Yay I have friends!

Ok so everyone I’ve talked to besides Raphael says that he’s crazy and you’re not someone’s girlfriend after you go on a date. Thanks, Raphael.

This weekend was awesome. I’ll have to break it up for you.

Saturday

Went to Yokohama with guesthousemates and a few of their friends. Lin, Stephane, Rana, Nozomi, and some more Japanese people. Yokohama is the biggest Chinatown in East Asia (outside of China obviously) so Lin found a great deal on all-you-can-eat Chinese food at ¥2100 a person. It was sooooo delicious. I only had a salad that day because I woke up at like 7am and I knew I’d be a bitch by 1pm if I didn’t eat. We sat down at around 3pm and omg so much food. I was so happy. Here are some pictures.

After that we walked around Chinatown a bit more and Lin kept trying to get me to wear those pretty Chinese dresses but I think it’s really weird when white people try to wear traditional Asian clothes. When our groups split up I was with Rana, Nozomi, Ayami, and two of Nozomi’s friends whose names I can’t remember. I made friends Ayami and asked her to teach me how to talk like a girl in Japanese because most of my Japanese friends are guys. She said we should hang out (!!). Japanese people are so friendly, I love it.

Our group of six went to a pelicula? to take pictures. I didn’t know what a pelicula was, even though I heard the word before, so I thought, “Well this could either be a photobooth or a strip club.” I was leaning toward strip club based on the giggles of my companions but it ended up being a photobooth. That’s right, I’m in Japan.

By the way, this shit is so complicated. There are so many options for taking different types of pictures and once you’re done then you have to pick the ones you like and you have to draw on them and give your email and name and then print it and send it and scan it on your phone and I was really overwhelmed even with Nozomi and Ayami helping me. Rana is an artist so she was really good at decorating the pictures but my version sucked. Oh well, cutesy photobooth pics were never my thing.

After that we took the train home and I was sooo tired after eating so much. I sat next to Rana after we split up with the non-guesthouse people and I felt like singing so I started singing to her and telling her how I can remember lyrics in languages I don’t speak but I can’t remember useful words in the languages I do speak! And that’s when it occurred to me. I’m a parrot.

Yes, a parrot. I can mimic people amazingly well. I sound just like the train announcer lady when she says, 「閉まるドアにご注意下さい。」But I fail spectacularly at producing anything original. I’m not creative in any way whatsoever. And I can’t remember vocabulary for the life of me. My brain is great at figuring out and reproducing patterns. That’s why I can sound like Alicia Keys or Rod from Avenue Q. But if I have to improvise? Or create something? Nope. Blank slate.

Saturday Night

We get back to the guest house and suddenly I need to dance. Everyone is tired after eating so much food and some people are already ready for bed, but I ask them anyway if they want to go clubbing. Since Raphael didn’t go to Yokohama he’s totally up for it, but he doesn’t want to spend money. Stephane is like “maybe,” and Lin already took a bath. And Rana is falling asleep. No, screw that. I grab an outfit for Rana and put on my club outfit and do my makeup really quick. Drag Rana to the store so that the cold wakes her up, buy a bottle of Pocari Sweat and a bottle of vodka and some Sapporo Black (I’m trying the five different dark beers that they sell here in Japan). Go back, Stephane is trying to locate a cheap club in Shinjuku (lol oxymoron) and Lin is ready in five minutes. I don’t know how I managed it but somehow I got people to party with me! People never come to my parties! Man, Japan is awesome.
Anyway our first club was a dud, so after walking around for an hour in my nude pumps we found a place that’s ¥1000 for girls and ¥3000 for guys with two drink tickets. It’s dead. Oh well, we’re just here to dance, and everyone dances because we’re awesome. And then it gets busy around 2am, Raphael’s trying to get me to approach guys, I’m refusing because that doesn’t work. (This is going to sound really weird but) if I have to approach a guy for him to talk to me, he probably couldn’t handle my craziness anyway. I need to go to Roppongi next time.

Also I learned that tequila and ginger ale go really well together. That’s gonna be my new jam once I’m out of vodka and pocari sweat. Haha.

Also! They played Big Bang! And Gangnam Style but they’re playing that back in the US too probably. I need to learn all the dances.

I don’t even get tired until around 4:30 and only then because I had to stop dancing because my toes are probably broken. The trains start up at 5:00 so we left and went back home. I took a shower to scrape off my makeup and set my alarm for 11:00am and slept.

Sunday

I wake up at 12:10. Crap.

Yamato-san at the guest house is an older guy whose wife is in Thailand. He worked at a Japanese language school until it shut down and then came back to Japan to get his teaching license. In his Japanese teaching class he has a friend named Taira who’s about 25, and Yamato-san introduced him to me through email. I’m supposed to meet Taira at 12:30.

Crap.

In email him quickly saying I overslept and can we meet at 1:00? He says yes and I quickly do a decent amount of makeup to hide my sleepy face (I’m not hungover but probably really dehydrated). Luckily I had an outfit in mind and we’re meeting in Iidabashi but I leave the guest house at 12:45. Shit shit shit.

I get to Iidabashi station at 12:58 and to get from the Tozai line to the west entrance of the JR line is frickin far. I cut through the JR area and play dumb American to the station attendant so he’ll take off the charge. Then I wait.

I already used up all my roaming but I should probably check my email. Sorry mom, I’ll pay the cell phone bill. He’s there by the ticket machines and I see him and we hajimemashite. He’s cuter up close.

Is this a date? Whatever, I get to practice my Japanese. He says my Japanese is good but I think Japanese people just say that to people who can speak Japanese better than they can speak English. The bar is set pretty low.

He isn’t quite sure where we should eat but I’m not dying of hunger so we walk around a bit. Since it’s Sunday a lot of the restaurants are closed but we find an okonomiyaki place and since I love food I’m excited to try it. Oh man, so good. It’s hard to eat but after the Chinese food Saturday I’ve learned to use any tools I have at my disposal. Om. Nom.

I wanna go back and eat it again.

Anyway he says I’m good at using chopsticks (some of my friends said that Saturday too) and I’m kind of afraid to tell him it’s because all my American friends are Asian American. But that’s why. I’ve had practice.

Yeah I think people’s expectations of Americans are pretty low here.

After okonomiyaki he wanted to check out a temple nearby since I haven’t been to one but the line was crazy! And it was windy and cold so we found a café and sat and talked. Wow my writing quality is seriously detioriating here.

I started to nerd out about linguistics and I didn’t bring my notebook so I couldn’t demonstrate the cool nerdy phonology things I was talking about. Sad. Next time I’ll have to bring one.

We also talked about how I need to make female Japanese friends so I can learn to talk like a girl. I told him that in college I’d be wearing exactly what he was wearing (jeans, purple hoodie, leather jacket) with converse and ride my bike to class. I kind of miss dressing like that actually. He said that I looked really feminine and my clothes suited me but I told him I was just copying the girls I see in Tokyo. Cause I am.

When we said goodbye I didn’t even think to give him a hug but then he looked like he wanted one and I was like, awww. But after what Raphael said I don’t want to be too forward with anyone. So no hug.

I totally don’t know how to flirt in Japanese. Maybe I should ask him to teach me. I might see him again next week. And he said I can ask him any questions about Japanese if I’m confused on language stuff. I told him I’d correct his English too if he wants. I’m so spoiled by Keisuke’s amazing English.

After that I went home and ate my ¥98 apple that I’m supposed to be rationing. Then I went to sleep around 6:30pm.

Monday

I woke up at 2:00am. Awesome. Reddited for a billion hours and then Skyped with mom and dad at around 7:30? Since nobody was in the living room. I also messaged Keisuke that I want to see him and he told me he’s off work at 7:00pm.

I went back to sleep again, woke up at 2:00pm-ish. Reddited some more, in denial that I need to take a shower. Finally left the guest house at 6:18pm to get to Taneike-Sannou. I tried asking the station attendant if he knew where an Excelsior Caffe was nearby and he wasn’t helpful at all, but his coworker knew and sort of shouted it to me from the back room. Of course I didn’t understand a word he said and I didn’t think to ask the original station guy to repeat it so I kind of just said I’d call my friend and slinked away.

After standing for a few minutes directly in front of a map I finally noticed that the café I’m looking for is on 1F. Now I just need to find 1F. I think I’m on 2B or something so I go up the escalator and hope I’m on the right track. I see another sign that says something something 1F and after waffling for a minute or so I just go up that one. Excelsior Caffe, right there. And I can see Keisuke working at the counter! It’s 6:58pm.

I go in and he’s happy to see me! I missed him so much. He asks if I want anything but I don’t think Japanese barista friends can give you free stuff like American barista friends can so I tell him that I’m gonna wait until he gets off.

I study my JLPT N4 kanji until he gets off and I’m surprised how much of it I know. Two weeks ago it wouldn’t have been this easy. Weird how brains work.

I ask him what he’s in the mood for and we’re both indecisive so I told him how I haven’t had ramen yet since coming to Japan. He can’t believe it and so he looks up on his phone for a good place nearby. I’m mostly talking in English and he’s mostly responding in Japanese but it makes me so happy that he can understand me when I’m talking normally (aka ridiculously fast). I hate repeating myself, but I’ll get over it as a teacher hopefully.

The ramen was awesome. It had real kobe beef! I love food.

Afterwards we went and got tiramisu at a café while he told me about Italy. It was a group tour for Japanese people and apparently the food sucked so he skipped a bunch of meals to eat at restaurants by himself. I’d be so pissed if I were in Italy on a tour and the food sucked. What’s the point of even going?

Man I love Keisuke so much. It’s so fun to teach him English. I wish I had 20 Keisukes as my students. Everyone else can suck it.

I need a boyfriend

Not that I really want one. But there are so many things I’m not motivated to do without someone to go with as my excuse:

• Museums
• Restaurants
• Touristy things
• Ikea
• Costco

And more that I can’t remember right now.

Last night I went with Raphael back to the Green Amy and we talked to Jumpei-san about how I need a boyfriend. Jumpei said he wants a foreign girlfriend but I’m too tall. Well he didn’t say I’m too tall, I did.

(I can’t believe my mom is going to show this to her Facebook friends. So weeeiiird!)

But anyway Raphael said that when agree to go on a date with a guy, he becomes your boyfriend. I’m like WHAT. Wait, WHAT??

I’m not ready for that. What if I just meet a guy at the market and we exchange info and he asks me out to coffee? Then I’m his GIRLFRIEND?

You can tell I’m not ready for any sort of commitment right now. GIRLFRIEND???

And so since I had like 10 oz of makkori before leaving and a beer and a gimlet at the Green Amy, I freaked out a little too much. But what the hell, Japan? Are we like in middle school still?!

No. Just, no.

I’ve always been bad with titles

Yay I’m finally closer to February than December! I need to figure out my shit. Working on it…

Anyway yesterday I went to Shibuya again and did some exploring. First I went to Zara and looked at shoes. I don’t think they carry my size though :/. Then I went into Parco and saw the white leather bag I’m going to own one day. Only like ¥48000 or something. I also cried a little inside seeing so many cute shoes that I’ll never be able to wear. Curse you, gigantic clown feet.

I found a cafe on the 4th or 5th floor and sat for like an hour and a half wasting the data plan my mom got me. I talked to Melissa and Jarett on Facebook chat and Melissa told me how to get to all the cool places nearby.

After that I went into Uniqlo and I saw this amazing hat.

It was on sale for ¥500. I couldn’t not buy it. People looked at me funny when I walked around wearing it but I LOOK SO AWESOME. Sorry guys, I don’t care if it’s a ¥500 Uniqlo hat. I’m rocking this shit for all time.

Then I walked around in a big circle looking for Shibuya station and that’s when I somehow found Forever 21, which Melissa told me was right by Loft. I decided to hit Loft first, and apparently it’s the most amazing place in the world. It’s technically a department store but it’s nowhere near on the same level as any department store I’ve ever been to. It’s full of overpriced awesome things I want to own. And suitcases. I love suitcases. They even have half a floor dedicated to bags for cyclists. Not joking, I should have taken a picture of the sign that said “cycling bags” or whatever.

I took more pictures of what I wore that day in the 5th floor bathrooms at Loft. Here you go.

 

You can’t tell how cute my dress is because of the sweater and my heattech but when spring comes around I’m going to wear the heck out of that thing. So effing cute.

And wasn’t that hat just made for me? Srsly.

After that I went into Forever 21 and spent way too much time looking at cheap clothes without buying anything. At least I saved money I guess.

Here are some pictures of food I don’t know where else to post.

The end.

 

Seijin no Hi

Today was really nice. I woke up to the snow outside my window. Of course, being from LA, I didn’t realize it would be useful to have an umbrella in the snow. But that shit collects, man. It gets everywhere. Also everyone has the big old-fashioned umbrellas, I kind of wish I brought my Hello Kitty one. Now it just sits in my closet, alone.

I met up with Ayako-san at 2:00pm in Shinjuku and went to eat at an udon restaurant. It’s my first time having noodles since coming to Japan and I tell her that even though I know it’s better to slurp while I eat, I still can’t bring myself to do it. We speak pretty much only in Japanese and I slowly get used to speaking it after not using Japanese at all yesterday. The food was awesome but I was talking so much that it got cold. I have that problem a lot. I forgot to take a picture of my food, but there was a small bowl of udon, fried rice, sashimi, tempura, and a little custard dessert thing. And tea.

After that I didn’t want to go straight back to Kagurazaka so I walked around Shinjuku station looking at the shops and deciding I need more shorts and lace skirts, and a chunky black scarf. Since I know none of this crap will fit me I ask someone how I can find H&M. Well first I talk to one girl working at a clothing shop about how this is my first time in Japan and because I’m tall it’s hard to find my size. She says I’m probably an L or maybe an LL, but most likely an L. She also says my Japanese is really good and she’s embarrassed of her English, but I tell her it’s ok because you’re in Japan so Japanese is fine. Something along those lines. Then I walk around some more, buy a milk tea that I totally don’t need, and then ask someone how I get to H&M.

I forgot how cold it was outside but the worst part was all the overhangs over the sidewalk kept dropping melted snow on my head. Without an umbrella I was defenseless. It was about a 10 minute walk so by the time I got to H&M I was soaked. I must have looked so pathetic, but shopping there was awesome after staring at tiny Japanese clothes for a week. I actually know what my size is here!  I spent way too much money but at least I’ll start to fit in and maybe that’ll help me get a Japanese boyfriend. That’s a good investment right? Right.

A lot of stuff was on clearance for ¥700, including a pair of khaki shorts that they only had left in my size. Take that, tiny Japanese girls, sometimes being a giant pays off. I got my chunky scarf and some slouchy sweaters and I can’t wait to break out these outfits. Bwahaha. If only shoes were as easy.

Luckily there was a Tokyo Metro entrance right next to H&M so I didn’t have to walk back in the cold. I decided to take the Oedo line because I like variety. Everything seems really new, and they have gates on the platform so people won’t fall on the tracks I guess. At Iidabashi there was a cool metal design in the stairway so I took a picture of that. I figure either a lot of people use this line so it gets a lot of attention, or it was falling apart so they renovated it recently. Maybe a bit of both.

“The train is arriving.”

Tomorrow I have a trial lesson starting at 8:20am (UGH) in Sumida-ku. It’s not that far from where I’m staying so that’s nice. I’m not sure what to prepare besides Disney princess songs and a few nursery rhymes. I might draw pictures to go with the songs and rhymes but I’m not going to pretend I have any artistic ability whatsoever. Maybe my singing will make up for it. I don’t think I’ll be teaching for more than an hour or so, but I should probably prepare a lot of stuff just in case. What do babies like? I don’t know, the youngest I’ve worked with is 4-5 year olds. I might have to break out the “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’’

They want me to wear khaki pants and a white polo, which I don’t even own in the US and I’m not going to find in Tokyo during winter (not even at Uniqlo, I tried) so I’ll wear a white button up and my brownish greyish pants. Hopefully they still fit ok, I bought them when I wasn’t eating in Bordeaux.

Actually now that I think about it, I probably should have gone to Abercrombie or Hollister or American Eagle. They probably have polos year-round. Oh well, hopefully my button-up will be ok. It’s sort of like an interview so I’d rather be a little overdressed anyway.

13 January

Yesterday was really fun. I wore this:

I look like a teacher, haha. It looked pretty sweet with my tan coat and grey floral scarf though. I’m still not sure what Japanese women wear under their coats but I think a lot of it involves shorts and tights. Oh, and even though my tan oxfords are super cheap, they were great to walk in with tights. At least compared to heels. My tights are horrible though, they kept falling down the whole time and pulling my underwear down with them. I definitely need to buy real black ballet tights on Amazon.

I also tried my BB cream again and this stuff is AMAZING. I don’t think I’ll ever need concealer or anything again. I just hope my skin doesn’t freak out.

I met up with Sching and two of his friends at Hachiko in Shibuya. For some reason I was under the impression that Hachiko was a big statue of a red dog, like Clifford.

Both of them attended UCSB actually, it was cool to talk to them about it. My Japanese is starting to disappear though. We went to a semi-Italian restaurant and then walked around looking for stuff to do. Apparently there isn’t much if you don’t have money. We went into an arcade but that’s not really my thing. We also went into the food show at Shibuya station. I want to eat everything omg.

(Ignore my horrid photography, I was trying to be inconspicuous with my phone.)

I went back to Kagurazaka and hung out with my fellow guesthousemates. At first I was awkwardly sitting and drinking my milk tea but somehow everyone started talking to me. I asked Raphael and Stephan (one of the French guys) about job stuff since I’m worried if I start working now I won’t be able to learn Japanese cause I’ll be using English all the time. I mentioned that I need to find a Japanese boyfriend and EVERYONE started pitching in with guys I should meet. This went on for like an HOUR. I whittled down my crazy standards to “tall and Japanese” because otherwise I won’t find anybody. Apparently the best option is Bumpei, the guy who helps run the guesthouse. I don’t like to shit where I eat though, I’m not gonna date someone who’s basically my landlord. Also I think I’d freak him out if he actually got to know me. That’ll probably happen with most Japanese guys though.

Raphael wanted to go to karaoke since his flight got moved to Wednesday. We were originally going to go to Shinjuku but we would have had to stay all night until the trains start running again at 5am. I don’t think I’m ready for that sort of partying yet, and it would have been too much effort for just two people. Instead we went with a couple more people to a karaoke place near Iidabashi. It was walking distance so that was nice, but we only stayed for an hour and four people is too few. I wanna sing on stage, haha.

Today I was thinking of going to Shinjuku Historical Museum and getting a museum pass which lets me get into like 50 museums for 2000 yen, but I couldn’t find the Shinjuku museum on a map. This is also why I need a Japanese boyfriend. He can suggest cool places to go, and then take me there so I don’t have to wander around looking dumb for an hour before I find a place.

I think the dust in this room or maybe the down in my blankets is triggering my allergies. I took Zyrtec and Benadryl but nothing has helped yet. I kind of just want to take a nap or study Japanese. I know showering would help but then I’ll just want to get dressed and look nice.

Tomorrow is a holiday so some things are closed. There’s probably something to go see but unless someone takes me there I’m not sure what I’ll do.

The First Week: A Reflection

It’s Saturday. Today I’m supposed to meet up with a tourist group to get Izakaya in Shibuya. I hope it’s not too expensive. I’m deciding whether to wear jeans and converse or my navy a-line dress with tights and my nude pumps. Everyone wears black tights here. I think it’s to look like the mannequins. But probably also because it’s cold. You see a lot of powerclashing with black and brown or black and navy. I probably can’t pull it off though.

Also, since my nude tights are ballet tights, they’re handling Tokyo’s abuse much better than my cheapo black tights are. I think I’m going to buy some Capezio black tights on Amazon or something soon. At least I know how to hand-wash.

I’ll catch you up on my week.

Wednesday:

Interview with daycare school in Hiroo. They want me to come in for a trial lesson but the first school told me they would make a decision by the end of the week. Also I’m not sure I only want to do daycare. I wore my grey suit with a white shirt and brown ankle booties. I was smart to bring my brown flats as well, and I walked around Ginza windowshopping. Oh, and I hate that there are no trash cans anywhere. Sometimes there are ones in bathrooms but not always. I spent way too much money at combinis. And I fell in love with yogurt drinks.

Thursday:

Back to Iidabashi for my interview with the Japanese school. One of the teachers met me in front of Becker’s and took me to a green door that I had never seen before. Yeah I never would have found this place by myself. They tell me I’m between elementary and intermediate, which is fine because I could use all the practice I can get. It’s a holiday this Monday (the 14^th) so my trial lesson is Friday (the 11^th). I finally do some grocery shopping and go back to the guesthouse to cook. One of the guys here, Raphael, sits with me and we end up talking the whole day. He’s Mexican and he’s supposed to leave Japan on Friday. I offer to buy him a drink as a goodbye gesture, and we’re both fans of booze so we go to his favorite bar which is a pretty short walk from the guesthouse. It’s a piano bar and the owner Jumpei is really chill so we talk and sing and since Raphael made the bar’s logo (he’s an artist) we get free drinks. Raphael jokes that I should date Jumpei so I can learn Japanese but his English is too good, I’d never learn anything.

Friday:

Interview at a school that does private lessons for adults. This is what I’m best at so I’m pretty excited. They’d be able to sponsor my visa too, even though it’s only part-time, so I could do other work that would help my Japanese. I didn’t know how to get there though, and my internet stopped working the day before, so first thing in the morning I ask one of the French guys if there’s an internet café nearby and he says there’s a Starbucks near the station. Sporting my Nike running tights, Converse, beanie, and black coat, I climb the hill to Kagurazaka station and wander according to the French guy’s directions. Nowhere to be found. I end up going into a different overpriced café and order an espresso. It’s meh, but for ¥280 I could have had like five meals. No internet though. Great. I finally use roaming (NOOOO) to verify the interview time since there was a mistake in the original email, and open the map on my phone and take a screenshot so I don’t need to use data to view it.

For the first time since my arrival in Tokyo, I crack open my sweet map and look up directions. I actually figure it out pretty easily and I’m really proud of myself. See? I’m good with directions when I have a map. I just don’t know where shit is that I’ve never heard of. You know why it’s called “trivia”? Because it’s trivial.

Anyway after that I stop in a couple grocery stores where the prices are wayyy better than the store I went to the day before in Iidabashi. Then I climb the hill to Kagurazaka station to ask the station attendant how long it takes to get to Shibuya from there. He’s super friendly but he says way too many words way too quickly so it’s hard for me to pick out “30 minutes” from all the sounds he’s producing. I get that he’s being polite but can’t you see that I’m white over here?

Of course, when I get back to the guesthouse and Raphael is on his computer before he has to leave on his flight, he tells me what nobody explained to me before: there are two wifi connections. Separate ones for upstairs and downstairs. I’d been trying to use the upstairs one, and now it doesn’t work for crap. The downstairs one is perfect. I don’t look forward to seeing my cell phone bill after all that roaming.

After my interview I go to 109 since Laurel told me about it. Oh, to be a teenager in Tokyo. It’s like ten floors of Forever 21. My feet are starting to hurt but it’s ok. I’m wearing my other black heels, not the ones I bought for interviews but the ones I bought freshman year for $10 in front of the UCen. They’ve always been my most comfortable heels, or at least they were until today. I think my toes grew or something, ugh.

I saw on my map that Harajuku is only one stop away so I get on the JR Yamanote line to check it out. It doesn’t look like much besides the Gap, but I’m still not really motivated to wander far from stations yet. Especially when my feet hurt. I see a cosmetics store and I’ve been wanting to try BB cream so I go in and buy the good stuff I’ve been recommended. I think it’s the right color. I tried it that night and it covers really well but in the shitty guest house lighting it looks like a spray tan. I might have to buy another one and hawk this one on eBay.

Harajuku is two stops from Shinjuku on the Yamanote line so I figure I might as well look around. My feet hurt but it’s not so bad. I go into one of the department stores and look at bags and shoes. I really want to get suede wedge booties with maybe a 1”-2” heel. I doubt if any of these places have my size though. It seems like shoes come in S-M-L-LL and sometimes they’re measured in centimeters.

I walk around for slightly too long and I want to go back to Kagurazaka to change before my Japanese trial class at 7:40pm. Let me summarize by saying I wanted to cry and punch people. I couldn’t figure out how to get back to the JR area without going through the Keio area first. Turns out it requires a lot of walking. I’ll figure out Shinjuku eventually, I promise.

My Japanese class was fun. It was an elementary-level class so I felt pretty smart. I feel like everyone else is better at vocabulary than me though. I just don’t fucking remember words. The sensei reminded me of Yamauchi-sensei and now I miss her. Afterward I told the school lady person (the one I’m supposed to pay) that I’m waiting on the results from an interview and I don’t know if I’ll be working. She said I could email the school and figure it out after the holiday. Everyone is so nice.

I was pretty tired after being on my feet all day so I just went back to the guest house to sleep. I hope today is fun, I want to make friends with more people, even if they’re just tourists. It was so fun to hang with Raphael and Jumpei the other day, I miss being social.

Crazy day. Wow. (Part IV)

This is a multi-part post. Read from the beginning.

I swear, Tokyo women must have magic feet. It has to be. Otherwise it means I’m a freak with giant toes.

Even though my shoes fit perfectly, since my toes are disproportionately long the balls of my feet don’t land on the right part of the shoe. This means my toes slip forward while I walk so that my body weight can have a non-sloping surface to drop its force on, and everything within my toe-ball foot area begins to hurt. And it keeps hurting with every step. And then when I get lost in Shinjuku station for the first time (even though I was fine the last few times I’ve been there) I want to start crying. I thought it was just a problem with cheap shoes but it’s starting to seem like a problem with all high heels.

But I’m in denial so I will keep trying to wear heels because 1. the zipper on my black boots broke again on the way to the guest house from the airport, and 2. none of the other flats I have are presentable enough to wear here.

Ugh.

Anyway I’ve decided that my goal for the next few years is to save up like $5,000-$10,000 and then fly out to NYC to invest in a proper adult wardrobe of the finest quality. I can buy bags and watches here but for everything else there’s no place like the Big Apple for quality. Tailored suits, wool coats, cashmere sweaters, tailored OCBDs. And shoes. I need proper shoes.

But I need a job first. Yeah, about that…

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So Tuesday I went to Fuchū after my first time walking around Shinjuku station with painful throbbing feet. I get out of the train and look around the station there because I have an hour and a half before my interview. One of the stores at the station has really nice bags and suitcases and I want them because I love suitcases. I was surprised though because they had a lot of American brands like Timbuk2, The North Face, and Manhattan Portage. I forced myself not to buy anything though.

After a while I figured it would be good to find my interview location early and I can always hang out at a café or something while I wait. Equipped with my map I limp to exit #1 and follow some older salarymen down the escalator. I’m completely baffled by the scale of this brightly colored cutesy map but I try to find my landmarks anyway.  Fuchū has more cars and fewer people walking around than central Tokyo but what I notice the most is almost getting pancaked by cyclists. I think bikes are the vehicle of choice here.

It’s like I’m in IV all over again. The FT parking lot, right before my eyes.

I see the Family Mart that’s serving as my landmark and then the Cultural Center next to where this school is. It’s 1:30pm. A Japanese woman walks by so I sumimasen her and ask if she knows where a nearby café is. She’s very friendly and she tells me she’s going to the library, which has a café. She offers to walk together. I’m like, hells yeah.

We walk (well, I hobble) and talk in Japanese and after talking to Keisuke the day before and asking lots of people for directions, the vocabulary is starting to come back to me. It turns out the library café is closed but there’s a vending machine in the Cultural Center I passed before, is that ok? Yeah it’s fine, thanks so much for helping me, I respond.

We retrace our steps along that block and go inside the Cultural Center. I try to offer my new friend a drink but since I suck at Japanese she thinks I’m asking her to buy me a drink. Oh crap that’s the opposite of what I want. Somehow I explain that it’s to thank her for helping me so I buy her a drink and one for myself and then we sit down to talk. She’s very friendly and I tell her how I can’t remember vocabulary in Japanese but I’m good with grammar. I keep wanting to speak French for some reason and I tell her how I want to join the foreign service eventually.

We talk until about 2:20 when I look at my phone and realize I should go to my interview. We exchange email (actual email, not Japanese phone email, since I don’t have a phone here yet) and say goodbye outside. I’m really happy now, a real Japanese person likes me! (I guess Keisuke doesn’t count as a real Japanese person?) Her name is Ayako and I sent her an email on Friday.

I’ll skip over the details of the interview for now but Japanese children are FRICKIN ADORABLE. One little girl looked up at me and I died. Two women interviewed me, the head teacher and the owner of the school. They seemed to come to like me but I’m not holding my breath. I think I would really like the school though. Also the school’s owner mentioned that she could help me find a place to live nearby if I were offered the job. They’ll train me in day care but I’d also teach elementary and middle school classes as well as adult classes. I think I would like the variety.

One thing that was cool was that the head teacher was interviewing me first, and then the owner came and sat down to talk. The head teacher is a native English speaker (maybe bilingual ethnic Japanese?) but the owner is Japanese so it was easier for me to talk to her in Japanese most of the time. After talking to Ayako just then and Keisuke the night before, my Japanese was finally catching up. They both told me my Japanese was very cute, and it sounded like a good thing but I’m not 100% sure. I need more practice though, with patient people like Ayako-san.

After my interview I was so happy with how the day turned out. My head was in the clouds walking back to Fuchū station and I had no trouble asking like five people for directions back at Shinjuku station. I met up with Keisuke in front of Alta and he took me to this cool Brooklyn something restaurant. He wanted dessert but I wanted salad—I’m not sure why but I’ve been craving salad lately—but there were too many dessert choices, I couldn’t decide. We ended up splitting a sandwich and a salad. Apparently Keisuke didn’t know that I’m really indecisive when it comes to food. It’s because I want to eat all of it.

I’m glad and jealous that he gets to see Italy and it’s good for me to be here without depending on him but I wish I had a go-to person to hang out with. I need people to introduce me to their friends so I can make more friends. And I need a rich Japanese boyfriend to feed and clothe me. Lol jk. Maybe.