Today has been a long day. It started out as a Saturday morning, in a
\nrelaxed enough manner, at 9:30am. The previous evening I had gone
\nwith some friends from work to the Mitama (Soul) Festival at Yasukuni
\nTemple, near work. Since the evening was late, I decided to leave my
\ncomputer and conference announcements in the office and pick them up
\nbefore going to the airport on Saturday. Since I have a commuter pass
\nto work, it doesn’t cost me anything but time to get to work and back,
\nso I didn’t see much of a downside to running out there to fetch stuff
\nagain in the morning. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I left home at about 10:30am, and returned home by about 1:30pm, bags
\nin tow. I made a bacon omelet, re-checked the time of my flight, and
\nrealized it was an hour earlier than I planned. That meant trouble,
\nsince I thought I would leave at 4:30pm to get there at 6:30pm for a
\n9:30pm flight. I packed up in a rush, left home, and figured if I
\ntook the Narita express instead of the Keisei local line I could make
\nit in time, although I would have to pay a bit more to get there.
\nAbout three times more… <\/p>\n
On the way out I took the Oiimachi line to Oiimachi. A nice young
\nwoman sat down next to me and asked if I was on vacation. We chatted
\na bit, and it turns out that she was born and raised in Oyamadai — I
\nwas really bummed that I didn’t have a card of some sort because I
\ndon’t know anyone locally, and it would be great to have a friend
\nnearby. She didn’t have a card either, but was hopeful that we could
\nmeet up again by chance after I return. I doubt it will happen
\nthough. <\/p>\n
She got off two stops later, in fashionable Jiyuugaoka. I was going
\nto the end of the line, so our brief encounter lasted no more than 10
\nminutes, but I like thinking that I now have a friend, although
\nunknowable to me, in Oyamadai. <\/p>\n
After she left, I realized that not only did I have a pen in my bag,
\nwith plenty of scrap paper, I have a whole bunch of cards in my bag as
\nwell. <\/p>\n
Worse, I think I left my air conditioner on. <\/p>\n
This trip is getting off to a bad<\/strong> start. (HTML does not A few stops after convincing myself that I probably didn’t leave my I arrived at Narita at 4:30pm, with plenty of time to spare for my When I got up to exchange my ticket, I ran into a problem. After getting my ticket, I headed to passport control. When my turn I had a little over an hour until the flight, so I found a convenient I couldn’t get a bit of sleep on the plane, as I forgot my inflatable Glory Road was an interesting movie, but I think heavily adapted to On the way out of the plane, by complete coincidence, as I descended The cabbie didn’t know how to get to West End St., but called into the Disaster strikes again<\/b><\/P><\/p>\n After returning to the phones to call Stephen again, I realized that I Part 1: To the airport Today has been a long day. It started out as a Saturday morning, in a relaxed enough manner, at 9:30am. The previous evening I had gone with some friends from work to the Mitama (Soul) Festival at Yasukuni Temple, near work. Since the evening was late, I decided to leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nseem to have a sarcasm<\/strong> tag. <\/p>\n
\nair conditioner on — I at least turned out the light in the room with
\nthe air conditioner, why would I not turn off the air conditioner as
\nwell? — I realized that the books I had ordered two weeks before to
\nread on the airplane were still sitting on my bookcase back at home. <\/p>\nPart 2: At the airport<\/h4>\n
\n8:10pm boarding. It’s a good thing too: there was a very long line to
\nget through security inspections. After getting through the security
\nline, during which I read an e-book off of my ipod, I had another line
\nto wait in to get my ticket exchanged. The ipod e-book was a nice
\nfind; I had forgotten that long ago I saw something about putting
\ne-books on ipods and put a few on mine. I started “Monster Nation”
\n(todo: look reference to this up later) and realized that the ipod is
\nnot really the best device for e-book reading. It was less awkward
\nthan the Treo 600, which I have used to read extensively on, but the
\nbatteries are eaten up at an insane pace. It has to spin up the hard
\ndrive for each file, and the note limit seems to be quite small in the
\nbundled “Notes” application. The backlight for the ipod (Video iPod,
\nfirst generation) is either on at full brightness, or off. When it is
\noff it is hardly legible, unless in very strong light, and when it is
\non, it is very bright. An application that could stream-line text
\nloading (who doesn’t read linearly anyway?) and dim the backlight
\nwould do a lot to save the iPod battery. <\/p>\n
\nApparently, I need a Visa to go to Australia. I really should have
\nlooked this up myself, but I just assumed that the travel agent would
\nhave mentioned something if I needed a Visa. He did not, and it never
\noccurred to me to check on that. After about a twenty minute wait,
\nthe JAL staff was somehow able to get me an e-visa, whatever that is,
\nand proceeded to book me on the flight. See, this is why I like to
\ncome to flights very early. The same thing can be said of movies,
\nclasses (teaching or taking) and dates. I can’t tell you how many
\ntimes I’ve had to fill out a last minute e-visa to take a girl on a
\nhot date. <\/p>\n
\ncame to show my passport and supporting documents, I ran into another
\nproblem. Apparently I need a re-entry permit to re-enter Japan. I
\ndid ask my travel agent about this, showing him my passport and visa
\n(Research type “multiple”) and asking if that was ok for the trip. It
\nwas. It turns out that the Visa itself is valid, but since I didn’t
\nhave re-entry permit permission, I would have to surrender my
\nforeigner registration card upon re-entry (necessitating, of course,
\nre-application for a new foreigner registration card, which isn’t an
\neasy or quick process. It took three weeks for the first one to come
\nthrough!) For the mere sum of 3,000 yen and another thirty minutes of
\nmy time, I was able to get a rush form processed, and received the
\npermit permission. I was warned that this would not be allowed a
\nsecond time. Since I’m going to America in August, I’ll have to find
\nthe correct office (somewhere in Tokyo) and fill out the proper forms
\nin advance. Another disaster averted! I will repeat again that this
\nis why I like to arrive places early. You never know when you might
\nhave to fill out an emergency permission form to be allowed re-entry.
\nI can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fill out an emergency
\nre-entry form while on a hot date… <\/p>\n
\nelectrical outlet, and watched a (Law and Order:) “Conviction” episode
\non my laptop, while re-charging my rapidly dying iPod. Directly in my
\nline of sight was a young lady who smiled at me a few times, so I
\nhappily returned the smiles to a fellow early-arriver. I hoped I
\ndidn’t have to fill out any emergency smile-permit paperwork. <\/p>\nPart 3: In Australia<\/h4>\n
\ntravel pillow. I’m glad that I had a book to read on my iPod.
\nBetween the movie “Glory Road” and the iPod, I just about consumed the
\nnine hour flight from Tokyo to Sydney. I finished the book just as
\nthe iPod’s battery ran out. It was funny because watching the battery
\nindicator drain as I read, moving from a leisurely to a hurried pace
\nas it went from green to red, I felt like I was in a race to finish
\nthe story (regardless of the literary merits, which were not overly
\nhigh) before the battery died. In the end, I just made it, and was
\nrewarded with a nice ending to an interesting, but not entirely
\nintellectual Zombie novel. <\/p>\n
\nfit our modern times. The language was certainly changed to fit in
\nwith our more modern era, and I’m pretty sure that the basketball
\nmoves were as well. I can’t really say because I haven’t seen the
\ngames that the movie was based on, but I think they threw in a lot
\nmore modern-day style showboating than was likely being used back
\nthen. Still, it was an interesting, if predictable, movie. My major
\ncomplaint was that the cinematographer and editor were clearly not
\nbasketball fans. I think I would have enjoyed just watching the games
\nmore myself. <\/p>\n
\nthe stairs from my upper-level seat, I found myself right next to my
\nsmile-buddy from the Narita terminal! It turns out that Carol, a
\nSydney native, was on her way back from a vacation in China, and had
\nonly changed planes in Tokyo. That explains why she was there early,
\ncompared to the rest of our flight (which boarded at 8:45pm instead of
\n8:10pm as was posted.) This is why I like to go to the airport
\nearly. You never know when you might run into a smile-buddy. This
\ntime I did remember my cards and pen in my bag, and we exchanged email
\naddresses. We chatted for a while, then parted ways after Carol found
\nher luggage, and I continued to wait for mine. <\/p>\n
\nhome office and got directions. I didn’t have enough change to call
\nStephen once I got there, but found a shopping complex nearby, and
\nbought some coffee and donuts. I’ve plenty of change now, and am just
\nwaiting until I can get Stephen on the phone. After writing all of
\nthis up, I’m pretty sure that I can give him a call now, at about
\n10:15am, since I think I woke him up with my earlier calls at 9:00am.
\nInterestingly enough, if you put in 40 cents, which is not enough to
\ncomplete a call, it will ring, let someone answer, and then the pay
\nphone will cut you off. <\/p>\n
\nhave now lost the piece of paper with his phone number and Carol, my
\nsmile-buddy’s, email address on it. Where could it have gone? I
\nshould have put it back in my bag where I’ve been keeping it, but it
\nwasn’t there. It wasn’t at my table where I enjoyed my two small
\ndonuts, nor was it in the bathroom where I brushed my teeth (after
\nbuying a tooth brush and tooth paste) or near the phones where I’ve
\nbeen making my calls. It was gone. Luckily, I still remember
\nStephen’s mobile number, and Carol’s email. A quick check of my email
\non the laptop, and I even remembered his number correctly. No real
\nloss then, unless I have mis-remembered Carol’s email address. <\/p>\n
\nelectronics store that had a travel power converter. So I’ve bought a
\nconverter and am all set in that department. I just need to get in
\ntouch with Stephen and pay up for the room that I’m renting at his
\nsister’s place. I’ll probably also have to find out if my Tokyo
\nMitsubishi UFJ bank card will work in the ATMs here since things have
\nbeen much more expensive than I anticipated. If it doesn’t work, I’m
\nsure my US bank card will work. <\/p>\n
\nshop, I’ve struck up a conversation with the cashier there. He’s a
\nreally congenial guy. Just when I sat down he was talking with a
\nfemale customer who must be Japanese. He asked her how to say “You’re
\nbeautiful” in Japanese. She first told him “Kirei desu ne”, but after
\na few iterations and pronunciations she switched to “kawaii”. Jayne
\n(the cashier) is a really nice guy, and when he doesn’t have customers
\nwe’ve chatted a bit more, and I confirmed that indeed, “Kawaii” means
\ncute. I hope he got her digits. I’ll see if he wants some outside
\nhelp with fun Japanese phrases. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"