Well, I’m back home and I think I’m over my jet lag. Frigging busy though. Looking for a job is a pain in the ass. Anyway, I managed to find a bit of a break right now, so here’s the rest of day 2, as I barely remember it.
More of Day 2
OK, so where I left off was that I made it to the subway station and then walked to another station. This was all so that I could use my unlimited ride pass. I hopped on the subway that I hoped would take me to Ikkebukuro because that’s where I was hoping to go. Actually, I wasn’t really able to hop so much as I crammed. It was rush hour after all. The subway was filled to the brim with an odd assortment of school kids in school uniforms and businessmen in business uniforms (more commonly known as suits) with a couple of lost-looking fools sprinkled here and there.
Along the way, I was starting to feel like the Tokyo Metro pass wasn’t such a good idea if I had to stuff myself onto another subway and walk 420m just to use it. But then I noticed that we passed the Korakuen station. Hmm, Korakuen. That sounded familiar. It’s part of my hotel name. So…maybe…I’m near my hotel. A quick check of the Tokyo City Atlas (I owe my life to this book) showed that the Korakuen was just a block away rrom my hotel. w00t! So now there’s a Tokyo Metro station near my hotel! The pass wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
By the time I got to Ikkebukuro, the train was mostly empty and I this time I managed to hop off. And then I hopped into another huge sea of people. I tried to look for a place to stop and check the map to figure out where I was but if I stood still, I probably would have been run over. Since everyone was heading in the same direction, I just went with the flow. Not a really smart thing to do, but being smart isn’t my strong point.
I finally found a chance to check my map and headed over to a park. Since it was still early in the morning, everything was closed, so all I could do was walk around and hang out at parks with homeless people. Once the sea of people had receded, Ikkebukuro was actually pretty relaxing. I wish I had gone there when things were open though. I would have liked to see the Toyota building and gone to Nekobukuro to taunt my allergies, but maybe next time.
After wandering around Ikkebukuro, I took the subway back home. This is where it gets really fun. When I went back to my hotel and tried to get my key, the dude at the front desk asked me if I wanted to check out. Wha? I got out my receipt and sure enough, it said I was planning to leave after one day. Fortunately, I had my Expedia reservation printed out and I showed it to him. After a lot of words I couldn’t understand, he said everything was OK and gave me my key. Whew.
Man, this is getting kind of long. I’ll finish it up another time.