Intl. Festival

So I am pretty thoroughly convinced that the urban rain dance here is to throw your laundry in the washing machine and press start. Without fail, it's rained almost every day I've done laundry, even if it is not in the forecast for that day. That and wearing a white shirt and walking to the station without carrying an umbrella....

Met up with Leon and my coworker, Nami, at Yoga station to get to the Seisen Gakuen (Intl school) Festival around noon. Leon is a really nice guy and I'm glad I finally got to meet him in person, though I'm convinced the man knows a good quarter of the population of Tokyo at this point. The Festival was... eye opening. It is really weird to see such a wide variety of foreigners and Japanese mixing in one place and it really felt a lot like the states. I got a taste of how weird it is for other people when I speak Japanese I guess. Still it was a lot of fun. We found a booth representing Australia selling... Kangaroo burgers. They were sold out unfortunately so we had to make do with Lamb burgers. Still pretty good, though lamb isn't my all time favorite meat. Also found that the American booth was selling little bags of cool ranch Doritos <3 and Cheetohs, so we picked up a bag of each to sate the chip craving.

Headed out to Shibuya (getting some help finding the station from a random stranger who is in Young Americans of all things. Les, were you the one who used to be part of that? Or was that Young Dems?). Picked up Metropolis out at Tower and spent a little slice of heaven in the English section of the bookstore before heading to the cafe on the 6th floor of Tsutaya to kill time before I had to head out the the premiere.

After asking a complete stranger and a really somewhat hot policeman, we somehow managed to find the Producer (Y-san). I complained privately about not wanting to go, but I am actually glad I went, though having Nami volunteer was a big help. I hope it is one more thing to tip the balance towards her being made perm if she wants it. Y was flustered and had us cooling our heels for about an hour before we escorted the guest from the waiting room across the street to Theater N for the premiere and pre-show...twice. Keep in mind, we were standing in the street to stop cars so the guests could pass. It was a relief when Kuda-san, another coworker, showed up to help. I don't know how effective we actually were, but I did get to see one of the actresses from the spinoff I had to work my second day at TOE (Kudou-san) who was the only one in 5 actresses who was polite enough to shoot an email the day after the shoot. I really hope she goes far. I kind of shocked her by asking for her contact info, but I figure that if we keep running into each other in this profession, it could come in handy to have. I did reply to a message from her later apologizing if it was rude. Still, I am very glad I went.

Headed back to Ogikubo and swung by Kichijoji on the way to pick up First Kitchen and see if the Okashiya had any more kinds of Kitkats for Di... lo and behold, Banana. Grabbed them and headed back to the station through the crowds of Minshuto doing a demonstration (kind of scary at that) to get to Ogikubo...until I realized I was headed towards Mitaka... switched trains and headed home (finally) but it meant I am too tired to risk a night run. So I am going to get up tomorrow and run in the morning. I want to try the river run by me. Did manage to run into Sae-san and her welsh corgi, Sarah who were out on a walk again. It's interesting that she remembered my name, it isn't like it is common in Japanese or in English. I hope I run into them more often.

Plan for tomorrow. Running. Laundry Part 2. Misudo. Cleaning. Uniqlo for warmer clothing (again). Grocery shopping to avoid starvation. Anyone want to meet up for a meal?