Japan: Kicked out of bed and other surprises

Around 2:30AM I was woken by the manager of the motel, who wasn't here when I arrived last night. Surprised by my presence he announced that the bed showed to me by the people when I arrived is actually booked for someone else, and I am illegally sleeping in the motel.

The motel manager requested me to pay for the inconvenience of the man whose bed I "stole", pay a penalty fee for arriving after 21:00 and if I wanted to stay on (and sleep on the couch in the lounge), pay the equivalent of an extra bed. But here is where things really got tricky. My flight last night was delayed due to unexpected maintenance at Gimpo Airport in Korea. When I arrived in the airport in Japan I just missed the Money Exchange kiosk. In other words, I currently do not have a single Japanese Yen on me, only Korean Won.

So I begged from the Taekwon-Do team some money, promising them to pay them back the next day, once I get my money exchanged into Japanese currency.

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded sleeping outside. I was surprised upon my arrival how pleasant the temperature is: a lovely 16 degrees Celcius. I also saw some people sleeping on the streets and they looked quite content. I have experienced lots of hardship in my life and have slept on the floor enough times to know that it is bearable, and have gone camping in much worse conditions. So, yes, I would have slept outside and see it as an exciting memorable moment in my first Japanese trip... but the faces of the Korean Taekwon-Do students reveeled sheer horror. I knew that to them it would be unimaginable if I had to sleep outside. So I decided to sleep on the sofa.

In all I didn't get enough hours of sleep and my back could be a little happier, but in all its been an interesting experience. I wonder what the rest of this trip will entail?!

The most I can gather of the mishap is that the two Japanese kids that picked me up at the airport brought me to the wrong place, or there was some other miscommunication. The Japanese Taekwon-Do Manager is picking us (Korean Taekwon-Do Team) up for a Tokyo-tour around 10:00; it is now 9:00. We will probably figure out where it all went wrong when he arrives.

Another surprise is how well the Japanese speak English. I've spoken with a number of Japanese since my arrival in Japan and they communicated quite well, with hardly any of the typical grammatical and pronunciation mistakes I've gotten so used to with most Koreans. They also seem much less shy to communicate (which is probably the reason why they seem to speek better). Japanese start learning English in Junior High School, the same time as Koreans; however, in my opinion, they do it better. I'm curious as to why this is so. For the Japanese I've spoken to so far, my quick assessment and adivse would be that they merely need to expand their working vocabulary.

The major issue for Koreans on the other hand, and in my opinion of course, is their listening-skill.