A couple of little things happened before and during the flight to Tokyo. The night before, I had a horrible time paying off my credit card bills (had to — in case I needed them) as apparently, all of Makati thought it was a wonderful time to clean out their savings accounts and emptied out all the cash machines in the CBD. Bastards.

I also didn’t get enough sleep before my 4:45AM check-in time, as I was taking the earliest flight out to Chubu International so I can make it to my connection for Narita. Anyway, I made it past Chubu without missing my connection, losing my luggage (although I nearly did — the lines were so horrible at immigration that the luggage carousel had finished its rounds by the time I made it out and the staff had put my suitcases in unclaimed luggage), and getting on the wrong train. 

My next booboo happened at Shinagawa station whilst fiddling around with the coin lockers. Getting one was an adventure in itself as they were found in an inconceivably out-of-the way section of the station. I also did not have any coinage on me, so I had to ask the nice lady in the Kiosk to swap my bills out for coins. 

I manhandled my luggage into the largest coin locker I could find, switched to a warmer jacket, and then locked the door. I was already in Hamamatsucho station about to take the switch to the HJ office in Tennozu when I realized that my train pass was in my other jacket pocket. Which was back in SHINAGAWA station. Inside a coin locker. Auto-fail.

So I made it out of that debacle in one piece, and was headed back for Shinagawa station to meet up with Nagi. I called her mobile six times to no avail. By the seventh call I was beginning to think that I had the wrong mobile number and had to find the correct one and fast. 

Internet cafes were scarce in salaryman territory, so looking up the number from my e-mail was out of the question. I tried calling folks back in Manila but for some reason international calls were disabled in public phones (which sucks Japan wtf!!!) so that didn’t work out so well either. Finally, I called Maya on her mobile to see if she could e-mail Nagi, but her mobile battery kept dying on her. 

During my ninth call Nagi finally answered and OMFG you guys have no idea how relieved I was that I didn’t have to sleep at some park that night XD Anyway, I’m here at her flat right now, abusing the internet connection, and making breakfast 😀 I’ll probably make it to Square Enix Showcase by noon, and then head back to Shinjuku to get a headstart on my favorite sport — shopping! XD