Tall, Cold One
That's me. Man, is it cold and WINDY today. Beautiful, incredible clear weather but... my nose is red. YAY!!

I went into Shinjuku today to talk to the same bitchy woman at the Japan Travel Bureau only to find out that no, I cannot infact make my reservations until AFTER the new year because they have some stupid system of rollover travel packages and the new ones don't come into effect until January 5th, when they reopen for businesses. GREAT. I have FIVE WEEKS. Yes, FIVE WEEKS of reservations in Kyoto, Okinawa, Hokkaido and Tokyo to make BEFORE February. How in God's good name am I to manage that? AAAAGGGGHGHGHGHHGHGHG. The Japanese, apparently, don't ever do anything until a month in advance. See, I'd really LIKE to get my hotel reservations done but I can't DO that until I know what dates I'm going to be where and I can't DO that until the travel agency allows me to reserve the travel packages I want. And the travel agents are all dumb bimbo secretaries who actually know NOTHING about travel information and in fact only want to promote JTB tours. FKINGARGHHH.

//rant

The bus ride to Shinjuku was actually one of the more interesting I've had. While fiddling with my keitai at the stop, an old woman actually started chatting me up amicably about how tall I was. Truly, my hipbone came to about her shoulder. She kept poking me and, in fact, I think she touched my boob. A really nice lady but threw me off enough that I couldn't find my pass when the bus came and held up everyone looking for it. It was in my pocket.

I immediately noticed the blind man as soon as I got on the bus. I almost fell onto his guide dog as the bus lurched down the street. A guide dog in Tokyo is a rare sight indeed. There are "sidewalks" for the blind, which consist of raised bumps, and there are some audio crosswalks, but by and large the Japanese blind are not very accomodated. Service animals are a new thing to the city.

This animal was remarkably well behaved. To get to a seat, I had to pretty much step over its head. And there was a large stroller rolling around precariously in the aisle nearby. Across the isle from the blind man and myself sat another character I see around the neighborhood-- an extremely mentally handicapped boy with his mother/guardian. As usual, when he saw me he got a little excited and tried to get up but was help back. The rest of the ride to the Go-chome stop, he grabbed himself in a rather inappropriate place. Eheh.

When I got home from my English lesson at 5PM, I noticed a delivery bike in front of the house. No, my Christmas package had not yet come... this was, in fact, a BEER DELIVERY BIKE. No joke. My host dad could seriously hold a kegger with all the Sapporo beer that's just been dropped off at our house. A case of forties and a few 6 packs of Asahi beer. I walked in the door as he was signing the order form and before I could stop myself, my jaw dropped and I said, in English, "That's a LOT of beer."

I think it's all for him. Gotta love the salaryman... part him from his beer and feel his wrath!!! Maybe it's a new year's tradition.