Email When Friends Are On-The-Road

Hopefully Wendie won’t mind as I share some of her Japanese trip with you. She’s a very learned woman… but she doesn’t capitalize. I’m going to leave these as sent.

My friend Wendie is somewhere between Tokyo and New York. She’s on her way back to Miami via JFK after a week long trip to Japan.

Yeah, I’m jealous.

Though Wendie didn’t bring a computer with her, she did keep her friends and family up-to-date by sending daily emails. I’m not sure if she stopped at Internet cafes or used a PC at her hotel. Whatever the method, it worked.

I find these on-the-road messages some of my favorite emails, not only from Wendie, but from any travelling friends. I hope you feel the same way when I post on the blog during my vacations.

Hopefully Wendie won’t mind as I share some of her Japanese trip with you. She’s a very learned woman… but she doesn’t capitalize. I’m going to leave these as sent.

Day One:

i’ve already scoped out the area around the hotel.. it’s called shinjuku.. lots of shops, a massive train/subway station.. and found an ATM that took my

u.s. card and spit out the proper amount of yen.. then even gave me my card back..

what more could you want!

Day Two:

i did the “city tour” thing.. ended up sitting next to a nice woman from north carolina. so, at stop number 3 we ditched the tour, and ended up exploring a fabulous neighborhood calls asakusa… we found these amazing plastic food stores, and yes, i did buy plastic sushi… but only a few pieces, it’s really expensive! then we took the subway back to the neighborhood we’re staying at, grabbed a snack..

Day Three

it’s been a busy day….at the crack o’ 5:45 am i went down to the tsukiji fish market.. a massive market complex on the river here.. and it was amazing.. they hold a huge tuna auction every morning that is closed to visitors, but once it’s over, thousands of vendors set up shop selling fish, food, and just about everything else. there are bunch of teeny little restaurants all through this complex that sell sushi or ramen.. and i stopped into one of them for the best tuna sushi i’ve ever eaten…it was awesome.. i have a ton of pictures of the market… excellent photo op.

Day Four

so… if you go to mt. fuji… but you never actually view mt. fuji, because it’s snowing, the entire region is socked in with fog, and the road to the 5th station (halfway up the mountain) is closed due to ice, so you can only go to the first station … can you claim to have seen mt. fuji? or is the more proper response to say you have BEEN to mt. fuji.

Day Five

in kyoto. getting here was great.. the bullet train was a blast..nothing

like going 257 kilometeres an hour through the japanese countryside.. it was terrific.. and just 2 quick hours from odawara to kyoto… kyoto is very different from tokyo… no high rise buildings, and many shrines and temples clustered together.. plus, a wierd train

station that is either a fabulous example of modern architecture.. or… a horrible depiction of wierdness.. depending on your point of view.

Day Six

this morning i played tourist, visiting a magnificent shinto shrine.. the “golden pavillion”.. which is in fact covered in gold.. it’s a gorgeous day, weather wise, and it has been a lot of fun. tonight is going to be interesting.. it’s a night at a ryokan, or japanese inn… it’s in the gion section of kyoto… the geisha section… so my bed will be a tatami mat! tomorrow i am doing an afternoon tour outside of kyoto to nara… which is about an hour away and has one of the world’s largest bronze buddhas… note to all.. when you come to japan be sure to try the green tea ice cream.. it’s fabulous!

Day Seven

yesterday was terrific… the ryokan was in a wonderful, old area of kyoto

and we wandered around and stumbled on a massive shinto temple complex with a park… it was sunday afternoon, gorgeous weather.. and the place was packed with families enjoying the day… lots of adorable kids.. the japanese love children, and i have had the best time playing peek-a-boo with kids everywhere.. on the bullet train, in the parks, in stores… even with no common language, making a child laugh is universal… the whole afternoon was .. well, i:ve pretty much run out of adjectives..

That’s just a taste. I only plucked a short snippet from each day’s email. I think it’s enough for you to get a real feel for her journey.

I can’t wait to see the photos and talk with Wendie to hear more.

3 thoughts on “Email When Friends Are On-The-Road”

  1. Oh, this is making me jealous … I went to Japan in December, and also visited Tokyo and Kyoto. I would go back in a heartbeat, 14-hour flights notwithstanding.

    I’m sure your friend was probably sending her dispatches from any of the large number of Internet cafes in Japan. Most of them provide unlimited free tea and soft drinks while you’re in there, and the hourly rates are pretty reasonable.

    Japan is a completely different planet from the U.S. You’ll really see that when you look at her photos, I’m sure. I took more photos of signage over there than anything else … the “Engrish” slogans absolutely killed me. My favorite was the national chain of used computer/electronic equipment called “HARD OFF”. ;>

  2. Hi Geoff,

    To send emails on the go you can use http://jott.com. It converts voice to emails or text messages and you can have it sent to yourself or somebody else or a group. Though I don’t think it is very good for long emails but it works when you have absolutely no Internet at hand.

  3. Perhaps Wendie will send a photo illustrating just how one displays plastic sushi at home?

    (Remembering my mother’s plastic fruit from my childhood)

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