Grand Adventure Day 3: Retrace

Terry and I met up Saturday morning at Shibuya station then took the trains to Hiyoshi to meet up with whoever was free to hang out during the day. At Hiyoshi station, we found Ricarda, Austin, Ben C., Jane, Linda, Sulu and David near the Gintama, the large silver ball. You know, this one

There's no way I could climb that now

So many things looked the same. We grabbed food at the closest Lawson and decided to have a picnic at the bleachers at the Keio Hiyoshi campus track. Even though it was Saturday, there were still a bunch of kids around (I'm thirty-one, those youngsters still in college are "kids"), either practicing or just hanging out as well. Eventually, with the sun beating down on us, we moved into the shade, and then we started our trek to revisit the old dorm. Thinking back, I should've gotten a picture of those damn stairs as it's one of the few things that I really remember about the Hiyoshi campus as the only times I was ever there 10 years ago was to walk through it to get to the Hiyoshi station.

Just before we got there, I stopped for a second to get a picture of Yagami River. After all, I spent a lot of time down there when I was really trying to write seriously. I did debate for a bit about actually going down to the waterside for the nostalgia of it, but it didn't look like they were taking care of my spot with the overgrowth of weeds.

Outside, Plume IS looked the same except that the old ash tray is gone. I was content to look at it from the outside, happy that I'd made the choice to study abroad 10 years ago and that I got my 2nd choice of dorm. Seeing a bunch of foreigners standing outside his house, an older man came outside to, I guess, check to see what we were doing. Someone explained to the new caretaker that we were all together for a reunion and the caretaker invited us inside. Obviously, he confined us to the first-floor lounge but that was still more than I thought we'd get, mostly because I don't think there's a chance in hell that the old caretaker would've let us in (he .... uh... didn't like us toward the end). I would've liked to know if the weird smell was still lingering around the washing machine in my room, but you can't get everything.

taken by the caretaker

The couches and the TV where I spent almost every single night had changed. The vending machine was surprisingly still there. The new caretaker talked with, well let's face it, with everyone else while I stood there like a smiling moron, trying to pick up a word here and there. No, I learned nothing the last time I was here and still haven't learned anything. I did pick up that our year had become a story of legend as he brought up the "firework incident" (at least I'm 90% sure since he mentioned the word "Hanabi"): that night when the cops were called due to some dumb kids launching fireworks at Yagami River coincidentally after we were banned from the lounge after 10pm. I think someone translated later to me that there was actually a log of it in this book he inherited, some sort of incident report I guess.

Afterwards we began the hike to Shin-Kawasaki station. How I managed to walk from the dorm to the station everyday uphill to go to school is a feat I'll never replicate. Back in college, I would skip class if it was slightly drizzling, even if I was already on campus. If you told me that I'd have to do something like this now to get to work, I'd probably quit and find another job. Everything outside the station looked different but inside it still looked vaguely familiar. Also, Terry, I know I said I'd wear the hat because it's funny, but I couldn't. I was too afraid it would make people start talking to me. It is however, sitting next to my desk at work (I look at it and try to figure out why I ever came back from vacation). From Shin-Kawasaki, we rode the train to ... honestly, I have no idea. I want to say Tamachi, but that's probably wrong and possibly not even a real place. Either way, we walked from the station to the Keio Mita campus and then walked more around the campus. I plan before every vacation to start walking more since I'm typically going to be traveling on foot but I never do. This would've been one of those times I shouldn't have neglected the training since I was exhausted afterwards.

For dinner, we met up with the rest of the reunion group at an izakaya close by the campus. Upon getting there, we realized the room we reserved wouldn't hold all of us but luckily, once the party got too big, the owner let us take a couple tables in the main room. I remember getting food on sticks ... and more whiskey highballs. A lot more. After dinner, we grabbed more drinks at the closest konbini, headed back to Keio and hung out in the campus courtyard. Even writing that just now, it feels like I'm making it up: a bunch of foreigners, most, if not all of them, carrying cans of alcohol, just hanging out on a Saturday night on a college campus none of them currently attend. A security guard came by once, but apparently just to tell us to stay out of the buildings, which we immediately disobeyed since that's where the restrooms were. We were there for awhile too. Sorry, it's still insane to my sober brain that no one came by at the very least just to say, "Hey, get the fuck out!" A different security guard even took our picture as we were leaving

A few of us headed over to Shibuya to hang out more and look at costumes and the craziness that was Saturday on Halloween weekend in Shibuya. Sure enough, it was crazy from the moment we got out of the station. Just so, so many people packed together, a lot of them dressed up in costumes ranging from generic store bought stuff to insanely detailed and hand-made. Nope, I completely forgot to take pictures of any of it. I did remember we stopped at almost every single konbini we came across to buy more drinks as we walked around the area and eventually all the way back to to the hostel. We made it back to the hostel and my original journal entry ends there. Michelle reminded me later that Jacob, Ben and I apparently face-timed with her for a while back at the hostel, which I don't remember doing but I assume must've happened.