I had a small ordeal this week with starting class. I somehow was put into a completely beginner's class, which really pissed me off. It didn't really help that that time of the month came, and I became more moody as usual. I did fight to put myself in a higher class, which I like because I'm learning a lot more. I'm glad that they let me into a higher class, because I really want to learn Japanese. I do have some catching up to do, but I think I'll manage and get tons better before I go back to the US. I think I'm already planning to come back to Japan after college and take a year or two to strictly learn Japanese before I go find a job or apply for graduate school here. I'm really liking it here. I love exploring around Japan. When my Japanese gets good, I'd really like to take my family around Japan for sightseeing. My dad already said that he'd like to take a trip around Japan, so if the time is right, I'd like to take my whole family around at the same time. I think it'd be a trip of our lives. We could go into the mountains and go to the hot springs, visit the temples, go hiking in the woods... oh the possibilities there are!
So, Saturday, I had the "brightest" idea of taking an petrifying trip to Tokyo City to see if if I could find a shopping district, and of course - no map! (Ok, maybe not petrifying, but it was still quite a scary experience!) I seriously thought exploring Shinjuku and Akihabara was bad enough, nothing tops this experience of going into Tokyo City by myself, alone, no map, and a small bag of 2 nigiri and orange juice. Yup, small me surrounded by the tallest buildings I have ever seen in my life that in every direction, IT ALL LOOKS THE SAME! Of course, me being really dumb, I always exit the wrong side of the station where there are just buildings upon buildings. This time, there wasn't a walkway for me to walk back into Tokyo station and walk a different exit. So, I was stuck walking around completely clueless on the surface streets. I did manage to find a bookstore where I went in to take a small breather from the heat. I ended up buying another Jane Austen book because I absolutely loved Pride and Prejudice. she is a fantastic romance writer, and I think I will end up reading all her books. The one I bought this trip was Persuasions. I hope it's as good as Pride and Prejudice. I find it weird that I'm starting to enjoy reading so late in life. What have I missed all these years...
Anyway, I wander around some more. I end up walking into the underground shopping street. There were tons of people walking around. I think I was the only one that had a lost look on my face while other people were joyously shopping in the shops. I walk out of the underground street and some street, cross the street and walked about 2 blocks before I hit another really big bookstore and... a department store called Takashimaya! Man, I really thought I hit jackpot. I walked around the bookstore a while before heading into Takashimaya to look at clothes. I bought a pair of nice jeans by Joe's again. I really like this particular brand of jean because I think it really fits my body shape. After looking at more clothes, I was getting a little tired and wanted to go back home, but then I didn't remember which door I came in and which direction the train station was. I didn't really think much because I thought I would be able to find my way around once I stepped outside. However, there was a very nice surprise when I looked out the door... it was raining cats and dogs. My jaw completely dropped. I immediately start panicking because now I need to find an alternative way to get home. At first I wanted to go take a taxi to the JR station, but then thought it would either be too expensive, or not very expensive that the taxi drivers would get mad at me for taking a taxi. I walk back into the store. Then I thought I might just buy a bigger umbrella so that I could walk outside and find the station myself through that method. When I looked at the price of the umbrellas in the department store, 30-120 USD!! At that point, I had to scratch that idea. So then, I start looking around the store again for another alternative, and I see a sign that points to the subway system. This system is different than the JR system, but slightly interconnected. I think I sat at the ticket counter for at least 10 minutes trying to read the stupid map because I was trying to figure out if I could switch lines at the station that I wanted to go to. I decided to try anyway, and bought the ticket and proceeded into the subway. The subway system in Japan is slightly tricky because transferring to a different line requires going through many ticket stalls, which got me completely confused because I thought I needed to have a transfer ticket to get to another line. Turns out, all I needed was the same ticket to zip through the stalls and get to the next platform. It really wasn't all that bad, but it still had my heart racing because I was afraid I was going to get lost in the subway system.
All in all, it was quite an exciting adventure. I hope to explore Tokyo next weekend. I didn't have much time to go today because I needed to meet with my dad. I somehow missed 10 calls from him on my cell phone... Hopefully the new settings on my phone will enable me to hear the stupid ring better! Anyway, time for bed. Must get up early to study some Japanese in the morning!
Well, I'm glad to hear that you're still alive, learning lots, and possibly gaining some weight on that scrawny frame of yours ^_^
ReplyDeleteGetting lost is good until you realize you're in a remote area with no one to ask directions from ^_^; I bet it was scary though, I personally am not fond of not knowing where I'm going too, that's why if I do get lost, I'm really dependent on which direction I'm heading and sun's point in the sky. However, I can see how that's hard when there's tons of buildings around @_@. I was never really able to tell which direction was which when I was in Hong Kong 'cause of all the freaking huge skyscrapers @_@. I only knew during morning or evening lol.
Ah, I heard that Persuasion is Jane Austen's best work. Never read anything by her, but I heard from all my Austen-fanatic friends that it's her best. Another one is Sense & Sensibility. I still haven't gotten back into reading novels. Last actual book I picked up to read of my own free will was Harry Potter 7. The other books I've read (or skimmed) in the last six years were assigned. I really should read more 'cause my grammar is terrible now.