I walked to my subway station and joined the already sizable crowd waiting on the subway platform. I thought the size of the crowd meant that the subway must be coming soon. However, while I'm sure it did come pretty soon after I arrived, by the that time, the crowd had more than doubled, possibly tripled. Our station is station #1 on the Chiyoda line, so sometimes trains are empty when they pull in, and sometimes they're coming in from the suburbs and may already have a lot of people. (We haven't figured out how to tell which is coming when yet.) The particular train I got that morning was empty, so we all managed to fit on. I was towards the front of the crowd, so I actually got a seat. However, once everybody was on the train, it seemed way too claustrophobic in a seat, so I got up and moved back toward the door. Increasing the claustrophobic feeling on a crowded train is that the trains always seem so warm. Two stops later it was time for me to push my way out. A small number of people exited the train when I did, but a much larger number of people took our places. When I looked back at the train, I couldn't believe how crowded it seemed. I wish I had thought to take a picture. I saw one of the subway workers with the white gloves who help to push commuters onto crowded trains on the platform. I don't know if he actually had to do any pushing this time because I didn't see him in action. May I never be on a train that is having more people pushed onto it. I had to take one more train to reach Shibuya station. The train I got on was crowded, but not totally unbearable. When I exited, again more people got on the train than got off. I wasn't going all the way to the center of Tokyo, which helped. My understanding is that the morning "rush hour" on the trains is from about 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Trains are crowded at most other times, but "rush hour" brings it to a whole new level. I really did not like riding on the train when it was that crowded. Next time I'm going to check how far it is and think about walking. Of course, that opens up so many more possibilities for getting lost.
If you've read other entries about finding things, then it should come as no surprise that I was unable to find the statue of Hachiko. Here's a picture of Hachiko (that I took later):
For one thing, it would have helped if I had googled Hachiko ahead of time so that I would have known what I was looking for. Hachiko was a faithful Akita who met his owner at the station after work every day, and he continued going to the station and waiting every day for years after the owner had died. The Hachiko exit is a popular meeting spot. Unfortunately for me, the Hachiko exit is NOT exit 6, hence my difficulty. (Somehow, the rest of the group was already familiar with Hachiko and so weren't thrown off by the wrong exit.)
However, I did eventually find my way to Viron and met up with the group. I enjoyed my high-calorie bread, yet another reason it would have been better to walk than take the train.
Speaking of high-calorie items, we had another Domino's night. We had received this coupon with a previous order:
(Remember, we do our ordering online to avoid the language barrier.) Drew actually figured out how to redeem the coupon! It was worth 1,000 yen off our order! (He wanted to make sure I included this in the blog.)
Greer had her A day today and wanted to write about it:
Hi! Today I had an A day (You learned about it in yesterday's post) and my first day in P. E. and Science. My P.E. teacher, Mrs.Vriend (Pronounced Mrs.Friend), had us play field hockey which I found I was very good at compared to the other boys and girls. After P.E. I had science with Mr.Hoskins who is strict but has a very joking manner. Example, he said, "If you don't answer this question right, I will personally move you back to the third grade!" Of course he was joking.
After Science I had lunch! I was famished. Zoe and I met at the 2nd pillar before the luch doors (Yes, we already meet somewhere so we can make sure we know where each other is sitting). We both got spaghetti after I helped her buy lunch tickets. Then we went to the Kiosk together to get a frozen treat. While we were eating it., we went to our lockers and got our backpacks with 15 minutes to spare. Then we headed to LA/SS where we talked to Mrs.Erwin about our personal assignment. And guess what? She is already mine and Zoe's favorite teacher! After that, it was the usual study center then a swim practice. At swim (which is very easy, by the way) we don't have a specific time to complete the set in and there are basically no sets. Very lax compared to ESA (my competitive year around swim team in Houston). We only did 25s, 50s, and the occasional 100. I know, Grace! A real shocker! I still can't get over how easy it is. Oh, by the way, I still don't know my way home. :(
Japanese word of the day: asagohan (click to hear pronunciation) means "breakfast"
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