Bam!
That would be the line for cabs at Shinjuku Station on a Friday night when the Keio train line is down.
Dan and I had a fun night because it was our running club night! He was also haring (leading the trail) so it was fun to “host” the runners, provide snacks and drinks, etc. After, we spent a long time chatting with people in the park, one of those moments where you start to say, “well, I best be heading out” 3 or 4 times only to get roped into a new topic. Eventually we headed out and decided to go to one of our favorite sushi restaurants, only to discover it was closed (!), and then on to another of our choice restaurants.
We hurried out because we didn’t want to miss last train. We trained to Shinjuku and I knew it before I saw the marquee. There were people standing around, sitting around, passed out everywhere. Now, I know this is the WORLD’S busiest train station, but this wasn’t the norm. And then we rounded the corner, and our train was down. It happens once in a blue moon, but when it does, what a pain! The craziest part was we later learned the halting was caused by a major accident at OUR home train stop! Our stop is pretty small and doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so that’s crazy to think all the ruckus was just outside our apartment.
Cabbing home from Shinjuku would be about $50, so we opted to take another train line that would at least get us to our side of town, then walk. Well, a few hundred of our closest friends had the same idea, and we were packed into the train cars truly like sardines. No one was happy. 15 minutes later we gladly got off, and ran into a friend of ours from running! It’s rare you run into someone you know in Tokyo, so that was exciting.
Dan and I walked home from there, which was only about 3 km. The weather was nice and we chatted. Now we’re home and off to sleep! Here’s to a great weekend and much more entertaining blog posts next week! Tomorrow: we’re off to Ibaraki for the day!
What a hassle. You will be so glad to come here and DRIVE!