Entries this day: Gary My_bike fumi movie_charlie's_angels restaurant_Anna_Miller's trains_fucked_up

Gary

3:21pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

Okay okay, wait.

Today started poopy, but then I dragged myself out of bed and did several of the "little" things that have collected on my list. Buy pushpins, mail candy to Elise', buy wide clear tape, call Rie. I called Chez too for good measure, and left a message.

Ate lunch with Jen and Olivia, saw pictures of their drunken revelrie at the fireworks display with some Japanese we know. I would have enjoyed hanging with them (( but instead that night I hung out with Matthew Cecile from OZ, which is at least as awesome cause they know some fly places in the bush where there is *NO ONE* else. Rock on. We traded hand-drawn maps of our respective countries and I was all, "don't tell Frank" like 10 times cause I had been all, "um, yeah a bunch of little states up here like New Jersey and all that, and yeah Washington DC is in Maryland but I don't know where Maryland is," etc. We talked about the genocide our respective cultures has committed against the native cultures and felt helpless about it. And we ate our 1000 yen meal in the safe comfort of the restaurant.)), maybe next time.

Researched housing in Tokyo area, to see if I can get my shit out of this apartment and move into a more immersed situation. Emailed Rie's friend and emailed Satoko (Nova student) to say HI and see if I can gain a chatmate if not a flatmate.

(( after hearing from Frank there's a lawsuit against Nova in Osaka because a teacher and student are like "shove off; you can't keep us from hanging out," I'm much less scared about meeting with students outside of school, BUT, there's a concern about letting myself fall into old behaviors of falling in love and breaking hearts and all that. I don't want to do that anymore, so I'm being quite forthcoming that I have a janette at home, and I'm sometimes concerned that she might feel hurt that I'm hanging out with others (and posting all about it ..) Ah well, it makes for good discussions. ))

I got a lovely email from janette, but I didn't call her back; it was too late o'clock on her side of the globe.

Put posters upon my walls, mostly Matrix Reloaded promotional stuff.

Played sega fight game with Matty, with both of us trying to use Nina to beat Xiouin or whatever her name is. We couldn't beat her.

Matty left to get shinkansen tickets to see Fuji Rock Fest this weekend, and then the doorbell rang.

Federal Express.

For me!

From Gary Scout Seven!

Quite dense.. what is it? I look on the customs ticket:

         Commodity Description
           REQUIRED

 Granite Rock

This comes, no doubt, from his land in Colorado. Pink and black with gray flecks. Like granite.

Gneiss.

But still no email address from him!

- - - -

Wow, Fed Ex is fast!

Conversation with Fed Ex lady:

Gary: I need to send this to Japan.
Fed Ex lady: What is its value please?
Gary: Uh, well... it's a rock.
Fed Ex lady: I have to enter a value, sir.
Gary: Uh, one dollar?
Fed Ex lady: Okay. Would you like that insured?

I thought that was pretty funny.

The chunkagranite is actually from Enchanted Rock. I know you have
enjoyed E-Rock in the past, just thought I'd send you a small piece of
it.

My bike

5:21pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

I miss my bike, but I'm getting pretty good on Koko's mom's bike. I'm kinda thrashing it a bit too hard; I think I'll need to buy her a new one instead of giving this one back. The back wheel is slightly dented out of shape. Just a slight lateral warp is all.

Just now a train went by just as I got off our street; still a hundred meters from the bridge. Previously, I have been on the bridge while passed by a train and I've caught the next train. This time I was 100 meters further back.

I wonder if I can catch the next train.

I was (am) on the edge of late to meet Fumi, so I decided to go for it. This involved hauling butt (it's gotta be more than 100 meters) to the bridge and up the slight incline, looking back over my shoulder for cars trying to run me over. Nothing beside me as I merged into the bigger street (instead of onto the sidewalk like slow people do) but a bus in front of me and two cars in front of it, trying to turn left across my sidewalk, but they were blocked by the slow people going across their street onto the bridge. (remember these cats in Japan drive on the left side of the road)

SO, I zoomed around the stopped bus between it and the next lane of traffic (traveling the same direction as me), and past the two vehicles just as the first one could turn left. zoom zoom zoom pushing hard up the bridge with a bus somewhere behind me approaching soon. head down butt up, passing the people on the sidewalk as if they were walking, and crested the ascent and then began my plan of attack on the intersection below.

80 meters past the bridge there's a traffic light at which I must turn left to park my bike and visit the train station. Usually there are cars backed up at that light. Sometimes there's enough space on their left to pass along the curb, but most times that is blocked by a scooter or the edge of a bus. In those cases, I will usually slow down and engage the sidewalk, if it's clear enough. Other times, I will slow down behind the scooter or whatever. Rarely, I will zoom around the right hand side of the cars and turn left in front of them, carefully engaging traffic on the cross street and people possibly going across the crosswalk.

This time, however, the curb side was clear and I hauled down it, down the slope between the cars and guard rail (and small plant) and checked the cross traffic, but had to stop instead of zoom into the lane. I zipped instead of zoomed and then accelerated to the bike parking area and engaged the sidewalk without hitting anyone or getting hit by anything. Nice.

I tossed my bike up on the rack (4 feet up on the top row) and scooted toward the station. I made it before the next train came.

But, it was a Limited Express, and therefore didn't stop at Tsunashima. So I took the next train (Local train (stops at every station)) and then transferred to the Express train at a station called Jiugyaku or something.

Got a tiny bit lost by going out of Shibuya station on a different exit than normal, but I made it to Hachiko just on time.

fumi

7:10pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

Met Fumi and we took the Yamanote line to Shinagawa, got tickets for the movie, got snacks for the munchies, and now she and I are chillin', listening to the announcements and blah blah blah, respectively.

movie charlie's angels

11:19pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

The movie was ridiculous.

And funny.

restaurant Anna Miller's

11:20pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

Just like House of Pies, but fewer pies and swankier seating.

trains fucked up

11:20pm JST Tuesday 22 July 2003

So we went across the street to Shinagawa station and I was like, "what the hell?" cause the line for the taxis was really long. I've only seen it that long if it's raining, or if the trains are sleeping for the night.

Fumisan couldn't explain it.

I practiced my Japanese, "Shibuya ni ikimas .. ka?"

She was like, "sou" (yes).

Got into the station and there was a *really* long line going *out* of the station via the manned ticket booth (*) as if they all wanted their money back or some shit like that.

Fumisan couldn't explain it.

I kept practicing, "Shibuya ni ikimaska?"

Then she was all, "no," and I'm thinking what? you just said yes a second ago..

But I could tell she was listening to the blahblahblahhanashimas over the loudspeaker. All I could make out was "bladadimas zenzen blablahblah zenzen"

"Many trains nothing," said Fumi. "Nothing" is one of her all-purpose words, that usuallly means "there is no direct translation for this word," but in this case meant, "are not working."

What happened?

"People are died."

That's not what she said, but I don't think it was perfect English. I pantomimed my hand jumping in front of my other hand. Suicide by train.

Mass suicides by train?

A wave of people began to run/jog as a wave away from the Yamanote line to another line.

(**)

We went with that wave and it felt to me like we were experiencing something newsworthy; like maybe there had just been a major earthquake (except everything was intact), or we were being evacuated before an eruption or tsunami. Awesome.

Fumi talked to a station-guy on the platform next to the one that goes all the way from Shinagawa to Kawasaki in one hop, but the trains on that line were stopped as well, so she took me back to a completely new line for me, one which I believe is called Red Thunder, a train that goes to Keiku Kawasaki instead of Kawasaki. A train on which I'm riding now.

The station guy monitoring the gate let me in with my ticket for the JR lines, though normally I would need a different ticket for Red Thunder. Past the gates, I turned and gave Fumi an OK sign to assure her I could make it home from here no problem.

While waiting in line for Red Thunder, I saw a cute western girl in a baby blue jogging suit thing. I resisted talking to her. She and I were near the end of a line to pile onto the train. I could see the train was packed as it arrived. She was the second to last person to cram onto the train. Packed. Possibly more packed than I've experienced.

I considered winking at her as the rolled away, but I just smiled.

While waiting for the next train I called Frank. "Look up a major suicide on the trains tonight."

"What?"

"I'm in ... Shinigawa. Many lines are down; I think they're all suicides."

"Reeeally." as he says when something interesting has been revealed.

"Yeah look it up."

"Cool. Thanks."

The next train arrived before the opposite-bound train arrived on the other platform. This seemed unusual, but I soon had my answer.

It was empty. They added an empty train to the line to keep the crowds moving. And I was first in line.

Some other cat jumped in ahead of me, but fuck him I got a seat anyway. I've tried to keep an eye out for my station, but I've been typing so I may have missed it.

Ah! It's the next station.

- - - -

(*) just now, as I'm on the Red Thunder train, the doors kept opening and closing at the station and a guy on the train got up and pulled a man's arm relatively roughly, jerking him into the train and away from the door. The guy looked drunk; maybe his foot was blocking the door or some shit like that. It's not like he was being pushed out the door, the train is basically empty.

- - - -

(** (11:38pm)) just *now* the train stopped for probably five minutes to get the drunken guy off the train; his grip was pretty strong; two men couldn't pull him hard enough to get him to let go of the handle inside the train. The station-guy had him in a wussy nelson (arms under his shoulders, but not back around his head) and another guy was pulling the guy's outer arm, and then a guy in front of him hit the guy's inner arm to get him to let go, but that didn't work. Finally they got him to let go and the drunk guy slapped at the station guys head and knocked off his hat. Shortened versionof the rest is they tied his arms behind his back with a necktie (now there's a good use!) and then tied his legs similarly. I got pictures, but only through the window; I didn't feel right making a complete tourist of myself taking pictures, but whatever, I guess.

2:23am JST Wednesday 23 July 2003

I looked up news on 3 Japanese online news sources, but see nothing about mass suicides tonight. I'll keep looking until I find it or forget about it.