What The Horoscope In Bull Woman

mart 30/04/10: Departure from Bologna - 31/04/10 Wed: Arrive at Narita Airport - Tokyo.

Departure for Tokyo Tuesday, March 30, arriving the morning of 31 flight consists of short Bologna - Rome and then a serious Rome - Tokyo, with the company Alitalia, which for me used to Ryair and allied seemed simply divine, but obviously still being "Italian" not all the seats were dividing screens and telecomandini were rather battered.
To combat future time zone, I try to sleep as much as possible (although due to the passenger seat vibramassagiante Jappo behind me who did nothing but punch-kick to the seat .. it can be considered lucky to have met me to travel round, happy and carefree, if it was the trip back ..). Between sleep and movies come in the morning, and already you can see the differences, not only by the characters on signs, but also by the incredible efficiency Jappe. To enter
Japponia, you must complete a series of papers (statements which are not a criminal, I declare that I bring weapons / drugs ..), it is surprising that at banquets used to fill out forms, find pen , glasses of different grades, sanitizing gel (then we'll find almost anywhere), instructions in all languages, including some strange dialect .. In short you have no excuse not to fill the sheets.
The airport staff, runs, works, and there is already taste the English-Jappo (who speaks it better) with all the vowels elongated ultra: thus we find a
"Yu niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" (trad . You need)
"Ten Yuuuuuuuuuuuu" (translation Thank you)
a lady officer at the sorting makes a queue becomes disorganized and chaotic in a very efficient line, but more importantly, we understand another part of the worker Jappo : whatever the task, however ugly and humble, the run to go all out, and behaving as if he were doing the best thing in his life.
Faced with the machine readable fingerprints, baggage claim, take the train to Tokyo Kensei - Ueno, the windows and see a slight change in suburban homes - the metropolis, but also because the light is quite O metropolizzata. Scesi alla stazione di Ueno, decidiamo di raggiungere il Capsule Hotel ad Asakusa, sopra al fiume Sumida a piedi, e fidandoci di uno sguardo disattento alla mappa della guida, facciamo il primo grosso errore.. le distanze a Tokyo, non sono quello che sembrano. Sono sempre almeno 4 volte in più di quelli che pensavi. Ebbene sì, Tokyo è immensa, e 2 quartieri che sulla carta ti sembrano relativamente vicini (vedi Ueno - Asakusa), sicuramente per passare da uno all’altro ti ci vuole quasi un’ora a piedi.
Quindi la nostra scelta di portare a mano le valige per l’equivalente di un tratto di dieci minuti di metropolitana non è stata proprio felice, in ogni caso, arriviamo, ci posizioniamo sul ponte e inauguriamo la nostra prima birra in lattina (presa da uno dei numerosissimi distributori posti praticamente ovunque e che nessuno si sogna di vandalizzare).
Birra Sapporo con in sfondo il corno d’oro dell’Asahi Super Dry Hall, il fiume Sumida che bagna edifici ipertecnologici e palafitte legnose, oltre che portare lunghe barche di legno in stile jappo.
Sul ponte passa un concentrato di folla che ci accompagnerà per le prossime 2 settimane:
Salarymen (=impiegati), studenti, vecchini compressi, ragazze truccatissime con gonne cortissime e gambe stortissime, senza calze, massimo calzettoni (le più pudiche portano i pantaloncini). Riguardo a quest’ultimi 2, I can say (as reconfirm later) that the mangaka did not invent anything: i really like them Vecchini drawing, very low, humpbacks, really seem compressed, and the students gonnine flying really exist, as well as them really lead the court, adding that the Japanese climate is pretty sharp, and that the sudden wind (and cold) and appears really seems made to pull up skirts.
We check in at the Capsule Hotel, facing a payment provider and machine catching shoes. We will stay only one night, where I will sleep well, at the bottom of the dish was not as caustrofobica, paving the futon, with outstretched arm in front, touch the ceiling of the capsule with the tip of your fingers. The most is that in a narrow corridor, there were at least 30 capsules, and each was separated by a thin curtain .. Fortunately no one was snoring (or simply I am asleep before). Can not say the same Alberto, one of my traveling companions, he did not like the capsules so (for more on why you ask him directly). Always here to insult the capsule in the evening, my first and only shared bathroom, luckily at the time of washing was the only one present. Also because the showers are available, they are washed from sitting on stools, but I tired as the preferred location statuary.
Going back in time after the check in, scaricate le valigie, è primo pomeriggio, decidiamo di esplorare la zona vicina, Asakusa, e vediamo già cose che valevano il viaggio fino a qui, il Kaminarimon, ovvero la maestosa porta del tuono con al centro un’enorme lanterna rossa che introduce al tempio Senso-Ji purtroppo chiuso esternamente per restauri. Comunque intorno a noi tavolette di legno, nastri di preghiere legati, incensiere dove purificarsi, la prima di una lunga serie di Pagode, e tanti turisti jappi, probabilmente a Tokyo per la fioritura dei ciliegi. Percorriamo il Nakamise-Dori, ovvero una viuzza piena di negozietti tipici / souvenir dove gustiamo il primo pasto tipicamente jappo, uno spiedino di mochi (dolcetti di pasta gommosa molto buoni).
The capsule hotel is relatively close all'Asahi Sky Room, a beer at the 22 floor of a building which offers an excellent view. In that pub, with tables that give to the windows, I realized that I was in a dream of science fiction. The three horizons in front of me were all 3 in the eye, skyscrapers and lights. No country, no gaps, only high-rise buildings, roads and lights to the end. I was speechless. I saw this same view, with cities as far as the eye even in daylight, and the tallest towers, but that view, the first that made me really realize where I was, I came inside. When I lay in bed, still close my eyes and I see the sight. Tokyo I reappears la sogno, la penso, come non mi era mai capitato prima. E pensare che le metropoli, anzi come Agnese mi ha giustamente corretto, le megalopoli, non mi piacciono nemmeno.