Hey Kids,
Today was a run of the mill day at work, it was the "getting to work" part that almost killed me (stress-wise). This morning I decided to get up early and go to the Immigration office like I was SUPPOSED to do last Friday. I had a simple map and I figured if I left early enough, I would have time to get lost and found and make my way back to Chofu for work. Well, when my alarm went off, I get up to shower but someone is already IN the shower. No, it wasn't my cockroach roommate, it was my roommate's BOYFRIEND! This dude has been spending the night at our place ever since Helen got into town. He has a place of his own but they have decided to shack up EVERY NIGHT at our place and NOW he is in the shower when I need to be getting my day started. The day doesn't get much better from there on. When he finally emerges from his LONG shower, I go into the bathroom and now my roommate comes in to ask if she can blow dry her hair in there. She had her shower right before his. So by the time I am able to get my shower and eat and leave, I have a lot less time than I planned on. But I look at my map and see that the place is only 19 minutes away by train and I have 2.5 hours still. So off I go to the train station, ask the guy how much it is to go to Tachigawa, he calculates it and tells me. I go to the ticket machine, he comes over and points to a button, so I press the button and select the amount and out comes my ticket. At Bubagaiwa, I have to switch from the Keio Line to the Nambu Line which wasn't too hard. I found my way through the train station and over to the right Line. Once I get to Tachigawa, I get off and the city is really big. I don't know whether to go left or right. I asked a guy to point me in the right direction after wandering to both ends of the station. all I had to go on was that there was a McDonald's on the corner and another restaurant on another corner, and down the street would be Immigration. The problem is, I don't see a McDonald's in the direction that the guy pointed to. So a few minutes later, I stop another man who looks like he works for the station and ask him. I showed him my map and pointed to the Immigration office. After a little communication difficulty, I find out that the place is far from the train station and I have to take a bus. Now I knew about the 2 trains I would have to take, but no one said anything about a BUS! I look at my watch and see that I have about an hour and a half still. But I don't know how long the trip by bus is. The guy said something like 20 minutes but I did not know if he meant by foot or by bus (we had serious communication problems). So he really wants to be helpful so he takes me down to the bus area and shows me what bus I have to take. I thanked him and told him that I did not think I was going to have enough time to get there and back because I still had to go all the way back to Chofu to work. The man told me to wait, so we stood and watched the people get off the bus, then he said something to the bus driver. The bus driver said soemthing back and the man turns to me and says, "Ok, there you go. Get on." WHAT? I just told this man 2 or 3 times that I did not think I had time and I would come back on Thursday and now he is scooting me onto the bus. He had been so helpful that I did not have the heart to say no, so I got on. Now, I am a total ball of stress because I am trapped on this bus, not knowing how long it is going to take and when I will be able to get back to the station. On top of that, there was a lot of traffic so we were stopping at every light. ARRRRRRGGGGHH! I just wanted to jump off at the light but I couldn't, it wasn't a stop. Also, if I got off, how would I get back? I didn't know the bus schedule. So I rode the bus for about 15 minutes before he stopped it and he turned and motioned that this was my stop. I looked at my watch and thought "no way" and I told him I didn't have time. He wasn't sure what I was saying but he eventually sat back in his seat and drove to the next stop. At this stop, everyone that was left on the bus got off. Once again, i was the only one sitting there (does this remind you of another story of mine???) I went to the front of the bus and attempted to communicate with this guy. He was at the end of his route and I didn't know what he was going to do next. I finally asked if I could sit and go with him. He said yes and he turned the bus around and fortunately was making his way back to the train station. After he hit all his stops and all the fricking lights, we made it back to the station. YIPPEE!! I still had about 35 minutes to find my train and get to Chofu. Well, when I went into the train station, the ticket machines were different so I had no clue how to get my ticket. Remember, at the other station, the man had me press a button that I normally never press. I figured that this was for a transfer ticket since I was transfering from Nambu line to Keio line in Bubagaiwa. So I see a button that actually says "Transfer Ticket" and I press the button, that's when the screen lit up with a million buttons written in Japanese script. How the hell was I supposed to know what to press? Just when I think I have crossed a hurdle, another one pops up. Oh, before this even happens, I tried to buy a ticket and couldn't figure it out so I asked the man at the ticket counter how much to Chofu and he says 190 yen. That was a LIE. When I put my ticket through to switch from the Nabu to the Keio line, I set off the red buzzer and the gate slammed closed on me. At that point, I stepped back, then walked quickly through the gate before it could slam closed on me again. Yes, I am a criminal, or at least I WAS because when it did it to me again in Chofu, I ended up going to the counter and paying the guy whatever the difference was. I guess the important part of the story is that I made it to work on time (even had 10 minutes to spare) but I definitely would have been late if I had tried to actually get off the bus and find the immigration office. Life is only easy if you stay within your parameters. rachel no like Tachigawa.
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