Boat to Japan

After three very relaxed days hanging out in Shanghai with the Cassidy's, i set off on my vogage across the South China Sea to Osaka.
I have to say i was really looking forward to getting the ferry, depite the fact it was going to take two days and i was going to be by myself for the first time..eek! I also was so ridiculously excited about going to Tokyo at this stage that perhaps two days of rest was needed for me to establish some respectable social moderation that is required when speaking to humans who don't know you and how much you can't wait to go to Tokyo. Nothing of much intersest happened on the boat, i made friends with some Australians who have nicely offered to take me out in Melbourne when i get there and i watched some really badly dubbed movies in my private room (no less) . I'd been holding off reading Pappillion (thanks DLT) until now as i figured reading it at sea might add to the atmosphere. Thankfully, my sea crossing was calm and without any encounters with lepers, indians or cannibals. I was missing having the laugh with Lisa and Aoife though, I'm pretty unamusing by myself.
The best thing about the boat was the Japanese style baths they had on the top deck. They are seperated into male and female for obvious reasons, and i was chilling out in my bath, all alone looking out at the sun setting against the oily black sea, musing about how great everything was....until after about ten minutes when the heat started to make me light headed and the whole room started to spin and i had to jump out and into a cold shower. I stopped sweating and spinning about an hour later.

I went straight to Tokyo on my first fast train when i got off the boat and arrived exactly on time in Tokyo station. Here was my first of many many experiences wandering around stations in Tokyo, totally confused and looking like a spanner. I first had to find an ATM which would take my stupid foreign credit card. The Beast was on top form, ripping into my shoulders and causing me to stoop over like an ol woman. It took me an hour and a half of near tears with the beast to finally find an ATM, and when i got to my metro stop, it took me a further hour walking around, trying to first decipher where the hell i was and where my hostel was. When i did joyfully find it, i dropped that beast like a tonne of potatoes. The noise of the beast hitting the deck startled another backpacker out of his internetting and he came over and intoduced himself. He was from Dublin, Yay! We ended up going for a few badly needed beers which ended in us playing drinking games with some crazy Swedish people, where i exhibited some rare drunken moments in making a holy show of myself. I some how managed to haul myself out of bed the next morning and get to the airport to meet Lina off her flight! She said i smelt amazing.