Entries this day: Done! Haneda Home Shibuya_with_Ami!

Done!

11:56am JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

Simon and I took the third (last) taxi back to Tenmonkan, and talked a bit about skating. He skates "everywhere" in Kyoto, and a few times during the trial invited me a to visit.

He was tellin' me a story about his skating accident when we arrived, so I didn't get to hear the end. Zoom walked to ice cream and I grabbed four takoyakis and was eating them and ice cream and talking to Ami as we needed to zoom back to the bus to make the early flight out of here.

I spent a few extra seconds watching a crowd including TV camera watching fire fighters empty some brownish water from a small hydrant then headed after Simon toward the bus and heard him calling me with his long "oh" Australian accent on my name. "Robe! Robe!" and I hurried over, stuffed the final takoyaki bits into my mouth and swallowed then looked for a trash can but found nothing, so looked pleadingly at the women at the ticket counter who took pity on my situation and took the takoyaki trash. Slurped a good bit of the ice cream to make sure I wouldn't drip then got on the bus and wrote this.

12:05pm JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

We've just picked up passengers at the other stop before we head out to the airport.

Haneda

3:33pm JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

Will and I are chillin' in Haneda airport after the easy flight back. Our group of six split off in pairs at the monorail, and then we two are at a coffee shop, as the remaining two headed first toward Keikyu line.

While we were on the Keikyu Line, Will looked up and pointed to an advertisement featuring a hand holding a credit card. "That's my hand."

Sweet.

4:35pm JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

At Keikyu Kawasaki, I waved by to Will and our (his) (four) newfound (high school girl) friend(s). One of them was the ringleader; she answered when he asked if the short train that didn't stop near us at Keikyu Kamata was the train for Yokohama. I figured it couldn't be; Yokohama is a big station; it deserves big trains.

She explained that the next train would pass that train en route to Yokohama, and then asked his name and was taken by the best idea ever after he answered "Will." She called her friend on the phone and handed the phone over to Will to talk to her (because she speaks English very well). We were entertained, though from the number of times he had to repeat things, either her English ain't all that, or the background noise drowned him out. I was intrigued that in English he was like, "come over to Yokohama next time and visit me," for even though that phrase is spoken often enough in Japanese (and the key words "next time" means "in your dreams" (okay, maybe I'm being a bit harsh there, but let's just say there won't be any imminent plans made)), I wouldn't say it at all because it bugs me that the words seem insincere to me.

Home

4:45pm JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

Not home yet, but now I'm on Nambu Line, almost at Hirama.

Shibuya with Ami!

9:45pm JST Tuesday 27 January 2009 (day 14188)

Met Ami in Shibuya near Hachiko around 7pm after she finished work. Interesting that we said we'd meet in Shibuya, but didn't specify the dog. I guess Hachiko is our official meeting spot.

Got some foodage at the 7-plates-minimum 回転ずし shop, which was continually packed with people on stools and fish filets on mounds of rice, riding around the track on little maroonish plates.

With tummies full of delicious tuna, salmon, and whatever Ami ate, we wandered through Labi; I wondered if they'd have any good prices on iPhones, and if I could see the latest Macs. There were iPhones (16 and 32 gigs (or was it 8 and 16?)) but no laptops on the ground floor so we left out the front door without going up the stairs to higher levels.

Out the front door, and turn 90 degrees to the left, then immediately turn lefter than 90 degrees to the left again and up a little street to a shop.... right next to the back door of Labi! "Ah! I shoulda remembered this from when I came here with Fred and saw the same thing!" I'll remember next time.