Difficult Experiences

I finally got a cell phone!
But this would be difficult experience number one. Honestly, it was still a good one and it was probably best that it was so difficult. Basically on firday I had to miss one of my classes so I could go all the way to Kamata and pick up my Alien ID card (and by the way-fabulous picture, I mean, those photo machines work amazingly better than any of the photo ID methods we have in the US). I have to get there before 5 because that is when the building closes. This is at least a forty minute trip for me and then I make the forty minute trip back to shunjuku to meet Andrew so we can both buy phones.
We go to the place we went to during our first trip to Shinkjuku and luckily the person who speaks english is there. Unfortunatly when I try to buy the phone he tells me they dont actually carry willcom plans so I have to go to a different store. still, he's very helpful and shows me which direction to go.
The next store isn't far and once I find it I start asking one of the staff for help. Turns out he speaks jhardly any english so Im using my terribly broken Japanese. Turns out I'm not well equipped grammar wise for the cell phone buying conversation. The most I can really say concerning such conversation is cell phone, to buy, I want, and the word I think is free. Plus of course I know how to count yen. Great.^.^
Anyway, the guy I'm talkin to sends over another guy who speaks a little more english. He helps me start filling out the form (lh, I did get to explain to them I was actually going to be here a year). We get to the part about my birthday and he suddenly realizes I'm 19. It seems being underage in Japan only matters when you're buying a cell phone. This is where the conversation gets especially fun. I ask him if I bring my host mom, can she sign the form for me(I'm thinking I'm going to have to make yet another trip). Turns out he doesn't know what a hostmom is. I don't know if there is a Japanese word for this so instead I clumsily say that I'm living in Japan for a year with a Japanese family (and you guys have no idea how happy I am that I could say this in Japanese...it's silly but little victories matter). He gets the idea and asks me if he can call her and I say yeah. So he calls her and spends a cood 15 minutes on the phone.

During this time Andrew has been looking at cell phones and is about to buy an AU plan and cellphone. He's not sure though so I look at it and I'm not sure what to tell him. A lot of students get AU but it seemed like we couldn't find as good a plan so he decided to wait to buy his cell phone until he can talk to some friends.

Anyway. So the guy I'm working with comes back and finishes the form and everything is great. He tells me I have to come back in 45 minutes and then the phone will be ready. Andrew and I depart, look at an electronic store(maybe I'll buy a DS for the kanji dictionary and a shuffle because I miss mine) and a nice clothing store and then head back. By this time its almost 8 oclock. But I get the phone and I'm really happy. So then I go home and show okaasan.

Did I mention my phone isn't bilingual? hah hah, I guess I'll even be learning japanese from my phone^.^ It's also a camera phone which is pretty cool and I don't have to pay th eplan payment until novemeber so I ended up spending less money than I thought I would.

Alright! so that was firday. On satruday Andrew and I had to go to Narita to pick up our return flight tickets. We decided to meet at yotsuya since I can get there for free using my student pass and it's pretty cheap for andrew. From there we look at the JR map. Now, Narita is something like at least an hour out from tokyo. It's crazy far. And we aren't exactly sure how to get there. Anyway, we're looking at the map and luckily some guy stops and asks us where we are trying to go. We say Narita and he says we should go to tokyo stations first and then we can get all the way to Narita from there. Seems like a good plan so that what we do. the train ticket is 1280 yen...somewhere near 10.00$. So. Everything is fine going to Tokyo and we transfer alright. Then...about an hour later while we're on the train we realize we've gone two stops past a nother stop we had to transfer at but didn't know it. So we get off and wait for 15 minutes for a train going back to that stop. We transfer at the right stop this time and we get to Narita but it says the next stop is the terminal so we stay on the train and go two more stops before we realize we are on the wrong train. So we wait another 15 minutes for the train going back to Narita station and get to the station and realize the train going to the airport is coming in 45 minutes. It's now been at least 3 hours or something so we go buy some snacks and then eat while waiting. We also meet a student and her parents from UCLA. We talk for awhile and she gives us her tour map of Narita since she is about to leave Japan. ITs cool and I've decided I'll definatly have to go back to Narita sometime...just not soon. So we get on the right train and go to terminal one of Narita airport. Then we see that we really should have stopped at Terminal two so we go back to terminal two and when we finally find someone to talk to they tell us all we have to do is bring our open ended tickets to the gate when we are leaving and that should work. SO basically she told us our trip was for naught.
Next we get on the Express train back to Tokyo station. Only, I think we were on a train for which tickets were supposed to be reserved and far more expensive. And there was a guy checking tickets but he didnt get to us...thankfully. I really think we were on the wrong train...it was very funny.
So basically we spent all of that day, because we got back to the station at 7(which means at least 6 hours of riding trains and such).

An interesting learning experience. At least I made a new facebook friend(the student from UCLA).

After this Andrew says he's got tug of war practice(more involved than american tig of war-I promise you). I'd like to see this so I call okaasan and it turns out she is going to be out late so I aks if its alright and she says of course. So I go to andrw's dorm and when the practice starts I watch. It's only a little awkward that I'm the only girl there too. I meet andrew's friend John and run into one of the Sophia students, Giulio, who also lives in Andrew's dorm. He really wants to go out on the town later but I'm tired and Andrew mentions something that makes me apprehensive so we don't all go out. I'm going today to the dorms to watch all the sports events go down and maybe if we can get some other people to go out besides just Giulio and Andrew and me, then maybe we can go out^.^ I still havn't really seen Tokyo at night much so it'll be interesting.

Anyway.
Good days!
Oh..and this is a random thanks to NB from the Nikku for mentioning me in his blog.

Peace!