I HATE you ドコモ!!!
Although my displeasure with Docomo is today's adventure, so let me go back to yesterday evening.
It's been raining pretty much ever since I got here (never heavy, just a sort of misty rain to a drizzle), and yesterday and today weren't exceptions. Supposedly it'll stop a bit Friday, but start again for the next three days after that. (T_T) Anyway in the rain I headed down to Shibuya through Hiyoshi station yesterday. I never knew, but my friend told me that JR is actually more expensive than all the other private lines, and warned me to try and ride it as little as possible to save some money. : o
BUT it was awesome since it was a straight ride...and ALSO, I recognized it as the line that we (us people who went to Japan in January) went on the very last day in Tokyo!!! It was the みなとみらいLine, and the station where we ate/got our haircut was 祐天寺 (ゆうてんじ). Which means it's also a straight ride to 中華街 (ちゅうかがい) for me so Kicchan, I'll check it out as soon as I get a chance!
I got to Shibuya SUPER early though since I had been hanging around Hiyoshi Station and decided to just go. As soon as I passed through the gates at Shibuya though, this REALLY REALLY creepy gaijin walked up to me, put his arms around my shoulders, and was like "Do you know where 日本橋 is?" *chills* It was REALLY creepy and I just wanted to kick him in the stomach. After I answered "no" though, he left me alone after a moment of randomly staring at me (x_x) so I walked away as fast as I could. Then, I couldn't see any signs pointing towards Hachikou, so I just kinda walked out an exit and followed what looked like it was going to the more crowded areas XD. I did go the right way, but I'm pretty sure it was roundabout and that I could've walked through the station, but oh well. (^^;)
Soooo I hung around the Hachikou statue until everyone (Megumi, Mimaki, Miki, Yuiko, and Hiromi) found me. XD Mike was supposed to come but we waited a bit after 6pm (the meeting time) and he never showed up, so everyone just kinda started moving...if he was late I'll never know. ^^; Shibuya, was of course, PACKED, but eh. There was actually no plan, so we sorta just walked around until someone decided they were hungry, and we walked to an okonomiyaki place to eat at! It was pretty good, but the one in Osaka (of course) was definitely better. After we finished, everyone realized they kinda really forgot Fumi, the one guy who was supposed to join us, so we called him and he met us outside the restaurant. BEARD!!!! XDD (Cause apparently he's trying to grow one.) Then HE was hungry, so we went to I guess a family restaurant? Called Royal something....can't remember the rest of it right now, where I got 抹茶アイスぅ. : D
Umm after that I remembered I didn't have a towel and needed to go buy one, so everyone took me to ドンキ, which at first I thought was "donkey," but after I got home and looked at the bag, the full name of the store is actually ドン・キホーテ (Don Quixote). ^^; It kinda reminded me of a Target or something...My towel is black~~ : D To match with my sheets, which are black and white.
After I got home, I jumped into the shower, only to find that there's NO HOT WATER!!!! XO There still isn't any hot water....my landlady came up to look at it, but she still couldn't figure it out what was wrong with it so she let me borrow the key to the room across the hall today (where no one has moved in yet, at least til tomorrow).
And then of course, there is also today's misadventures in Kawasaki and Yokohama.
Ummm I woke up at like 6:30am of my own accord....jet lag maybe? Talked to a bunch of people online for awhile until I set off for the day's errands! The landlady asked me to help another guy...donno how to spell his name...but he's from Turkey! around, so we went together to Kashimada station, which is just a bit past Shin-Kawasaki. I had to take pictures (which cost me about $25 x_X) while he was getting money exchanged. In the end though, the bank there apparently couldn't do it, so he had to go to Shibuya instead. We split up since I had to wait for my pictures to be printed. While I was hanging around though, an old lady stopped me and asked me if I knew where the Mos Burger was! Luckily I'd seen it earlier, so I pointed her in that direction, but I was really happy somehow.
By the time I returned back to the apartment though, it was already 12:30pm, and I'd promised to meet my friend Sayaka at Yokohama at 2pm because she was going to take me to the store to buy a cell phone. (;_;) BUT I still hadn't even gotten around to the City Hall to get the paper that would allow me to buy it!! I rushed her off an email saying I'd be late, to meet at 3pm instead, and ran off. After getting confused as to what bus to take and finally finding it after asking a super nice person, I was off! It was definitely far, but even so apparently someone from my dorm walked there and back. o_O
Anyway the lady that helped me out there was really nice, although it didn't seem she could speak English but eh that wasn't really a big problem for me since she could understand my broken Japanese. After receiving a couple of temporary papers, I took the bus to Kawasaki station so that I could go straight to Yokohama. That area looks really fun too!!!! I'll have to explore it in the near future~.
On the Touhoku line, Yokohama is just one stop from Kawasaki. : D I'd told my friend that I'd never been to Yokohama station, which after getting there I realized was super stupid since Yokohama is totally the station to use to get to her high school, where my home stay was at...X_x
Again, like Kawasaki, Yokohama is a HUGE station so both within the station itself and surrounding it there's lots of shopping. Sayaka took me to the massive electronics store in the underground area called Yodobashi Camera. Unfortunately, this is where I experienced my most disappointing shock of the whole day!!! (T_T)
At first, I was gonna go with Docomo. I'd finally decided I was just gonna splurge with the money my mother had given me in advance and get this phone:
(It's the phone Kamenashi is holding in all the ads! I was really indecisive about whether to get the blue or black.)
But THEN, apparently I can't get a phone with Docomo unless I have my Alien Registration CARD (I had a paper...the card is the permanent version and takes them a bit to process), my passport, and my school ID, which I won't get until Monday. The alien card however takes THREE WEEKS to process, so I won't be able to go pick mine up until October 4th at the earliest. x_x
So after a really angry GODDAMMIT I HATE YOU DOCOMO shock, the guy asked AU and Vodafone/Softbank (they're in the middle of changing their brand name) whether I could buy a phone with just my temporary alien paper, and my passport and they both said yes, so Sayaka and I headed over to their booth.
In the end, AU was ruled out pretty quickly because I didn't see the phone I liked, and couldn't find any others. This was the one I was looking for:
(Yes I know you said it's scary Kicchan XD, but this is the phone that Utada Hikaru uses!!!! XO)
So in the end, I decided to go with Vodafone, because I liked this phone in the black:
(Right now Itou Misaki, model/actress and main character for the drama Sapuri with Kame in it is their model! I also think this is one of the phones in the drama XD;)
I was halfway filling the form when the store person suddenly noticed I was still 19 years old. GodDAMMIT I really shoulda written 20. I wonder if they would've actually calculated?
I never stopped to think about it before, but chew on this: In America, a person is a legal adult when they turn 18, yes? In Japan, you have to be 20. GRAAAAAAR!!!! He told me I would need a copy of one of my parent's ID and their signed consent.
WTF GAAAAAAAH RAAORW#@$()*OS$W@#(%R)!!!!
Needless to say, as soon as I got back home EMPTYHANDED (XO) I sent a frantic email to my parents to rush send me the papers. There's definitely no way I'm gonna wait til my fucking BIRTHDAY to get a phone. There's no way in HELL I can survive much longer without one in the country where even people's great-grandmothers have the latest model and can actually even use all the features.
Anyway Kicchan: Even still do you want to get Docomo? If you do I will bite down my tongue and wait. I'm probably just feeling super frustrated since I'm trying to meet with a lot of my friends since I just got here, and it just gets difficult to synchronize without a phone to contact them directly with. I could probably wait til October...it's not that far...x_x At least then you could come get it with me?
*sigh*
It's been raining pretty much ever since I got here (never heavy, just a sort of misty rain to a drizzle), and yesterday and today weren't exceptions. Supposedly it'll stop a bit Friday, but start again for the next three days after that. (T_T) Anyway in the rain I headed down to Shibuya through Hiyoshi station yesterday. I never knew, but my friend told me that JR is actually more expensive than all the other private lines, and warned me to try and ride it as little as possible to save some money. : o
BUT it was awesome since it was a straight ride...and ALSO, I recognized it as the line that we (us people who went to Japan in January) went on the very last day in Tokyo!!! It was the みなとみらいLine, and the station where we ate/got our haircut was 祐天寺 (ゆうてんじ). Which means it's also a straight ride to 中華街 (ちゅうかがい) for me so Kicchan, I'll check it out as soon as I get a chance!
I got to Shibuya SUPER early though since I had been hanging around Hiyoshi Station and decided to just go. As soon as I passed through the gates at Shibuya though, this REALLY REALLY creepy gaijin walked up to me, put his arms around my shoulders, and was like "Do you know where 日本橋 is?" *chills* It was REALLY creepy and I just wanted to kick him in the stomach. After I answered "no" though, he left me alone after a moment of randomly staring at me (x_x) so I walked away as fast as I could. Then, I couldn't see any signs pointing towards Hachikou, so I just kinda walked out an exit and followed what looked like it was going to the more crowded areas XD. I did go the right way, but I'm pretty sure it was roundabout and that I could've walked through the station, but oh well. (^^;)
Soooo I hung around the Hachikou statue until everyone (Megumi, Mimaki, Miki, Yuiko, and Hiromi) found me. XD Mike was supposed to come but we waited a bit after 6pm (the meeting time) and he never showed up, so everyone just kinda started moving...if he was late I'll never know. ^^; Shibuya, was of course, PACKED, but eh. There was actually no plan, so we sorta just walked around until someone decided they were hungry, and we walked to an okonomiyaki place to eat at! It was pretty good, but the one in Osaka (of course) was definitely better. After we finished, everyone realized they kinda really forgot Fumi, the one guy who was supposed to join us, so we called him and he met us outside the restaurant. BEARD!!!! XDD (Cause apparently he's trying to grow one.) Then HE was hungry, so we went to I guess a family restaurant? Called Royal something....can't remember the rest of it right now, where I got 抹茶アイスぅ. : D
Umm after that I remembered I didn't have a towel and needed to go buy one, so everyone took me to ドンキ, which at first I thought was "donkey," but after I got home and looked at the bag, the full name of the store is actually ドン・キホーテ (Don Quixote). ^^; It kinda reminded me of a Target or something...My towel is black~~ : D To match with my sheets, which are black and white.
After I got home, I jumped into the shower, only to find that there's NO HOT WATER!!!! XO There still isn't any hot water....my landlady came up to look at it, but she still couldn't figure it out what was wrong with it so she let me borrow the key to the room across the hall today (where no one has moved in yet, at least til tomorrow).
And then of course, there is also today's misadventures in Kawasaki and Yokohama.
Ummm I woke up at like 6:30am of my own accord....jet lag maybe? Talked to a bunch of people online for awhile until I set off for the day's errands! The landlady asked me to help another guy...donno how to spell his name...but he's from Turkey! around, so we went together to Kashimada station, which is just a bit past Shin-Kawasaki. I had to take pictures (which cost me about $25 x_X) while he was getting money exchanged. In the end though, the bank there apparently couldn't do it, so he had to go to Shibuya instead. We split up since I had to wait for my pictures to be printed. While I was hanging around though, an old lady stopped me and asked me if I knew where the Mos Burger was! Luckily I'd seen it earlier, so I pointed her in that direction, but I was really happy somehow.
By the time I returned back to the apartment though, it was already 12:30pm, and I'd promised to meet my friend Sayaka at Yokohama at 2pm because she was going to take me to the store to buy a cell phone. (;_;) BUT I still hadn't even gotten around to the City Hall to get the paper that would allow me to buy it!! I rushed her off an email saying I'd be late, to meet at 3pm instead, and ran off. After getting confused as to what bus to take and finally finding it after asking a super nice person, I was off! It was definitely far, but even so apparently someone from my dorm walked there and back. o_O
Anyway the lady that helped me out there was really nice, although it didn't seem she could speak English but eh that wasn't really a big problem for me since she could understand my broken Japanese. After receiving a couple of temporary papers, I took the bus to Kawasaki station so that I could go straight to Yokohama. That area looks really fun too!!!! I'll have to explore it in the near future~.
On the Touhoku line, Yokohama is just one stop from Kawasaki. : D I'd told my friend that I'd never been to Yokohama station, which after getting there I realized was super stupid since Yokohama is totally the station to use to get to her high school, where my home stay was at...X_x
Again, like Kawasaki, Yokohama is a HUGE station so both within the station itself and surrounding it there's lots of shopping. Sayaka took me to the massive electronics store in the underground area called Yodobashi Camera. Unfortunately, this is where I experienced my most disappointing shock of the whole day!!! (T_T)
At first, I was gonna go with Docomo. I'd finally decided I was just gonna splurge with the money my mother had given me in advance and get this phone:
(It's the phone Kamenashi is holding in all the ads! I was really indecisive about whether to get the blue or black.)
But THEN, apparently I can't get a phone with Docomo unless I have my Alien Registration CARD (I had a paper...the card is the permanent version and takes them a bit to process), my passport, and my school ID, which I won't get until Monday. The alien card however takes THREE WEEKS to process, so I won't be able to go pick mine up until October 4th at the earliest. x_x
So after a really angry GODDAMMIT I HATE YOU DOCOMO shock, the guy asked AU and Vodafone/Softbank (they're in the middle of changing their brand name) whether I could buy a phone with just my temporary alien paper, and my passport and they both said yes, so Sayaka and I headed over to their booth.
In the end, AU was ruled out pretty quickly because I didn't see the phone I liked, and couldn't find any others. This was the one I was looking for:
(Yes I know you said it's scary Kicchan XD, but this is the phone that Utada Hikaru uses!!!! XO)
So in the end, I decided to go with Vodafone, because I liked this phone in the black:
(Right now Itou Misaki, model/actress and main character for the drama Sapuri with Kame in it is their model! I also think this is one of the phones in the drama XD;)
I was halfway filling the form when the store person suddenly noticed I was still 19 years old. GodDAMMIT I really shoulda written 20. I wonder if they would've actually calculated?
I never stopped to think about it before, but chew on this: In America, a person is a legal adult when they turn 18, yes? In Japan, you have to be 20. GRAAAAAAR!!!! He told me I would need a copy of one of my parent's ID and their signed consent.
WTF GAAAAAAAH RAAORW#@$()*OS$W@#(%R)!!!!
Needless to say, as soon as I got back home EMPTYHANDED (XO) I sent a frantic email to my parents to rush send me the papers. There's definitely no way I'm gonna wait til my fucking BIRTHDAY to get a phone. There's no way in HELL I can survive much longer without one in the country where even people's great-grandmothers have the latest model and can actually even use all the features.
Anyway Kicchan: Even still do you want to get Docomo? If you do I will bite down my tongue and wait. I'm probably just feeling super frustrated since I'm trying to meet with a lot of my friends since I just got here, and it just gets difficult to synchronize without a phone to contact them directly with. I could probably wait til October...it's not that far...x_x At least then you could come get it with me?
*sigh*