A Bad Day

Of course, I woke up super early the next morning. After trying to sleep a few times I got up and tried to take up a lot of time showering, etc. I then wandered out and found a convenience store that sells calling cards. (Oh, by the way it's raining cats and dogs at this point and I'm not aware that I can just take the umbrellas located near the front door). Once I find a public phone - of course I can't figure out how to get the calling card to work. A call to customer service clears it up and finally I get a hold of Nathan. That's when I lost it. I was so tired and so overwhelmed and stressed out. It had been over 24 hours since I had any contact with home. It helped a lot to talk to him. After a while, I wandered back to Weekly Mansion Komagome (WMK) where the front desk was finally open. The guy didn't speak any english but I managed to get him to show me things on a map (written in Japanese). I found the location of a coffee shop, 100 yen store, convenience store, coin laundry, etc. I headed to the coffee shop and took my time sipping the coffee. It's a Doutour coffee shop for anyone who might be familiar. It's not a Starbucks but it is a little western. It was funny becuase everyone was smoking inside. It was finally late enough to head to campus (Todai - short for Tokyo Daigaku which means University of Tokyo). I followed the directions I had gotten the night before and it was so quick. I went into the wrong gate on campus but I eventually found Engineering Building 1 (right next to a Starbucks - which I new was there from my last visit but still a super duper welcome sight). I found the lab on and met everyone who was there. Fujino-sensei wasn't there - out of town. My main contact, Tomo, is in China until April 5 which has made things a lot more difficult but also forced me to take care of things on my own.

I took the day to get my Vodafone application finished (thankfully my computer cooperated enought to let me get the files off). That took me most of the day. I went at got lunch with Evan at the co-op store on campus. They have these packaged meals - rice and other stuff - which you microwave. Not bad. And the store sells club soda!!!! Anyone who has been around me at all in the last year or so knows I'm addicted to the stuff. We took the food back to the lab and everyone there ate together. I went home around 6:30 and it was dark already. By the time I got back to WMK I crashed - still jetlagged.