Saikyo Line aka Psycho Line

Just a brief little post about my adventures yesterday.

I spent all weekend in my futon trying to get my fever down. I had a temperature of 100.9 on Friday and it mannaged to work its way down to normal by Monday morning. I took a little extra time getting ready for work since I had permission to go to the Nerima City Office before going to work. I needed to get a re-entry visa for when I go to Thailand (but the travel agency needs it way in advance of course). Following my host mom's hand drawn map, I mannaged to find my way to the City Office only to be told that I had to go to the opposite side of the city to get my re-entry visa. I hopped on the train and made my way all the way to Shinagawa Station (about 15 minutes past Shibuya) and find the bus that would take me to the Immigration Office. I got in line for the bus behind a Mongolian Sumo Wrestler and infront of a very Russian old man. I think the diversity on the bus to the Immigration office was the most I've seen in one small area since I've been here, but I guess that makes sense after all.

The immigration office is much like going to the DMV. You take a ticket, wait in line, and the people at the counter look like they haven't had a good day in months. After an hour of being in the Immigration Office I was granted permission to get out of the country and come back again. yay! That was one big thing on my to do list that was scratched off my list. The bus ride from the Immigration Office was like taking a tour of the Tokyo Harbor Area. It was an unexpected chance to see huge barges, cranes, fork lifts, pipes and all the rest on a Tokyo scale.

Next, I needed to make it to the Olympic Center in Yoyogi before 1pm. There was a Hippo Workshop going on for Group Fellows (Chaperones who go with exchange groups) that my department had been working really hard on for the past 2 weeks. I mannaged to get to the doors of the workshop just in time to watch them open up and let everyone out. Oh well.. everyone said it was a lot of fun but reassured me that it was no problem that I missed it (since my visa is a time sensitive thing)

At work I stayed busy after lunch until about 5:30. After making a stop at the postoffice in shibuya I made my way to the station to make my way home. As I stepped up onto the Yamanote line platform, a man with a megaphone was announcing that the train headed towards Shinjuku and Ikebukuro had been severly delayed and directed everyone to use the Saikyo Line instead. The walk between the Yamanote line platform and the Saikyo line takes you through this wide walkway that resembles a large airport (with walking sidewalks and all). As I decended the stairs into the walkway, all I could see infront of me was a sea of people. In my experience of crowds in Tokyo, this ranked in the top 3. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, we all squeeeezed our way down the stairs onto the platform. (I really wish it had been possible for me to stop and take a picture but there was just no way in hell I was going to risk standing still in this kind of stampede, not to mention, i hate feeling like a tourist and whipping on my camera at every crowded situation in Tokyo...i feel it gets old after a while)

As I waited inline for the next train, I made it a point to take long deep breaths of the cold, fresh air (since the platform is outside) and thought "this is going to suck." We all filed on and just when you think that there is no possible way anyone else could possibly fit, 10 more people try to push on making it litterally impossible to move any part of your body. I had one hand on my messanger bag strap while my other arm was in a really akward possition away from me. I mannaged to pull it in but still only had half of one foot on the floor since my body was tilted diagonally and was being completely held up by the people around me. As the doors shut, we all tried adjusting a bit in preperation for motion when my headphones came unplugged from my cellphone. I thought " well I can't hear anything so maybe it came unplugged from the addaptor chord" because my cellphone has very powerful speakers built into the back of it. The train set into motion and every muscle in my body wished inertia didn't exist. Especially my left foot which was trying its hardest to keep me ballenced on the outside edge of my foot. After a minute or so (after all the jolting of leaving the station) I was able to get both feet properly on the ground. As the train reached its cruising speed, there was silence, and then a very audible primal "Ooooo-ooooiiiiooooo!". My once private music selection (Shpongle- A New Way To Say Hooray for those who know it) had now been made extremely public since my head phones had come unplugged from the actual cellphone. It was imposible for me to silence my phone because i couldn't move and my hand closest to my bag was full. I wrestled with ideas to figure out how I could get at my phone but decided that it was a lost cause. I just sort of laughed to myself at the situation and didnt get to worried about it. afterall...there was no way of telling where it was coming from although they probably could have made a really good guess. :)

Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted from the ride home last night. So I was really happy that my host mom and I watched "Field of Dreams" on TV after dinner. My host mom couldn't believe the amount of open space in Iowa (and how much corn there is). I was really excited to see that in the scene where Ray is driving in Boston, he drives right past MassArt! Anyway, it was a nice wholesom midwestern end to a long day in Tokyo.

I miss everyone a lot!

Love
Jess