Trains

So today I took the train to school by myself. I was very proud of myself for getting on the right one in the first place. The only reason I knew it was the right train was because I saw another SIT girl get on it. Now, I didn't know when my stop was, so I stared at this girl for basically the whole train ride, trying to see when she got off. She must have thought I was some sort of creep, but I didn't think about that until later. So, at one point I heard the word 'Shinkawa' over the train's intercom. I knew that my train station was called Shinkawa. The train was coming to a stop. I looked at the girl from SIT to see if she got off or not, but she was standing by the door, and as the train stopped a whole bunch of people were blocking my view of her. I couldn't see if she got off or not, and the doors would close soon, so I had to take a chance.

I got off the train, and as soon as I did I knew it was the wrong stop. I just had a feeling. And sure enough, it was. I knew for sure when I went down the escalators, which were wider than the ones at the Shinkawa station. I walked outside, to see if anything looked familiar and maybe to see if there were other students from SIT around, but no luck. So I came back inside and tried to ask the people at the information kiosk how to get to SIT from there, but they didn't speak English. I still didn't speak enough Japanese to ask properly. Language barriers suck. But, she finally got my meaning and printed off some maps for me and a bus schedule, inking in the route I needed to take and which bus to take. It sounds simple when I write it, but this process took about fifteen minutes and was very painstaking. So, feeling like I sort of knew what to do, I thanked them and headed out. I had to ask three different people on the way to the bus terminal if I was going in the right direction. Better to be sure, right?

With the help of one of these three people, I found my bus and managed to get to school. Only 15 minutes late. I told my teacher the story, and he just laughed and said it was ok. Which was a relief. Now I know which stop is mine though. I told my story to Donny and Finland when I got to school, and it turns out that the bus I ended up taking was the bus Donny took to get to school. We live on opposite sides of the school area, and very far away, so none of us knew how I managed to get that far off-course.

I also managed to find my way home after school, taking the bus and train with Drew who happens to share my route. I was on my own after the train station, and just barely managed to scratch a route home. The walk from the train station to my house is actually very relaxing, and beautiful. There are a lot of trees and gardens, and a little man-made stream that runs around most of it. I got home late, because I had stayed at the school with the other exchange students to study Japanese, and just hang around. So it was just getting dark on the walk home, adding to the feeling of solitude and peace. A very scary morning. A very nice evening.