blodeuedd

If any of you are thinking of taking a drive through Tokyo on a Saturday, in the pouring rain, my advice is DON'T DO IT! At least half your time will be spent inching forward on the "express"way.

I hadn't driven since going back home nearly two years ago (helping Jamie move doesn't really count), so three straight hours with my hands on the wheel left my fingers a little numb. All I can say is I was never so glad to be driving an automatic, because a clutch would have killed me.

After helping Becca move (surely I got myself a big chunk of good moving karma just for the hell that was traffic today!), it was much too late to contemplate taking the van back and catching a train to Ueno to meet my family, so I drove there instead. It took an hour and a half from Funabashi, which made me nearly an hour late meeting them. Thankfully, B1 called me from a payphone, and we negotiated a new meeting place, that is, me slowing down in front of the Keisei station and them jumping into the van. From there, it took nearly two hours to get to my place. @_@

B2, the only member of our family who hadn't yet come to Japan, thought it was a pretty sugoi way to get a first glimpse of the city. Everyone agreed, including me, because the only time I'd ever driven across town before today was when I got a ride with my movers last year, and we took a different route, so this was a side of Tokyo I'd never seen. I wish it hadn't been raining, though it was neat to see Shinjuku's skyscrapers disappearing into the mist.

They've all been asleep since 9:30, and it's about time for me to do the same, to try to catch up on all the sleep I missed this week.