Aomori

Hey everyone!

So, over the past few weeks, I have been having passport trouble. Because my name was misspelled, I was issued a misspelled residency card (zairyuu card). Because that is misspelled, I have been turned away multiple times in my attempts to get a phone!

Having said that, I still wanted to go on a trip to Aomori to see Ryan! There aren't any direct ways to get to Aomori, so I needed to get on a bus from Komagane to Shinjuku (Tokyo), take the train from Shinjuku to Ueno (another area of Tokyo), and take a night bus from Ueno to Aomori.
 
We planned the trip out about half a week before and reserved all the bus tickets online. The hard part about this, though, was paying for the tickets at the convenience stores. In Japan, you can pay your bills and buy bus tickets at conbini! I ordered the tickets online, and one of the deadlines to pay for the ticket from Ueno to Aomori (lest I forfeit my spot on the bus) was the day I bought my ticket. After school, I went home to get money to pay for the ticket. After eating dinner, I set out on my journey to pay for the tickets. There were so many issues with buying one of the tickets...

I went to the Circle K by my school and couldn't get the ticket from Ueno to Aomori to print, so I left to go back to my apartment to check if the reservation number was correct. Then, I went to the Circle K by my house and tried printing the same ticket, failed, then tried to see if the other tickets would print and they did. After asking the clerk, he told me that I should check to see if my reservation number was correct on the other ticket. So, I went back home, double-checked again to make sure it was correct, and then returned to Circle K with my laptop in tow to show to clerk. The confirmation number didn't go through still...so the clerk told me to go email the customer service email address and ask for a new confirmation number. On my way back, I tried to buy it at 7-Eleven, and it didn't work, so I went home and tried asking Ryan what I should do, since nothing was working...

Then, I went to the Lawson's convenience store and it didn't work, so I returned home. However, I went back to Lawson's because I thought I forgot my phone there, but I didn't, so I went back home. After that, I decided to cancel the reservation and reserve a new one-way ticket in order to get a new confirmation number. I got to Circle K this time, but my phone died and I didn't have Ryan's cell phone number on me (and I needed his number to confirm the purchase of the ticket). This was 15 minutes before the Circle K closed (if if the Circle K closed, the ticket deadline would pass and I would've lost my reservation)...so I rushed back home, got his number, then went back to Circle K and managed to get the train ticket a couple minutes before the store closed!

In all, I speed-biked about 10 miles within the span of a couple of hours just for a chance to see Ryan!!! :]  That's how much I love him!  <3

So, everything was going ok. I was going to take a Saturday bus from Komagane to Shinjuku at 3pm and be in Shinjuku at 6:45pm. The train from Shinjuku to Ueno takes about 25 minutes and my bus from Ueno to Aomori left at 8:30pm.

On Saturday, I made it to my Komagane to Shinjuku bus on time and I was super excited that I was going to see Ryan. However, on the way to Shinjuku, the bus came across a freeway traffic sign that said "Tokyo, 120分" (Tokyo, 120 minutes). This was at 6:30pm.

I swear I went through all 5 stages of loss and grief as soon as I saw that sign. If you have not seen this Robot Chicken clip, please do so now, as that is the best way to describe how I felt at this point in time during the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Z3lmidmrY

Disbelief. (AKA:  "LOL no way...I'm sure it was wrong. My Japanese is bad, so maybe I read that wrong...) Oh, but I actually read that correctly, much to my dismay.

Anger. ("TRAFFIC. Come on bus! MOVE FASTER PLEASE") I used significantly less swearing than the giraffe did. :P

Pleading. ("Come on, please??? You can do it bus!!! If there is a higher power somewhere that'll get me to Tokyo within the next 30 minutes, I'll be really good! I promise!!")

Depression. This was at 8pm after I came across another sign that said 90分 to Shinjuku. That was when I finally realized that this bus was never gonna get to Tokyo on time. ("What am I gonna do??" *insert bawling here* "THERE IS NO GOD")

Acceptance. At 8:15pm. (ok, so I don't think I ever really accepted it, I just decided to call Pumpkin and see what I should do in a more calm manner than I had while I was in my Depression stage...)

So yeah, the bus hit a ton of traffic and I ended up getting to Ueno at 8:45, two hours later than the expected arrival time of 6:45. My bus from Ueno to Aomori was at 8:30, so I completely missed that.

Not knowing what to do, I called Ryan, who told me that it was probably best to sleep near Tokyo and take the earliest Shinkansen (bullet train) to Aomori in the morning. He made a reservation for me in a place called Business Hotel Issa Anex in Hitotsubashigakuen, about 20-30 minutes away from Tokyo by train. There was a lot of difficulty telling the clerk that I had a reservation due to my lack of Japanese, and after Ryan talked to the clerk, we had to pay for a night's stay because there was no way to verify that he paid for the room. They were pretty unorganized with their filing...I don't think they even had a computer. >.>; But, in the end, I finally had a place to stay for the night. We worked out how to get to Aomori and I promptly passed out for a short night's sleep.

In the morning, I went to Tokyo station, where I had to pull out money to ride the Shinkansen (which is really expensive...). There was a lot of difficulty with that, since my bank card is not a JP (Japan Post, the biggest bank in Japan) card. After an hour of figuring out how to pull out money and when to (because Japan has different operating hours for banks than America does), I made it to the Shinkansen and, finally, to Aomori about 3 hours and 45 minutes later! Ryan was waiting for me at the gate, and it was the best reunion ever!!!  :]

Hanging out in Aomori has been a blast. While we didn't explore too much, I got to see where Ryan does his shopping, where a really good Thai food (they serve amazing ramen there too! My first time eating ramen this time around in Japan) place is, and where he goes to the beach!  I'm really envious...the water is beautiful! It is pretty hot and humid up here...I'm not sure if my place is like that (and I'm not sure because I'm inside with the AC on a lot hehe). While we didn't go to many places, I'm really happy that we were able to just simply hang out and talk at his house! It's amazing to me how much and how easily we can talk even though we have been separated for so long! :] He's treated me wonderfully and cooked lots of delicious food for me~  I miss him (and not just for the cooking :P) and it's gonna be a long year not being like this all the time!

He made a lot of really delicious food (Spanish rice and Mexican food with guacamole [a dish which he called "the food of [my] people"] for the first meal and clam and tomato sauce spaghetti as the last, to name a few) but here's a picture of some really cute hash browns that Pumpkin made for me this morning!  :] 

Even though I just came here yesterday at noon, I've gotta leave tonight because Ryan has work tomorrow and I've gotta sort out some passport stuff at my Regional Immigration office in Nagano City tomorrow. I really hope all the buses are on time this time!

Anyways, wish me luck! I'll upload some pics of some funny things that my students have written to me next time. Ciao!