This is a map of the Tokyo train/subway system. It's wonder the city doesn't cave in on itself, what with all these tunnels running beneath the ground. It's like trying to secure a dumbell on a foundation made totally out of Aero bars.
Needless to say, this was a little daunting, the first time I saw it and even more frightening when I actually tried it and got lost. Can you imagine trying to ask for directions in this Labyrinth? It's really really demoralizing when you are so lost. Sometimes I felt like I was running around in some derranged urban sequel to Blair Witch, other times, I would just pray for the Minataur to come and kill me already.
Well, it's 7pm and I am sitting at home again with nothing to do. Hinnie and I went to get out re-entry permits today at the immigration office. I should have taken some pictures there, as I was amazed that it looked the same as the government offices back home. The same drab coloured walls, the same demoralized workers and the same pissed-off foreigners waiting in line.
Anyway, after what seemed like hours of waiting, I was told that I couldn't get it at this particular office, that I had to go to the Yokohama office (I was at the Shibuya office). Argh. See? Government offices are exactly the same, worldwide. You wait and you wait and you wait, and end up accomplishing nothing. What's more, because it was pouring today, the sky got dark at 3 pm, so I felt like we had spent an entire day in that damn waiting room.
It wasn't really that bad because Hinnie was there with me and we just spent the time talking, but still. Well, I don't have much of a choice, other than to go tomorrow.
We headed off for the 100 yen store afterwards and strangely enough, we didn't buy much. Hinnie got a cup and some notebooks. I got some erasers shaped like sushi.
She had to jet to Shinjuku to meet up with a friend soon afterwards. I was going to tag along because I still have to return the key from my old apartment at the Shinjuku head office building, but the rain was really getting me down, so I decided to trudge home instead.
So I met a French girl today. She lives in the room next to me, I started talking to her in the common room, as we were waiting to use to computer. La Fille Francaise was genuinely shocked that I guessed she was French (though her accent was a dead giveaway) and that I could speak a little.
Apparently the other Canadians she has met don't speak much French. I explained that that's because they were the smart ones who dropped French after grade 9. Actually, I didn't say that, but I was tempted to. Didn't think she would appreciate the joke though.
LFF seemed pleasantly surprised to find someone whom she could converse in her native tongue with, though she did have to slow down a little. It was cool, I am really surprised that I remember so much of my French from highschool.
More and more, I am sympathizing with the students I teach. LFF and I had a halfway decent conversation, but I still found myself struggling for the most basic of words and sentence structures. I think that I can only speak in the present tense. *sigh*
It's funny when you think about it. Here I am learning a tiny little bit of Sri Lankan, practicing French, Chinese and of course, getting a deeper understanding of English. Everything but Japanese.