Day 22 - Learning

Today was just a learning experience all over. The most distressing thing I learned today is that my card is somehow not working when I want to withdraw cash. It works just fine to view the balance, but when I try to withdraw cash, I get "invalid card". Which is upsetting. Hopefully I will be able to get that fixed soon.

I also learned today how to get back, not using the Yamanoshita line from Takadanobaba. Because it was not running. I found out after the fact that it was because a woman jumped onto the tracks. It was rather apparent from the number of emergency vehicles that something along those lines had happened, but I thought something much bigger had happened. Why else would you need 5 firetrucks, a smattering of ambulances, police cars, and a pair of circling helicopters? And I saw more than one gurney being wheeled out behind tarps. Maybe it was just really messy… Ugh, don't need to continue that thought. Anyway, it meant that I got to get talked through taking the Subway by a very helpful Tamarra by text. I managed to get back after that, despite getting a little turned around when I finally got to Shinjuku station.

Other things I learned, are that the subway is far less crowded than the trains. I even got to sit almost the entire way. It almost made it much more obvious who was staring at me. Maybe I should put more effort into making my hair look nice if people are going to stare all the time anyway. I also learned that if you stare over the shoulder of another person filling out a sudoku, and quietly mouth "3, 3, 3, 3, 三, 三, 三, 三," at them, other people are going to give you funny looks.

I learned that listening to music while walking is very nice, but when you mouth the words along with the song, people tend to stare harder. Maybe I'm just self conscious. I also learned that I can turn the music down just enough to hear subway announcements, as long as I'm not listening to The Decemberists. Their music varies in volume too much to be convenient.

I found out today that I'll probably be able to get everything I need to have flags at a place called Tokyu Hands. It'll still be cheaper than having it shipped, but I have to decide now whether I want to take it back with me, because if I wanna trash it here, there's a special trashing fee for oversize items. I am now also thinking of getting swing flags. I'll start with just a normal one and go from there.

Most of all, I learned that I can pretty much manage by myself in Japan. I need some advice every now and then (thanks Tamarra!) but if I work at it, I can be much more self-sufficient than I thought before I came here.