Three White Girls Walk Into A Bar...

Hectic morning, oh my gosh. So we were running kind of late and I had to cart around my bulging suitcase, as I wanted to bring some of my belongings to my new home. And I really didn’t want to be late on my first day of meeting my school advisors, so we high-tailed it through a bunch of train stations to make it on time. In the process, I’m pretty sure I ran over someone’s foot with my suitcase in one of the stations… my bad. I think I mumbled “Sumimasen” after it happened, but considering my panic-stricken state to make our train, I can’t be sure…

In the end, we made the train, and it wasn’t long before Erin and Rochelle said farewell to me for the first time in almost two weeks! They were on their way to Mt. Takao to enjoy an adventure as I tried to mask my fear of what was to come.

Hino Train Station

Upon arrival, there was a lot of Japanese spoken, and the sweat began to pour. Okay, maybe not as heavy as the other day in Odaiba, but it was there! My advisor told me that she’d speak in Japanese and interpret as needed, but I’m pretty sure it was my horrified expression that thwarted that effort because she continued to speak in English after asking me how much Japanese I knew, to which I replied, not a whole lot.

The rest of my morning consisted of meeting all the other girls living in dorm and stumbling over the few Japanese words I knew, which encouraged the English speaking ones to switch to English. How delightful. Thank goodness the majority of them speak English almost perfectly… eventually, I began to feel a little more at ease. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that out of all the students, my Japanese was the worst – how depressing.

3 o’clock came around and the kracie sisters were reunited at Tachikawa Station! Little did I know, that this place would become quite familiar to me in no time. Only a two-minute train ride from my home, Tachikawa has a lot more to offer than Hino.

Hino

We arrived back to our air-conditioned haven and had some snacks and a nap before heading off for a ten year reunion with Rochelle’s long lost friend! Maiko was an exchange student in our hometown and I could hardly remember what she looked like. However, she spotted us immediately from afar (who would’ve guessed, three white girls wandering in a train station), and we made our way to my first izakaya! Maiko brought her English-speaking co-worker friend and he entertained us over dinner with his humor and story-telling. There was some party going on in the middle of the izakaya, so our servers didn't pay much attention to us. I was pretty tempted to just wander out of our booth and mingle among the others, but I think I would've stuck out like a sore thumb... just a little...

Ro and Maiko

After dinner, I enjoyed my first taxi ride in Tokyo! The doors here open and close by themselves (I am assuming the button is controlled by the driver), it was pretty sweet. We made our way back to our hood to Grigio for some drinks and eventually departed, as I had another early morning and had to find my way to Hino on my own… which would prove to be another adventure….