Dec 31st, New Years Eve in Japan

After a 12 hour bus ride and sleep finally get to Tokyo, so we think. It is 7am and everyone is getting off, so we get off too. We ask the bus driver where the station is to get to skydiving he points so we start walking. I am very tired and don’t even realize that we are in Tokyo. We ask 2 or 3 people how to get to a certain train and they all point us in different directions. Finally we find the JR train, purchase the ticket that we hopefully need and start heading toward the train. Get to the number 5 and the conductor says that his train is express only and that we need another ticket to get on his train. We just spent 30 yen for these tickets and they seem to lead us no where, so I start to get a little frustrated. The JR rail is so big it doesn’t seem that anyone knows where we need to go. We even go to the information people and all they can say is that this train is for express and we have local tickets. We try to ask where local is, but they have no idea what we are saying. We are Japan! The frustrations of traveling in another country. Finally we go back to a ticket counter and the guy behind the desk can speak some English so the communication is mostly hand motions and writing. After about 15 minutes of going back forth we finally understand where we need to go and how we do it. So Max and I dart for the train that is leaving in 4 minutes get on, head towards Fukojima (skydiving place). Transfer once and about an hour later arrive at the stop where we needed to be. Exit the station and as we are about to call the skydiving place we see these two people with skydiving apparel and ask if they were here to pick us up. After a few minutes of talking we all agreed that we needed each other. Got in the Suv and headed toward the drop zone. Looking like a beautiful day I start to get excited, but as we drive it gets windier and cloudier. We get to the drop zone, watch an instructional video, sign our lives away, about to go, and then bam, the lady in charge says it is too windy and we cant go. Heart is broken because that is part of the reason we came to Japan. We tried waiting a little bit, but it just kept getting windier. Finally called it quits, they were very apologetic, but nothing could be done. They drove us back to the train station and we are shooting for tomorrow morning. They even showed us a quicker and cheaper way to get to and from their place. Said our goodbyes and left with a not so good feeling in my body.
Next adventure is to find our hotel. At this point I am exhausted, even pass out on the train, Max luckily away woke me up to get off. Transferred to the subway to Akasaka, and we finally made it to our hotel. It is doable, two beds which is all I care about and a nice shower. About to go celebrate new years in Japan,

Dec 31st night

Left the hotel to find some food and ended up eating, sushi which of course was expensive, and then headed to Akasaka nightlife district, which is called Roppongi. Walked around for a bit and realized that all the clubs and bars were charging 50-60 dollars just to enter. Not bad, if you knew how the bar was going to be, knowing if it was going to be a popular place for new years. There were hundreds of promoters trying to persuade us to come to their club, most of them were of African descent or White. One of them persuaded us because he said his bar had free admittance before 10 so we said okay. Went there and only a few people were there. Decided to have a drink, which was 10 dollars, gotta love these prices.
After our drink, left and headed toward the subway to go to this shrine that apparently attracts 3 million people to make wishes on the New Year. I think that is what we had to do being in Japan. You can party anywhere in the world, but 3 million people gathered in a spiritual area, where am I ever going to see that again? So we headed toward the train station, but while still downtown got lured into one more bar (strip club). Bargain the guy down for a good price and of course we were the only people there. It was pretty early though. Stayed until we finished our drink and then went to the train station on our way to Meij jiingu around 11. As we were getting on the train saw this European couple who were headed in the same direction and said Happy New Year to them (I mention this because it comes up later). Got to Meiji jingu and walked around the town for a bit looking at all the different foods that they were selling, Max ate some type of deliciousness. Then we headed into the shrine area were thousands upon thousands were surrounding us heading in a particular direction. We entered one of the four entrances. It was crazy, because we had no idea what the end result was going to be, just tons of people walking in the same direction in the forest. Finally got to a standstill and had to wait for a long long time. I started nudging ahead, Max followed and then we get to even a bigger crowd. Met these two Chinese girls who we hung out with the rest of the night and who had been in Japan for a few months. They told us what was going on and that we make wishes and throw coins at the shrine. As we were waiting midnight came and singing started and people said happy new years to one another. After another 30 minutes or so finally made it to the shrine and it was crazy amounts of people. Cannot even attempt to explain.
Made my wish, took in the surrounding and then we left and headed toward the subway with these girls only problem was that we exited on the opposite side of where we needed to be. So we had to walk all the way around the park/forest to get to our subway station to find that it was closed. One of the Chinese girls was fluent in Japanese and got directions to another station from an officer. Got on the subway said goodbye to the girls and headed back to our hotel. As we were going up the escalator in the station, the same European couple was directly behind us. After seeing so many people and being gone for so long, the coincidence of seeing them again is unfathomable. Even crazier is that they were staying at the same hotel as us. Instances like that, just make you wonder about life. Walked backed to the hotel with them discussing the night’s events to eventually fall asleep.