Saturday, December 06, 2008

Packed like sardines..







Catching trains, changing trains, travelling in the work crowd of the 11.5 million people who live inTokyo, well, I ended up feeling like a sardine packed in a tin. Literally. We were pushed onto trains, packed in, barely standing or breathing room, to tavel.

Fun! My Pippi Longstocking Japanese adventure. Laughing at self. Even when soaking wet and caught in the Tokyo winter rains.


I bought a Pippi Longstocking t shirt today. Wore it out to dinner at a local Japanese Curry Shop. Ordering dinner by picture as I can`t read Japanese. Obviously.

Also bought some yellow stockings, to match the yellow Pippi t shirt. And some more long colourful socks, to feed my sock addiction. And some small gifts for the family. Everything is small. As Japan is totally expensive, budget breaking, credit card max-ing expensive.

But enjoyable, enjoyably surreal you might say. Yesterday was my tourist day. Today was my exploring and shopping day.

You learn a lot, walking and catching trains and visiting areas and finding shops. And shopping. Taking the back streets.

Met up with other Supervisors tonight and talked Kumon nonstop. Conference official starts tomorrow。

Enjoying. Learning. But missing family. I still can`t believe I left everyone at home. This is one of the extremely rare times, since I became a mother twenty eight years ago, that I have gone somewhere, apart from hospital, without my kids. Makes me feel weird.
Saturday is the feast of St Nicholas, son number three`s feast day. Plan to get to Mass and say some extra prayers during the conference break.

And continue my learning. Talking. Liking of Japan. And feeling bad about me being here and dh and kids being there...

10 comments:

Hopewell said...

Love the t-shirt! The trains make me "homesick" for the "minibuses" crammed with people, huge bags of maize, and the odd chicken or two back in southern Africa!!

Laura A said...

I am enjoying the daily updates. But the photo of the train packers hits a little too close to home--I ride the 1 train down Broadway many a morning, and while there's no one to push you in (you'd get smacked if you tried), it can be pretty claustrophobic. I hope there are no small children on those trains?

Enjoy your trip! I'd like to go one day!

Chris said...

That t-shirt is wonderful. Did they have other book titles on t-shirt? Anne of Green Gables?
What a culture shock! Reminds me of some pushing and packing into a lift at Centrepoint Tower. Maybe shoving people into small spaces could be a job opportunity for me. I certainly have the experience. Actually it would be interesting as a tourist but I could hardly bear it as a resident as I love my personal space. "The wide brown land for me"

Chris said...

PS. I saw your boys yesterday at the Morri's. They are all fit and well. They ate lunch there (chicken and salad). I asked Alexander about the formal and exam and he conveyed that they were both positive experiences so that is good.

Leonie said...

Chris, thanks for the update - the kids and dh have been SO bad about keeping in touch!

Lisa and laura, the trains are interesting and fun..

Leonie said...

PS The only t shirts of books I saw were Pippi and the Mr Men series..will look out for others if youwant one, Chris!

Chris said...

Thanks Leonie thats so nice but I won't. I was just curious. I thought maybe there was a shop dedicated to clothing with literary titles on them. In Christine dream world everything is related to books. You are being so adventurous. It is great.

Greg said...

Oh my God that looks even worse than the London tube! And I thought that was bad during rush hour.
Do they have any Mr Men t-shirts for guys? I think that'd be so cool!!!

Leonie said...

Greg wil see if I can get you one...

Anonymous said...

The Feast of St Nick is also my husband Nick's birthday!