Yokohama

I had a horrible night two nights ago.

I was in Shinjuku looking for a place to have a quick drink and a chat before I headed home. After being bombarded with offers for sex, I retreated to a hole in the wall on the second floor called "Psy Bar" which played requests for songs. I had them play Talking Heads and drank a Jagermeister and Ginger Ale. The bartender's name was Toru and we both loved Crystal Castles. He told me about a great electronica club in Shibuya where he saw them live. His shoes had black and white fur all over them. We added each other on Facebook and said we would go to a club if we had time. I talked to a middle aged woman who told me how she saw Aerosmith in concert in Japan when she was younger. She complimented me on my Japanese. Then, a drunk guy gave everyone at the bar candy and helped me find out the last bus for Yokohama.

I ran to the station and caught what I thought was the right bus, but it turned out that the line cut off the last end of it's stops at that time. So I got off in a town called Kamata. From there, my only choice was to take a Taxi. As soon as you get in you're $7 down. Yokohama was 14km from Kamata and I had no idea what M's address was. She was asleep and I couldn't contact her.

I got to talking to the bus driver and it turns out he was half-Korean! He knew exactly where Changwon was. I was so surprised. We talked about delicious Korean food. He told me his father is Korean, but he lived in Japan all his life. He helped me look around for M's house, because I knew it was near a school, but I didn't know which school. We tried two schools and failed. The meter was at $75, so I decided just to get out of the taxi. Feeling miserable about wasting almost 1/5 of my very tiny travel budget, soaked in sweat, sticky, and tired, I wandered around Yokohama for an hour at 2 AM.

I was cursing, kicking, and having multiple freak outs down quiet, narrow streets in the middle of the Japanese countryside. Finally, I found a gas station and used my minimal Japanese skills to ask if they knew which school that the 74 line went to from Tsunashima, and if they knew where that school was from here. It was a total long shot, but luckily he had the internet, and we eventually we found out where it was located. He printed off a map for me. I said, "Thank you," and, "I'm sorry," a thousand times.

He asked me, "Aruku no?" (Are you walking?)

"Hai."

"Kekko aru yo." (It's pretty far, you know.)

"Hai."

So, I began to walk. It took me 15 minutes to get to the closest landmark on the map, so I realized that this was an hour or hour and a half walk. I got in another taxi and gave it another shot. The driver was extremely kind and we found the school in the map. I dished out another $12 and said goodnight.

I called M, because I was still lost, then after another long walk, I found M's apartment. I've never been so glad to come back home. It was 3 AM. Lost in Translation? No, actually. Lost in the middle of nowhere? Yes.

Lesson learned: Write down the information before you leave!