Day 2

Typing this on day 3 but let's pretend it's day 2 :)

The day began early. I was due in school at 9am and so I planned to be on the train by 8 so I'd get there in plenty of time. Wrong. For the second time in 2 days the Japanese rail system had let me down. Rare for this country but it does occur. So I get on the train at Warabi and change at Akabane. The train was pretty packed with people and I giggled inside a little at the image of people being pushed on the train. I'll get the next one I thought which I did and although it wasn't as jammed as the last one it was a tight squeeze. But it's all part of Tokyo life and something I need to get used to. What I didnt know was there was an accident further up the train line (not sure what happened yet other than someone died...) and so all the trains were really slow so more people were jamming themselves on and when we did get moving it was at a walking pace :( The train was so packed I missed my stop at Ikebukuro and ended up in Shinjuku. Not so bad as I can connect there....except the yamamoto line wasn't moving at all :( So I wait and wait. An announcement keeps playing not that I can understand it as it's in Japanese and so after 10-15 minutes of waiting I decide to walk. It's already past 9 anyway. Better to turn up late than never and who knows how long the train will be. Finding my way there wasn't so bad as it turns out. I arrived at 9.40 to find out that everyone else was told to arrive at 10! So the "English speakers" were huddled off together to take a little test (which I didnt do to well on) and then told to return at 1pm. We were all hanging around outside looking a bit lost so we kind of banded together and headed for Yoyogo park for a spot of lunch and some Hanami (cherry blossom watching).

Hanami is one of those quintessential Japanese things. If you are in the country in late March/early April then it must be done. Not just for the beauty of the Sakura (cherry blossoms) but also for the party atmosphere and for the people watching. Drunk Japanese people are some of the funniest to watch, probably due to the complete change in personality once they have a beer down their necks^^

For this occasion we were doing hanami in the afternoon. A much more relaxed scene. Busy but calm and pleasant. Joining me that afternoon was Cecelia and Jonna (Sweden), Niclas and Ken (Germany) and Danny and Alberto (Spain). Nice bunch of people. I think Niclas is the oldest of us all at 31. And the common language between us all....ENGLISH! YEAH! I hope our Japanese will improve fast as I feel a bit guilty that I dont know any of those languages. If they were French then i could probably cope but I dont know any German, Swedish or Spanish. Sorry folks! We sat, we ate, we had fun.

After a short orientation session in school (and picking up stray Daniel from Poland) we went exploring Tokyo a bit more. We bought Suica cards after wasting an hour in Shinjuku station and headed to some place I dont remember the name of where they have a lot of cute second hand shops. I dont think the boys were all that interested so Cecelia pretty much banished us she could shop and then slink off home. So back to shinjuku we went where we lost Danny, Alberto and Jonna leaving myself, Niclas, Ken and Daniel to go experience Hanami by night.

We picked up a very on nom nom dinner in Harajuku and some beer in FamilyMart and then headed to the park. It was really good fun. Just sitting around enjoying the atmosphere and talking music and anime and Japan. They're a good mob of peeps :)

And that was the day. Very tired by the end of it all and just about managed to get back to Warabi without falling asleep. Good day :)