Home of kick-ass cellphones, earthquakes and $52 cab rides.
And one exhausted new resident. I was out very late last night. There was drinking involved – too much in fact. I think I left the bar around midnight, in plenty of time to catch the last train home. Of course, I was incredibly drunk and missed my stop.
Actually, I missed every stop.
I was on one of the JR lines, but I’m not sure which one. I may have been the Yamanote (goes in a big loop around Tokyo), since I was on it for a very long time. I woke up when the train went out of service and had no idea where I was. All I knew was that it wasn’t home and I felt awful.
It was somewhere around 2:30 – 3:00 in the morning at this point.
I’d thought about crashing on the steps of the station and waiting for the trains to start running in the morning, but it was raining and I was soaked and cold (having left my umbrella at the bar). So I went over to the taxi stand and got a cab, knowing full well how expensive fares are in Tokyo. The meter starts at around $6.
By the time I got home it was just over $52.
The cab driver was great. I just named the station close to home and he figured out that’s the area I wanted to go to. He even asked if I wanted to go to Meiji-dori (the street I live on). I did, so off we went. I don’t know my way around all that well, but he told me when we were on Meiji-dori and I kept an eye out for familiar landmarks. Once we passed the 7-Eleven and the veternarian’s office, I knew I was home. He let me out right across the street from my building at 3:30.
Final fare – ¥5,780
After that bit of adventuring I’ve been pretty well wrecked all day. I’ve stayed close to home, only going out for food and a bit of fresh air. Nothing exciting at all, just time on the couch playing Burnout 3 and watching episodes of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (great show).
Then, about 20 minutes ago, there was an earthquake.
Not a major one, just enough to give the building a nice bit of a sway. It’s only the second quake I’ve ever felt (the other being the Nisqually Quake in Washington 3 years ago), but I’m sure it won’t be the last one I ever feel in Tokyo.
Not by a long shot. ^.^
(I’ll write about my phone later, since it’s cool enough to be worthy of it’s own entry.)