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Monday and Tuesday
Aug. 15th, 2007 03:15 pmOh man, so much to write about, but I don't feel like typing.
I guess I'll start with tonight's "adventure". See, I live in Kawaguchi, but I come home to Warabi station. Warabi is dead boring, at least after 10pm, it seems. But, on an upside, the weather is really nice at midnight -- it isn't quite so goddamn hot out. So I've actually been deviating from my normal path a bit; usually I go a few blocks down a side street and then veer over to Sun Road. But this time I went all out -- I followed this one road that goes to the right of the station, all the way down the tracks; after a few blocks I actually saw some fireworks in the sky and thought I'd go see where they were coming from.
Turns out they were coming from a gigantic municipal park across the street from what looked like Warabi city hall (or maybe Tsukagoshi, I dunno) and were just firecrackers being set off by a bunch of teenagers; I figured it was better for me not to go up and talk to them, so I didn't. Thing is, then I realised that I had to get the hell around the park to get home... so I walked past the park, veered left, and had absolutely NO idea where the hell I was. I continued for a bit and came across -- I am not kidding -- what looked like a Japanese version of the Central Market shopping center at 155th and Aurora in Seattle. It was a big shopping center, with a BIG FUCKING PARKING LOT, in the middle of this crowded residential area, with a Seattle's Best Coffee in it, a gigantic 24-hour grocery store, and a few other shops attatched to it which seemed to be closed. But I mean, a gigantic free parking lot for stores in reasonably-dense-suburbia-Saitama? What?
I would have gone in, but at this point I'd already been walking for about 20 minutes and still had no fucking clue where I was, and figured it was more important to get home and I could re-find the 24-hour gigantomart later. I do wonder if maybe they have some foreign (read: American, like granola and other things I sort of want) food there.
So, I decided to veer left at that point some more, figuring I'd have to reach some major street. I passed by what seems to have been the Tsukagoshi community center; it looked like there is some interesting stuff to do there so maybe I'll find it again someday. I kept going forward. Eventually, I reached a main road...
...and was NOWHERE near where I thought I should be, and I wasn't even actually sure the road was the one I thought it was. BUT off in the distance I could see a gigantic orange yakiniku sign which I thought I'd seen a few days ago when I tried walking around this area a bit, and sure enough, thank god, I was right. I walked towards it and passed by a katsudon place open until midnight (YES!) and an izakaya that appears to be open until god-knows-when; I even was staring in to see if people were in there and the lady at the bar waved a "come on in" at me, but I just nodded and kept walking. Still, good to know those are around -- and I even know where they are in relation to my house. It was pretty weird to realize that I'd actually OVERSHOT my apartment and had been tracing backwards towards it. The worst thing about Japan is just that there are very few named streets, so if I had decided to stop someone and ask directions, I would have basically been like "Uhh... I live on a tiny side street off of Sun Road... near Tsurukame Kusuriya... in Shibanakata 2-chome... umm, where the hell am I?"
I basically folded out the futon when I got in here and have been stretching out on it since. My feet are killing me. I'll need to look at a map tomorrow but I am guessing I walked about 2 miles total during that all. Oops. Keep in mind that I USUALLY walk a mile to/from the station going the direct route.
OH, one good thing is, I found the Warabi Book-Off. It's actually pretty close to the station and looked fairly big. I can't figure out its hours though, and they didn't have them displayed on the outside.
Uh, anyway. Going backwards, I still need to actually talk about Monday and Tuesday, don't I. I'll LJ-cut again I guess, even though this is already pretty long, eh.
( Monday -- shopping with Sam, hanging out in Yotsuya with John, etc )
( Tuesday -- back to work )
Something I've noticed is that I feel like eating at noon, at 5:30pm, and at 10:30pm. It's sort of weird, but I'd rather do that and walk a lot than not eat enough and feel sick. I'm not gaining weight; if anything I'm losing it, so I'm not going to worry too much.
Also, now it is Wednesday morning and my dad just called me! Wow.
I guess I'll start with tonight's "adventure". See, I live in Kawaguchi, but I come home to Warabi station. Warabi is dead boring, at least after 10pm, it seems. But, on an upside, the weather is really nice at midnight -- it isn't quite so goddamn hot out. So I've actually been deviating from my normal path a bit; usually I go a few blocks down a side street and then veer over to Sun Road. But this time I went all out -- I followed this one road that goes to the right of the station, all the way down the tracks; after a few blocks I actually saw some fireworks in the sky and thought I'd go see where they were coming from.
Turns out they were coming from a gigantic municipal park across the street from what looked like Warabi city hall (or maybe Tsukagoshi, I dunno) and were just firecrackers being set off by a bunch of teenagers; I figured it was better for me not to go up and talk to them, so I didn't. Thing is, then I realised that I had to get the hell around the park to get home... so I walked past the park, veered left, and had absolutely NO idea where the hell I was. I continued for a bit and came across -- I am not kidding -- what looked like a Japanese version of the Central Market shopping center at 155th and Aurora in Seattle. It was a big shopping center, with a BIG FUCKING PARKING LOT, in the middle of this crowded residential area, with a Seattle's Best Coffee in it, a gigantic 24-hour grocery store, and a few other shops attatched to it which seemed to be closed. But I mean, a gigantic free parking lot for stores in reasonably-dense-suburbia-Saitama? What?
I would have gone in, but at this point I'd already been walking for about 20 minutes and still had no fucking clue where I was, and figured it was more important to get home and I could re-find the 24-hour gigantomart later. I do wonder if maybe they have some foreign (read: American, like granola and other things I sort of want) food there.
So, I decided to veer left at that point some more, figuring I'd have to reach some major street. I passed by what seems to have been the Tsukagoshi community center; it looked like there is some interesting stuff to do there so maybe I'll find it again someday. I kept going forward. Eventually, I reached a main road...
...and was NOWHERE near where I thought I should be, and I wasn't even actually sure the road was the one I thought it was. BUT off in the distance I could see a gigantic orange yakiniku sign which I thought I'd seen a few days ago when I tried walking around this area a bit, and sure enough, thank god, I was right. I walked towards it and passed by a katsudon place open until midnight (YES!) and an izakaya that appears to be open until god-knows-when; I even was staring in to see if people were in there and the lady at the bar waved a "come on in" at me, but I just nodded and kept walking. Still, good to know those are around -- and I even know where they are in relation to my house. It was pretty weird to realize that I'd actually OVERSHOT my apartment and had been tracing backwards towards it. The worst thing about Japan is just that there are very few named streets, so if I had decided to stop someone and ask directions, I would have basically been like "Uhh... I live on a tiny side street off of Sun Road... near Tsurukame Kusuriya... in Shibanakata 2-chome... umm, where the hell am I?"
I basically folded out the futon when I got in here and have been stretching out on it since. My feet are killing me. I'll need to look at a map tomorrow but I am guessing I walked about 2 miles total during that all. Oops. Keep in mind that I USUALLY walk a mile to/from the station going the direct route.
OH, one good thing is, I found the Warabi Book-Off. It's actually pretty close to the station and looked fairly big. I can't figure out its hours though, and they didn't have them displayed on the outside.
Uh, anyway. Going backwards, I still need to actually talk about Monday and Tuesday, don't I. I'll LJ-cut again I guess, even though this is already pretty long, eh.
( Monday -- shopping with Sam, hanging out in Yotsuya with John, etc )
( Tuesday -- back to work )
Something I've noticed is that I feel like eating at noon, at 5:30pm, and at 10:30pm. It's sort of weird, but I'd rather do that and walk a lot than not eat enough and feel sick. I'm not gaining weight; if anything I'm losing it, so I'm not going to worry too much.
Also, now it is Wednesday morning and my dad just called me! Wow.
