Lost Ajisai friends.

Today I went to Tachikawa to try to find an ATM machine where I could get some cash from my American bank accounts… no luck! Bank cards suck. I tried Citibank, and even the ATM machines inside the shopping ‘paradise’ which is Takashimaya. If I could find a way to spend money in that giant tower of consumerism… there may be no hope…

To get to Tachikawa from my house I had to ride the Monorail… I’ve ridden subways, bullet trains, JR lines and whatnot before, but I have never ridden a monorail… Anyone remember the Monorail Simpsons episode? Memories…. There was a good song in there too…

Actually. On the way to the monorail I asked this guy for directions to the station. He was a guy taking care of gas for the neighborhood homes, and he said that he would give me a ride to the station in his truck. He did, we talked, thanks dude! That’s a good example of ‘gaijin power’.

On the way back from Tachikawa I decided to stop by Takahatahudou, it’s this place kinda near my house with a �܏d�̓�. Also, it is the season for a flower called ‘ajisai’ to bloom, so there are lots of them around the tower.

Here is a picture of one of the ‘ajisai’ flowers.

While I was there I ran into a couple of guys. Again with the use of some gaijin power, one of the guys felt inclined to talk to me. He was outgoing, so he just yelled out, ‘konnichiwa’. I responded, and we started talking and became buds. We exchanged phone numbers so I think I’ll see more of those two guys later.

Well… if you continued reading this far I guess you deserve to hear my embarrassing story. After saying bye to those two guys I met and heading home, I had another adventure.

I started heading to my house and everything was alright, but then I got *totally* lost in my neighborhood. We’re talking, walking around for 30 minutes, asking like 5 people for directions and still not getting anywhere.

You have to understand though, that the Japanese addressing system leaves much to be desired. The houses in my neighborhood are numbered in the order that they were built…. so the numbers jump around everywhere.

Finally… I ran into a ‘kuro neko takkyuubin’ truck… that’s a delivery company… Hehe. He’s gotta know the roads. I asked him where I should go, he tried to explain, but even then he said that it’s gonna be super tough to find.

Eventually, he told me to get in his truck, and he drove me around and we found it together. Funny stuff. I rolled up to my house in a green kuroneko takkyubin truck… haha. I shoulda got a picture of that.

When I got out there were a lot of neighborhood obaasan around to ask me what the heck I was doing in the truck… I told them, they had a good laugh, and that’s the end of that.

I must have walked 8 miles today…

-Harvey