Couchsurfing

I love couchsurfing!  I've met amazing people when I stayed by their place in Philadelphia and Atlanta; when I've gone to couchsurfing Thursday night meetings downtown; and when I've huge out with an Australian medical student in the city who contacted me.

The thrill of staying at a couchsurfer's place for me is a lot like treating people in the ED.  Your patient is a complete stranger and you have just a couple of seconds to establish mutual trust.  You've just met them but already you are intimately involved in their life through your history and physical.  So it is with couchsurfing.  After a couple of emails back and forth, you show up at their doorstep or they pick you up at the train station.  You've quickly become intimately involved with them.  You are sleeping on a air mattress in their extra room, eating their food, using their shower, holding on to their house keys. 

I'm super excited to meet my host, Chihiro.  She lives just outside Tokyo.  From her Couchsurfing profile, I know that she is 27, and grew up in Japan.  She's been all over the world to Austria, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Guam, India, Indonesia, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand.  She like Audrey Hepburn. 

Each couchsurfing request starts with me searching for potential hosts based on their gender and profile.  Then I send a message in which I say something like, "Hi, I'm Nisha.  I'm 28 and a medical student in NYC.  I'm going to be traveling in Tokyo for a couple of days and was wondering if you could host me for a few nights."

Couchsurfing.org gives a recommendation on how many host you should contact based on how popular that city is.  I sent about 10 messages to people in Tokyo.  I was so happy when I heard back from Kanno saying she was able to host me!

She sent me a detailed message on how to take the train from Haneda airport to where she lives.  She gave me her number and told me to call her at the station and she would come and pick me up.  She said she's working during the week but we can eat dinner together.  She's off on Sunday and can take me sightseeing.  People in the world can truly be so kind. 

She said to wait by the police station that is outside the station.  To be honest, that makes me a tad bit nervous.  Is this a sketchy area?  Oh well.  I'm sure everything will be okay.  I'll call her a stop or two before I reach so I don't have to wait outside by myself.  It will be at night time.

I'm excited that I feel like I already have a friend waiting for me in Tokyo.