starlady | Deja vu all over again (Reply)

I'm back in Tokyo--there will be more about Con.Txt and such anon, I promise--and I hadn't counted on the way that it would feel like total deja vu from seven years ago, when I came here on my fellowship. Literally came here--I took the exact same limousine bus to the exact same hotel (although this time I didn't pass out on the bus, unlike last time; all I remember is waking up while going over the Rainbow Bridge, which we didn't do this time) and on the way to my hotel from that hotel I walked past the bank where we each cashed our checks for nearly $5000 in yen and hit each other in the face with as much cash as I will ever see in one place in my life. (We were 22.) The building with the fellowship office is on the other side of the street.

I did venture out and obtained a meal (spaghetti with pickled plum, natto, nori, shiso, and bacon) and even put money on my Pasmo, which is really all I can expect at this point. I want to go running at the Akasaka palace ASAP but I have no idea when I'll be able to do that, given that the posted schedule on the trip course page is totally inaccurate. Ah well. To be honest, I miss Kyoto more than a little already, glad as I am to be here. Tokyo is very glitzy, or at least this part of it, which I enjoy in small doses, but which will doubtless get a bit grating after long enough. My mission tomorrow: cafe it up, and find a Book-Off, or at least a Tsutaya.