Train Fail

Last Saturday, my sorority sister Heidi, who just graduated from CMU with a degree in architecture, arrived in Tokyo for a two week vacation, the first week being spent in Tokyo. This isn't an update about our fabulous time together (soon, don't worry!), but rather about how we both had really unfortunate, and just plain stupid, experiences on the train this week.

Monday is my least favorite day of the week because I have a really boring class during 5th period, so I never get home until about 7pm. This time, while riding the Den-en-toshi from Shibuya to my station of Sangenjaya, I put my book bag on the metal rack inside the train and spent the time thinking about all the fun stuff Heidi and I have planned for the week.

Completely distracted, I got off at my stop WITHOUT my book bag!

I didn't realize it until I was halfway up the stairs and the train was already pulling out. So I had to go to the ticket window and explain my predicament to the station employees in Japanese and give them a description of what I lost, where I'd placed it, etc. They made a call and told me to wait. Luckily, ten minutes later someone called to say they found it three stops down the line. The employees told me to get back on the train and go pick it up. So I went down to the platform and got on the train.

In the wrong direction.

I had to get off at Ikejiri-ohashi, go to the other side of the station, and get back on in the other direction.

After finally getting to the right station, collecting my bag, and returning to my own station and back to the dorm, it was 8pm :___( You'd think I'd be past making those kinds of mistakes by now! ばかだね。。。

But I'm not the only TriDelta who made a silly mistake on the trains this week ^^

Yesterday afternoon, I left Heidi in Harajuku and agreed to meet back up with her in Shibuya in the evening. She ended up being an hour late to meet me, and here's why:

When trying to get back from Shinjuku to Ueno, she took the Yamanote line, which is correct. But she kept changing her mind about which way to go. She couldn't figure out if she should go left or right, so she kept getting off, riding in the opposite direction, then getting off again a little later to go the other way. She basically ended up going around Tokyo on Yamanote twice because she forgot it's a loop! Which I had specifically told her the day she arrived! ^^;;;;

So this week has not been a good week for TriDeltas on trains. But in our defense, Tokyo does have the most complicated public transportation system in the world.

And yet, I've been here nine months... ばか。。。