A Three Hour Tour

So I'm a few days behind, so we're gonna time travel to start back to Saturday. After Saturday class (Booooo.) We headed out to Akiba, the electronics/maid cafe/otaku part of town. There were anime characters every where, maids in little costumes calling out in sickeningly sweet voices, and tons of manga shops and game stores. While there,  we bought Denshi Jishos (the TI-84 of the Japanese language world) for hella cheap in this back outlet mall (when I mean cheap, I mean like a 100 Yen off the normal price of 33000 Yen (about 350 US dollars) So I paid about 220 or so for mine, which although expensive, was quite the steal!) Basically it's awesome and way worth it. You can write any kanji on this little kanji entry screen, and it will look up the definition for you and tell you what it means and how to pronounce it! It's epic. 

On Sunday, I decided to utilize the good luck in weather (it was supposed to rain but I woke up to blue skies), and I headed out to the Imperial Palace off of Tokyo Station. 

I read in my little travel book about free bicycling on Sundays around the palace, so of course I had to hit up this HIDDEN GEM (Kelly, I hardcore expect some kind of comment about awesome hidden gems). After wandering around forever trying to find the bike place, I finally got there, filled out my forms and next thing I knew, I was riding around on the closed down road on this course that ran along the outside of the palace grounds, it was beautiful! It was also really awesome to be back on a bike, I miss riding around on my bike, Huckleberry. 

It was so awesome, there were tons of people out running, hardcore bikers, and cute little kids. If you ever come to Tokyo, go ride the bikes at the Palace on Sundays!! =]

Here I am at the famous Nijubashi Bridge. 

Swan! Oh and the entrance to the East Imperial Gardens, the only inner part that is open to the public..

It was absolutely gorgeous. After wandering around there for a few hours, I realized it was the first Sunday of the month, and what does that mean, free museum admissions! So I headed over to the Museum of Contemporary Art that was right next to the palace. After that, I was so tired that I had to head home. 

I don't know exactly how, (there were many questions this past weekend of confusion), but somehow I got over my tiredness by the time I got home (it was an hour and a half travel time), but anyways, I decided I would go on a short run. So I headed out in a new direction from my house, I ran 20 minutes in one direction, and I decided it was probably time to head back, so I turned around and started running. After running for about another 20 minutes, I looked around and realized I was no where close to home, I didn't recognize anything. So I relied on my inner direction, and kept running for another 10 minutes, until I was sure I was lost. I stopped and asked these guys where my station was (since I live kinda close to it...) 

The guy's exclamation, "Oh that's difficult....Well are you going by bus or by train?"

I responded, "Well...running..."

"What?? Running? That's far!!"

My inner thoughts: "I'm not too worried, I mean, running is running...it does take you far away...I'll be home in no time"

Well let me first tell you, my inner thoughts were definitely wrong. It would be another 40 minutes or so until I finally got home. 

After running another 10 minutes, I was still super confused. I still felt so lost, so mixed up, and no idea where I was. Normally I at least have a general idea of where I am, so this kind of feeling was really messing with me. So after another 5 minutes, I stopped in this little store and talked to this old little lady. 

Our conversation:

Me: "Uhm...I'm sorry, but, do you think you could help me, I'm a little lost...where's.....etc"

Cute old lady: "Are you running there?? That's so far!!"

My inner thoughts: "I'm still far away!? WTF?"

COL: "Well, you should probably take the train, but let me draw you a map"

My inner thoughts: "I should take the train!? WTF. Where am I?!!?"

I proceeded to learn that I was still at least two train stops away from my train stop, and then another 5 minute run from there to my house. What started out as a simple end of the day 35 planned minute run, somehow turned into an hour and a half run of exploration, confusion, and an experience that involved being the most lost that I have ever been. Somehow, I started running west, and ended up way east of my house. To this very moment, thinking about the direction I returned and where I left from, I still have absolutely no idea what I did or where I was. 

After I finally got home, my family thought I was a super running BAMF. Their reactions were hilarious about my bamfness until I finally gave in and told them I had gotten lost and had to stop and ask for directions...