Entries this day: Dream Flat

Dream

6:57am JST Saturday 3 May 2003

Drew Barrymore was over somewhere like a hostel with me and she needed to do laundry and I lived at the hostel (had just moved in) and only residents were allowed to use the laundry facilities so I said that she could join me doing laundry and we could both say we were new since I was actually new they could verify the story. She agreed and we didn't go immediately, but I went off somewhere else to get my laundry and then realized oh I have a laundry date with Drew Barrymore and I ran back and she was still there which made me really happy, but then I woke up which made me really sad.

(I got over it)

Flat

9:02am JST Saturday 3 May 2003

Got a flat tire on the way to work. One guy said I needed to walk 5km to something that would help me. One guy a couple hundred yards down had a tire pump. But the tire has an unignorable leak.

On a bus now; should make it to work in plenty of time. Bus cost 210 yen.

9:15am

Easy shmeezy.

I made it to work even before the staff arrived with a key.

They still haven't arrived.

One opportunity I have now is getting *back* to my bike. I don't know the name of the place where it's located. I could *walk* to it, but I'm not sure what bus to take to get back to it quickly enough to make it back to the place.

(staff is here - to be continued)

6:12pm

Hmmmm

So I looked at the map and it appeared that this bus was going the way I want to go, but now it doesn't seem quite as clear. I may be going in some wrong-ol-moosebreath direction

8:21pm

Made it home. Long walk. Thankful to have recovered my bike. Too tired right now to describe how people heard me trying to communicate with the bus driver and one girl came up with pretty good English "can I help you?" and I tried to communicate what I could about where my bike was located and it was so frustrating cause I know it in terms of pictures and maps, but not in Japanese, and hardly in English cause I don't know even the names of the streets. I thought I knew the highway numbers, but I was off a bit. I thought it was Route 15, but it was Route 140.

This old cat was all, "oh I'm getting off there" and it was frustrating more because as I was realizing I had gotten on the wrong bus, and knew where I oughta go, I was engaged with them and couldn't just be all, "oh nevermind; I got it" cause they wouldn't understand what I was saying.

So I said arigato a lot and followed this guy to another bus cause that's what he thought was the right thing and.. really yes, he did at least get me to the right street, and I was overjoyed when I was all, "oh!" and I recognized where I was. I had misguessed one thing because I was hoping I was on the Tsunashima side of a landmark, but I was on the other side, and then I saw another landmark and bang I was oriented.

and I had a hike to get to my bike.

It took probably 30 minutes to get to my bike and then an hour to get home after that.

Sigh. Laura's last day was today. Several work peeps are out celebrating with her and ... I dunno if I want to go out or not.

I want to study; I'm tired; I gotta get up early.

I want to meet more people; I want to have a support network in the world; I'm hungry.

I'll go.

11:48pm

Soon as I got there, people were leaving. Like I met them as they were crowded around the door to get out.

I did meet Terry though; he seems cool and used to work at Kawasaki.