Well, today was certainly interesting. Part of the Keiyo Line that we take to school broke down because some cable(s) caught on fire or something between Shin Urayasu and Tokyo, so when we got to the station to go to Japanese class this morning, no trains were coming and it soon became apparent that there weren't going to be any for a while. (Our station that we stop at, Shin Urayasu, was also completely shut down.) The alternative the station people were giving us was to take a free bus ticket, get on a bus to Gyotoku Station, and use that line to go to where you needed to go. Or take a taxi. Riiight. Fortunately for us, class was canceled entirely!! :D But it was just so interesting to see people arrive to the station (one woman even got off her bus and started running to catch her train!), realize they couldn't get past the ticket gates, and come back and mill about. Just like ants when a part of the anthill is destroyed, or lemmings with some obstacle suddenly set in their path. But we were ants and lemmings too. We just went home, and Brette was going to walk up to the area by Gyotoku Station to get her gaijin card and then get Mister Donut, and I went with her and got some doughnuts. Mmmmmm Mister Donut is soooo gooood. I got three doughnuts and, instead of saving one for later like I thought, ate them all. soooo goooood!

I also took advantage of our extra time to do my laundry (I was really down to my last articles of clothing) and take a nap. My afternoon class, History of Tokyo, was a field trip, so around 1 I left for that. It was at Ryogoku, the same place we saw sumo, and we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. That place is REALLY COOL. All the exhibits are things like miniature models of a samurai's living complex, life-size representations of merchant houses, models of famous buildings, and it was all just so hands-on and interesting. A really, really cool museum, and now I understand what Melissa was talking about over Janterm when she raved about it.

After that, Lisa, Anna and I went back to Kaihin Makuhari and we went to the Mexican cafe/restaurant place in one of the area malls. I got a quesadilla and some ice cream for dessert. The quesadilla was definitely good but you could tell it was a form of Japanified Mexican food. Oh well! We just stayed there for a while chatting, and then I went home around 7 or so. The Keiyo Line was up and running again so I could take that home.

Oh yeah, and before work yesterday I got my gaijin card. Or rather, my alien registration card, but everyone calls it the gaijin card. If you're going to be staying in Japan longer than like a month or so, you have to go register and get one. We already did the registration and this week we could go pick it up. If a policeman asks me for it, I have to show it to him, and if I don't have it then legally he can take me to the police station and question me for hours and even make me come in to court for it. Seriously. There's some horror stories floating around online that you can read where that's happened to people. If I hadn't been planning to just carry it in my wallet all the time, then you can bet after reading that I definitely would have!

Still have a little cough/sometimes sore throat/occasional sniffle but I hope it's continuing to clear up more and more. Lisa finally went to the clinic yesterday after having like a three-week cold and I guess if it holds out that long I'll have to do the same, even though I don't want to.