lost in trains-lation

i had a terrible day i must say. no, not because i'm depressed ryan left (but it's sad nonetheless, especially since we didn't get to hang out that much)- but i wasn't able to laugh off what went on today, until many hours later i guess haha.

so i went to sleep at 5:30am. ryan was supposed to leave for the airport at 6:30am, but he overslept and left in a rush at 7:45am- i haven't heard from him so i assume he got to hong kong and now vietnam someway or another. i haven't been sleeping very well while i've been here, i'm not exactly sure why, but no matter how late i sleep i always wake up at 9:30am. this is not ok. so i couldn't really get back to sleep after ryan left, i kept waking up after just falling asleep- so i just gave up and woke up. a guy called me- the package delivery guy, i got a non-delivery receipt yesterday. the conversation went something like this:

moshimoshi?
moshimoshi, sumimassen nihongoga wakarimassen (hi, sorry i don't understand japanese)
moshimoshi?
sumimassen nihongoga wakarimassen
ehhhh..................................*click*

yeah he just hung up on me. i went downstairs to see if he was in the lobby but no one was around. so i had one of my housemates call the company- and after like a 10 minute conversation she told me that they'll delivery tomorrow morning but the guy will call me- hopefully the same thing doesn't happen again. so yeah, it was actually sunny out and 80 degrees, which made me excited- so excited that i did my laundry because you have to wait til its not raining to be able to dry your clothes. so feeling productive and hanging up my clothes i head out to catch design festa, a HUGE fest of all these tokyo artists- music, art, fashion, everything. looks crazy! so dripping in sweat i get to the post office to try to withdraw money from the ATM (my card kept getting declined yesterday at stores and ATMs- and when the sales people would call the CC company they couldn't give me a reason why). i pat my right pocket and there's not that familiar rectangular lump from my card case.... i left it at home? (i usually never take anything out of my pockets so i never forget anything... but somehow it managed to find itself on the floor). so i walk 10 minutes back to my house, get my card case. i decide to change because its so hot out and i was overdressed- and i set off again. i get to the station and then i realize that the flyer that had the map to design festa was still in the back pocket of my other jeans. frustrated, i just try to make light of the situation and tell myself- well i know the general area its in, remember the color of the train line, and i remember the station starts with a K- it'll be an adventure.

so i get on the right train, green line, going towards the right direction. i know it's past the station Osaki so i'm straight. on the railway map in the train, the greenline continues after osaki but for some reason they didn't label the stations- they just showed the a green line but that didn't phase me because i had an idea where i was going. so we past osaki, a station with K in the beginning comes up and i get off- i'm in like a factory town... ok maybe this exhibition hall is in a factory town- so i go up and i look at a map and the next station after it is yokohama... yokohama?! (yokohama is a suburb southwest of tokyo - i was supposed to be going to a place southeast of tokyo). so this would've been fine- cause i've been meaning to check out yokohama since i hear it has a lowrider culture and hiphop is much different out there compared to tokyo... but it started pouring rain (it's been raining ever since i got here, but not this hard). great.

so i decide to head home since the fest is going to end in 2 hours and if i actually knew my way there it'd take at least 45 minutes anyway. the next train to shinjuku... 45 minutes. so i wait. i decide to call my bank to try to get my card working again (i had tried to email them when they during business hours- even had mandy call them- they just told me to email these two people and they'd get it cleared up after they asked for some information- did they email me back? no.) i really needed my card to work since i only had 2000 yen in cash (~$18) which doesn't go that far. after 15 minutes of wading through automated menus i finally get a human being. she asks me all this information and i tell her my situation- she asks i'm in tokyo, my card is stopped, i've been making all these large purchases lately, but my card isn't stolen, etc. - then she asks me more information. so i ask her, well can you fix it? and she's like no, the office isn't open. (ok why didn't you tell me that 10 minutes ago? why are you asking me all these questions? i get really irritated because i'm paying $1 a minute to make this call). she says i have to wait until monday- i go off on how they aren't even giving me a reason on why they stopped my card and that i have no money and need to get money- she's like oh well you can call back in 6 hours when the members services office is open. what the hell. so i just hang up).

i get back to nakano- its still pouring out. so i walk home in the rain and get soaked- get home to my now soaking laundry. wonderful! so yes, wasn't a very pleasant day.

funny thing is, ryan and i got lost on the trains last night too. i don't know how that happened- as nakano is a station every express train except one stops at- we weren't on that express line because it stopped a mita, a station 5 or so stops away from nakano and not 10. apparently our train just decide to skip my stop. not to mention that the train wasn't very express at all- it left the station 20 minutes late (NOTHING is late here, i was appalled) and it was cruising at like 10mph for no apparent reason. i was getting worried because it was past 12am and most lines close at around 12... so i was getting ready to take the hit to the wallet. luckily we got off and there was still a train left going backwards to nakano *sigh of relief*. so we hop on the train back- usually there's a nice pleasant japanese woman telling you the next station and the direction the train is going... but this train had the devil as the conductor. a super low grumbling voice would mumble indecipherable things over the loud speaker- the first time ryan and i heard it our eyes widened and we immediately stopped talking. we both looked around to see if anyone else heard what we heard, but they were all absorbed into books, music, or knocked out. the voice continued and we decided that he sounded like the godfather- and it just must be some guy that's really bored and trying to make his job more interesting hahaha.

anyway now that it's a new day things are looking better- i was able to contact visa who was apparently trying to contact me (i'm not sure how- since they should know i'm in tokyo since all my transactions have been in tokyo for the past two weeks.. i think they were being brilliant and calling my house in michigan. go figure) to verify all the declined charges i was trying to make. so the automated man listed charges for about 10 minutes and i had to say i was aware of them- and things should be peachy now. $40 dollars in calls later... grrr. and i finally heard back from kyle cleveland, a professor at the temple university japan campus, who is doing research on japanese youth culture and hiphop culture. hopefully i'll go to the campus sometime this week and have a chat with him- get some contacts, meet some people, the whole deal. maybe even have an enlightening conversation or two- i'm curious of the answers academia gives to the questions i ask myself. i wish i took some soc/anth classes while i was at swat... ah well.

so hopefully i actually make it to design festa this time around so my $18 isn't totally wasted on the two day ticket i bought. it better be cool, it sounds amazing.