Stupidity

Okay, so I've taken lots of pictures and I'll eventually get them up here or on Facebook or something.  And I've got good stories to tell, but this one that just happened really takes the cake.  Now, it shows how truly stupid I can be at times, but it's just such a good story I can't let my pride get in the way of telling it. 

So, I am a roll-with-the-punches kind of guy, and I don't like to make an itinerary and have everything all planned out.  I want to be able to just go do something spontaneous if I feel like it.  So I didn't make any hotel reservations when I came to Japan, as I mentioned in my last post.  Also, I get embarrassed at silly little things, like making out-of-ordinary requests, such as staying an extra few nights at a hotel after I've already said I only wanted to stay one or two nights.  Of course, such a request would normally not be such a big deal, so I shouldn't be scared to do so, but I am and hence we have this story.  That's not entirely true, because the first two hotels I've stayed in (and keep in mind all three of these hotels are within two minute's walking distance in the same city) were both lacking in some way or other.  The first hotel was right next to the train station, so I could hear the PA well into the night and early the next morning (there is only about a 4 or 5 hour break).  The second hotel I stayed in had no bathtub.  Don't worry, I have pictures of the bathroom, so I'll post them.

Anyway, so each time I decided to just check out instead of asking to stay longer.  So I took my luggage to the train station where they have luggage lockers and locked them up for the day until I could check in to the next hotel.  Okay, so I have to stop and talk about that because the luggage itself is a big part of the story.  I took the biggest suitcase I own because I was thinking that I'd buy lots of souvenirs for people (and I will--I've already bought some), not realizing that the wheels on it are broken, so I can't pull it behind, I have to actually carry it.  And the carry-on bag that I brought has no wheels at all, it's just a duffel bag.  So I'm carrying one heavy bag in each hand along what seemed like eighteen miles of busy city streets.  Needless to say, since I'm extremely out of shape and I've never been very athletic at any point in my life, I had to take many breaks and by the time I got to where I was going I was about ready to pass out.

Okay, so I took my luggage to the station early this morning.  I was going to meet a friend at the station and go with him to see some other friends and go shopping or something.  Anyway, I ended up spending the whole day with them and eventually with a bunch of other young single adults.  And, as is the nature with singles, we did stuff until after 10:00, at which point one of them drove me to the train station near where he lives (which was about an hour and a half drive) and then I took the train the rest of the way "home". 

So I got to the city where I'm staying at about midnight.  Well, I went to the first hotel I stayed at since it's really close to the station and I didn't want to carry my bags very far.  They had no vacancies.  I remembered looking up another hotel online and was pretty sure I knew approximately where it was.  I also knew that was a bad part of town (because I had served here for about 7 months).  So, I was scared to go there, especially that late at night, but I thought "It'll probably be fairly cheap, and since it's in an obscure place, they'll probably have vacancies."  Well, they didn't have vacancies.  And luckily I didn't have any trouble getting to that hotel, but as I was leaving there and going to the more respectable part of town, I was solicited by two different prostitutes--one of them even did so in English, which was slightly impressive, although not entirely surprising considering how common foreigners are becoming in Japan.  I must say that's the first time in my life that's happened to me. 

Anyway, I headed to a hotel that I knew was somewhat nice and figured would be extremely expensive, but I figured paying too much money for a room was better than not having a hotel at all, so I went there.  Ironically, it ended up being the cheapest hotel I've stayed at and also the nicest.  It has a fridge AND a bathtub.  I probably won't use the fridge, but it's nice anyway.  And it also has room to walk around the bed, where my first hotel room didn't. 

So, I still had to go back to the train station to get my luggage.  I didn't want to get charged for an extra day of storage and if you leave it there past 2AM then that's what happens.  So, I went to get it.  I didn't want to carry it all the way to the hotel because it's so heavy and I was already wasted from the activities of the day.  You have to keep in mind that due to jet lag I woke up at 2AM and had been up since that time.  So, at the time I had been awake for 22 hours and had been doing physically active things for at least half of those hours.  So I was exhausted.  I decided to take the taxi.  Here I have to make another aside.  I had been trying to take money out of an ATM all day because I was running low, but I didn't have any success.  I think one of the ATMs I used just didn't take my card, but the rest I didn't know what was wrong.  It turns out that they were all trying to take money out of my savings account, but all of my money was in my checking account, so it declined the transaction.  So, I had no way of getting more money.  And you also need to know that Japan does strictly cash nearly everywhere.  Most hotels take credit cards, and some other places do too, but for the most part it's cash or nothing.  So you have to keep cash on hand.  Anyway, before I got in the cab, I looked and saw that I had slightly over 500 yen left (approximately $5) and I figured that would definitely be enough to take a cab for the mere three city blocks I was traveling.  I felt silly taking a cab that short distance, but I'm sure the cabby didn't mind.  Anyway, I asked him if he would take credit and he said yes, but that he didn't want to since it was such a small amount, so I'm assuming he just meant that the transaction fees would make it not worth it.  So, I told him quite honestly that I didn't have enough cash and I even handed him every yen that I had and informed him that such was the case.  Since it was close enough to the required price (which, to my surprise was 715 yen), he let me get away with it.  Personally, I thought 715 yen for going two city blocks was highway robbery, so in that sense I didn't feel too guilty, but still I felt like I was cheating the man. 

But, I finally made it to my hotel, with my luggage, and without any prostitution.  So, to keep a long story long, I know that God's still watching out for me, since I ended up with the cheapest and nicest hotel I've been in, even when I do extremely stupid things.