried and the only word I can think of is Suduko. Which makes me a moron. Damnnit.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Still in Tokyo
and still coughing and sniffling up a storm
of course persistent coughs now mean cancer rather than cold to me and so - despite having been reassured by every doctor I know that even I can't grow tumors that fast (it's 2 months since I was last 'all clear') I'm already looking up phrases like "chemo second time around"
Actually I'm not as I know that I was allergy ridden in NYC, fine in Namibia and that I got off the plane with a flu to end all flus (okay that's an exaggeration)... each day I'm getting better. No headaches, legs back to normal, fever gone. But still I sniff, then I cough then I worry. Bonkers.
I'll see someone when I get back and I have more scans coming up in a month but it's terrible being the person who can't have a cough anymore.
Still odds of me being here and worrying were slim, so I'll take that
PS Wasn't the Harry Potter Epilogue just awful? And doesn't it just set the scene for more franchise extending adventures? Shame 'cause it's nae bad otherwise
of course persistent coughs now mean cancer rather than cold to me and so - despite having been reassured by every doctor I know that even I can't grow tumors that fast (it's 2 months since I was last 'all clear') I'm already looking up phrases like "chemo second time around"
Actually I'm not as I know that I was allergy ridden in NYC, fine in Namibia and that I got off the plane with a flu to end all flus (okay that's an exaggeration)... each day I'm getting better. No headaches, legs back to normal, fever gone. But still I sniff, then I cough then I worry. Bonkers.
I'll see someone when I get back and I have more scans coming up in a month but it's terrible being the person who can't have a cough anymore.
Still odds of me being here and worrying were slim, so I'll take that
PS Wasn't the Harry Potter Epilogue just awful? And doesn't it just set the scene for more franchise extending adventures? Shame 'cause it's nae bad otherwise
Monday, July 23, 2007
In Tokyo
Cold finally broke - snotty mess here, coughing, sneezing and generally a mess to look at but feeling much better.
Tokyo fun so far. Flight good. New Harry Potter almost finished.
Trying to stay up late enought to avoid the worst of the jetlag.. we'll see what happens
Tokyo fun so far. Flight good. New Harry Potter almost finished.
Trying to stay up late enought to avoid the worst of the jetlag.. we'll see what happens
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