Lost in Tokyo...

Despite being here just a little over two weeks, I think I'm getting used to the Tokyo rail network now, so to save Lawrence some time, and to test my navigation skills, I thought I would make my own way to work. Simple enough, I had been twice already with Lawrence, so it should be fine.

The trains are pretty straight forward, they are 99.9% of the time running as scheduled, most areas have stations listed in English and the times are usually on the electronic boards, so if you have a ‘train leaving’ time you can usually find the right train.

I got to Ikebukuro station fine, with no dramas. A bit of useless trivia for you, Ikebukuro station is Japan’s second busiest station, with 2.7 million commuters passing through it every day.

The problem came when I needed to find the train to Nerima, for some reason, none of the electronic scoreboards were showing a time, and there were more trains waiting at the station than usual. I jumped on the first train I came to which was going in the right direction, I had a quick look at the route, and I worked out that Nerima was the 4th stop.

So, the train leaves, and I simply count the stops, however, the 4th stop is not Nerima, so I decide to wait for the next one, but that turns out to be Tokorozawa. I see sense and get off the train at this station before the train changes lines. I have a look at the route at the station and work out that I am on the correct line, but my train didn’t stop at Nerima. I decide to go up through the station and get on the train going the opposite way, back to Ikebukuro.

Whilst on the train back, I find a notice that has all the different types of trains that run this route. It also lists which trains are rapid / express / semi-express etc... So not all trains stop at every station, I figured out that I had mistakenly got on an ‘express’ train, instead of a ‘rapid’ train. When I got to Ikebukuro, I simply jump onto the waiting ‘rapid’ train going back the way I’ve just came, and sure enough, the first stop is Nerima. I got to work 1 hour and 20 minutes late.

Oguchi Sensei already knew that I was going to be late because she takes the same line to work, Lawrence also only got there 20 minutes before I did.
It turns out that someone decided to jump in front of a train on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line (our line), which obviously slows things down a bit, but, if that wasn’t enough, someone then decides to jump in front of another train at the other end of the line. Great, so that’s why none of the notice boards were showing times.

Ogushi Sensei took Lawrence and I out for lunch, as a 'thank you' to Lawrence for the last year, and a 'welcome' to me. The food was very nice, typical Japanese style.

I taught the full day on my own, I thought the second class would have been a challenge because we had two extra kids in the class. (This is the same class that I made one of them cry a few weeks ago). The day was fine, I had no problems with the lessons. In the last class, we were shown a video of two of the kids fighting in a Kyukushinko Karate tournament. It's very different from what we do under WKF rules, they wore full headgear and body armour, which seems to be the standard in Japan for kids. Also, despite this style being 'full contact', competitors can't attack the head with punches, strangely kicks are ok. I also didn't quite understand the scoring system.

After work, we headed back home. Got changed and went training.