Shinjuku

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I went with Rob and Miles into central Tokyo.
It was amazing, even in spite of the torrential rain.
Shinjuku is HUGE. Huge and full of people who move in droves like little ants.

Our objective was to find a Kinokuniya to buy our Kanji in Context textbooks – they’re MUCH cheaper here, you see. In the main branch we found one reference book and two work books, so Rob bought both and I bought a workbook while asking the woman at the counter if there were more.
She went off on a valiant quest to find us more, but came up empty. So she gave us a map for the south branch.

Which I lost.

Honestly, I think that Beatles bag is cursed.

So we went valiantly onwards to go find Rob something to eat! We ewnt into the food court of this huge building but all the places were really expensive. We eventually found a nice Italian-style place. I had garlic bread

Then we went back to Kinokuniya to ask for a map (my job, as I lost it). Thankfully, the assistant anticipated me-

Me: すーすみません、南のー (E-excuse me, the south-)
Teninsan: 南店？ (The south branch?)
Me: はーはい！南店の地図がありますか？ (Y-yes! Do you have a map for the south branch?)
Teninsan: /finds me one at the speed of light

Thus we found the south branch, and after a bit of confusion over floors we found the reference books and bought them. SUCCESS!
On returning, we bought some food for dinner and experimented – Rob is a very good cook, so while I wouldn’t have originally expected chicken + vegetables + white plum dressing to work, it was very nice! …At first. Eventually the plum sauce got the better of me.

We also found a girl staying here, Wynne, who’s also coming to ICU. She went here last year too, so it’s nice knowing someone who’s been through the system before.

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