5771

I'm not Jewish, but if I was, this new year would not be off to a very good start...

Remember when I failed at Japan (the first time, anyway)?

Yup.  Failed at New York today.  Got on the train, and when I got off, my wallet was no longer on my person.

So instead of dancing with my roomie and friends in a great dance class, I spent the afternoon canceling cards and visiting the police station.  Hopefully Saint Anthony will pull through for me by having a nice Japanese person find and return my wallet...  but then again, it's a Jewish holiday today.  Hmmmm.

It just was one of those cruddy days that keeps getting crappier.  But I guess when hugs are around, it all gets better.  And, I'm not sure if this is possible, but is it almost worse to have to comfort someone and watch them grieve than to be the one grieving?  Because you know the kind of devasting pain she's in, and you just wish you could do something to help it go away?

I don't know, but if I could, I'd hug away the pain of a friend right now.  As hard as I possibly could.

Leave it to Blair, her amazing pumpkin cookies, and a Rosh Hashanah party to add a bright spot to my day.

I know I've been MIA for a while, and there's really no good reason for that.  Oh, there was a wedding in Colorado that was stunningly beautiful, and oh, there were some interesting auditions, and oh, I spent Labor Day in a hidden corner of Central Park, and oh, I'm basically just procrastinating big things like doing my taxes these days, but honestly, I'm just glad fall is around the corner.  It's like I've found me again.

The pumpkin spice latte is back (how long these two years have been since I've tasted you!), the air is finally cooling off every once in a while, and people are returning from summer stock gigs.  The freshmen from the Midwest have arrived at NYU looking green and young and fresh-faced and I don't wanna be the one to tell them all the journeys they'll soon be facing.  I'm so glad I'm not that age anymore.

I guess that's it, isn't it?  Fall is here, the season of change, the reminder that everything has its season, will wither and return like the green of the trees.  With each year we grow wiser and face new challenges and the old ones don't seem so bad in retrospect.  So when a day doesn't go your way, there's always the hope that tomorrow may dawn a little brighter.

A little more yellow.

Happy New Year, everyone.  Let's hope 5771 is a good one.  It can pretty much only go uphill from here, right?

Last Day of Firsts

For my final day in Japan (for now, I hope), I decided to a do a lot of things for the first time, both intentionally and subconsciously.

I fell asleep on the trains and in my delirium half-heard my stop and realized I missed a second too late... TWICE. Seriously, I haven't missed a stop or gone the wrong way on a train in 9 months, and I do it on my last day in Japan.

I blame it on the 5-hour red-eye.

On the way back from the airport I completely missed Funabashi, realized it, and was gathering the last of my bags as the door closed in my face. Which wouldn't have been that bad, if the "Commuter Express" train I'd been on for the previous 50 minutes hadn't basically been a local and then finally decided to pick up the pace and skip 6 stops until I missed mine. Boo. Luckily, I only had to walk across the platform and a return "Limited Express" train came within about 2 minutes. So my fears of a 30-minute detour turned out to be only 15. And because I rushed once I did reach Funabashi, I was able to make the Musashino train at 9:48 that, as it turns out, is the same one I would have caught had I not made the error.

Now it's REALLY embarassing that I did this again this afternoon, and that's not even including the fact that my memory failed me and I got off a stop too early and had to walk a few extra blocks when going to my haircut. On the way back, I once again dazed off and went a stop too far. But at least on the subway it's super easy to turn around and go a stop back.

I also bravely ventured into the world of highlighting my hair. While it didn't turn out as drastic as I'd thought it might and kind of hoped, I do suddenly look delightfully sun-kissed, like it's August instead of April. Thanks Thailand tan and Toni & Guy hair color.

I was very nervous, and almost chickened out, but I'm so glad I did. I ran into Mitchell from the new cast also getting his hair cut and we had our own customer version of Steel Magnolias in the salon. I especially liked the part where I had a Stewie head of tin foil... too bad my camera wasn't nearby.

Pictures to come of it, though truthfully I'm waiting to surprise my friends at home. It's not super drastic, but when the sun hits it, I look very nice. I think it'll be perfect for my transition back to New York.

I also decided to go back to Coco Ichibanya for the first time since I went with Kathryn and have my final tonkatsu curry in Japan. It was AMAZING! I kept planning to go there, and something else always came up, but yesterday, it was perfect.

Finally, I went to the Hub like I did my first time and had food and some Jack and Cokes and a J-size tarantula. Gotta go for the nostalgia, right? It was bizarre to be there with so many young, new faces, especially when it turned into a gay dance club at the end of the night. So not the beer and darts-throwing Hub from winter contract. But still a lot of fun.

And that my friends, was my last full day in Japan. Wow.

Rupert Fails and Takes a Fall

So today I had my first (and hopefully only) bicycle accident in Japan. Luckily, not involving anyone else (besides the lady I avoided decimating by crashing) or any serious injury.

But I guess it was bound to happen. I know this past summer lots of gai-jin had random crashes with idiot university students, the poles in the sidewalk, etc. I even remember seeing a guy on a bike hit an old lady on a street corner in Kamakura.

That being said, they don't happen frequently, and the VERY interesting thing is that no one here wears helmets, pretty much I assume because people don't crash.

Just the gai-jin.

It's a good thing my mom's on a plane flight here and not reading this blog! Grandparents, don't worry, I'm absolutely fine.

See there's stairs leading up to my apartment complex, and a ramp on the side that we ride our bikes down. You have to make a rather hard right turn while biking to get onto the sidewalk that leads to the street corner. Unfortunately, it's a very blind corner for oncoming traffic from the left side because our meeting room flanks the corner. Now in 7 months, I've never even encountered anyone walking or riding a bike there when I leave, and so I've become quite complacent.

Which I guess is why they say 90% of accidents happen less than 5 miles from home. Mine happened on the front steps!

But, in any right-of-way situation, I was at fault. And yes, a woman was in exactly the right place for me not to be able to avoid her at exactly the right time. She was riding her bike down the sidewalk, and I came careening down the ramp a little too fast and therefore braked so as to avoid a crash. Whilst turning a hard right which caused me to tip over to the right and stop. And luckily not hit her.

I guess I should've fixed those squeaky brakes now that spring is approaching.

Well she was quite worried, and I'm sure I looked a little shocked and my right hand and knee were in a little pain. She kept apologizing, and it took me some time to assure her I was indeed daijobu and it was actually my fault.

So, random neighbor I almost took out today, I'm sorry.

And I have a very small scrape on my knee, a slight bruise, but other than that I'm perfectly fine. I did rip a hole in my sneaker and its shoelace, but I'm happy I didn't tear a hole in the knee of my jeans.

But I guess I learned my lesson. Complacency is never safe, even if you're in a very safe bicycle and pedestrian culture. Riding a bike without a helmet can always be dangerous, and one should be careful, not careless, around blind corners and intersections.

I'm just glad no one got hurt!

Toph Fails at Japan, Part 4

So I failed again.

But this time I succeeded at resolving my failure nearly instantaneously!

Basically, today when I was getting off the train at Shin-Urayasu station on the way home, I hit my head on the doors on the way out, as I am apt to do since the doors are not exactly tall enough for a 6' 3'' gai-jin. In fact, though I make mental notes not to do so, I hit the doors or the grab bars or the handles pretty much about once a week.

And I ALWAYS hit my knees on their darn tables. That's really getting old.

But the unfortunate thing about hitting my head today was the fact that my sunglasses were on top of my head.

And in one of those slow-motion, I'm-watching-myself-in-a-movie moments, I nearly caught the glasses as they fell... right in between the train and the station platform.

I failed.

And so, I cursed Japan (since I already had a headache and was grumpy), and then reminded myself that, in fact, I was the stupid one for wearing sunglasses on top of my head when the sun had already set. And I chalked up the fact that my sunglasses were about to be crushed and gone forever as the train pulled away and I stood there in shock.

Which was exceptionally disappointing since these are my amazing "Nerds: The Musical" sunglasses from when I worked at HersheyPark that I've somehow managed to hold onto for 4 years until they were back in style like Ray Bans. And they were a costume piece I got for free and they have loads of memories.

Yet, when the train pulled away, there were my glasses, in one piece, laying between the rails and the platform on the rocks of the train bed. Only they were 4 feet below my feet.

Now I contemplated jumping down to retrieve them, or laying down on the platform and trying to grasp them with my long arms, which, if I was in New York, is exactly what I would have done. However, this being Japan, it felt like a rude and bad idea with so many people watching (not to mention unsafe) even though I knew, courtesy of the electronic display and timetables, that the next train wasn't scheduled to arrive for 7 minutes (which is definitely unlike New York).

So I went downstairs, and somehow described my situation to one of the station attendants with gestures and broken English, and lo and behold, he understood!

Then proceeded one of my favorite moments in Japan ever. Two station attendants came out of the office armed with a cell phone and a long grabber pole thingy. I'm guessing you know what I mean... one of those poles with a claw at the end that you squeeze a lever to operate and grab stuff with? Like trash pickerupper things?

Anyway, we geo back up to the platform and I went to show them where my glasses are, but they gently steered me aside because said 7-minute-later train was arriving. Once the train left, we found my glasses, and then one of the men starts talking on his phone while the guy with the pickerupper thingy just stands there.

At which, I must say, I was rather confused. I mean, my glasses were right there and he had the magic stick. So why wouldn't he grab them?

That was, until I figured out that he was calling his supervisor (or somebody) to tell them we were retrieving my sunglasses from Track 2 and to get proper clearance.

Seriously.

It took 2 men and a phone call to be allowed to grab my sunglasses with a claw on the end of a stick.

But we got said permission, the other man used his magic stick, and my sunglasses were solidly back in my possession, only 8 minutes after I had dropped them!

Which, considering my first attempt at retrieving a lost item at the station, seems pretty amazing by comparison with how smoothly and quickly it happened.

So there you have it. I failed at Japan and yet was able to solve the problem safely, without using my BGP whilst overcoming the language barrier quickly and efficiently.

I say that sounds like success!

Which, PS, could NEVER have happened in New York because we all know you'd go to the booth to tell them you dropped something and the person would say, "So? Sorry. Guess that sucks." You'd clearly have to jump down on the tracks risking your own life with no regard to rules just to see your stuff again.

So thank you, Japan. I don't mind that it took 2 men and a phone call 'cause I got my glasses.

And my new high tops too!!!!

Toph Fails at Japan, Part 1

Yes, it's true. I have failed. Pretty big. Not my-world-is-crashing-down, but pretty stupid and tragic.

See... I managed to lose not my whole wallet last night, just my Driver's License, Student ID, and Suica card (train pass). Now luckily, 2 of those are easily replaced; in fact, I have to go get my Suica on the way to work. And the driver's license can be repurchased. I really just want that irreplaceable free discount card back. The problem is, that my wallet has gotten stretched out over time, and since I don't need as many cards, etc, here in Japan and their money is a different size, the top see-through window in which I store my cards and train pass, well, sometimes the cards slide out of it. And apparently they did so at some point from Shin-Urayasu station to home last night. Campbell and I went to Saizeria (Japanese Denny's) for dinner and my guess is that they fell out whilst paying. Because then we walked home and I believe my wallet was in my pocket the whole time. As it should have been from the station gates to Saizeria. So I instantly walked back to the station, retraced my steps, prayed to St. Anthony like crazy, managed the worst Japanese ever at the Saizeria and the ticket station, but alas, no one had found (or really understood) my problem. I did end up applying for a new Suica card (it's like a SmartCard in DC and can be replaced if you lose it -- holla - cuz that thing costs like 500 dollars), so I'm out 10 bucks for the fee today, but the man didn't understand that I had lost more than just my Suica. And I retraced my steps on the way home again to no avail.

Now here's the killer. I don't think you really understand how long my commute is. I actually google mapped it and it's 1 MILE from my house to the station. Which I walked 3 TIMES yesterday since I lost my cards. Foolish. Now I could take the bus for 140 yen, but I would have had to wait 20 minutes and we know how stubborn I am. So I walked a good 2.5 miles after coming home last night to no production besides a few calories lost. I decided not to go to the Koban (police station) since they would speak very little English, and I just called the Entertainment Office for advice/help this morning. I am going to get a sheet in Japanese before work to take to the Koban after work explaining my situation. But even with the English they speak in the office, I still got a follow up call asking what color my wallet was and how much money was in it... You see my point.

Now this is Japan, so I highly doubt these items won't turn up. But who knows where and if they'll know how to track me down. I'm also thinking an FYI call to the Embassy wouldn't be a bad idea, just in case they get their hands on anything. But basically, Topher failed at maintaining a personal hold on his belongings. Thank god it wasn't his bank card or passport...

In other news, we added the band members and MC's and cleaned and ran the whole show 3 times yesterday, in final for the big wigs. It's amazing to me how many people are involved in this little "special event" show. There were at least 75 people in that room yesterday at some point, and that still doesn't include wardrobe, makeup, hair, dressers, etc. Whoa. The run went super well (though I wasn't in it that time) and they seemed to think our show is great and a lot of fun. Today we go in and record our emergency tracks in case we are sick, which hopefully won't happen in the 17 day run. Then more runs tomorrow and 3 days off! Woo hoo!

Sum total of my day... Japan 1, Tophs 0.

C'mon St. Anthony! Help me find my lost things!