chipperI love my life. I really do. I just wish I had had time in the AM to grab my computer before my emergency sub call at work!
I met up with Yuta and Nicole, a new friend and another ECC teacher, for the famous fireworks festival near Kuramae station. (Pics to be posted on klatcher). We were all running a little late and while Yuta and I caught the end of it, Nicole missed it altogether. We crashed for awhile at McDonalds to wait for the crowds to disperse and then hopped into a small izakaya around the corner for drinks and more eating. And guess what: I LOVE natto! LOL. For those of you who don't know, natto is fermented soybeans. A little slimy, but a great flavor. A lot of foreigners have strong feelings about natto. It smells a little like puke, depending on the quality. But taste: natto tastes like soybeans as sake tastes like rice. That's the best way I can describe it. And the natto we had last night was not to pukey smelling..and mixed with meguro (tuna – which im starting to like raw, afterall..its not so strong tasting here in Japan). Would have been nice to break up the slime with rice – im not a slime fan. But, yeah. Yay natto!
So we hung out in the izakaya until a bit after 11. I thought I was ok with the trains because the last one home was 12:44. BUT I forgot about the weekend schedule. It occurred to me, while waiting on the Yamanote platform at Otachimachi, that I was screwed. I texted Yuta that I'd be staying in Ikebukuro overnight afterall...but only after he got on his train back home. I didn't want him to think I was asking to stay over, or anything. So-- I had a choice. I could try and find some cheap hotel and crash out or just stay up and see what happened. I decided to stay up.
I arrived in Ikebukuro, actually, with a small hope that the Tobu line was running. My bed was sounding kinda nice. I ran over there, saw the shutters down, and realized that the weekend scheduled last train must be earlier than 12:44. My cell phone power was low. Id be stuck here all night with no way to communicate with anyone, update twitter, check the morning schedules, watch TV, or call for help if I needed to. I'm so happy my parents were happily ignorant of the situation back in Idaho. It's exactly the kind of thing a Mom would freak out about if she knew...even if her kid was almost 30. haha.