My last couple days in Tokyo were wonderfully relaxing. After the excitement of New Years, Annie and I decided to take it easy: we visited a city onsen, took a walk through an expansive and beautifully tree-lined park and visited the old section of town that wasn't destroyed by WWII. It was very interesting to observe the difference between the snowy onsen of Nagano and the big city onsen of Tokyo. Tokyo's onsen was in the middle of a snazzy mall/amusement park and instead of having one small pool outside in the snow, this onsen boasted many indoor and outdoor pools with a sauna room and televisions. I personally enjoyed the simple mountain onsen better, but it was nice as a one-time try to feel slightly overwhelmed by the pampered atmosphere of the Tokyoan onsen. We even ate dinner at a nice restuarant in our comfy cotton clothes on loan from the onsen. One eventful bit of news is that I experienced my first earthquake. I was surprisingly calm and unfazed, though probably would not have been if the earthquake had been any larger. I was in my bed and it simply felt like someone was shaking the bed really hard.
The amusement park at the middle of the onsen complex!
On January 2, it was time for Annie and I to part ways: I was heading back to Osaka to catch my return flight and she would stay in Tokyo to continue her artistic journey. We said goodbye at the bus station and then I was on my solitary journey homeward to Jordan. I took the night bus to Osaka which was fairly uneventful except I made a wonderful British friend named Angelica who is living in Japan and who, upon arriving in Osaka, walked me to the correct subway line and told me exactly how to get to the airport. Travelling has really made me so inspired by general human kindness! I got to the airport with no trouble and passed out on an airport bench for most of the day. I did have some time that afternoon to sit and observe the atmosphere of the Japanese airport, as I continued to do in many other airports over the ensuing days. The Japanese are such a refined, beautiful, straight people. Many of them sit with straight backs and calm mannerisms. Some have interesting, cartoonish walks while others are simply regal. Overall, they seem to be a quieter people than I've encountered before, certainly quieter than Americans, Colombians or Jordanians! They're clean. I have never seen such exquisite, clean, simple public bathrooms even in gas stations and convenience stores.
A funny sign inside of one of our hostels.
Some advice for a "hot night."
That afternoon I caught a flight to Korea and was so happy to be back in the midst of the beautiful blue and ivory world of KoreanAir. The flight attendants are surreally pretty and nice and the TVs and foods are excellent. However, the Korean airport itself I found to be entirely unfriendly. It's supposed to be one of the, if not the, nicest airport in the world but it was actually my least favorite I've ever encountered. No one I spoke with was particularly friendly and the stores are all high-end makeup and clothing and purse stores. I tried to sleep on one of the benches but was asked to leave by a cleaning lady. (Even pretending not to understand did not work.) So, I paid too much money to sleep in a transit hotel in the airport, but it was actually worth it in the end because by this point in my journey I was exhausted and still had a ways to go.
The next day, late morning, I caught my flight to Cairo via Tashkent, Uzbekistan (of all places!). The Uzbekistan airport was complete chaos, which was pretty funny. There was no distinct gates and it was pretty much me and all of the Koreans from my flight, most with group nametags, coordinating bandanas and fanny packs (so beautiful) waiting around while the airport staff yelled out departing flights from the hallway outside the rooms (this was the intercom system, I guess). I would have found it all much more humorous except I was having some nausea issues at that point which is so strange because I'm usually a very happy flier. Anyway I felt like I was going to faint or throw up. One funny thing that took my mind off the nausea was that a Korean couple came up to me and were intent on being photographed with me. I have no idea why, because there were some Arab and Slovak-looking people around too. The woman was super excited and handed me her camera. I thought she wanted a picture of her and her husband, but she very excitedly forced my friendly Korean neighbor and friend from the plane to take a picture of her, her husband and me in between. I was literally just laughing out loud as we took the picture (all holding hands of course) and also at the strangely non-awkward moment when the woman went to check if the picture was okay and left me standing holding hands with her husband in the middle of the airport. Neither seemed to think this strange at all so I went with it.
From the air, Uzbekistan looked just as I imagined it would: snow-covered and completely 2-dimensional except for one column of black smoke rising, a singularly 3-dimensional affect.
All the Koreans and I finally set off for Cairo and landed safely. I was the only one catching another connecting flight and was starting to worry about how I'd stay awake all night so as not to miss my flight early the next morning. I was so happy to be back in the middle east. It's wonderfully ironic that Egypt is the last place in the world many people would feel safe and yet as soon as I touched ground on middle eastern soil I immediately felt this feeling of familiarity and relief. I knew I was back to a world of dysfunctionality as soon as I had one conversation with the desk clerk. Upon asking the same question three different times about my departing gate and boarding ticket, I received three different answers. Not having any Egyptian money or idea where to go next, I sat down in a small room outside of the room in which I'd had this initial conversation. I immediately was addressed by a young man, 28 yrs old I found out later, who asked me first how old I was and secondly, if I was married. We communicated brokenly and were joined by an older man who was stuck in this limbo room because he was for some reason "on the blacklist." So I had found my way to the hoodlum room, good. I then am asked by the older man as a request for the younger man to join them both in the main airport for a meal because he [the younger man] wants to "propose." Luckily at that very moment another man approached me with my suitcase and the news that a van was waiting for me outside to take me to the next terminal! Somehow everything works out amidst the dysfunctionality, and Arabs are so helpful and over-accommodating to foreigners I've found. As much as has been said abroad about the treatment of women in Egypt, I was treated SO WELL, to the point of feeling guilty about it. I'm not sure how much of it is me being female or American or what, but they not only brought an individual van just for me, but when I arrived at the EgyptAir terminal they took me to the front of the line of both Egyptian and foreign men (I heard some Aussies complaining about how long they'd been waiting in the "queue" and felt bad...) and instead of having to wait all night for a flight, they moved me to a flight leaving in just 1 hour! After my long trip, I was so happy to hear I'd be in Jordan that very night and sleeping in my own bed!
Jada's set-up wasn't so bad either. She was staying in the compound at the right of this beautiful landscape.
