Going to Shinjuku and Kamakura

I only had two plans today, but it would take up the whole day. I didn’t feel that today was extremely hot, and I think that a cooling off period is on its way to Yokohama. That’s something I’m really glad to think about. My first order of business was to get up to go to Shinjuku. My appointment time was noon, and it usually takes me about 2 hours to get there which means I needed to leave my house at 10am. But that was about the time that I woke up today. So I needed to haul ass to get ready and get out the door. I was walking incredibly fast today too and arrived at the station about 10 minutes late. But since I over calculate the times of the train, I ended up making up the time since I took a bit faster train to Shibuya and then the Yamanote line to Shinjuku. I arrived exactly there at noon, and then I got an e-mail from CNto saying she would be 10 minutes late. She actually wasn’t 10 minutes late. She was at the spot where we were going to meet. I wasn’t. I was watching the big screen of the Studio Alta… my bad. But I found her and we started walking down the street towards Tokyo Mitsubishi.

We were looking for a place to have lunch. I mean we were walking all over the place. We walked back to the South exit, and then back to where we were again. Then after we walked around the block, we went through the buildings. It was raining a little at this time. I thought that was weird since there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky in Yokohama when I left and now it was raining in Shinjuku. We decided to go underground. She knew a little pathway that she used to take when she went to school at N.I.C. It was near the Seibu line and the JR Shinjuku line. They had a little area where there was food. We decided to go to Tonkatsu Wako. It is pretty famous for pork cutlets. We saw it in Odaiba when we went there last month, so we thought it would be good to have our last meal together there.

We had a lunch set. It was pretty good, I don’t really know what we ordered, but it was good and had all the things that we needed to be full. I was full very fast for some reason. It could be because I don’t eat regularly, which is really not good. We talked there for a few hours. We talked about many things. I didn’t want to talk about my ex-girlfriend, but the topic came up and I talked about it a little. It’s weird how I got involved in something that I never should have gotten involved with to begin with. Someone or something dragged me in and since I didn’t know about it for 4 months, I was at a handicap. I mentioned before that “he” had e-mailed me, so it was weird. We didn’t talk about that too much. She was more interested in what’s in my future. She knows that I have feelings for one of her friends, and she’s working on finding out more details. She’s very confident in me for some reason. She really believes that I should give it a try. I’m a bit cautious because my Japanese level really isn’t what it could be or even should be. I know that communication is extremely important in a relationship, so I’m holding back on that. But then I know if I wait too long that I will have the pain of regret, which will even be worse. So I told her that I’m willing to try it and started making a plan of how I’m going to do it.

We also talked about things that happened in the past year while I was gone. Many of my friends have been going through many issues. Some problems were within themselves and others involving other people. It’s been very troublesome for them and it’s sad that I wasn’t there for them when they needed it. But it’s good that it all has passed now. I think everyone learned something from their experiences. I was worried about my friend’s experience this past year too with her psycho stalker. He’s psycho and what makes it worse is that he’s sexually repressed and hormonally imbalanced too. So he’s a raging pervert with no shame. He feels better by degrading others, so as you could imagine, he’s not a nice guy. And he’s been bugging my friend, who really is one of the sweetest people I know. We were also talking about her future and how she’s doomed to live alone or find someone horrible because her options aren’t very flattering. I would like to introduce some guys to her, but I don’t know any really good guys that would make a good match. I know some good guys, but then I find out that they really aren’t as great as they make themselves to be. I’m a bit disappointed in the pool of guys that are around me…

Anyways, we had to split around 3:30pm because she was going to meet her best friend at Shinjuku station, and pretty much gave me the boot. I kindly excused myself so she wouldn’t seem rude, but I think she wanted me to leave when her best friend got there. I think she had important things to talk about with her and I didn’t want to interfere with that. I was planning to go back home, but I decided that since I was already out, that I would just go straight to Kamakura for the fireworks.

The station isn’t very far from my house so I exited the train using my commuter pass and then entered again using my suica card. It was only 160 yen opposed to 330 yen from Yokohama, so I did save a bit of money. When I arrived at Ofuna station, it was already really packed. I mean we were all crammed into there waiting on the platform for the train. I mean when the platform was already cramped that the train ride itself was worse. I’m sure that it was only half of the people on the platform got onto the train and we were pushed in there too. So it was worse than a can of sardines because people were hot and sweaty already. The ride was short though. Only two stops and then everyone got off.

I didn’t know where the fireworks were, so I just followed people to the beach. I had been here last month with YSki, so I was already familiar with the area. I decided to get a little area next to the beach on the sidewalk. I did have to deal with a bush at my back, but it was ok because I actually had a seat. Not that I would use it when the fireworks began because people would stand in front of me. The thing that made it worse was that there wasn’t a wind. That meant, when the fireworks exploded, the clouds that were left behind covered the next explosion. And as the night went on, more and more clouds would be built up so people couldn’t see the fireworks at all. It was so bad in fact that a lot of people were leaving less than half way into it. I stayed to the end, but there wasn’t much to see, so it was a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t get the best spot either since there was a street light in my way. It didn’t take too long to get back to the station, since everyone pretty much started leaving half way into it. I think it only took me about 20 minutes to get back onto the train to go back home. I only went to Ofuna and then walked home from there. I stopped by KFC to get some chicken for some dinner. I didn’t get any yakitori or yakiniku at the festival because the lines were long so I wanted to get something similar. Plus, I haven’t had chicken in a long time too.

I also had a little conversation tonight with the girl that I like. I’m not sure if she likes me or not, but we were sending e-mails to each other back on forth for a little while. She was asking when my friend would be leaving to go back to America. I told her in two days because she was planning to invite her to our little drinking pow-wow on the 19th. I found it odd that she would ask me about her friend from high school that will be leaving Japan for America. And not asking her friend, CNto, about me and when I would have time to go and meet them. CNto said that was a good sign for me, which I think so too. It’s a major step for someone in Japan because they naturally build a barrier with people not from their culture, plus she doesn’t speak English, AT ALL. Another frustrating point that I have to admit. Her level is actually worse than my students because my students have English classes, but her school didn’t offer it when she was in High School, so it’s all a foreign language to her. She has no basis for English, so perhaps I could help with that. Since, you know, I’m an English teacher and that’s what I get paid to do. But we’ll see.